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with Elijah the Tishbite in P.R. ii. 313. For the allusion see 1 Kings xix. 5 Themis, goddess of justice and right

thereafter, according, P.R. ii. 321 Thermodoontea puella, Elizabeth, as an "Amazon" (Thermodon, a river in the land of the Amazons)

Thisbite, Elijah the Tishbite Thrascias, the N.N.-W. wind Thyestes, before whom was set the flesh of his sons at a banquet

Thyrsis, the typical rustic maid in pastoral poetry

tiar, tiara, diadem, P.L. iii. 625 Tidore, one of the Moluccas or Spice Islands

Tigris, a river of Mesopotamia, supposed to be that which watered Eden timelessly, untimely, p. 380 tine, kindle, P.L. x. 1075 tire, drag, tear (techn. term in falconry), P.L. vi. 605 Tiresias, an ancient Greek seer, who was blind

Titans, in Greek mythology, were the beings who ruled the universe before the dynasty of Zeus, who warred upon them and overthrew them. They are often confused with the giants. In P.L. i. 510 used of the eldest of the brood, whom M. says gave place to Saturn, q.v. Tobias. See Asmodeus Tobit's son, Tobias. See Asmodeus

Tophet, in the valley of Hinnom Trebisond, Trapezus, a Greek city on the Black Sea Trinacrian, Sicilian,

a title taken from the three promontories of Sicily Triton, a river in Libya Triton, a sea-deity, son of Poseidon (Neptune) and Amphitrite Troy, a town in N.-W. of Asia Minor; scene of the famous siege by the Greeks dated 1184 B.C., sung of by Homer Turm, a troop of horse (Lat. turma), P.R. iv. 66

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Urchin, hedgehog, supposed to have a malign influence, C. 845 Uriel," Light of God" Urim, light or lights," was kept within the breastplate of the High Priest, for purposes of divination. What it was no man knows; but probably some cabalistic symbol or charm, jewel, or scarabæus, or the like Urim and Thummim, talisman worn on the breastplate of the High Priest, by which in some manner unknown the will of God was supposed to be made manifest. See Exod. xxviii. 30, I Sam. xxviii. 6

Uther's son, King Arthur
Uszean, of Uz, probably Arabia
Deserta. See Job i. 6

Valdarno, the vale of the river
Arno, where Florence lies
Vallombrosa, a beautiful valley
near Florence

van, wing, P.L. ii. 927 Vant-brace, arm-mail, S.A. 1121 vapour, heat, P.L. xii. 635 Venus, Roman goddess of love Vertumnus, a Roman deity associated with the growth of plants from blossom to fruit Vesta, goddess of the hearth, apparently used by M. as a personification of domestic retirement, p. 403 Villatic, belonging to a farm or

country house, S.A. 1695 Virgin, Virgo, a constellation volant, flying, P.L. xi. 561 Vulcan, Roman god of fire and smithcraft

wanton, capricious, P.L. iv. 316 welkin, sky, P.L. ii. 538 well-couched, well-hidden, P.R. 1. 97

what, why (a Latinism), P.L. ii. 329

whilere, whilom, of old, p. 412 Wilderness, of Judæa, Luke iv. › whist, hushed, p. 387 worm, used of all serpent kind, won, dwell, P.L. vii. 457 P.R. 1. 312

Xerxes, King of Persia, who invaded Greece and was defeated at Salamis, 480 B.C., and Plataea, 479. He bridged the Hellespont; and his first bridge being carried away by a storm, ordered the sea to be scourged and cast fetters into it

yeanling, new-born, P.L. iii. 434

zenith, the part of the sky
Zephyr, Zephyrus, the west
directly above the head
wind

zone, the magic girdle or cestus

of Venus. For the allusion, see Chapman's Iliad, xiv. 160

Zophiel, a cherub

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PRINTED BY

THE TEMPLE PRESS AT LETCHWORTH

IN GREAT BRITAIN

EVERYMAN'S LIBRARY

V

By ERNEST RHYS

ICTOR HUGO said a Library was "an act of faith,"

and some unknown essayist spoke of one so beautiful,

so perfect, so harmonious in all its parts, that he who made it was smitten with a passion. In that faith the promoters of Everyman's Library planned it out originally on a large scale; and their idea in so doing was to make it conform as far as possible to a perfect scheme. However, perfection is a thing to be aimed at and not to be achieved in this difficult world; and since the first volumes appeared some fifteen years ago, there have been many interruptions. A great war has come and gone; and even the City of Books has felt something like a world commotion. Only in recent years is the series getting back into its old stride and looking forward to complete its original scheme of a Thousand Volumes. One of the practical expedients in that original plan was to divide the volumes into sections, as Biography, Fiction, History, Belles Lettres, Poetry, Romance and so forth; with a compartment for young people; and last, and not least, one of Reference Books. Beside the dictionaries and encyclopædias to be expected in that section, there was a special set of literary and historical atlases. One of these atlases dealing with Europe, we may recall, was directly affected by the disturbance of frontiers during the war; and the maps have been completely revised in consequence, so as to chart

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the New Europe which we hope will now preserve its peace under the auspices of the League of Nations set up at Geneva.

That is only one small item, however, in a library list which runs to over seven hundred and sixty volumes. The largest slice of this huge provision is, as a matter of course, given to the tyrannous demands of fiction. But in carrying out the scheme, the directors and editors contrived to keep in mind that books, like men and women, have their elective affinities. The present volume, for instance, will be found to have its companion books, both in the same section and even more significantly in other sections. With that idea too, novels like Walter Scott's Ivanhoe and Fortunes of Nigel, Lytton's Harold, and Dickens's Tale of Two Cities have been used as pioneers of history and treated as a sort of holiday history books. History itself in our day is tending to grow more documentary and less literary; and "the historian who is a stylist," as one of our contributors, the late Thomas Seccombe, said, "will soon be regarded as a kind of Phoenix." But in the history department of Everyman's Library we have been eclectic enough to choose our history men from every school in turn. We have Grote, Gibbon, Finlay, Macaulay, Motley, Prescott; we have among earlier books the Venerable Bede and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, and we have just completed a Livy in six volumes in an admirable new translation by Canon Roberts.

"You only, O Books," said Richard de Bury," are liberal and independent; you give to all who ask." The delightful variety, the wisdom and the wit which are at the disposal of Everyman in his own library may well, at times, seem to him a little embarrassing. He may turn to Dick Steele in the Spectator and learn how Cleomira dances, when the elegance of her motion is unimaginable and "her eyes are chastised with the simplicity and innocence of her thoughts." He may turn to Plato's Phædrus

and read how every soul is divided into three parts (like Cæsar's Gaul). He may turn to the finest critic of Victorian times, Matthew Arnold, and find in his essay on Maurice de Guerin the perfect key to what is there called the "magical power of poetry." It is Shakespeare, with his

"daffodils

That come before the swallow dares, and take
The winds of March with beauty;"

it is Wordsworth, with his

"voice . . . heard

In spring-time from the cuckoo-bird,
Breaking the silence of the seas
Among the farthest Hebrides;"

or Keats, with his

". . . . moving waters at their priest-like task
Of cold ablution round Earth's human shores."

William Hazlitt's "Table Talk," among the volumes of Essays, may help to show the relationship of one author to another, which is another form of the Friendship of Books. His incomparable essay in that volume, "On Going a Journey," forms a capital prelude to Coleridge's "Biographia Literaria" and to his and Wordsworth's poems. In the same way one may turn to the review of Moore's Life of Byron in Macaulay's Essays as a prelude to the three volumes of Byron's own poems, remembering that the poet whom Europe loved more than England did was as Macaulay said: "the beginning, the middle and the end of all his own poetry." This brings us to the provoking reflection that it is the obvious authors and the books most easy to reprint which have been the signal successes out of the seven hundred odd in the series, for Everyman is distinctly proverbial in his tastes. He likes best of all an old author who has worn well or

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