THE SKETCH BOOKA SUNDAY IN LONDON*by Washington Irving* Part of a sketch omitted in the previous editions.IN A preceding paper I have spoken of an English Sunday in thecountry, and its tranquillizing effect upon the landscape; but whereis its sacred influence more strikingly apparent than in the veryheart of that great Babel, London? On this sacred day, the giganticmonster is charmed into repose. The intolerable din and struggle ofthe week are at an end. The shops are shut. The fires of forges and...
THE PROCESSION OF LIFELife figures itself to me as a festal or funereal procession. Allof us have our places, and are to move onward under the directionof the Chief Marshal. The grand difficulty results from theinvariably mistaken principles on which the deputy marshals seekto arrange this immense concourse of people, so much morenumerous than those that train their interminable length throughstreets and highways in times of political excitement. Theirscheme is ancient, far beyond the memory of man or even therecord of history, and has hitherto been very little modified by...
TANGLEWOOD TALESTANGLEWOOD TALESby NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE1- Page 2-TANGLEWOOD TALESTHE WAYSIDE.INTRODUCTORY.A short time ago, I was favored with a flying visit from my youngfriend Eustace Bright, whom I had not before met with since quitting thebreezy mountains of Berkshire. It being the winter vacation at his college,Eustace was allowing himself a little relaxation, in the hope, he told me, of...
Merton of the Moviesby Harry Leon WilsonTo George AdeCONTENTSI. DIRTY WORK AT THE BORDERII. THAT NIGHTTHE APARTMENTS OF CLIFFORD ARMYTAGEIII. WESTERN STUFFIV. THE WATCHER AT THE GATEV. A BREACH IN THE CITY WALLSVI. UNDER THE GLASS TOPSVII. "NOTHING TO-DAY, DEAR!"VIII. CLIFFORD ARMYTAGE, THE OUTLAWIX. MORE WAYS THAN ONEX. OF SHATTERED ILLUSIONSXI. THE MONTAGUE GIRL INTERVENESXII. ALIAS HAROLD PARMALEEXIII. GENIUS COMES INTO ITS OWNXIV. OUT THERE WHERE MEN ARE MENXV. A NEW TRAIL...
A Book of Strife in the Form of The Diary of an Old Soulby George MacDonaldDEDICATIONSweet friends, receive my offering. You will findAgainst each worded page a white page set:This is the mirror of each friendly mindReflecting that. In this book we are met.Make it, dear hearts, of worth to you indeed:Let your white page be ground, my print be seed,Growing to golden ears, that faith and hope shall feed.YOUR OLD SOULThe Diary of an Old Soul.JANUARY.1.LORD, what I once had done with youthful might,Had I been from the first true to the truth,...
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...
THE GOBLIN AND THE HUCKSTERby Hans Christian AndersenTHERE was once a regular student, who lived in a garret, and hadno possessions. And there was also a regular huckster, to whom thehouse belonged, and who occupied the ground floor. A goblin lived withthe huckster, because at Christmas he always had a large dish fullof jam, with a great piece of butter in the middle. The huckster couldafford this; and therefore the goblin remained with the huckster,which was very cunning of him.One evening the student came into the shop through the back door...
Meditations on First Philosophyby Rene Descartes1641Prefatory Note To The Meditations.The first edition of the Meditations was published in Latin by Michael Soly of Paris "at the Sign of the Phoenix" in 1641 cum Privilegio et Approbatione Doctorum. The Royal "privilege" was indeed given, but the "approbation" seems to have been of a most indefinite kind. The reason of the book being published in France and not in Holland, where Descartes was living in a charming country house at Endegeest near Leiden, was apparently his fear that the Dutch ministers might in some way lay hold of it. His fr
Euthydemusby PlatoTranslated by Benjamin JowettINTRODUCTION.The Euthydemus, though apt to be regarded by us only as an elaborate jest, has also a very serious purpose. It may fairly claim to be the oldest treatise on logic; for that science originates in the misunderstandings which necessarily accompany the first efforts of speculation. Several of the fallacies which are satirized in it reappear in the Sophistici Elenchi of Aristotle and are retained at the end of our manuals of logic. But if the order of history were followed, they should be placed not at the end but at the beginning of t
The Purseby Honore de BalzacTranslated by Clara BellTo Sofka"Have you observed, mademoiselle, that the painters andsculptors of the Middle Ages, when they placed two figures inadoration, one on each side of a fair Saint, never failed togive them a family likeness? When you here see your name amongthose that are dear to me, and under whose auspices I place myworks, remember that touching harmony, and you will see inthis not so much an act of homage as an expression of thebrotherly affection of your devoted servant,...
The Night-Bornby Jack LondonCONTENTS:THE NIGHT-BORNTHE MADNESS OF JOHN HARNEDWHEN THE WORLD WAS YOUNGTHE BENEFIT OF THE DOUBTWINGED BLACKMAILBUNCHES OF KNUCKLESWARUNDER THE DECK AWNINGSTO KILL A MANTHE MEXICANTHE NIGHT-BORNIt was in the old Alta-Inyo Cluba warm night for SanFranciscoand through the open windows, hushed and far, camethe brawl of the streets. The talk had led on from the GraftProsecution and the latest signs that the town was to be runwide open, down through all the grotesque sordidness and...
The Nature of Rentby T.R. Malthus1815An Inquiry into the Nature and Progress of Rent, and thePrinciples by which it is regulated.by Rev. T.R. Malthus,Professor of History and Political Economy In the East IndiaCollege, HertfordshireLondon, Printed for John Murray, Albemarle Street1815.AdvertisementThe following tract contains the substance of some notes onrent, which, with others on different subjects relating topolitical economy, I have collected in the course of myprofessional duties at the East India College. It has been my...
The Annals of the Parishby John GaltOr The Chronicle of Dalmailing during the ministry of the Rev. Micah Balwhidder. Written by himself and arranged and edited by John GaltINTRODUCTIONIn the same year, and on the same day of the same month, that his Sacred Majesty King George, the third of the name, came to his crown and kingdom, I was placed and settled as the minister of Dalmailing. {1} When about a week thereafter this was known in the parish, it was thought a wonderful thing, and everybody spoke of me and the new king as united in our trusts and temporalities, marvelling how the same sh
What I did was take all the spades out of a deck of cards plus a joker. Ace to King = 1-13. Joker = 14. I shuffled the cards and dealt them. The order in which they came out of the deck became the order of the stories, based on their position in the list my publisher sent me. And it actually created a very nice balance between the literary stories and the all-out screamers. I also added an explanatory note before or after each story, depending on which seemed the more fitting position. Next collection: selected by Tarot. Introduction: Practicing the (Almost) Lost Art...
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...
THE MODEL MILLIONAIREUNLESS one is wealthy there is no use in being a charming fellow.Romance is the privilege of the rich, not the profession of theunemployed. The poor should be practical and prosaic. It isbetter to have a permanent income than to be fascinating. Theseare the great truths of modern life which Hughie Erskine neverrealised. Poor Hughie! Intellectually, we must admit, he was notof much importance. He never said a brilliant or even an ill-natured thing in his life. But then he was wonderfully good-looking, with his crisp brown hair, his clear-cut profile, and his...