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English Essays: From Sir Philip Sidney to Macaulay: The Five Foot Shelf of Classics, Vol. XXVII
Author names not noted above: Ben Jonson, Abraham Cowley, Joseph Addison, Sir Richard Steele, Jonathan Swift, Daniel Defoe, Samuel Johnson, David Hume, Sydney Smith, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Hazlitt, Leigh Hunt, Charles Lamb, Thomas De Quincey, Percy Bysshe Shelley Originally published between 1909 and 1917 under the name "Harvard Classics," this stupendous 51-volume set-a collection of the greatest writings from literature, philosophy, history, and mythology-was assembled by American academic CHARLES WILLIAM ELIOT (1834-1926), Harvard University's longest-serving president. Also known as "Dr. Eliot's Five Foot Shelf," it represented Eliot's belief that a basic liberal education could be gleaned by reading from an anthology of works that could fit on five feet of bookshelf. Volume XXVII features 24 important essays from 17 essential English writers, including: "The Defense of Poesy" by Sir Philip Sidney "On Shakespeare" and "On Bacon" by Ben Jonson "Of Agriculture" by Abraham Cowley "The Vision of Mirza" and "Westminster Abbey" by Joseph Addison "The Spectator Club" by Sir Richard Steele "Hints Towards an Essay on Conversation," "A Treatise on Good Manners and Good Breeding," "A Letter of Advice to a Young Poet," and "On the Death of Esther Johnson (Stella)" by Jonathan Swift "The Shortest-Way With the Dissenters" and "The Education of Women" by Daniel Defoe "Life of Addison, 1672-1719" by Samuel Johnson "Of the Standard of Taste" by David Hume "Fallacies of Anti-reformers" by Sydney Smith "On Poesy or Art" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge "Of Persons One Would Wish to Have Seen" by William Hazlitt "Deaths of Little Children" and "On the Realities of Imagination" by Leigh Hunt "On the Tragedies of Shakespeare" by Charles Lamb "Levana and Our Ladies of Sorrow" by Thomas De Quincey "A Defense of Poetry" by Percy Bysshe Shelley "Machiavelli" by Thomas Babington Macaulay.
428 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1909
About the author
Charles William Eliot
482 books83 followersCharles William Eliot was an American academic who was selected as Harvard's president in 1869. He transformed the provincial college into the preeminent American research university. Eliot served the longest term as president in the university's history.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 17, 2019
This is not a review of the entirety of Vol 27 of "The Harvard Classics" but rather of the two entries for Daniel Defoe.
The first is Defoe's pamphlet published in 1702, "The Shortest Way With Dissenters, or Proposals For The Establishment of the Church." This extraordinary document puts forward the argument that "the shortest way" is simply to exterminate them. It was a hoax rather on the lines of Swift's "A Modest Proposal" but amazingly it was taken by some as a serious solution! In it Defoe uses arguments in the style of Anglican sermons and piles one absurdity on another. The fury it aroused caused Defoe to be convicted of sedition and made to stand in the pillory for three days. It has been asserted that so popular was Defoe that flowers were thrown at him rather than the nauseous missiles usually reserved for those in the stocks.
The other essay is "The Education of Women" (1719). Here we meet a Defoe who had a very advanced and humane attitude towards women's education by the standard of the time.
He points out the serious and shameful deficiencies that existed then.
" I have often thought of it as one of the most barbarous customs in the world, considering us as a civilized and a Christian country, that we deny the advantages of learning to women."
Further, he emphasises the exceptional graces and beauty of the mind of a woman who has been allowed to develop her native intelligence:
"And, without partiality, a woman of sense and manners is the finest and most delicate part of God's Creation, the glory of Her Maker, and the great instance of His singular regard to man, His darling creature: to whom He gave the best gift either God could bestow or man receive. And 'tis the sordidest piece of folly and ingratitude in the world, to withhold from the sex the due lustre which the advantages of education gives to the natural beauty of their minds.
" A woman well bred and well taught, furnished with the additional accomplishments of knowledge and behaviour, is a creature without comparison. Her society is the emblem of sublimer enjoyments, her person is angelic, and her conversation heavenly. She is all softness and sweetness, peace, love, wit, and delight. She is every way suitable to the sublimest wish, and the man that has such a one to his portion, has nothing to do but to rejoice in her, and be thankful."
Now, some have dismissed this essay on the grounds that Defoe wants women educated because men will enjoy their company more.
Well, so what?
It is true that Defoe draws back from the idea of equality is modern terms:
"Not that I am for exalting the female government in the least:"
But he was writing in 1719 and he excoriated the way women were regarded then:
"And herein it is that I take upon me to make such a bold assertion, That all the world are mistaken in their practice about women. For I cannot think that God Almighty ever made them so delicate, so glorious creatures; and furnished them with such charms, so agreeable and so delightful to mankind; with souls capable of the same accomplishments with men: and all, to be only Stewards of our Houses, Cooks, and Slaves."
It might well be going too far to regard Defoe as a proto-feminist but he certainly had a deeper and far more compassionate view of the lot of women than was usual at the time.
The first is Defoe's pamphlet published in 1702, "The Shortest Way With Dissenters, or Proposals For The Establishment of the Church." This extraordinary document puts forward the argument that "the shortest way" is simply to exterminate them. It was a hoax rather on the lines of Swift's "A Modest Proposal" but amazingly it was taken by some as a serious solution! In it Defoe uses arguments in the style of Anglican sermons and piles one absurdity on another. The fury it aroused caused Defoe to be convicted of sedition and made to stand in the pillory for three days. It has been asserted that so popular was Defoe that flowers were thrown at him rather than the nauseous missiles usually reserved for those in the stocks.
The other essay is "The Education of Women" (1719). Here we meet a Defoe who had a very advanced and humane attitude towards women's education by the standard of the time.
He points out the serious and shameful deficiencies that existed then.
" I have often thought of it as one of the most barbarous customs in the world, considering us as a civilized and a Christian country, that we deny the advantages of learning to women."
Further, he emphasises the exceptional graces and beauty of the mind of a woman who has been allowed to develop her native intelligence:
"And, without partiality, a woman of sense and manners is the finest and most delicate part of God's Creation, the glory of Her Maker, and the great instance of His singular regard to man, His darling creature: to whom He gave the best gift either God could bestow or man receive. And 'tis the sordidest piece of folly and ingratitude in the world, to withhold from the sex the due lustre which the advantages of education gives to the natural beauty of their minds.
" A woman well bred and well taught, furnished with the additional accomplishments of knowledge and behaviour, is a creature without comparison. Her society is the emblem of sublimer enjoyments, her person is angelic, and her conversation heavenly. She is all softness and sweetness, peace, love, wit, and delight. She is every way suitable to the sublimest wish, and the man that has such a one to his portion, has nothing to do but to rejoice in her, and be thankful."
Now, some have dismissed this essay on the grounds that Defoe wants women educated because men will enjoy their company more.
Well, so what?
It is true that Defoe draws back from the idea of equality is modern terms:
"Not that I am for exalting the female government in the least:"
But he was writing in 1719 and he excoriated the way women were regarded then:
"And herein it is that I take upon me to make such a bold assertion, That all the world are mistaken in their practice about women. For I cannot think that God Almighty ever made them so delicate, so glorious creatures; and furnished them with such charms, so agreeable and so delightful to mankind; with souls capable of the same accomplishments with men: and all, to be only Stewards of our Houses, Cooks, and Slaves."
It might well be going too far to regard Defoe as a proto-feminist but he certainly had a deeper and far more compassionate view of the lot of women than was usual at the time.
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May 9, 2024---Notes---
Notes for Shelly, A Defense of Poetry
"Dante understood the secret things of love even more than Petrarch. His “Vita Nuova” is an inexhaustible fountain of purity of sentiment and language: it is the idealized history of that period, and those intervals of his life which were dedicated to love. His apotheosis of Beatrice in Paradise, and the gradations of his own love and her loveliness, by which as by steps he feigns himself to have ascended to the throne of the Supreme Cause, is the most glorious imagination of modern poetry."
it is the idealized history of that period, and those intervals of his life which were dedicated to love一句其实不只适用于写作Sexus时的米勒，也适用于任何一个在追忆昔日恋情时任记忆将那段回忆美化的人，任何人。冲着雪莱的这段评说，居然动了读《神曲》的念头。
"Nothing can exceed the energy and magnificence of the character of Satan as expressed in “Paradise Lost.” It is a mistake to suppose that he could ever have been intended for the popular personification of evil. Implacable hate, patient cunning, and a sleepless refinement of device to inflict the extremist anguish on an enemy, these things are evil; and, although venial in a slave, are not to be forgiven in a tyrant; although redeemed by much that ennobles his defeat in one subdued, are marked by all that dishonors his conquest in the victor. Milton’s Devil as a moral being is as far superior to his God, as one who perseveres in some purpose which he has conceived to be excellent in spite of adversity and torture, is to one who in the cold security of undoubted triumph inflicts the most horrible revenge upon his enemy, not from any mistaken notion of inducing him to repent of a perseverance in enmity, but with the alleged design of exasperating him to deserve new torments."
反复读《失乐园》《复乐园》，听过关于米尔顿的耶鲁公开课，和教授讨论过撒旦的角色形象，却终于在雪莱这里读懂了米尔顿笔下的撒旦角色设计为何是大逆不道。说得太好了！
"Hence the vanity of translation; it were as wise to cast a violet into a crucible that you might discover the formal principle of its color and odor, as seek to transfuse from one language into another the creations of a poet."
翻到这句真是差点哭出来。虽然我本人也觉得跨语言译诗是徒劳的，但是不要这么明确地说出来嘛...顿时觉得曾经翻译的所有和正在翻译的以及即将翻译的东西在几百年前就已经被仁人志士否决了。 虽然雪莱用的这个比喻有点荒唐了，然而"the vanity of translation"是个真理。我该拿我的里尔克和聂鲁达怎么办呢。
"The plant must spring again from its seed, or it will bear no flower—and this is the burden of the curse of Babel."
想要将挚爱的诗歌翻译成挚爱的语言，从某种意义上讲也是一种重新、完全占有这首诗歌的尝试。让同样或相近的意象在目标语言中重新萌发。那这样看来的确是该意译。可诗歌的物理美感和意象美感同等重要，翻译正是完全摒弃了原文的物理美。那又怎样来弥补这种意识却又不过分呢？用更美的语言译出比原文更精采的诗篇不能算是公正的啊。
Notes for Shelly, A Defense of Poetry
"Dante understood the secret things of love even more than Petrarch. His “Vita Nuova” is an inexhaustible fountain of purity of sentiment and language: it is the idealized history of that period, and those intervals of his life which were dedicated to love. His apotheosis of Beatrice in Paradise, and the gradations of his own love and her loveliness, by which as by steps he feigns himself to have ascended to the throne of the Supreme Cause, is the most glorious imagination of modern poetry."
it is the idealized history of that period, and those intervals of his life which were dedicated to love一句其实不只适用于写作Sexus时的米勒，也适用于任何一个在追忆昔日恋情时任记忆将那段回忆美化的人，任何人。冲着雪莱的这段评说，居然动了读《神曲》的念头。
"Nothing can exceed the energy and magnificence of the character of Satan as expressed in “Paradise Lost.” It is a mistake to suppose that he could ever have been intended for the popular personification of evil. Implacable hate, patient cunning, and a sleepless refinement of device to inflict the extremist anguish on an enemy, these things are evil; and, although venial in a slave, are not to be forgiven in a tyrant; although redeemed by much that ennobles his defeat in one subdued, are marked by all that dishonors his conquest in the victor. Milton’s Devil as a moral being is as far superior to his God, as one who perseveres in some purpose which he has conceived to be excellent in spite of adversity and torture, is to one who in the cold security of undoubted triumph inflicts the most horrible revenge upon his enemy, not from any mistaken notion of inducing him to repent of a perseverance in enmity, but with the alleged design of exasperating him to deserve new torments."
反复读《失乐园》《复乐园》，听过关于米尔顿的耶鲁公开课，和教授讨论过撒旦的角色形象，却终于在雪莱这里读懂了米尔顿笔下的撒旦角色设计为何是大逆不道。说得太好了！
"Hence the vanity of translation; it were as wise to cast a violet into a crucible that you might discover the formal principle of its color and odor, as seek to transfuse from one language into another the creations of a poet."
翻到这句真是差点哭出来。虽然我本人也觉得跨语言译诗是徒劳的，但是不要这么明确地说出来嘛...顿时觉得曾经翻译的所有和正在翻译的以及即将翻译的东西在几百年前就已经被仁人志士否决了。 虽然雪莱用的这个比喻有点荒唐了，然而"the vanity of translation"是个真理。我该拿我的里尔克和聂鲁达怎么办呢。
"The plant must spring again from its seed, or it will bear no flower—and this is the burden of the curse of Babel."
想要将挚爱的诗歌翻译成挚爱的语言，从某种意义上讲也是一种重新、完全占有这首诗歌的尝试。让同样或相近的意象在目标语言中重新萌发。那这样看来的确是该意译。可诗歌的物理美感和意象美感同等重要，翻译正是完全摒弃了原文的物理美。那又怎样来弥补这种意识却又不过分呢？用更美的语言译出比原文更精采的诗篇不能算是公正的啊。
July 5, 2020
Compiled and Edited by Charles W. Eliot LL D in 1909, the Harvard Classics is a 51-volume Anthology of classic literature from throughout the history of western civilization. The set is sometimes called "Eliot's Five-Foot Shelf."
Volume 27 contains essays from 17 English authors:
Sir Philip Sidney
Ben Jonson
Abraham Cowley
Joseph Addison
Sir Richard Steele
Jonathan Swift
Daniel Defoe
Samuel Johnson
David Hume
Sydney Smith
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
William Hazlitt
Leigh Hunt
Charles Lamb
Thomas De Quincey
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Thomas Babington Macaulay
March 10, 2020
A questionable selection.
March 18, 2025
Sidney's Defence of Poesy (2025.03.18)
October 12, 2013
This is a collection of informal essays providing a snapshot of various views from some of the greatest English minds in the 18th and 19th centuries. It is interesting mostly from a historical standpoint, in the sense that it gives you the general flavor of society or milieux around the times of the essays, though I thought Charles Lamb's essay on the tragedies of Shakespeare and Thomas Babington Macaulay's essay on poor, misunderstood, calumniated Machiavelli were both entertaining and more directly educational.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews