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
Lecture XVIIIPHILOSOPHYThe subject of Saintliness left us face to face with thequestion, Is the sense of divine presence a sense of anythingobjectively true? We turned first to mysticism for an answer,and found that although mysticism is entirely willing tocorroborate religion, it is too private (and also too various) inits utterances to be able to claim a universal authority. Butphilosophy publishes results which claim to be universally validif they are valid at all, so we now turn with our question to...
THE COMPARISON OF NUMA WITH LYCURGUSby Plutarchtranslated by John DrydenHAVING thus finished the lives of Lycurgus and Numa, we shall now,though the work be difficult, put together their points ofdifference as they lie here before our view. Their points oflikeness are obvious; their moderation, their religion, their capacityof government and discipline, their both deriving their laws andconstitutions from the gods. Yet in their common glories there arecircumstances of diversity; for first Numa accepted and Lycurgus...
THE DESIRE OF AGESby ELLEN G.WHITEPREFACEIN THE HEARTS OF ALL MANKIND, OF WHATEVER RACE OR STATION IN LIFE, THERE ARE INEXPRESSIBLE LONGINGS FOR SOMETHING THEY DO NOT NOW POSSESS. THIS LONGING IS IMPLANTED IN THE VERY CONSTITUTION OF MAN BY A MERCIFUL GOD, THAT MAN MAY NOT BE SATISFIED WITH HIS PRESENT CONDITIONS OR ATTAINMENTS, WHETHER BAD, OR GOOD, OR BETTER. GOD DESIRES THAT THE HUMAN SHALL SEEK THE BEST, AND FIND IT TO THE ETERNAL BLESSING OF HIS SOUL.SATAN, BY WILY SCHEME AND CRAFT, HAS PERVERTED THESE LONGINGS OF THE HUMAN HEART. HE MAKES MEN BELIEVE THAT THIS DESIRE MAY BE SATISFIED BY
NEW BURLESQUESNEW BURLESQUESby Bret Harte1- Page 2-NEW BURLESQUESCHAPTER IRUDOLPH OF TRULYRURALANIAWhen I state that I was own brother to Lord Burleydon, had an incomeof two thousand a year, could speak all the polite languages fluently, was apowerful swordsman, a good shot, and could ride anything from an...
The Story of a Bad BoyThe Story of a Bad BoyBy Thomas Bailey Aldrich1- Page 2-The Story of a Bad BoyCHAPTER OneIn Which I Introduce MyselfThis is the story of a bad boy. Well, not such a very bad, but a prettybad boy; and I ought to know, for I am, or rather I was, that boy myself.Lest the title should mislead the reader, I hasten to assure him here that...
FAIRY TALES OF HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSENTHE PEA BLOSSOMby Hans Christian AndersenTHERE were once five peas in one shell, they were green, the shellwas green, and so they believed that the whole world must be greenalso, which was a very natural conclusion. The shell grew, and thepeas grew, they accommodated themselves to their position, and sat allin a row. The sun shone without and warmed the shell, and the rainmade it clear and transparent; it was mild and agreeable in broaddaylight, and dark at night, as it generally is; and the peas as...
Those Extraordinary Twinsby Mark TwainA man who is born with the novel-writing gift has a troublesome time ofit when he tries to build a novel. I know this from experience. He hasno clear idea of his story; in fact he has no story. He merely has somepeople in his mind, and an incident or two, also a locality. He knowsthese people, he knows the selected locality, and he trusts that he canplunge those people into those incidents with interesting results. So hegoes to work. To write a novel? Nothat is a thought which comeslater; in the beginning he is only proposing to tell a little tale;
THE CHILD WHO CAME FROM AN EGGOnce upon a time there lived a queen whose heart was sore becauseshe had no children. She was sad enough when her husband was athome with her, but when he was away she would see nobody, but satand wept all day long.Now it happened that a war broke out with the king of aneighbouring country, and the queen was left in the palace alone.She was so unhappy that she felt as if the walls would stifleher, so she wandered out into the garden, and threw herself downon a grassy bank, under the shade of a lime tree. She had beenthere for some time, when a rustle among the
Abraham Lincoln and the UnionA Chronicle of the Embattled Northby Nathaniel W. StephensonPREFACEIn spite of a lapse of sixty years, the historian who attempts to portray the era of Lincoln is still faced with almost impossible demands and still confronted with arbitrary points of view. It is out of the question, in a book so brief as this must necessarily be, to meet all these demands or to alter these points of view. Interests that are purely local, events that did not with certainty contribute to the final outcome, gossip, as well as the mere caprice of the scholarthese must obviously be s
TO TRACEY We praise the Golden One, the Lady of Heaven, Lady of Fragrance,Eye of the Sun, the Great Goddess,Mistress of All the Gods,Lady of Turquoise, Mistress of Joy, Mistress of Music . . .that she may give us fine children,happiness, and a good husband. - Epithets of Hathor,piled from various sources ACKNOWLEDGMENTS To err is human, and I am and I do, despite the fact that I go to considerable effort to get even small details right. I do not scruple to make use of my friends in this endeavor; several of them have read all or part of the manuscript and made suggestions. I am particula
THEY WERE WAITING as I stepped through the door into the taverno: three of them, preadult Yavanni, roughly the size of Brahma bulls, looming over me from both sides of the entryway. Big, eager-eyed, and territorial, they were on the prowl and looking for an excuse to squash something soft. From all indications, it looked like that something was going to be me. I stopped short just inside the door, and as it swung closed against my back I caught a faint whiff of turpentine from the direction of my would-be assailants. Which meant that along with being young and brash, they were also tanked t
SUMMERCHAPTER ONE GRADUALLY THE girl came to the conclusion that she was ill. It could not be anything else. She pushed her way across the pavement, stood with her back against a brick wall, felt the rough surface scraping her skin through her blouse and jeans. The brickwork seemed to move, like a piece of automatically operated emery paper. Up, down, up, down. Her groping fingers found a doorpost, gripped it; it was moving too. Up, down, up, down, gyrating. People pushed past her, bumped into her. A woman clutched at her, almost pulled her down, but somehow she held on. Everybody
TWICE-TOLD TALESTHE GREAT STONE FACEby Nathaniel HawthorneONE AFTERNOON, When the sun was going down, a mother and her littleboy sat at the door of their cottage, talking about the Great StoneFace. They had but to lift their eyes, and there it was plainly tobe seen, though miles away, with the sunshine brightening all itsfeatures.And what was the Great Stone Face?Embosomed amongst a family of lofty mountains, there was a valleyso spacious that it contained many thousand inhabitants. Some of these...
Robert Falconerby George MacDonaldTOTHE MEMORYOF THE MAN WHOSTANDS HIGHEST IN THE ORATORYOF MY MEMORY,ALEXANDER JOHN SCOTT,I, DARING, PRESUME TO DEDICATE THIS BOOK.PART I.HIS BOYHOOD.CHAPTER I.A RECOLLECTION.Robert Falconer, school-boy, aged fourteen, thought he had neverseen his father; that is, thought he had no recollection of havingever seen him. But the moment when my story begins, he had begun todoubt whether his belief in the matter was correct. And, as he went...
The Essays of Montaigne, V5by Michel de MontaigneTranslated by Charles CottonEdited by William Carew Hazilitt1877CONTENTS OF VOLUME 5.XXV. Of the education of children.XXVI. That it is folly to measure truth and error by our owncapacity.CHAPTER XXVOF THE EDUCATION OF CHILDRENTO MADAME DIANE DE FOIX, Comtesse de GursonI never yet saw that father, but let his son be never so decrepit ordeformed, would not, notwithstanding, own him: not, nevertheless, if hewere not totally besotted, and blinded with his paternal affection, that...