Preface Of The Author.It is not my intention to detain the reader by expatiatingon the variety or the importance of the subject, which I haveundertaken to treat; since the merit of the choice would serve torender the weakness of the execution still more apparent, andstill less excusable. But as I have presumed to lay before thepublic a first volume only ^1 of the History of the Decline andFall of the Roman Empire, it will, perhaps, be expected that Ishould explain, in a few words, the nature and limits of mygeneral plan....　

TWICE-TOLD TALESOLD ESTHER DUDLEYby Nathaniel HawthorneTHE HOUR HAD COME- the hour of defeat and humiliation- when SirWilliam Howe was to pass over the threshold of the Province House, andembark, with no such triumphal ceremonies as he once promised himself,on board the British fleet. He bade his servants and militaryattendants go before him, and lingered a moment in the loneliness ofthe mansion, to quell the fierce emotions that struggled in hisbosom as with a death throb. Preferable, then, would he have deemed...　

FAIRY TALES OF HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSENTHE UGLY DUCKLINGby Hans Christian AndersenIT was lovely summer weather in the country, and the goldencorn, the green oats, and the haystacks piled up in the meadows lookedbeautiful. The stork walking about on his long red legs chattered inthe Egyptian language, which he had learnt from his mother. Thecorn-fields and meadows were surrounded by large forests, in the midstof which were deep pools. It was, indeed, delightful to walk aboutin the country. In a sunny spot stood a pleasant old farm-house...　

The History of the Telephoneby Herbert N. CassonPREFACEThirty-five short years, and presto! the newborn art of telephony is fullgrown. Three million telephones are now scattered abroad in foreign countries, and seven millions are massed here, in the land of its birth.So entirely has the telephone outgrown the ridicule with which, as many people can well remember, it was first received, that it is now in most places taken for granted, as though it were a part of the natural phenomena of this planet. It has so marvellously extended the facilities of conversationthat "art in which a man has all 　

THE BLUE MOUNTAINSThere were once a Scotsman and an Englishman and an Irishmanserving in the army together, who took it into their heads to runaway on the first opportunity they could get. The chance cameand they took it. They went on travelling for two days through agreat forest, without food or drink, and without coming across asingle house, and every night they had to climb up into the treesthrough fear of the wild beasts that were in the wood. On thesecond morning the Scotsman saw from the top of his tree a greatcastle far away. He said to himself that he would certainly die...　

Arms and the Manby George Bernard ShawINTRODUCTIONTo the irreverentand which of us will claim entire exemption from thatcomfortable classification?there is something very amusing in theattitude of the orthodox criticism toward Bernard Shaw. He so obviouslydisregards all the canons and unities and other things which everywell-bred dramatist is bound to respect that his work is really unworthyof serious criticism (orthodox). Indeed he knows no more about thedramatic art than, according to his own story in "The Man of Destiny,"Napoleon at Tavazzano knew of the Art of War. But both men were...　

The Age of Invention, A Chronicle of Mechanical Conquestby Holland ThompsonPREFATORY NOTEThis volume is not intended to be a complete record of inventive genius and mechanical progress in the United States. A bare catalogue of notable American inventions in the nineteenth century alone could not be compressed into these pages. Nor is it any part of the purpose of this book to trespass on the ground of the many mechanical works and encyclopedias which give technical descriptions and explain in detail the principle of every invention. All this book seeks to do is to outline the personalities of　

The Collection of Antiquitiesby Honore de BalzacTranslated by Ellen MarriageDEDICATIONTo Baron Von Hammer-Purgstall, Member of the Aulic Council, Author of the History of the Ottoman Empire.Dear Baron,You have taken so warm an interest in my long, vast "History of French Manners in the Nineteenth Century," you have given me so much encouragement to persevere with my work, that you have given me a right to associate your name with some portion of it. Are you not one of the most important representatives of conscientious, studious Germany? Will not your approval win for me the app　

The Governess [The Little Female Academy]by Sarah FieldingThere lived in the northern parts of England, a gentlewoman who undertook the education of young ladies; and this trust she endeavoured faithfully to discharge, by instructing those committed to her care in reading, writing, working, and in all proper forms of behaviour. And though her principal aim was to improve their minds in all useful knowledge; to render them obedient to their superiors, and gentle, kind, and affectionate to each other; yet did she not omit teaching them an exact neatness in their persons and dress, and a perfec　

Tommy and Co.Tommy and Co.by Jerome K. Jerome1- Page 2-Tommy and Co.STORY THE FIRSTPeter Hopeplans his Prospectus"Come in!" said Peter Hope.Peter Hope was tall and thin, clean-shaven but for a pair of sidewhiskers close-cropped and terminating just below the ear, with hair ofthe kind referred to by sympathetic barbers as "getting a little thin on the...　

The New Machiavelliby H. G. Wells [Herbert George Wells]CONTENTSBOOK THE FIRSTTHE MAKING OF A MANI. CONCERNING A BOOK THAT WAS NEVER WRITTENII. BROMSTEAD AND MY FATHERIII. SCHOLASTICIV. ADOLESCENCEBOOK THE SECONDMARGARETI. MARGARET IN STAFFORDSHIREII. MARGARET IN LONDONIII. MARGARET IN VENICEIV. THE HOUSE IN WESTMINSTERBOOK THE THIRDTHE HEART OF POLITICSI. THE RIDDLE FOR THE STATESMANII. SEEKING ASSOCIATESIII. SECESSIONIV. THE BESETTING OF SEX...　

The Holly-Treeby Charles DickensFIRST BRANCHMYSELFI have kept one secret in the course of my life. I am a bashfulman. Nobody would suppose it, nobody ever does suppose it, nobodyever did suppose it, but I am naturally a bashful man. This is thesecret which I have never breathed until now.I might greatly move the reader by some account of the innumerableplaces I have not been to, the innumerable people I have not calledupon or received, the innumerable social evasions I have been guiltyof, solely because I am by original constitution and character a...　

FAIRY TALES OF HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSENTHE STORY OF A MOTHERby Hans Christian AndersenA MOTHER sat by her little child; she was very sad, for she fearedit would die. It was quite pale, and its little eyes were closed,and sometimes it drew a heavy deep breath, almost like a sigh; andthen the mother gazed more sadly than ever on the poor littlecreature. Some one knocked at the door, and a poor old man walkedin. He was wrapped in something that looked like a greathorse-cloth; and he required it truly to keep him warm, for it was...　

Louis Lambertby Honore de BalzacTranslated by Clara Bell and James WaringDEDICATION"Et nunc et semper dilectoe dicatum."LOUIS LAMBERTLouis Lambert was born at Montoire, a little town in the Vendomois,where his father owned a tannery of no great magnitude, and intendedthat his son should succeed him; but his precocious bent for studymodified the paternal decision. For, indeed, the tanner and his wifeadored Louis, their only child, and never contradicted him inanything.At the age of five Louis had begun by reading the Old and NewTestaments; and these two Books, including so many books, had seal　

The Past Condition of Organic Natureby Thomas H. HuxleyIN the lecture which I delivered last Monday evening, I endeavoured tosketch in a very brief manner, but as well as the time at my disposalwould permit, the present condition of organic nature, meaning by thatlarge title simply an indication of the great, broad, and generalprinciples which are to be discovered by those who look attentively atthe phenomena of organic nature as at present displayed. The generalresult of our investigations might be summed up thus: we found that themultiplicity of the forms of animal life, great as that may 　

A Journey to the Western Isles of Scotlandby Samuel JohnsonINCH KEITHI had desired to visit the Hebrides, or Western Islands ofScotland, so long, that I scarcely remember how the wish wasoriginally excited; and was in the Autumn of the year 1773 inducedto undertake the journey, by finding in Mr. Boswell a companion,whose acuteness would help my inquiry, and whose gaiety ofconversation and civility of manners are sufficient to counteractthe inconveniences of travel, in countries less hospitable than wehave passed.On the eighteenth of August we left Edinburgh, a city too well...