(All ages can benefit from our reprint of this 1890 study ...)
All ages can benefit from our reprint of this 1890 study on ethics. With an emphasis on character traits such as honesty, gratitude, and responsibility, this text calls attention to the critical importance of character development and the role of well-formed conscience in making morally sound decisions.
Strategy Six Pack 12 - A Short History of Rome, Nero, The Rise of the Dutch Kingdom 1795-1813, The Rights of Man, Nat Turner and Travels into Bokhara (Illustrated)
(“Hidden talent counts for nothing.”
- Nero.
Strategy Six...)
“Hidden talent counts for nothing.”
- Nero.
Strategy Six Pack 12 presents six historical texts spanning two millennia and three continents. Ancient Rome and the Americas get two books each: Mary Platt Parmele’s A Short History of Rome is paired with Jacob Abbott’s biography of Emperor Nero; Thomas Paine’s 1791 American political classic The Rights of Man is followed by 1831’s The Confessions of Nat Turner - written by a runaway preacher-slave and social activist. For the Europhiles there is Hendrik Willem van Loon’s concise account of Holland’s early 19th Century continental dominance in The Rise of the Dutch Kingdom 1795-1813 and for historians of Asia there is the account of Victorian spy Alexander Burnes’ adventures in uncharted parts of Iraq, Afghanistan and beyond in Travels into Bokhara: A Voyage up the Indus to Lahore and a Journey to Cabool, Tartary & Persia.
Strategy Six Pack 12
A Short History of Rome by Mary Platt Parmele.
Nero by Jacob Abbott.
The Rise of the Dutch Kingdom, 1795-1813 - A Short Account of the Early Development of the Modern Kingdom of the Netherlands by Hendrik Willem van Loon.
The Rights of Man by Thomas Paine.
The Confessions of Nat Turner by Nat Turner.
Travels into Bokhara: A Voyage up the Indus to Lahore and a Journey to Cabool, Tartary & Persia Volume I by Alexander Burnes.
Includes image galleries for A Short History of Rome, The Rights of Man, The Confessions of Nat Turner and Travels into Bokhara.
Makers of History: Alexander the Great: Makers of History
("Abbott's account of Alexander's life reads like a Greek ...)
"Abbott's account of Alexander's life reads like a Greek tragedy. We are reminded of Jesus' admonition, "For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" (Mt. 16:26a). Alexander gained the world, but at what cost? Abbott's book is an easy but fascinating read, providing insights and details into the life of one of history's most prominent, yet puzzling, figures. For those who enjoy history and have a love of reading, this book is a delightful treasure."
--Patch Blakey, executive director, Association of Classical & Christian Schools
Alexander the Great is part of Makers of History, a 19th century biography series by two brothers--Jacob and John S.C. Abbott. Reprinted by Canon Press, these biographies have been edited and brought up-to-date for readers twelve and up. Not only are these editions given vintage style paperback covers, but they also include introductions that explain where these men and women fit into the timeline of history.
(King Richard the Third, known commonly in history as Rich...)
King Richard the Third, known commonly in history as Richard the Usurper, was perhaps as bad a man as the principle of hereditary sovereignty ever raised to the throne, or perhaps it should rather be said, as the principle of hereditary sovereignty ever made. There is no evidence that his natural disposition was marked with any peculiar depravity. He was made reckless, unscrupulous, and cruel by the influences which surrounded him, and the circumstances in which he lived, and by being habituated to believe, from his earliest childhood, that the family to which he belonged were born to live in luxury and splendor, and to reign, while the millions that formed the great mass of the community were created only to toil and to obey. The manner in which the principles of pride, ambition, and desperate love of power, which were instilled into his mind in his earliest years, brought forth in the end their legitimate fruits, is clearly seen by the following narrative.
"King Richard III" has a beautiful glossy cover and a blank page for the dedication.
(One pleasant morning in the autumn, when Rollo was about ...)
One pleasant morning in the autumn, when Rollo was about five years old, he was sitting on the platform, behind his father's house, playing. He had a hammer and nails, and some small pieces of board. He was trying to make a box. He hammered and hammered, and presently he dropped his work down and said, fretfully, "O dear me!" "What is the matter, Rollo?" said Jonas,—for it happened that Jonas was going by just then, with a wheelbarrow. "I wish these little boards would not split so. I cannot make my box." "You drive the nails wrong; you put the wedge sides with the grain." "The wedge sides!" said Rollo; "what are the wedge sides,—and the grain? I do not know what you mean." But Jonas went on, trundling his wheelbarrow; though he looked round and told Rollo that he could not stop to explain it to him then. Rollo was discouraged about his box. He thought he would look and see what Jonas was going to do. Jonas trundled the wheelbarrow along, until he came opposite the barn-door, and there he put it down. He went into the barn, and presently came out with an axe. Then he took the sides of the wheelbarrow off, and placed them up against the barn.
(Caleb was a bright-looking, blue-eyed boy, with auburn ha...)
Caleb was a bright-looking, blue-eyed boy, with auburn hair and happy countenance. And yet he was rather pale and slender. He had been sick. His father and mother lived in Boston, but now he was spending the summer at Sandy River country, with his grandmother. His father thought that if he could run about a few months in the open air, and play among the rocks and under the trees, he would grow more strong and healthy, and that his cheeks would not look so pale. His grandmother made him a blue jacket with bright buttons. She liked metal buttons, because they would wear longer than covered ones, but he liked them because they were more beautiful. “Besides,” said he, “I can see my face in them, grandmother.” Little Caleb then went to the window, so as to see his face plainer. He stood with his back to the window, and held the button so that the light from the window could shine directly upon it.
Cyrus the Great: Often Called the King of All Kings (Makers of History Series) (Timeless Classic Books)
(Cyrus the Great (c. 600 BC or 576 BC to December 530 BC),...)
Cyrus the Great (c. 600 BC or 576 BC to December 530 BC), also known as Cyrus II or Cyrus of Persia, was the founder of the Persian Empire. It was under his own rule that the empire embraced all previous civilized states of the ancient Near East, expanded vastly and eventually conquered most of Southwest Asia and much of Central Asia, parts of Europe and Caucasus, from the Mediterranean sea and the Hellespont in the west to the Indus River in the east, to create the largest empire the world had yet seen. The reign of Cyrus lasted between 29 and 31 years. Cyrus built his empire by fighting and conquering first the Median Empire, then the Lydian Empire and the Neo-Babylonian Empire. Either before or after Babylon, he led an expedition into central Asia, which resulted in major campaigns that brought "into subjection every nation without exception." Cyrus did not venture into Egypt, as he himself died in battle, fighting the Massagetae along the Syr Darya in December 530 BC. He was succeeded by his son, Cambyses II, who managed to add to the empire by conquering Egypt, Nubia, and Cyrenaica during his short rule.
Jacob Abbott was an American Congregational clergyman, educator, and writer. He was the author of children's books, juvenile fiction, brief histories, biographies, religious books for the general reader, and a few works in popular science.
Background
Jacob Abbott was born on November 14, 1803 in Hallowell, Maine, United States, the son of Jacob Abbot and Betsey Abbot, and brother of Gorham Dummer Abbot, and John S. C. Abbott. He was descended from George Abbot of Andover, who came to New England from Yorkshire as early as 1640.
Education
Abbott attended school in Brunswick, the Hallowell Academy, and later entered Bowdoin College, where he showed a leaning toward the physical sciences. While here he added an extra "t" to his name. He graduated in 1820.
He studied theology at Andover Seminary in 1821-1822 and 1824.
Career
In 1820-1821 Abbott taught at Portland Academy, where Longfellow was one of his pupils, and in 1823 at Beverly, Massachussets. In 1824-1825 he was tutor, and in 1825 became professor of mathematics and natural philosophy at Amherst College.
After being licensed to preach by the Hampshire Association, May 3, 1826, he occasionally supplied the pulpit in the college chapel and in the Congregational church of the neighboring town of Hatfield.
In 1828 he removed to Boston, where he founded the Mount Vernon School, one of the pioneer institutions in America for the education of young women. Abbott here showed his unusual talent for the instruction and government of the young, and introduced many innovations which have now become part of our educational system. Throwing over traditional disciplinary methods, he appealed to the honor and conscience of his pupils by making the school largely self-governing.
After several very successful years as principal of this school, Abbott found his interests turning more to preaching and authorship, and in 1833 he resigned and the following year became minister of the Eliot Congregational Church in Roxbury, Massachussets.
In 1835 he gave his pastoral charge to his brother, John S. C. Abbott, and, except for associating himself with his brothers in the founding and conducting of Abbott's Institution in New York City, from 1843 to 1851, and the short-lived Mount Vernon School for boys (1845-1848), he devoted the remainder of his life to literary endeavor. In 1832 Abbott published his first important work, The Young Christian. Its success was immediate, and it remained probably his most widely known book, went into many editions in America and the British Isles, and was translated into French and Dutch. The next volume in the same series, The Corner Stone (1834), raised considerable outcry in quarters hostile to Unitarianism, especially in England, where Abbott's emphasis upon practical Christianity was mistakenly thought to cover Arian leanings. The book even became the subject of one of the famous Oxford Tracts for the Times by J. H. Newman, although, after their meeting in the course of Abbott's first trip to Europe in 1843, the two men became cordial friends. In later editions of The Corner Stone Abbott changed certain equivocal passages to prevent further misapprehension of his views, which were substantially those of the more liberal Evangelicals of his period.
His famous Rollo series, begun in 1834, comprised twenty-eight volumes--Rollo at Work, Rollo at Play, Rollo's Travels, etc. --in which, in the form of simple stories, he attempted to provide rudimentary instruction for children in daily ethics, religion, natural science, travel, and similar subjects. Rollo and his companions belong to that inquisitive and edifying company in juvenile fiction which followed the Rousseauistic Sandford and Merton of Thomas Day and preceded the cheerful unregenerates of Thomas Bailey Aldrich and Mark Twain.
Abbott thought of his books, not primarily as literary creations, but as instruments for the accomplishment of certain definite results in human life and character. With all their quaint formality and unconscious humor, these stories were read by an entire generation of American children, who were presumably benefited by the exemplary patterns of conduct, as they were certainly pleased by the author's gift for homely anecdote and illustration.
After his years of teaching and school management, Abbott continued to live in New York City until 1870, making several trips to Europe and writing many of the later Rollo books, the Red Histories, the Science for the Young series, etc.
The last years of his life were spent in quiet retirement at "Fewacres" in Farmington, Maine, where he died
(Cyrus the Great (c. 600 BC or 576 BC to December 530 BC),...)
book
book
book
Views
Quotations:
"Keep children as much as possible by themselves . .. keep them from company, good or bad. . .. It will be generally found that the most virtuous and the most intellectual, are those who have been brought up with few companions. . .. in fact his mental resources may be considered entirely unknown and unexplored, who cannot spend his best and happiest hours alone. "
"A child can ask a thousand questions that the wisest man cannot answer. "
"Every one's abilities may be increased or strengthened by a kind of culture. "
Connections
Abbott married Harriet Vaughan of Hallowell, Maine, May 18, 1828. His wife died in 1843, and in 1853 he married Mrs. Mary (Dana) Woodbury.