Lay Moralsby Robert Louis StevensonCHAPTER 1THE problem of education is twofold: first to know, and then to utter. Every one who lives any semblance of an inner life thinks more nobly and profoundly than he speaks; and the best of teachers can impart only broken images of the truth which they perceive. Speech which goes from one to another between two natures, and, what is worse, between two experiences, is doubly relative. The speaker buries his meaning; it is for the hearer to dig it up again; and all speech, written or spoken, is in a dead language until it finds a willing and
NORTHANGER ABBEYbyJane Austen(1803)ADVERTISEMENT BY THE AUTHORESS, TO NORTHANGER ABBEYTHIS little work was finished in the year 1803, and intendedfor immediate publication. It was disposed of to a bookseller,it was even advertised, and why the business proceededno farther, the author has never been able to learn.That any bookseller should think it worth-while to...
EvangelineA Tale of Acadieby Henry Wadsworth LongfellowTHIS is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks,Bearded with moss, and in garments green, indistinct in the twilight,Stand like Druids of eld, with voices sad and prophetic,Stand like harpers hoar, with beards that rest on their bosoms.Loud from its rocky caverns, the deep-voiced neighboring oceanSpeaks, and in accents disconsolate answers the wail of the forest.This is the forest primeval; but where are the hearts that beneath itLeaped like the roe, when he hears in the woodland the voice of the huntsman?...
THE DEVOTED FRIENDOne morning the old Water-rat put his head out of his hole. He hadbright beady eyes and stiff grey whiskers and his tail was like along bit of black india-rubber. The little ducks were swimmingabout in the pond, looking just like a lot of yellow canaries, andtheir mother, who was pure white with real red legs, was trying toteach them how to stand on their heads in the water."You will never be in the best society unless you can stand on yourheads," she kept saying to them; and every now and then she showedthem how it was done. But the little ducks paid no attention to...
The Annals of the Parishby John GaltOr The Chronicle of Dalmailing during the ministry of the Rev. Micah Balwhidder. Written by himself and arranged and edited by John GaltINTRODUCTIONIn the same year, and on the same day of the same month, that his Sacred Majesty King George, the third of the name, came to his crown and kingdom, I was placed and settled as the minister of Dalmailing. {1} When about a week thereafter this was known in the parish, it was thought a wonderful thing, and everybody spoke of me and the new king as united in our trusts and temporalities, marvelling how the same sh
Zanoniby Edward Bulwer LyttonDEDICATORY EPISTLEFirst prefixed to the Edition of 1845TOJOHN GIBSON, R.A., SCULPTOR.In looking round the wide and luminous circle of our great livingEnglishmen, to select one to whom I might fitly dedicate thiswork,one who, in his life as in his genius, might illustratethe principle I have sought to convey; elevated by the idealwhich he exalts, and serenely dwelling in a glorious existencewith the images born of his imagination,in looking round forsome such man, my thoughts rested upon you. Afar from our...
ESSAYS, Political, Economical and Philosophical. Volume 1.by Benjamin RumfordContentsDedicationFirst EssayAn account of an Establishment for the Poor at MunichSecond EssayOn the Fundamental Principles on which General Establishments forthe Relief of the Poor may be formed in all Countries.Third EssayOf Food and Particularly of Feeding the Poor.Fourth EssayOf Chimney Fire-places with proposals for improving them to saveFuel; to render dwelling-houses more Comfortable and Salubrious,and effectually to prevent Chimnies from Smoking.Fifth Essay...
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...
THE SPHINX WITHOUT A SECRETONE afternoon I was sitting outside the Cafe de la Paix, watchingthe splendour and shabbiness of Parisian life, and wondering overmy vermouth at the strange panorama of pride and poverty that waspassing before me, when I heard some one call my name. I turnedround, and saw Lord Murchison. We had not met since we had been atcollege together, nearly ten years before, so I was delighted tocome across him again, and we shook hands warmly. At Oxford we hadbeen great friends. I had liked him immensely, he was so handsome,...
HERMOD AND HADVOR [32][32] From the Icelandic.Once upon a time there were a King and a Queen who had an onlydaughter, called Hadvor, who was fair and beautiful, and being anonly child, was heir to the kingdom. The King and Queen had alsoa foster son, named Hermod, who was just about the same age asHadvor, and was good-looking, as well as clever at most things.Hermod and Hadvor often played together while they were children,and liked each other so much that while they were still youngthey secretly plighted their troth to each other.As time went on the Queen fell sick, and suspecting that it w
The Princeby Nicolo MachiavelliTranslated by W. K. MarriottNicolo Machiavelli, born at Florence on 3rd May 1469. From 1494 to 1512 held an official post at Florence which included diplomatic missions to various European courts. Imprisoned in Florence, 1512; later exiled and returned to San Casciano. Died at Florence on 22nd June 1527.INTRODUCTIONNicolo Machiavelli was born at Florence on 3rd May 1469. He was the second son of Bernardo di Nicolo Machiavelli, a lawyer of some repute, and of Bartolommea di Stefano Nelli, his wife. Both parents were members of the old Florentine nobility....
Sons of the Soilby Honore de BalzacTranslated by Katharine Prescott WormeleyDEDICATIONTo Monsieur P. S. B. Gavault.Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote these words at the beginning of hisNouvelle Heloise: "I have seen the morals of my time and I publishthese letters." May I not say to you, in imitation of that greatwriter, "I have studied the march of my epoch and I publish thiswork"?The object of this particular studystartling in its truth solong as society makes philanthropy a principle instead ofregarding it as an accidentis to bring to sight the leading...
Susy, A Story of the Plainsby Bret HarteCHAPTER I.Where the San Leandro turnpike stretches its dusty, hot, andinterminable length along the valley, at a point where the heat anddust have become intolerable, the monotonous expanse of wild oats oneither side illimitable, and the distant horizon apparently remoterthan ever, it suddenly slips between a stunted thicket or hedge of"scrub oaks," which until that moment had been undistinguishableabove the long, misty, quivering level of the grain. The thicketrising gradually in height, but with a regular slope whose gradient...
Samuel Brohl & Companyby Victor CherbuliezCHAPTER IWere the events of this nether sphere governed by the calculus of probabilities, Count Abel Larinski and Mlle. Antoinette Moriaz would almost unquestionably have arrived at the end of their respective careers without ever having met. Count Larinski lived in Vienna, Austria; Mlle. Moriaz never had been farther from Paris than Cormeilles, where she went every spring to remain throughout the fine weather. Neither at Cormeilles nor at Paris had she ever heard of Count Larinski; and he, on his part, was wholly unaware of the existence of Mlle. Mor
The Writings of Abraham Lincolnby Abraham LincolnVOLUME SIXWRITINGS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN1862-1863RECOMMENDATION OF NAVAL OFFICERSMESSAGE TO CONGRESS.WASHINGTON, D.C., May 14, 1862.TO SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES:The third section of the "Act further to promote the efficiency ofthe Navy," approved 21st of December, 1861, provides:"That the President of the United States by and with the advice andconsent of the Senate, shall have the authority to detail from theretired list of the navy for the command of squadrons and single...
The Masque of the Red Deathby Edgar Allan PoeThe "Red Death" had long devastated the country. Nopestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous. Blood was itsAvatar and its sealthe redness and the horror of blood. There weresharp pains, and sudden dizziness, and then profuse bleeding at thepores, with dissolution. The scarlet stains upon the body andespecially upon the face of the victim, were the pest ban whichshut him out from the aid and from the sympathy of his fellow-men.And the whole seizure, progress and termination of the disease,...