Pageant of Summerby Richard JefferiesI.GREEN rushes, long and thick, standing up above the edge of theditch, told the hour of the year as distinctly as the shadow on thedial the hour of the day. Green and thick and sappy to the touch,they felt like summer, soft and elastic, as if full of life, mererushes though they were. On the fingers they left a green scent;rushes have a separate scent of green, so, too, have ferns, verydifferent from that of grass or leaves. Rising from brown sheaths,the tall stems enlarged a little in the middle, like classical...
FAIRY TALES OF HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSENTHE LITTLE MERMAIDby Hans Christian AndersenFAR out in the ocean, where the water is as blue as theprettiest cornflower, and as clear as crystal, it is very, verydeep; so deep, indeed, that no cable could fathom it: many churchsteeples, piled one upon another, would not reach from the groundbeneath to the surface of the water above. There dwell the Sea Kingand his subjects. We must not imagine that there is nothing at thebottom of the sea but bare yellow sand. No, indeed; the most...
CHAPTER VIPig and PepperFor a minute or two she stood looking at the house, andwondering what to do next, when suddenly a footman in livery camerunning out of the wood(she considered him to be a footmanbecause he was in livery: otherwise, judging by his face only,she would have called him a fish)and rapped loudly at the doorwith his knuckles. It was opened by another footman in livery,with a round face, and large eyes like a frog; and both footmen,Alice noticed, had powdered hair that curled all over their...
Lecture IVThe Tribe and the LandIt has been very commonly believed that, before the agrarianmeasures of James the First, Ireland was one of the countries inwhich private property in land was invested with leastsacredness, and in which forms of ownership generally consideredas barbarous most extensively prevailed. Spenser and Daviscertainly suggest this opinion, and several modern writers haveadopted it. The Brehon law-tracts prove, however, that it can...
An Old Town By The Seaby Thomas Bailey AldrichPISCATAQUA RIVERThou singest by the gleaming isles,By woods, and fields of corn,Thou singest, and the sunlight smilesUpon my birthday morn.But I within a city, I,So full of vague unrest,Would almost give my life to lieAn hour upon upon thy breast.To let the wherry listless go,And, wrapt in dreamy joy,Dip, and surge idly to and fro,Like the red harbor-buoy;To sit in happy indolence,To rest upon the oars,And catch the heavy earthy scentsThat blow from summer shores;To see the rounded sun go down,...
370 BCPARMENIDESby Platotranslated by Benjamin JowettPARMENIDESPERSONS OF THE DIALOGUE: CEPHALUS; ADEIMANTUS; GLAUCON; ANTIPHON;PYTHODORUS; SOCRATES; ZENO; PARMENIDES; ARISTOTELES. Cephalusrehearses a dialogue which is supposed to have been narrated in hispresence by Antiphon, the half-brother of Adeimantus and Glaucon, tocertain Clazomenians.We had come from our home at Clazomenae to Athens, and met...
Vailima Lettersby Robert Louis StevensonCHAPTER IIN THE MOUNTAIN, APIA, SAMOA,MONDAY, NOVEMBER 2ND, 1890MY DEAR COLVIN, - This is a hard and interesting andbeautiful life that we lead now. Our place is in a deepcleft of Vaea Mountain, some six hundred feet above the sea,embowered in forest, which is our strangling enemy, and whichwe combat with axes and dollars. I went crazy over outdoorwork, and had at last to confine myself to the house, orliterature must have gone by the board. NOTHING is sointeresting as weeding, clearing, and path-making; the...
Men of Invention and Industryby Samuel Smiles"Men there have been, ignorant of letters; without art, withouteloquence; who yet had the wisdom to devise and the courage toperform that which they lacked language to explain. Such menhave worked the deliverance of nations and their own greatness.Their hearts are their books; events are their tutors; greatactions are their eloquence."MACAULAY.Contents.PrefaceCHAPTER I Phineas Pett:Beginings of English ShipbuildingCHAPTER II Francis Pettit Smith:...
FAIRY TALES OF HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSENTHE FLYING TRUNKby Hans Christian AndersenTHERE was once a merchant who was so rich that he could have pavedthe whole street with gold, and would even then have had enough fora small alley. But he did not do so; he knew the value of money betterthan to use it in this way. So clever was he, that every shilling heput out brought him a crown; and so he continued till he died. His soninherited his wealth, and he lived a merry life with it; he went to...
PEN, PENCIL AND POISON - A STUDY IN GREENIt has constantly been made a subject of reproach against artistsand men of letters that they are lacking in wholeness andcompleteness of nature. As a rule this must necessarily be so.That very concentration of vision and intensity of purpose which isthe characteristic of the artistic temperament is in itself a modeof limitation. To those who are preoccupied with the beauty ofform nothing else seems of much importance. Yet there are manyexceptions to this rule. Rubens served as ambassador, and Goethe...
A LETTER FROM CAPTAIN GULLIVER TO HIS COUSIN SYMPSON.WRITTEN IN THE YEAR 1727.I hope you will be ready to own publicly, whenever you shall becalled to it, that by your great and frequent urgency youprevailed on me to publish a very loose and uncorrect account ofmy travels, with directions to hire some young gentleman ofeither university to put them in order, and correct the style, asmy cousin Dampier did, by my advice, in his book called "A Voyageround the world." But I do not remember I gave you power toconsent that any thing should be omitted, and much less that any...
RAPUNZELONCE upon a time there lived a man and his wife who were veryunhappy because they had no children. These good peoplehad a little window at the back of their house, which looked intothe most lovely garden, full of all manner of beautiful flowers andvegetables; but the garden was surrounded by a high wall, and noone dared to enter it, for it belonged to a witch of great power, whowas feared by the whole world. One day the woman stood at thewindow overlooking the garden, and saw there a bed full of thefinest rampion: the leaves looked so fresh and green that she longed...
The Perils of Certain English Prisonersby Charles DickensCHAPTER ITHE ISLAND OF SILVER-STOREIt was in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and forty-four, that I, Gill Davis to command, His Mark, having then thehonour to be a private in the Royal Marines, stood a-leaning overthe bulwarks of the armed sloop Christopher Columbus, in the SouthAmerican waters off the Mosquito shore.My lady remarks to me, before I go any further, that there is nosuch christian-name as Gill, and that her confident opinion is, that...
STAGE-LANDby Jerome K. JeromeTOTHAT HIGHLY RESPECTABLE BUT UNNECESSARILYRETIRING INDIVIDUAL,OF WHOMWE HEAR SO MUCHBUTSEE SO LITTLE,"THE EARNEST STUDENT OF THE DRAMA,"THIS(COMPARATIVELY) TRUTHFUL LITTLE BOOKIS LOVINGLY DEDICATED.CONTENTS.THE HEROTHE VILLAINTHE HEROINETHE COMIC MANTHE LAWYERTHE ADVENTURESSTHE SERVANT GIRLTHE CHILDTHE COMIC LOVERSTHE PEASANTSTHE GOOD OLD MANTHE IRISHMANTHE DETECTIVETHE SAILORSTAGE-LAND.THE HERO.His name is George, generally speaking. "Call me George!" he says to...
The National System of Political Economyby Friedrich Listtranslated by Sampson S. Lloyd, 1885First Book: The HistoryChapter 1The ItaliansAt the revival of civilisation in Europe, no county was in sofavourable a position as Italy in respect to commerce and industry.Barbarism had not been able entirely to eradicate the culture andcivilisation of ancient Rome. A genial climate and a fertile soil,notwithstanding an unskilful system of cultivation, yielded...
FAIRY TALES OF HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSENLITTLE CLAUS AND BIG CLAUSby Hans Christian AndersenIN a village there once lived two men who had the same name.They were both called Claus. One of them had four horses, but theother had only one; so to distinguish them, people called the owner ofthe four horses, "Great Claus," and he who had only one, "LittleClaus." Now we shall hear what happened to them, for this is a truestory.Through the whole week, Little Claus was obliged to plough for...