Of the
_Apology_ and the _Phaedo_ especially it would be impossible to speak too
gratefully.
I would also mention Demosthenes' _De Corona_, which Lord Brougham
pronounced the greatest oration of the greatest of orators; Lucretius,
Plutarch's Lives, Horace, and at least the _De Officiis_, _De Amicitia_,
and _De Senectute_ of Cicero.
The great epics of the world have always constituted one of the most
popular branches of literature. Yet how few, comparatively, ever read
Homer or Virgil after leaving school.
The _Nibelungenlied_, our great Anglo-Saxon epic, is perhaps too much
neglected, no doubt on account of its painful character. Brunhild and
Kriemhild, indeed, are far from perfect, but we meet with few such "live"
women in Greek or Roman literature. Nor must I omit to mention Sir T.
Malory's _Morte d'Arthur_, though I confess I do so mainly in deference to
the judgment of others.
Among the Greek tragedians I include Aeschylus, if not all his works, at
any rate _Prometheus_, perhaps the sublimest poem in Greek literature, and
the _Trilogy_ (Mr.
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