The Book of Teaby Kakuzo OkakuraI. The Cup of HumanityTea began as a medicine and grew into a beverage. In China, in the eighth century, it entered the realm of poetry as one of the polite amusements. The fifteenth century saw Japan ennoble it into a religion of aestheticismTeaism. Teaism is a cult founded on the adoration of the beautiful among the sordid facts of everyday existence. It inculcates purity and harmony, the mystery of mutual charity, the romanticism of the social order. It is essentially a worship of the Imperfect, as it is a tender attempt to accomplish something possib
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHTLike most other young matrons, Meg began her married life with the determination to be a model housekeeper. John should find home a paradise, he should always see a smiling face, should fare sumptuously every day, and never know the loss of a button. She brought so much love, energy, and cheerfulness to the work that she could not but succeed, in spite of some obstacles. Her paradise was not a tranquil one, for the little woman fussed, was over-anxious to please, and bustled about like a true Martha, cumbered with many cares. She was too tired, sometimes, even to smile, Jo
Aaron Trowby Anthony TrollopeI would wish to declare, at the beginning of this story, that Ishall never regard that cluster of islets which we call Bermuda asthe Fortunate Islands of the ancients. Do not let professionalgeographers take me up, and say that no one has so accounted them,and that the ancients have never been supposed to have gottenthemselves so far westwards. What I mean to assert is thisthat,had any ancient been carried thither by enterprise or stress ofweather, he would not have given those islands so good a name. Thatthe Neapolitan sailors of King Alonzo should have been w
THE SKETCH BOOKA ROYAL POETby Washington IrvingThough your body be confined,And soft love a prisoner bound,Yet the beauty of your mindNeither check nor chain hath found.Look out nobly, then, and dareEven the fetters that you wear.FLETCHER.ON A soft sunny morning in the genial month of May, I made anexcursion to Windsor Castle. It is a place full of storied and...
The Little DreamAn Allegory in six scenesBY JOHN GALSWORTHYCHARACTERSSEELCHEN, a mountain girlLAMOND, a climberFELSMAN, a glideCHARACTERS IN THE DREAMTHE GREAT HORN |THE COW HORN | mountainsTHE WINE HORN |THE EDELWEISS |THE ALPENROSE | flowersTHE GENTIAN |THE MOUNTAIN DANDELION |VOICES AND FIGURES IN THE DREAMCOWBELLSMOUNTAIN AIRFAR VIEW OF ITALYDISTANT FLUME OF STEAMTHINGS IN BOOKSMOTH CHILDREN...
Messer Marco Polo by Brian Oswald Donn-ByrneA NOTE ON THE AUTHOR OF MESSER MARCO POLOSo Celtic in feeling and atmosphere are the stories of Donn Byrne that many of his devotees have come to believe that he never lived anywhere but in Ireland. Actually, Donn Byrne was born in New York City. Shortly after his birth, however, his parents took him back to the land of his forefathers. There he was educated and came to know the people of whom he wrote so magically. At Dublin University his love for the Irish language and for a good fight won him many prizes, first as a writer in Gaelic and seco
Heidiby Johanna SpyriCONTENTSI Up the Mountain to Alm-UncleII At Home with GrandfatherIII Out with the GoatsIV The Visit to GrandmotherV Two Visits and What Came of ThemVI A New Chapter about New ThingsVII Fraulein Rottenmeier Spends an Uncomfortable DayVIII There is Great Commotion in the Large HouseIX Herr Sesemann Hears of Things that are New to HimX Another GrandmotherXI Heidi Gains in One Way and Loses in AnotherXII A Ghost in the HouseXIII A Summer Evening on the MountainXIV Sunday BellsXV Preparations for a journey...
Lady Baltimoreby Owen WisterToS. Weir MitchellWith the Affection and Memories of All My LifeTo the ReaderYou know the great text in Burns, I am sure, where he wishes he could see himself as others see him. Well, here lies the hitch in many a work of art: if its makerpoet, painter, or novelistcould but have become its audience too, for a single day, before he launched it irrevocably upon the uncertain ocean of publicity, how much better his boat would often sail! How many little touches to the rigging he would give, how many little drops of oil to the engines here and there, the need of which
Cratylusby PlatoTranslated by Benjamin JowettINTRODUCTION.The Cratylus has always been a source of perplexity to the student ofPlato. While in fancy and humour, and perfection of style and metaphysicaloriginality, this dialogue may be ranked with the best of the Platonicwritings, there has been an uncertainty about the motive of the piece,which interpreters have hitherto not succeeded in dispelling. We need notsuppose that Plato used words in order to conceal his thoughts, or that hewould have been unintelligible to an educated contemporary. In the...
FAIRY TALES OF HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSENTHE RACESby Hans Christian AndersenA PRIZE, or rather two prizes, a great one and a small one, hadbeen awarded for the greatest swiftness in running,- not in a singlerace, but for the whole year."I obtained the first prize," said the hare. "Justice must stillbe carried out, even when one has relations and good friends among theprize committee; but that the snail should have received the secondprize, I consider almost an insult to myself"...
applications to social philosophyby John Stuart MillPreliminary RemarksIn every department of human affairs, Practice long precedesScience systematic enquiry into the modes of action of the powersof nature, is the tardy product of a long course of efforts touse those powers for practical ends. The conception, accordingly,of Political Economy as a branch of science is extremely modern;but the subject with which its enquiries are conversant has inall ages necessarily constituted one of the chief practicalinterests of mankind, and, in some, a most unduly engrossing one....
PART VIKRONBORGIIt is a glorious winter day. Denver, standing on herhigh plateau under a thrilling green-blue sky, is maskedin snow and glittering with sunlight. The Capitol buildingis actually in armor, and throws off the shafts of the sununtil the beholder is dazzled and the outlines of the buildingare lost in a blaze of reflected light. The stone terrace is awhite field over which fiery reflections dance, and the trees...
Shelley : AN ESSAYby Francis ThompsonThe Church, which was once the mother of poets no less than ofsaints, during the last two centuries has relinquished to aliens thechief glories of poetry, if the chief glories of holiness she haspreserved for her own. The palm and the laurel, Dominic and Dante,sanctity and song, grew together in her soil: she has retained thepalm, but forgone the laurel. Poetry in its widest sense, {1} andwhen not professedly irreligious, has been too much and too longamong many Catholics either misprised or distrusted; too much and...
Of the Balance of Tradeby David HumeIt is very usual, in nations ignorant of the nature of commerce,to prohibit the exportation of commodities, and to preserve amongthemselves whatever they think valuable and useful. They do notconsider, that, in this prohibition, they act directly contrary totheir intention; and that the more is exported of any commodity, themore will be raised at home, of which they themselves will always havethe first offer.It is well known to the learned, that the ancient laws of ATHENSrendered the exportation of figs criminal; that being supposed a...
The Essays of Montaigne, V16by Michel de MontaigneTranslated by Charles CottonEdited by William Carew Hazilitt1877CONTENTS OF VOLUME 16.VI. Of Coaches.VII. Of the Inconvenience of Greatness.VIII. Of the Art of Conference.CHAPTER VIOF COACHESIt is very easy to verify, that great authors, when they write of causes,not only make use of those they think to be the true causes, but also ofthose they believe not to be so, provided they have in them some beautyand invention: they speak true and usefully enough, if it be ingeniously....