WITH FAMOUS

AUTHORS

SELECTED AND EDITED

WITH

INTRODUCTIONS, ETC.

BY

FRANCIS W. HALSEY

Editor of "Great Epochs in American History"
Associate Editor of "The World's Famous Orations"
and of "The Best of the World's Classics," etc.

IN TEN

VOLUMES

ILLUSTRATED

Vol. VII

ITALY, SICILY, AND GREECE
Part One

FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY

NEW YORK AND LONDON

FROM THE

EDWARD S. HAWES ESTATE
1943

COPYRIGHT, 1914, BY

FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY

[Printed in the United States of America]

VII

INTRODUCTION TO VOLUMES VII

AND VIII

Italy, Sicily and Greece

Tourists in great numbers now go to Italy by steamers that have Naples and Genoa for ports. By the fast Channel steamers, however, touching at Cherbourg and Havre, one may make the trip in less time (rail journey included). In going to Rome, four days could thus be saved; but the expense will be greater-perhaps forty per cent.

"and now, fair Italy!

Thou art the garden of the world, the home
Of all Art yields, and Nature can decree;
Even in thy desert, what is like to thee?
Thy very weeds are beautiful, thy waste
More rich than other climes' fertility;
Thy wreck a glory, and thy ruin graced

With an immaculate charm which can not be de-
faced."

At least four civilizations, and probably five, have dominated Italy; together they cover a period of more than 3,000 years-Pelasgian, Etruscan, Greek, Roman, Italian. Of these the Pelasgian is, in the main, legendary. Next came the Etruscan.