Prologue　　 "e home, Tenar! e home!"　 In the deep valley, in the twilight, the apple trees were on the eve of blossoming; here and there among the shadowed boughs one flower had opened early, rose and white, like a faint star. Down the orchard aisles, in the thick, new, wet grass, the little girl ran for the joy of running; hearing the call she did not e at once, but made a long circle before she turned her face towards home. The mother waiting in the doorway of the hut, with the firelight behind her, watched the tiny figure running and bobbing like a bit of thistledown blown over the darkeni　

The Inca of Perusalemby George Bernard ShawAN ALMOST HISTORICAL COMEDIETTAI must remind the reader that this playlet was written when itsprincipal character, far from being a fallen foe and virtually aprisoner in our victorious hands, was still the Caesar whoselegions we were resisting with our hearts in our mouths. Manywere so horribly afraid of him that they could not forgive me fornot being afraid of him: I seemed to be trifling heartlessly witha deadly peril. I knew better; and I have represented Caesar asknowing better himself. But it was one of the quaintnesses of...　

A Theologico-Political Treatise [Part I]by Benedict de SpinozaAlso known as Baruch SpinozaTranslated by R. H. M. ElwesPart 1 - Chapters I to VTABLE OF CONTENTS:PREFACE.Origin and consequences of superstition.Causes that have led the author to write.Course of his investigation.For what readers the treatise is designed. Submission of authorto the rulers of his country.CHAPTER I - Of Prophecy.Definition of prophecy....　

A Charmed Lifeby Richard Harding DavisShe loved him so, that when he went away to a little war in whichhis country was interested she could not understand, nor quiteforgive.As the correspondent of a newspaper, Chesterton had looked on atother wars; when the yellow races met, when the infidel Turkspanked the Christian Greek; and one he had watched from inside aBritish square, where he was greatly alarmed lest he should betrampled upon by terrified camels. This had happened before he andshe had met. After they met, she told him that what chances he hadchosen to take before he came into her li　

Autobiography of a Pocket-Handkerchiefby James Fenimore CoopoerCHAPTER I.Certain moral philosophers, with a due disdain of the flimsy foundationsof human pride, have shown that every man is equally descended from amillion of ancestors, within a given number of generations; therebydemonstrating that no prince exists who does not participate in theblood of some beggar, or any beggar who does not share in the bloodof princes. Although favored by a strictly vegetable descent myself, thelaws of nature have not permitted me to escape from the influence ofthis common rule. The earliest accounts I po　

THE SPIRIT OF LAWSBy Charles de Secondat, Baron de MontesquieuTranslated by Thomas Nugent, revised by J. V. PrichardThe Translator to the Readerby Thomas Nugent1752The following work may with the strictest justice be said to have done honour to human nature as well as to the great abilities of the author. The wisest and most learned man, and those most distinguished by birth and the elevation of their stations, have, in every country in Europe, considered it as a most excellent performance. And may we be permitted to add, that a sovereign prince [1] as justly celebrated for his probity and go　

Further Adventures of Ladby Albert Payson TerhuneFOREWORDSunnybank Lad won a million friends through my book, "LAD: A DOG"; and through the Lad-anecdotes in "Buff: A Collie." These books themselves were in no sense great. But Laddie was great in every sense; and his life-story could not be marred, past interest, by my clumsy way of telling it.People have written in gratifying numbers asking for more stories about Lad. More than seventeen hundred visitors have come all the way to Sunnybank to see his grave. So I wrote the collection of tales which are now included in "Further Adventures of Lad　

Defence of Usuryby Jeremy Bentham1787Defence of Usury; Shewing the Impolity of the Present Legal Restraints on the Terms of Pecuniary Bargains In a Series of Letters to a Friend To Which is Added A Letter to Adam Smith, Esq; LL.D. On the Discouragements opposed by the above Restraints to the Progress of Inventive Industry 1787LETTER I. Introduction Crichoff, in White Russia, January 1787Among the various species or modifications of liberty, of which on different occasions we have heard so much in England, I do not recollect ever seeing any thing yet offered in behalf of the l　

Chronicle of the Conquest of Granadaby Washington IrvingCONTENTS.I..........Of the Kingdom of Granada, and the Tribute which it Paidto the Castilian Crown.II.........Of the Embassy of Don Juan de Vera to Demand Arrears ofTribute from the Moorish Monarch.III........Domestic Feuds in the AlhambraRival SultanasPredictionsconcerning Boabdil, the Heir to the ThroneHowFerdinand Meditates War against Granada, and how heis Anticipated.IV.........Expedition of the Muley Abul Hassan against the Fortress...　

The Gathering of Brother Hilariusby Michael Fairless Alias of Margaret Fairless BarberPART I - THE SEEDCHAPTER I - BLIND EYES IN THE FORESTHILARIUS stood at the Monastery gate, looking away down the smooth, well-kept road to the highway beyond. It lay quiet and serene in the June sunshine, the white way to the outer world, and not even a dust cloud on the horizon promised the approach of the train of sumpter mules laden with meats for the bellies and cloth for the backs of the good Brethren within. The Cellarer lacked wine, the drug stores in the farmery were running low; last, but not leas　

Ernest HemingwayChapter OneTHEY WERE LIVING at le Grau du Roi then and the hotel was on a canal that ran from the walled city of Aigues Mortes straight down to the sea. They could see the towers of Aigues Mortes across the low plain of the Camargue and they rode there on their bicycles at some time of nearly every day along the white road that bordered the canal. In the evenings and the mornings when there was a rising tide sea bass would come into it and they would see the mullet jumping wildly to escape from the bass and watch the swelling bulge of the water as the bass attacked....　

FAIRY TALES OF HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSENTHE SNOWDROPby Hans Christian AndersenIT was winter-time; the air was cold, the wind was sharp, butwithin the closed doors it was warm and comfortable, and within theclosed door lay the flower; it lay in the bulb under thesnow-covered earth.One day rain fell. The drops penetrated through the snowy coveringdown into the earth, and touched the flower-bulb, and talked of thebright world above. Soon the Sunbeam pierced its way through thesnow to the root, and within the root there was a stirring....　

SHERLOCK HOLMESTHE ADVENTURE OF THE THREE GARRIDEBSby Sir Arthur Conan DoyleIt may have been a comedy, or it may have been a tragedy. It costone man his reason, it cost me a blood-letting, and it cost yetanother man the penalties of the law. Yet there was certainly anelement of comedy. Well, you shall judge for yourselves.I remember the date very well, for it was in the same month thatHolmes refused a knighthood for services which may perhaps some day bedescribed. I only refer to the matter in passing, for in my position...　

Heartbreak Houseby George Bernard ShawA FANTASIA IN THE RUSSIAN MANNER ON ENGLISH THEMESHEARTBREAK HOUSE AND HORSEBACK HALLWhere Heartbreak House StandsHeartbreak House is not merely the name of the play which followsthis preface. It is cultured, leisured Europe before the war.When the play was begun not a shot had been fired; and only theprofessional diplomatists and the very few amateurs whose hobbyis foreign policy even knew that the guns were loaded. A Russianplaywright, Tchekov, had produced four fascinating dramaticstudies of Heartbreak House, of which three, The Cherry Orchard,...　

　The means of destruction are approaching perfection with frightful rapidity.　BARON ANTOINE HENRI JOMINI. 1838　　1　　Terry Franklin was a spy. This afternoon in February, in a small cubbyhole in the basement of the Pentagon, he was practicing his trade. It was tedious work.　He adjusted the screen brightness on his puter monitor and tapped the secret access code of the user he was pretending to be tonight. Now the file name, also special access, a classification higher than top secret. He had to be careful, since the letters and numerals he was typing did not appear on the screen. A mistake here　

Memoir of Fleeming Jenkinby Robert Louis StevensonPREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION.ON the death of Fleeming Jenkin, his family and friends determinedto publish a selection of his various papers; by way ofintroduction, the following pages were drawn up; and the whole,forming two considerable volumes, has been issued in England. Inthe States, it has not been thought advisable to reproduce thewhole; and the memoir appearing alone, shorn of that other matterwhich was at once its occasion and its justification, so large an...