History for ready reference, Volume 1, A-Elba

History as written by those, on one hand, who have depicted its scenes most vividly, and by those, on the other hand, who have searched its facts, weighed its evidences, and pondered its meanings most critically and deeply, is given in their own words. If commoner narratives are sometimes quoted, their use enters but slightly into the construction of the work. The whole matter is presented under an arrangement which imparts distinctness to its topics, while showing them in their sequence and in all their large relations, both national and international.

For every subject, a history more complete, I think, in the broad meaning of "History," is supplied by this mode than could possibly be produced on the plan of dry synopsis which is common to encyclopedic works. It holds the charm and interest of many styles of excellence in writing, and it is read in a clear light which shines directly from the pens that have made History luminous by their interpretations.

Behind the Literature of History, which can be called so in the finer sense, lies a great body of the Documents of History, which are unattractive to the casual reader, but which even he must sometimes have an urgent wish to consult. Full and carefully chosen texts of a large number of the most famous and important of such documents--charters, edicts, proclamations, petitions, covenants, legislative acts and ordinances, and the constitutions of many countries--have been accordingly introduced and are easily to be found.

The arrangement of matter in the work is primarily alphabetical, and secondarily chronological. The whole is thoroughly indexed, and the index is incorporated with the body of the text, in the same alphabetical and chronological order.

Events which touch several countries or places are treated fully but once, in the connection which shows their antecedents and consequences best, and the reader is guided to that ampler discussion by references from each caption under which it may be sought. Economies of this character bring into the compass of five volumes a body of History that would need twice the number, at least, for equal fulness on the monographic plan of encyclopedic works.

Of my own, the only original writing introduced is in a general sketch of the history of Europe, and in what I have called the "_Logical Outlines_" of a number of national histories, which are printed in colors to distinguish the influences that have been dominant in them. But the extensive borrowing which the work represents has not been done in an unlicensed way. I have felt warranted, by common custom, in using moderate extracts without permit. But for everything beyond these, in my selections from books now in print and on sale, whether under copyright or deprived of copyright, I have sought the consent of those, authors or publishers, or both, to whom the right of consent or denial appears to belong. In nearly all cases I have received the most generous and friendly responses to my request, and count among my valued possessions the great volume of kindly letters of permission which have come to me from authors and publishers in Great Britain and America. A more specific acknowledgment of these favors will be appended to this preface.

The authors of books have other rights beyond their rights of property, to which respect has been paid. No liberties have been taken with the text of their writings, except to abridge by omissions, which are indicated by the customary signs. Occasional interpolations are marked by enclosure in brackets. Abridgment by paraphrasing has only been resorted to when unavoidable, and is shown by the interruption of quotation marks. In the matter of different spellings, it has been more difficult to preserve for each writer his own. As a rule this is done, in names, and in the divergences between English and American orthography; but, since much of the matter quoted has been taken from American editions of English books, and since both copyists and printers have worked under the habit of American spellings, the rule may not have governed with strict consistency throughout.

J. N. L.

The Buffalo Library, Buffalo, New York, December, 1893.

Acknowledgments.

In my preface I have acknowledged in general terms the courtesy and liberality of authors and publishers, by whose permission I have used much of the matter quoted in this work. I think it now proper to make the acknowledgment more specific by naming those persons and publishing houses to whom I am in debt for such kind permissions. They are as follows:

Authors.

Professor Evelyn Abbott; President Charles Kendall Adams; Professor Herbert B. Adams; Professor Joseph H. Allen; Sir William Anson, Bart.; Reverend Henry M. Baird; Mr. Hubert Howe Bancroft; Honorable S. G. W. Benjamin; Mr. Walter Besant; Professor Albert S. Bolles; John G. Bourinot, F. S. S.; Mr. Henry Bradley; Reverend James Franck Bright; Daniel G. Brinton, M. D.; Professor William Hand Browne; Professor George Bryce; Right Honorable James Bryce, M. P.; J. B. Bury, M. A.; Mr. Lucien Carr; Gen. Henry B. Carrington; Mr. John D. Champlin, Jr.; Mr. Charles Carleton Coffin; Honorable Thomas M. Cooley; Professor Henry Coppée; Reverend Sir George W. Cox, Bart.; Gen. Jacob Dolson Cox; Mrs. Cox (for "'Three Decades of Federal Legislation," by the late Honorable Samuel S. Cox); Professor Thomas F. Crane; Right Reverend Mandell Creighton, Bishop of Peterborough; Honorable J. L. M. Curry; Honorable George Ticknor Curtis; Professor Robert K. Douglas; J. A. Doyle, M. A.; Mr. Samuel Adams Drake; Sir Mountstuart E. Grant-Duff; Honorable Sir Charles Gaven Duffy; Mr. Charles Henry Eden; Mr. Henry Sutherland Edwards; Orrin Leslie Elliott, Ph. D.; Mr. Loyall Farragut; The Ven. Frederic William Farrar, Archdeacon of Westminster; Professor George Park Fisher; Professor John Fiske; Mr. William. E. Foster; Professor William Warde Fowler; Professor Edward A. Freeman; Professor James Anthony Froude; Mr. James Gairdner; Arthur Gilman, M. A.; Mr. Parke Godwin; Mrs. M. E. Gordon (for the "History of the Campaigns of the Army of Virginia under Gen. Pope," by the late Gen. George H. Gordon); Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould; Mr. Ulysses S. Grant, Jr. (for the "Personal Memoirs" of the late Gen. Grant); Mrs. John Richard Green (for her own writings and for those of the late John Richard Green); William Greswell, M. B.; Major Arthur Griffiths; Frederic Harrison, M. A.; Professor Albert Bushnell Hart; Mr. William Heaton; Colonel Thomas Wentworth Higginson; Professor B. A. Hinsdale; Miss Margaret L. Hooper (for the writings of the late Mr. George Hooper); Reverend Robert F. Horton; Professor James K. Hosmer; Colonel Henry M. Hozier; Reverend William Hunt; Sir William Wilson Hunter; Professor Edmund James; Mr. Rossiter Johnson; Mr. John Foster Kirk; The Very Reverend George William Kitchin, Dean of Winchester; Colonel Thomas W. Knox; Mr. J. S. Landon; Honorable Emily Lawless; William E. H. Lecky, LL. D., D. C. L.; Mrs. Margaret Levi (for the "History of British Commerce," by the late Dr. Leone Levi); Professor Charlton T. Lewis; The Very Reverend Henry George Liddell, Dean of Christ Church, Oxford; Honorable Henry Cabot Lodge; Richard Lodge, M. A.; Reverend W. J. Loftie; Mrs. Mary S. Long (for the "Life of General Robert E. Lee," by the late Gen. A. L. Long); Mrs. Helen Lossing (for the writings of the late Benson J. Lossing); Charles Lowe, M. A.; Charles P. Lucas, B. A.; Justin McCarthy, M. P.; Professor John Bach McMaster; Honorable Edward McPherson, Professor John P. Mahaffy; Capt. Alfred T. Mahan, U. S. N.; Colonel George B. Malleson; Clements R. Markham, C. B., F. R. S.; Professor David Masson; The Very Reverend Charles Merivale, Dean of Ely; Professor John Henry Middleton; Mr. J. G. Cotton Minchin; William R. Morfill, M. A.; Right Honorable John Morley, M. P.; Mr. John T. Morse, Jr.; Sir William Muir; Mr. Harold Murdock; Reverend Arthur Howard Noll; Miss Kate Norgate; C. W. C. Oman, M. A.; Mr. John C. Palfrey (for "History of New England," by the late John Gorham Palfrey); Francis Parkman, LL. D.; Edward James Payne, M. A.; Charles Henry Pearson, M. A.; Mr. James Breck Perkins; Mrs. Mary E. Phelan (for the "History of Tennessee," by the late James Phelan); Colonel George E. Pond; Reginald L. Poole, Ph. D.; Mr. Stanley Lane-Poole; William F. Poole, LL. D.; Major John W. Powell; Mr. John W. Probyn; Professor John Clark Ridpath; Honorable Ellis H. Roberts; Honorable Theodore Roosevelt; Mr. John Codman Ropes; J. H. Rose, M. A.; Professor Josiah Royce; Reverend Philip Schaff; James Schouler, LL. D.; Honorable Carl Schurz; Mr. Eben Greenough Scott; Professor J. R. Seeley; Professor Nathaniel Southgate Shaler; Mr. Edward Morse Shepard; Colonel M. V. Sheridan (for the "Personal Memoirs" of the late Gen. Sheridan); Mr. P. T. Sherman (for the "Memoirs" of the late Gen. Sherman); Samuel Smiles, LL. D.; Professor Goldwin Smith; Professor James Russell Soley; Mr. Edward Stanwood; Leslie Stephen, M. A.; H. Morse Stephens, M. A.; Mr. Simon Sterne; Charles J. Stillé, LL. D.; Sir John Strachey; Right Reverend William Stubbs, Bishop of Peterborough; Professor William Graham Sumner; Professor Frank William Taussig; Mr. William Roscoe Thayer; Professor Robert H. Thurston; Mr. Telemachus T. Timayenis; Henry D. Traill, D. C. L.; Gen. R. de Trobriand; Mr. Bayard Tuckerman; Samuel Epes Turner, Ph. D.; Professor Herbert Tuttle; Professor Arminius Vambéry; Mr. Henri Van Laun; Gen. Francis A. Walker; Sir D. Mackenzie Wallace; Spencer Walpole, LL. D.; Alexander Stewart Webb, LL. D.; Mr. J. Talboys Wheeler; Mr. Arthur Silva White; Sir Monier Monier-Williams; Justin Winsor, LL. D.; Reverend Frederick C. Woodhouse; John Yeats, LL: D.; Miss Charlotte M. Yonge.

Publishers.