THE VITAL MESSAGETHE VITAL MESSAGEARTHUR CONAN DOYLE1- Page 2-THE VITAL MESSAGEPREFACEIn "The New Revelation" the first dawn of the coming change hasbeen described. In "The Vital Message" the sun has risen higher, and onesees more clearly and broadly what our new relations with the Unseenmay be. As I look into the future of the human race I am reminded of how...　

On Public Creditby David HumeIt appears to have been the common practice of antiquity,make provision, during peace, for the necessities of war, and tohoard up treasures before-hand, as the instruments either ofconquest or defence; without trusting to extraordinaryimpositions, much less to borrowing, in times of disorder andconfusion. Besides the immense sums above mentioned, which wereamassed by ATHENS, and by the PTOLEMIES, and other successors ofALEXANDER; we learn from PLATO, that the frugal LACEDEMONIANS hadalso collected a great treasure; and ARRIAN and PLUTARCH take...　

The Libraryby Andrew LangContents:PREFATORY NOTEAN APOLOGY FOR THE BOOK-HUNTERTHE LIBRARYTHE BOOKS OF THE COLLECTORILLUSTRATED BOOKSBooks, books again, and books once more!These are our theme, which some miscallMere madness, setting little storeBy copies either short or tall.But you, O slaves of shelf and stall!We rather write for you that holdPatched folios dear, and prize "the small,Rare volume, black with tarnished gold."A. D.PREFATORY NOTEThe pages in this volume on illuminated and other MSS. (with the exception of some anecdotes about Bussy Rabutin and Julie de Rambouillet) have been con　

The Zincali - An Account of the Gypsies of Spainby George BorrowPREFACEIT is with some diffidence that the author ventures to offer thepresent work to the public.The greater part of it has been written under very peculiarcircumstances, such as are not in general deemed at all favourablefor literary composition: at considerable intervals, during aperiod of nearly five years passed in Spain - in moments snatchedfrom more important pursuits - chiefly in ventas and posadas,...　

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...　

FAIRY TALES OF HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSENTHE LITTLE ELDER-TREE MOTHERby Hans Christian AndersenTHERE was once a little boy who had caught cold; he had gone outand got wet feet. Nobody had the least idea how it had happened; theweather was quite dry. His mother undressed him, put him to bed, andordered the teapot to be brought in, that she might make him a goodcup of tea from the elder-tree blossoms, which is so warming. At thesame time, the kind-hearted old man who lived by himself in theupper storey of the house came in; he led a lonely life, for he had no...　

A Cumberland Vendettaby John Fox Jr.TO MINERVA AND ELIZABETHA Cumberland VendettaITHE cave had been their hiding-place as children; it was a secret refuge now against hunger or darkness when they were hunting in the woods. The primitive meal was finished; ashes were raked over the red coals; the slice of bacon and the little bag of meal were hung high against the rock wall; and the two stepped from the cavern into a thicket of rhododendrons.Parting the bushes toward the dim light, they stood on a massive shoulder of the mountain, the river girding it far below, and the afternoon shadows at th　

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; 　

　　IT WAS THE PIVOTAL TEACHING of Pluthero Quexos, the most celebrated dramatist of the Second Dominion, that in any fiction, no matter how ambitious its scope or profound its theme, there was only ever room for three players. Between warring kings, a peacemaker; between adoring spouses, a seducer or a child. Between twins, the spirit of the womb. Between lovers, Death. Greater numbers might drift through the drama, of course-thousands in fact-but they could only ever be phantoms, agents, or, on rare occasions, reflections of the three real and self-willed beings who stood at the center. And e　

Historical Lecturers and Essaysby Charles KingsleyContents:The First Discovery of AmericaCyrus, Servant of the LordAncient CivilisationRondeletVesaliusParacelsusBuchananTHE FIRST DISCOVERY OF AMERICALet me begin this lecture {1} with a scene in the North Atlantic 863years since."Bjarne Grimolfson was blown with his ship into the Irish Ocean; andthere came worms and the ship began to sink under them. They had a...　

The Mahatma and the HareA Dream Storyby H. Rider Haggard"Ultimately a good hare was found which took the field at . . .There the hounds pressed her, and on the hunt arriving at the edgeof the cliff the hare could be seen crossing the beach and goingright out to sea. A boat was procured, and the master and someothers rowed out to her just as she drowned, and, bringing thebody in, gave it to the hounds. A hare swimming out to sea is asight not often witnessed."/Local paper, January/ 1911.". . . A long check occurred in the latter part of this hunt, the...　

Oliver Wendell Holmesby William Dean HowellsElsewhere we literary folk are apt to be such a common lot, withtendencies here and there to be a shabby lot; we arrive from all sorts ofunexpected holes and corners of the earth, remote, obscure; and at thebest we do so often come up out of the ground; but at Boston we were ofascertained and noted origin, and good part of us dropped from the skies.Instead of holding horses before the doors of theatres; or capping versesat the plough-tail; or tramping over Europe with nothing but a flute inthe pocket; or walking up to the metropolis with no luggage 　

THE COMPARISON OF PHILOPOEMEN WITH FLAMININUSby Plutarchtranslated by John DrydenFIRST them, as for the greatness of the benefits which Titusconferred on Greece, neither Philopoemen, nor many braver men than he,can make good the parallel. They were Greeks fighting againstGreeks, but Titus, a stranger to Greece, fought for her. And at thevery time when Philopoemen went over into Crete, destitute of means tosuccour his besieged countrymen, Titus, by a defeat given to Philip inthe heart of Greece, set them and their cities free. Again, if we...　

The Love Affairs Of A Bibliomaniacby Eugene FieldIntroductionThe determination to found a story or a series of sketches on the delights, adventures, and misadventures connected with bibliomania did not come impulsively to my brother. For many years, in short during the greater part of nearly a quarter of a century of journalistic work, he had celebrated in prose and verse, and always in his happiest and most delightful vein, the pleasures of book-hunting. Himself an indefatigable collector of books, the possessor of a library as valuable as it was interesting, a library containing volumes o　

The History and Practice of the Art of Photographyby Henry H. SnellingPREFACE.The object of this little work is to fill a void much complained of by Daguerreotypistsparticularly young beginers.The author has waited a long time in hopes that some more able pen would be devoted to the subject, but the wants of the numerous, and constantly increasing, class, just mentioned, induces him to wait no longer.All the English works on the subjectparticularly on the practical application, of Photogenic drawingare deficient in many minute details, which are essential to a complete understanding of the ar　

The Land of the Changing Sunby William N. HarbenChapter I.The balloon seemed scarcely to move, though it was slowly sinking toward the ocean of white clouds which hung between it and the earth.The two inmates of the car were insensible; their faces were bloodless, their cheeks sunken. They were both young and handsome. Harry Johnston, an American, was as dark and sallow as a Spaniard. Charles Thorndyke, an English gentleman, had yellow hair and mustache, blue eyes and a fine intellectual face. Both were tall, athletic in build and well-proportioned.Johnston was the first to come to consciousn