The Lake English Classics General Editor LINDSAY TODD DAMON, A.B. English Literature and Rhetoric in Brown University ADDISON-The Sir Roger De Coverley Papers-ABBOTT............. 30c ADDISON AND STEELE—Selections from The Tatler and The Spec tator-ABBOTT. 35c BROWNING Selected Poems-REYNOLDS.. 40c BUNYAN-The Pilgrim's Progress-LATHAM 30c BURKE Speech on Conciliation with America-DENNEY. 25c 25c English Poems-From Gray, Goldsmith, Pope, Byron, Macaulay, Arnold, HAWTHORNE-The House of the Seven Gables-HERRICK.. 35c HAWTHORNE-Twice-Told Tales-HERRICK AND BRUERE. 40c IRVING Tales of a Traveller-and parts of The Sketch Book-KRAPP 40c LAMB-Essays of Elia—BENEDICT...... 35c The Lake English Classics—continued LONGFELLOW-Narrative Poems-POWELL.. 40c LOWELL-Vision of Sir Launfal-See Coleridge. MACAULAY-Essays on Addison and Johnson-NEWCOMER......... 30c MACAULAY-Essays on Clive and Hastings-NEWCOMER..... MACAULAY-Goldsmith, Frederic The Great, Madame D'Arblay-NEWCOMER.......... 35c 300 MACAULAY-Essays on Milton and Addison-NEWCOMER.......... 30c MILTON-L'Allegro, Il Penseroso, Comus, and Lycidas-NEILSON.... 25c MILTON-Paradise Lost, Books I and II-FARLEY.. 25c POPE-Homer's Iliad, Books I,VI, XXII, XXIV-CRESSY AND MOODY 25c SCOTT-Lay of the Last Minstrel-MOODY AND WILLARD. SCOTT-Marmion-MOODY AND WILLARD....... SHAKSPERE-The Nellson Edition-Edited by W. A. NEILSON, each..25c 25c 30c STEVENSON-Inland Voyage and Travels with a Donkey-LEONARD. 35c STEVENSON-Kidnapped LEONARD 35c Three American Poems-The Raven, Snow-Bound, Miles Standish The Lake English Classics OLD TESTAMENT NARRATIVES SELECTED AND EDITED WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND NOTES By CHARLES ELBERT RHODES, A.M. SCOTT, FORESMAN AND COMPANY CHICAGO NEW YORK 0 2-4-29 MRS Gitt PREFACE The selections given in this edition of the Old Testament narratives center around the principal characters and events of Hebrew history from the Creation to the return from the Babylonian captivity and the rebuilding of the city of Jerusalem and the Temple. Many events are necessarily omitted, but great care has been exercised to give the unbroken story of a remarkable people passing through all stages of development from the simplest life to that of a complex nation. In the evolution of the nation the growing self-consciousness of the people, and the equally significant growth in their consciousness of the God who was leading them, should be noted. The frequent lapses of the people into idolatry are also to be specially considered, since these lapses furnished the leaders the opportunities for their great work. The text used is that of the American Revision. It has seemed best to omit the numbers of the chapters and verses and to add quotation marks, so as to designate more clearly the various speakers. Wherever there is a break in the connection between two selections, due to omissions in the text, a brief summary of intervening events has been inserted in smaller type. These " connecting links" serve two purposes: first, they enable the |