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...　

FAIRY TALES OF HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSENTHE OLD STREET LAMPby Hans Christian AndersenDID you ever hear the story of the old street lamp? It is notremarkably interesting, but for once in a way you may as well listento it. It was a most respectable old lamp, which had seen many, manyyears of service, and now was to retire with a pension. It was thisevening at its post for the last time, giving light to the street. Hisfeelings were something like those of an old dancer at the theatre,who is dancing for the last time, and knows that on the morrow she...　

Erewhon (Revised Edition)by Samuel ButlerOR OVER THE RANGEPREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITIONThe Author wishes it to be understood that Erewhon is pronounced asa word of three syllables, all shortthus, E-re-whon.PREFACE TO SECOND EDITIONHaving been enabled by the kindness of the public to get through anunusually large edition of "Erewhon" in a very short time, I havetaken the opportunity of a second edition to make some necessarycorrections, and to add a few passages where it struck me that theywould be appropriately introduced; the passages are few, and it is...　

THE LITTLE GOOD MOUSEONCE upon a time there lived a King and Queen who loved eachother so much that they were never happy unless they weretogether. Day after day they went out hunting or fishing; nightafter night they went to balls or to the opera; they sang, and danced,and ate sugar-plums, and were the gayest of the gay, and all theirsubjects followed their example so that the kingdom was called theJoyous Land. Now in the next kingdom everything was as differentas it could possibly be. The King was sulky and savage, and neverenjoyed himself at all. He looked so ugly and cross that all his...　

South Sea Talesby Jack LondonCONTENTSThe House of MapuhiThe Whale ToothMauki"Yah! Yah! Yah!"The HeathenThe Terrible SolomonsThe Inevitable White ManThe Seed of McCoyTHE HOUSE OF MAPUHIDespite the heavy clumsiness of her lines, the Aorai handled easily in thelight breeze, and her captain ran her well in before he hove to just outsidethe suck of the surf. The atoll of Hikueru lay low on the water, a circle ofpounded coral sand a hundred yards wide, twenty miles in circumference, and...　

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...　

A Simpletonby Charles ReadePREFACE.It has lately been objected to me, in studiously courteous terms ofcourse, that I borrow from other books, and am a plagiarist. Tothis I reply that I borrow facts from every accessible source, andam not a plagiarist. The plagiarist is one who borrows from ahomogeneous work: for such a man borrows not ideas only, but theirtreatment. He who borrows only from heterogeneous works is not aplagiarist. All fiction, worth a button, is founded on facts; andit does not matter one straw whether the facts are taken frompersonal experience, hearsay, or printed books;　

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...　

400 BCTHE BOOK OF PROGNOSTICSby HippocratesTranslated by Francis AdamsTHE BOOK OF PROGNOSTICSIT APPEARS to me a most excellent thing for the physician tocultivate Prognosis; for by foreseeing and foretelling, in thepresence of the sick, the present, the past, and the future, andexplaining the omissions which patients have been guilty of, he willbe the more readily believed to be acquainted with the circumstances...　

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...　

410 BCIPHIGENIA IN TAURISby Euripidestranslated by Robert PotterCHARACTERS IN THE PLAYIPHIGENIA, daughter of AgamemnonORESTES, brother of IPHIGENIAPYLADES, friend Of ORESTESTHOAS, King of the TauriansHERDSMANMESSENGERMINERVACHORUS OF GREEK WOMEN, captives, attendants on IPHIGENIA in thetempleIPHIGENIA IN TAURIS(SCENE:-Before the great temple of Diana of the Taurians. A blood-...　

A Belated Guestby William Dean HowellsIt is doubtful whether the survivor of any order of things findscompensation in the privilege, however undisputed by his contemporaries,of recording his memories of it. This is, in the first two or threeinstances, a pleasure. It is sweet to sit down, in the shade or by thefire, and recall names, looks, and tones from the past; and if theAbsences thus entreated to become Presences are those of famous people,they lend to the fond historian a little of their lustre, in which hebasks for the time with an agreeable sense of celebrity. But another...