EARLY LITERARY EXPERIMENTSTRANSFORMATIONMine eyes are so confused,My cheek it is so pale,My head is so bemused,A realm of fairy-tale.I wanted, boldly daring,Sea-going ways to follow,Where a thousand crags rise soaring,And Floods flow bleak and hollow.I clung to Thought high-soaring,On its two wings did ride,And though storm winds were roaring,...　

The Vanished Messengerby E. Phillips OppenheimCHAPTER IThere were very few people upon Platform Number Twenty-one ofLiverpool Street Station at a quarter to nine on the eveningof April 2 - possibly because the platform in question is one ofthe most remote and least used in the great terminus. Thestation-master, however, was there himself, with an inspector inattendance. A dark, thick-set man, wearing a long travellingulster and a Homburg hat, and carrying in his hand a brown leatherdressing-case, across which was painted in black letters the nameMR. JOHN P. DUNSTER, was standing a few yard　

The Countess of Saint GeranBy Alexander Dumas, pereAbout the end of the year 1639, a troop of horsemen arrived, towardsmidday, in a little village at the northern extremity of the provinceof Auvergne, from the direction of Paris. The country folk assembledat the noise, and found it to proceed from the provost of the mountedpolice and his men. The heat was excessive, the horses were bathedin sweat, the horsemen covered with dust, and the party seemed on itsreturn from an important expedition. A man left the escort, andasked an old woman who was spinning at her door if there was not an...　

The Divine Comedyby DANTE ALIGHIERI(1265-1321)TRANSLATED BYHENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW(1807-1882)Incipit Comoedia Dantis Alagherii,Florentini natione, non moribus.The Divine Comedytranslated by Henry Wadsworth LongfellowINFERNOInferno: Canto IMidway upon the journey of our lifeI found myself within a forest dark,For the straightforward pathway had been lost.Ah me! how hard a thing it is to sayWhat was this forest savage, rough, and stern,Which in the very thought renews the fear.So bitter is it, death is little more;...　

The Crusade of the Excelsiorby Bret HarteCONTENTS.PART I.IN BONDS.CHAPTER I.A CRUSADER AND A SIGNCHAPTER II.ANOTHER PORTENTCHAPTER III."VIGILANCIA"CHAPTER IV.IN THE FOGCHAPTER V.TODOS SANTOSCHAPTER VI."HAIL AND FAREWELL"CHAPTER VII.THE GENTLE CASTAWAYSCHAPTER VIII.IN SANCTUARYCHAPTER IX.AN OPEN-AIR PRISONCHAPTER X.TODOS SANTOS SOLVES THE MYSTERY...　

A Wagner MatineeI received one morning a letter, written in pale ink onglassy, blue-lined notepaper, and bearing the postmark of alittle Nebraska village. This communication, worn and rubbed,looking as though it had been carried for some days in a coatpocket that was none too clean, was from my Uncle Howard andinformed me that his wife had been left a small legacy by abachelor relative who had recently died, and that it would benecessary for her to go to Boston to attend to the settling ofthe estate. He requested me to meet her at the station and...　

THE FIRST WRITING-MACHINESFrom My Unpublished AutobiographySome days ago a correspondent sent in an old typewritten sheet,faded by age, containing the following letter over the signatureof Mark Twain:"Hartford, March 10, 1875."Please do not use my name in any way. Please do not even divulgethat fact that I own a machine. I have entirely stopped usingthe typewriter, for the reason that I never could write a letterwith it to anybody without receiving a request by return mail that Iwould not only describe the machine, but state what progress I had...　

Pagan & Christian Creeds: Their Origin and Meaningby Edward Carpenter"The different religions being lame attempts to represent undervarious guises this one root-fact of the central universal life,men have at all times clung to the religious creeds and ritualsand ceremonials as symbolising in some rude way the redemptionand fulfilment of their own most intimate naturesand thiswhether consciously understanding the interpretations, or whether(as most often) only doing so in an unconscious or quitesubconscious way."The Drama of Love and Death, p. 96....　

FAIRY TALES OF HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSENTHE OLD GRAVE-STONEby Hans Christian AndersenIN a house, with a large courtyard, in a provincial town, atthat time of the year in which people say the evenings are growinglonger, a family circle were gathered together at their old home. Alamp burned on the table, although the weather was mild and warm,and the long curtains hung down before the open windows, and withoutthe moon shone brightly in the dark-blue sky.But they were not talking of the moon, but of a large, old stone...　

380 BCMENOby Platotranslated by Benjamin JowettMENOPERSONS OF THE DIALOGUE MENO; SOCRATES; A SLAVE OF MENO;ANYTUSMeno. Can you tell me, Socrates, whether virtue is acquired byteaching or by practice; or if neither by teaching nor practice,then whether it comes to man by nature, or in what other way?Socrates. O Meno, there was a time when the Thessalians werefamous among the other Hellenes only for their riches and their...　

RECORDS OF A FAMILY OF ENGINEERSby ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSONCONTENTSINTRODUCTION: THE SURNAME OF STEVENSONI. DOMESTIC ANNALSII. THE SERVICE OF THE NORTHERN LIGHTSIII. THE BUILDING OF THE BELL ROCKRECORDS OFA FAMILY OF ENGINEERSINTRODUCTIONTHE SURNAME OF STEVENSONFROM the thirteenth century onwards, the name, under the various disguises of Stevinstoun, Stevensoun, Stevensonne, Stenesone, and Stewinsoune, spread across Scotland from the mouth of the Firth of Forth to the mouth of the Firth of Clyde. Four times at least it occurs as a place-name. There is a parish of Stevenston in Cunningham; 　

Tea-table Talkby Jerome K. JeromeCHAPTER I"They are very pretty, some of them," said the Woman of the World; "not the sort of letters I should have written myself.""I should like to see a love-letter of yours," interrupted the Minor Poet."It is very kind of you to say so," replied the Woman of the World. "It never occurred to me that you would care for one.""It is what I have always maintained," retorted the Minor Poet; "you have never really understood me.""I believe a volume of assorted love-letters would sell well," said the Girton Girl; "written by the same hand, if you like, but to diffe　

The Mansionby Henry van DykeThere was an air of calm and reserved opulence aboutthe Weightman mansion that spoke not of money squandered,but of wealth prudently applied. Standing on a corner ofthe Avenue no longer fashionable for residence, it looked uponthe swelling tide of business with an expression of complacencyand half-disdain.The house was not beautiful. There was nothing in its straightfront ofchocolate-colored stone, its heavy cornices, its broad, staringwindows ofplate glass, its carved and bronze-bedecked mahogany doors at the...　

Inhabitants of the Alhambra.I HAVE often observed that the more proudly a mansion has beentenanted in the day of its prosperity, the humbler are its inhabitantsin the day of its decline, and that the palace of a king commonly endsin being the nestling-place of the beggar.The Alhambra is in a rapid state of similar transition. Whenever atower falls to decay, it is seized upon by some tatterdemalion family,who become joint-tenants, with the bats and owls, of its gilded halls,and hang their rags, those standards of poverty, out of its windows...　

Aeroplanesby J. S. ZerbeThis work is not intended to set forth the exploits of aviatorsnor to give a history of the Art. It is a book of instructionsintended to point out the theories of flying, as given by thepioneers, the practical application of power to the variousflying structures; how they are built, the different methods ofcontrolling them; the advantages and disadvantages of the typesnow in use; and suggestions as to the directions in whichimprovements are required.It distinctly points out wherein mechanical flight differs...　

THE HERACLEIDAEby Euripidestranslated by E. P. ColeridgeCHARACTERS IN THE PLAYIOLAUS, friend of HeraclesCOPREUS, herald of EURYSTHEUSDEMOPHON, King of AthensMACARIA, daughter of HeraclesSERVANT, of Hyllus, son of HeraclesALCMENA, mother of HeraclesMESSENGEREURYSTHEUS; King of ArgosCHORUS OF AGED ATHENIANSAcamas, the brother of DEMOPHON, younger sons of Heracles,attendants, guards, etc.HERACLEIDAETHE HERACLEIDAE(SCENE:-Before the altar and temple of Zeus...