Charles Bucke

Ruins of Ancient Cities: Volume I Charles Bucke

Publisher Marketing: RUINS OF ANCIENT CITIES, WITH GENERAL AND PARTICULAR ACCOUNTS OF THEIR RISE, FALL, AND PRESENT CONDITION. - BY CHARLES BUCKE This Volume contain these cities; Abydos, Abydus, AEgesta, AEina, Agrigentum, Alba Longa, Alcantara, Alexandria, Amisus, Antioch, Argos, Ariammene, Arsinoe, Artaxata, Artemita, Athens, Babylon, Balbec, Byzantium, Cairo (Old), Cannae, Capua, Carthage, Catanea, Chalcedon, Chaeronea, Corduba, Corcyra (Corfu), Corinth, Ctesiphon, Delphos, Ecbatana, Eleusis, Elis, Ephesus, Gerasa (Djerash), Granada, Gnidos, Heliopolis, Herculaneum, Hierapolis, Isfahan, Italica, Jerusalem, Lacedaemon, Or Sparta, Laodicea, Leuctra, Magnesia, Mantinea, Marathon, Megalopolis, Megara, Memphis. Of chance or change, oh! let not man complain; Else shall he never, never, cease to wail; For from the imperial dome, to where the swain Rears his lone cottage in the silent dale, All feel the assault of fortune's fickle gale. Art, empire, earth itself, to change are doom'd; Earthquakes have raised to heaven the humble vale; And gulfs the mountains' mighty mass entomb'd; And where the Atlantic rolls wide continents have bloom'd. {BEATTIE.} The reader is requested to observe, that, though the plan of this work is entirely his own, the compiler of it does not put it forth as in any way original in respect to language or description. It is, in fact, a much better book, than if it had been what is strictly called original, (which, indeed, must have involved an utter impossibility: ) for it is a selection of some of the best materials the British Museum could furnish; sometimes worked up in his own language; and sometimes-and, indeed, very frequently-in that of others: the compiler having, at an humble distance and with unequal steps, followed the plan which M. Rollin proposed to himself, when he composed his celebrated history of ancient times.-"To adorn and enrich my own," says that celebrated writer, "I will be so ingenuous as to confess, that I do not scruple, nor am ashamed, to rifle whereever I come; and that I often do not cite the authors from whom I transcribe, because of the liberty I take to make some slight alterations. I have made the best use in my power of the solid reflections that occur in the Bishop of Meaux's Universal History, which is one of the most beautiful and most useful books in our language. I have also received great assistance from the learned Dean Prideaux's 'Connexion of the Old and New Testament, ' in which he has traced and cleared up, in an admirable manner, the particulars relating to ancient history. I shall take the same liberty with whatever comes in my way, that may suit my design, and contribute to its perfection. I am very sensible, that it is not so much for a person's reputation to make use of other men's labours, and that it is in a manner renouncing the name and quality of author. But I am not over-fond of that title, and shall be extremely well pleased, and think myself very happy, if I can but deserve the name of a good compiler; and supply my readers with a tolerable history, who will not be over-solicitous to inquire what hand it comes from, provided they are but pleased with it.& Contributor Bio:  Ukray, Murat Walter Crane (Liverpool, 1845 - 1915, Horsham) was an English artist and book illustrator. He is considered to be the most influential, and among the most prolific, children's book creator of his generation and, along with Randolph Caldecott and Kate Greenaway, one of the strongest contributors to the child's nursery motif that the genre of English children's illustrated literature would exhibit in its developmental stages in the latter 19th century. His work featured some of the more colourful and detailed beginnings of the child-in-the-garden motifs that would characterize many nursery rhymes and children's stories for decades to come. He was part of the Arts and Crafts movement and produced an array of paintings, illustrations, children's books, ceramic tiles and other decorative arts.