Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christby Lew Wallaceto THE WIFE OF MY YOUTH who still abides with meBOOK FIRSTCHAPTER IThe Jebel es Zubleh is a mountain fifty miles and more in length, and so narrow that its tracery on the map gives it a likeness to a caterpillar crawling from the south to the north. Standing on its red-and-white cliffs, and looking off under the path of the rising sun, one sees only the Desert of Arabia, where the east winds, so hateful to vinegrowers of Jericho, have kept their playgrounds since the beginning. Its feet are well covered by sands tossed from the Euphrates, there to l　

INTRODUCTION TO THE METAPHYSIC OF MORALSby Immanuel Kanttranslated by W. HastieDIVISIONSGENERAL DIVISIONS OF THE METAPHYSIC OF MORALSI. DIVISION OF THE METAPHYSIC OF MORALS AS A SYSTEM OFDUTIES GENERALLY.1. All duties are either duties of right, that is, juridicalduties (officia juris), or duties of virtue, that is, ethical duties(officia virtutis s. ethica). Juridical duties are such as may bepromulgated by external legislation; ethical duties are those for...　

EARLY LITERARY EXPERIMENTSTRANSFORMATIONMine eyes are so confused,My cheek it is so pale,My head is so bemused,A realm of fairy-tale.I wanted, boldly daring,Sea-going ways to follow,Where a thousand crags rise soaring,And Floods flow bleak and hollow.I clung to Thought high-soaring,On its two wings did ride,And though storm winds were roaring,...　

THE FIVE BOONS OF LIFEChapter IIn the morning of life came a good fairy with her basket, and said:"Here are gifts. Take one, leave the others. And be wary,chose wisely; oh, choose wisely! for only one of them is valuable."The gifts were five: Fame, Love, Riches, Pleasure, Death.The youth said, eagerly:"There is no need to consider"; and he chose Pleasure.He went out into the world and sought out the pleasures that youthdelights in. But each in its turn was short-lived and disappointing,vain and empty; and each, departing, mocked him. In the end he said:...　

THE PROCESSION OF LIFELife figures itself to me as a festal or funereal procession. Allof us have our places, and are to move onward under the directionof the Chief Marshal. The grand difficulty results from theinvariably mistaken principles on which the deputy marshals seekto arrange this immense concourse of people, so much morenumerous than those that train their interminable length throughstreets and highways in times of political excitement. Theirscheme is ancient, far beyond the memory of man or even therecord of history, and has hitherto been very little modified by...　

The Countess of Saint GeranBy Alexander Dumas, pereAbout the end of the year 1639, a troop of horsemen arrived, towardsmidday, in a little village at the northern extremity of the provinceof Auvergne, from the direction of Paris. The country folk assembledat the noise, and found it to proceed from the provost of the mountedpolice and his men. The heat was excessive, the horses were bathedin sweat, the horsemen covered with dust, and the party seemed on itsreturn from an important expedition. A man left the escort, andasked an old woman who was spinning at her door if there was not an...　

SHERLOCK HOLMESTHE ADVENTURE OF THE PRIORY SCHOOLby Sir Arthur Conan DoyleTHE ADVENTURE OF THE PRIORY SCHOOLWe have had some dramatic entrances and exits upon our small stageat Baker Street, but I cannot recollect anything more sudden andstartling than the first appearance of Thorneycroft Huxtable, M.A.,Ph.D., etc. His card, which seemed too small to carry the weight ofhis academic distinctions, preceded him by a few seconds, and thenhe entered himself- so large, so pompous, and so dignified that he was...　

My Discovery of Englandby Leacock, StephenIntroduction of Mr. Stephen Leacock Given by Sir Owen Seaman on the Occasion of His First Lecture in LondonLADIES AND GENTLEMEN: It is usual on these occasions for the chairman to begin something like this: "The lecturer, I am sure, needs no introduction from me." And indeed, when I have been the lecturer and somebody else has been the chairman, I have more than once suspected myself of being the better man of the two. Of course I hope I should always have the good mannersI am sure Mr. Leacock hasto disguise that suspicion. However, one has to go thr　

The Crusade of the Excelsiorby Bret HarteCONTENTS.PART I.IN BONDS.CHAPTER I.A CRUSADER AND A SIGNCHAPTER II.ANOTHER PORTENTCHAPTER III."VIGILANCIA"CHAPTER IV.IN THE FOGCHAPTER V.TODOS SANTOSCHAPTER VI."HAIL AND FAREWELL"CHAPTER VII.THE GENTLE CASTAWAYSCHAPTER VIII.IN SANCTUARYCHAPTER IX.AN OPEN-AIR PRISONCHAPTER X.TODOS SANTOS SOLVES THE MYSTERY...　

A Wagner MatineeI received one morning a letter, written in pale ink onglassy, blue-lined notepaper, and bearing the postmark of alittle Nebraska village. This communication, worn and rubbed,looking as though it had been carried for some days in a coatpocket that was none too clean, was from my Uncle Howard andinformed me that his wife had been left a small legacy by abachelor relative who had recently died, and that it would benecessary for her to go to Boston to attend to the settling ofthe estate. He requested me to meet her at the station and...　

THE FIRST WRITING-MACHINESFrom My Unpublished AutobiographySome days ago a correspondent sent in an old typewritten sheet,faded by age, containing the following letter over the signatureof Mark Twain:"Hartford, March 10, 1875."Please do not use my name in any way. Please do not even divulgethat fact that I own a machine. I have entirely stopped usingthe typewriter, for the reason that I never could write a letterwith it to anybody without receiving a request by return mail that Iwould not only describe the machine, but state what progress I had...　

Pagan & Christian Creeds: Their Origin and Meaningby Edward Carpenter"The different religions being lame attempts to represent undervarious guises this one root-fact of the central universal life,men have at all times clung to the religious creeds and ritualsand ceremonials as symbolising in some rude way the redemptionand fulfilment of their own most intimate naturesand thiswhether consciously understanding the interpretations, or whether(as most often) only doing so in an unconscious or quitesubconscious way."The Drama of Love and Death, p. 96....　

FAIRY TALES OF HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSENTHE OLD GRAVE-STONEby Hans Christian AndersenIN a house, with a large courtyard, in a provincial town, atthat time of the year in which people say the evenings are growinglonger, a family circle were gathered together at their old home. Alamp burned on the table, although the weather was mild and warm,and the long curtains hung down before the open windows, and withoutthe moon shone brightly in the dark-blue sky.But they were not talking of the moon, but of a large, old stone...　

RECORDS OF A FAMILY OF ENGINEERSby ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSONCONTENTSINTRODUCTION: THE SURNAME OF STEVENSONI. DOMESTIC ANNALSII. THE SERVICE OF THE NORTHERN LIGHTSIII. THE BUILDING OF THE BELL ROCKRECORDS OFA FAMILY OF ENGINEERSINTRODUCTIONTHE SURNAME OF STEVENSONFROM the thirteenth century onwards, the name, under the various disguises of Stevinstoun, Stevensoun, Stevensonne, Stenesone, and Stewinsoune, spread across Scotland from the mouth of the Firth of Forth to the mouth of the Firth of Clyde. Four times at least it occurs as a place-name. There is a parish of Stevenston in Cunningham; 　

Tea-table Talkby Jerome K. JeromeCHAPTER I"They are very pretty, some of them," said the Woman of the World; "not the sort of letters I should have written myself.""I should like to see a love-letter of yours," interrupted the Minor Poet."It is very kind of you to say so," replied the Woman of the World. "It never occurred to me that you would care for one.""It is what I have always maintained," retorted the Minor Poet; "you have never really understood me.""I believe a volume of assorted love-letters would sell well," said the Girton Girl; "written by the same hand, if you like, but to diffe　

IN A FAR COUNTRY.WHEN A MAN JOURNEYS into a far country, he must be prepared toforget many of the things he has learned, and to acquire suchcustoms as are inherent with existence in the new land; he mustabandon the old ideals and the old gods, and oftentimes he mustreverse the very codes by which his conduct has hitherto beenshaped. To those who have the protean faculty of adaptability, thenovelty of such change may even be a source of pleasure; but tothose who happen to be hardened to the ruts in which they werecreated, the pressure of the altered environment is unbearable, and...