THE ENCHANTED PIGONCE upon a time there lived a King who had three daughters.Now it happened that he had to go out to battle, so he calledhis daughters and said to them:`My dear children, I am obliged to go to the wars. The enemyis approaching us with a large army. It is a great grief to me toleave you all. During my absence take care of yourselves and begood girls; behave well and look after everything in the house.You may walk in the garden, and you may go into all the roomsin the palace, except the room at the back in the right-handcorner; into that you must not enter, for harm would befal　

THE STARIt was on the first day of the New Year that the announcementwas made, almost simultaneously from three observatories, that themotion of the planet Neptune, the outermost of all the planetsthat wheel about the sun, had become very erratic. Ogilvy hadalready called attention to a suspected retardation in its velocityin December. Such a piece of news was scarcely calculated tointerest a world the greater portion of whose inhabitants wereunaware of the existence of the planet Neptune, nor outside theastronomical profession did the subsequent discovery of a faint...　

Thoughts on ManHis Nature, Productions and DiscoveriesInterspersed with Some ParticularsRespecting the AuthorbyWilliam GodwinOh, the blood more stirsTo rouse a lion, than to start a hare!SHAKESPEARELONDON: EFFINGHAM WILSON, ROYAL EXCHANGE. 1831.PREFACEIn the ensuing volume I have attempted to give a defined and permanent form to a variety of thoughts, which have occurred to my mind in the course of thirty-four years, it being so long since I published a volume, entitled, the Enquirer,thoughts, which, if they have presented themselves to other men, have, at least so far as I am aware, never be　

The Witch and other Storiesby Anton ChekhovTHE WITCHPEASANT WIVESTHE POSTTHE NEW VILLADREAMSTHE PIPEAGAFYAAT CHRISTMAS TIMEGUSEVTHE STUDENTIN THE RAVINETHE HUNTSMANHAPPINESSA MALEFACTORPEASANTSTHE WITCHIT was approaching nightfall. The sexton, Savely Gykin, was lyingin his huge bed in the hut adjoining the church. He was notasleep, though it was his habit to go to sleep at the same timeas the hens. His coarse red hair peeped from under one end of thegreasy patchwork quilt, made up of coloured rags, while his bigunwashed feet stuck out from the other. He was listening. His hut...　

The Army of the CumberlandBy Henry M. Cist, Brevet Brigadier-General U.S.V.; A. A. G. on the staff of Major-General Rosecrans, and the staff of Major-General Thomas; Secretary of the Society of the Army of the Cumberland.PrefaceThe scope of this work precluded the entering into details as to the minor operations of the troops in the commands named. It has even been impossible to give the movements of troops on the battlefields in lesser organizations than brigades. The rosters of the several armies given in full in the appendices will enable those interested to trace the movements of the mi　

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...　

Westward Ho!by Charles KingsleyTOTHE RAJAH SIR JAMES BROOKE, K.C.B.ANDGEORGE AUGUSTUS SELWYN, D.D.BISHOP OF NEW ZEALANDTHIS BOOK IS DEDICATEDBy one who (unknown to them) has no other method of expressing hisadmiration and reverence for their characters.That type of English virtue, at once manful and godly, practicaland enthusiastic, prudent and self-sacrificing, which he has triedto depict in these pages, they have exhibited in a form even purerand more heroic than that in which he has drest it, and than thatin which it was exhibited by the worthies whom Elizabeth, without...　

Myths and Legends of the Siouxby Marie L. McLaughlinIn loving memory of my mother,MARY GRAHAM BUISSON,at whose knee most of the storiescontained in this little volumewere told to me, this book is affec-tionately dedicatedTABLE OF CONTENTSDedicationForewordThe Forgotten Ear of CornThe Little MiceThe Pet RabbitThe Pet DonkeyThe Rabbit and the ElkThe Rabbit and the Grouse GirlsThe Faithful LoversThe Artichoke and the MuskratThe Rabbit, and the Bear with the Flint Body...　

Confessions of an English Opium-Eaterby Thomas De QuinceyBEING AN EXTRACT FROM THE LIFE OF A SCHOLAR. From the "London Magazine" for September 1821.TO THE READERI here present you, courteous reader, with the record of a remarkable period in my life: according to my application of it, I trust that it will prove not merely an interesting record, but in a considerable degree useful and instructive. In THAT hope it is that I have drawn it up; and THAT must be my apology for breaking through that delicate and honourable reserve which, for the most part, restrains us from the public exposure of o　

The Cruise of the Dolphinby Thomas Bailey Aldrich( An episode from The Story of a Bad Boy, the narrator being TomBailey, the hero of the tale.)Every Rivermouth boy looks upon the sea as being in some way mixedup with his destiny. While he is yet a baby lying in his cradle, hehears the dull, far-off boom of the breakers; when he is older, hewanders by the sandy shore, watching the waves that come plungingup the beach like white-maned sea-horses, as Thoreau calls them;his eye follows the lessening sail as it fades into the bluehorizon, and he burns for the time when he shall stand on the...　

THE SCARLET LETTERby Nathaniel HawthorneINTRODUCTORYTHE CUSTOM-HOUSE.INTRODUCTORY TO "THE SCARLET LETTER".IT is a little remarkable, that- though disinclined to talk overmuchof myself and my affairs at the fireside, and to my personalfriends- an autobiographical impulse should twice in my life havetaken possession of me, in addressing the public. The first time wasthree or four years since, when I favoured the reader- inexcusably,and for no earthly reason, that either the indulgent reader or the...　

Lectures on Evolutionby Thomas Henry HuxleyITHE THREE HYPOTHESES RESPECTING THE HISTORY OF NATUREWe live in and form part of a system of things of immensediversity and perplexity, which we call Nature; and it is amatter of the deepest interest to all of us that we should formjust conceptions of the constitution of that system and of itspast history. With relation to this universe, man is, in extent,little more than a mathematical point; in duration but afleeting shadow; he is a mere reed shaken in the winds of force.But as Pascal long ago remarked, although a mere reed, he is a...　

The Essays of Montaigne, V15by Michel de MontaigneTranslated by Charles CottonEdited by William Carew Hazilitt1877CONTENTS OF VOLUME 15.V. Upon Some verses of Virgil.CHAPTER VUPON SOME VERSES OF VIRGILCHAPTER V.By how much profitable thoughts are more full and solid, by so much arethey also more cumbersome and heavy: vice, death, poverty, diseases, aregrave and grievous subjects. A man should have his soul instructed inthe means to sustain and to contend with evils, and in the rules ofliving and believing well: and often rouse it up, and exercise it in this...　

Masterman Readyby Captain Marryat( Frederick Marryat )Chapter IIt was in the month of October, 18, that the Pacific, a large ship, was running before a heavy gale of wind in the middle of the vast Atlantic Ocean. She had but little sail, for the wind was so strong, that the canvas would have been split into pieces by the furious blasts before which she was driven through the waves, which were very high, and following her almost as fast as she darted through their boiling waters; sometimes heaving up her stern and sinking her bows down so deep into the hollow of the sea, that it appeared as if　

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 Virgin of the SunBy H. Rider HaggardDEDICATIONMy Dear Little,Some five-and-thirty years ago it was our custom to discuss manymatters, among them, I think, the history and romance of thevanished Empires of Central America.In memory of those far-off days will you accept a tale that dealswith one of them, that of the marvellous Incas of Peru; with thelegend also that, long before the Spanish Conquerors entered ontheir mission of robbery and ruin, there in that undiscovered landlived and died a White God risen from the sea?...