Makers of History
Xerxes
BY JACOB ABBOTT
WITH ENGRAVINGS
NEW YORK AND LONDON
HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS
1902
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1850, by
HARPER & BROTHERS,
In the Clerk's Office for the Southern District of New York.
Copyright, 1878, by Jacob Abbott
Artabanus and the GhostPREFACE.
One special object which the author of this series has had in view, inthe plan and method which he has followed in the preparation of thesuccessive volumes, has been to adapt them to the purposes of text-booksin schools. The study of a general compend of history, such as isfrequently used as a text-book, is highly useful, if it comes in at theright stage of education, when the mind is sufficiently matured, and hasacquired sufficient preliminary knowledge to understand and appreciateso condensed a generalization as a summary of the whole history of anation contained in an ordinary volume must necessarily be. Without thisdegree of maturity of mind, and this preparation, the study of such awork will be, as it too frequently is, a mere mechanical committing tomemory of names, and dates, and phrases, which awaken no interest,communicate no ideas, and impart no useful knowledge to the mind.
A class of ordinary pupils, who have not yet become much acquainted withhistory, would, accordingly, be more benefited by having their attentionconcentrated, at first, on detached and separate topics, such as thosewhich form the subjects, respectively, of these volumes. By studyingthus fully the history of individual monarchs, or the narratives ofsingle events, they can go more fully into detail; they conceive of thetransactions described as realities; their reflecting and reasoningpowers are occupied on what they read; they take notice of the motivesof conduct, of the gradual development of character, the good or illdesert of actions, and of the connection of causes and consequences,both in respect to the influence of wisdom and virtue on the one hand,and, on the other, of folly and crime. In a word, their minds andhearts are occupied instead of merely their memories. They reason,they sympathize, they pity, they approve, and they condemn. They enjoythe real and true pleasure which constitutes the charm of historicalstudy for minds that are mature; and they acquire a taste for truthinstead of fiction, which will tend to direct their reading into properchannels in all future years.
The use of these works, therefore, as text-books in classes, has beenkept continually in mind in the preparation of them. The running indexon the tops of the pages is intended to serve instead of questions.These captions can be used in their present form as topics, in respectto which, when announced