A Woman of Thirtyby Honore de BalzacTranslated by Ellen MarriageDEDICATIONTo Louis Boulanger, Painter.A WOMAN OF THIRTYI.EARLY MISTAKESIt was a Sunday morning in the beginning of April 1813, a morning which gave promise of one of those bright days when Parisians, for the first time in the year, behold dry pavements underfoot and a cloudless sky overhead. It was not yet noon when a luxurious cabriolet, drawn by two spirited horses, turned out of the Rue de Castiglione into the Rue de Rivoli, and drew up behind a row of carriages standing before the newly opened barrier half-way down the Terras　

THE MASTERY OF THE AIRTHE MASTERY OFTHE AIRby WILLIAM J. CLAXTONPREFACEThis book makes no pretence of going minutely into the technical andscientific sides of human flight: rather does it deal mainly with the realachievements of pioneers who have helped to make aviation what it is to-day.My chief object has been to arouse among my readers an intelligentinterest in the art of flight, and, profiting by friendly criticism of several of...　

Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte, V14by Louis Antoine Fauvelet de BourrienneHis Private SecretaryEdited by R. W. PhippsColonel, Late Royal Artillery1891CONTENTS:CHAPTER VII. to CHAPTER X. 1815CHAPTER VII.[By the Editor of the 1836 edition]1815.Napoleon at ParisPolitical manoeuvresThe meeting of the Champ-de-MaiNapoleon, the Liberals, and the moderate ConstitutionalistsHis love of arbitrary power as strong as everParis during theCent JoursPreparations for his last campaignThe Emperor leavesParis to join the armyState of BrusselsProclamation of Napoleon...　

Active Serviceby Steven CraneCHAPTER I.MARJORY walked pensively along the hall. In the cool shadows made by the palms on the window ledge, her face wore the expression of thoughtful melancholy expected on the faces of the devotees who pace in cloistered gloom. She halted before a door at the end of the hall and laid her hand on the knob. She stood hesitating, her head bowed. It was evident that this mission was to require great fortitude.At last she opened the door. " Father," she began at once. There was disclosed an elderly, narrow-faced man seated at a large table and surrounded by manuscr　

Alcibiades Iby Plato (see Appendix I)Translated by Benjamin JowettAPPENDIX I.It seems impossible to separate by any exact line the genuine writings ofPlato from the spurious. The only external evidence to them which is ofmuch value is that of Aristotle; for the Alexandrian catalogues of acentury later include manifest forgeries. Even the value of theAristotelian authority is a good deal impaired by the uncertaintyconcerning the date and authorship of the writings which are ascribed tohim. And several of the citations of Aristotle omit the name of Plato, and...　

THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOWby Washington IrvingFound among the papers of the late Diedrech Knickerbocker.A pleasing land of drowsy head it was,Of dreams that wave before the half-shut eye;And of gay castles in the clouds that pass,Forever flushing round a summer sky.Castle of Indolence.In the bosom of one of those spacious coves which indent theeastern shore of the Hudson, at that broad expansion of the river...　

400 BCON HEMORRHOIDSby Hippocratestranslated by Francis AdamsThe disease of the hemorrhoids is formed in this way: if bile orphlegm be determined to the veins in the rectum, it heats the blood inthe veins; and these veins becoming heated attract blood from thenearest veins, and being gorged the inside of the gut swellsoutwardly, and the heads of the veins are raised up, and being atthe same time bruised by the faeces passing out, and injured by the...　

HERMOD AND HADVOR [32][32] From the Icelandic.Once upon a time there were a King and a Queen who had an onlydaughter, called Hadvor, who was fair and beautiful, and being anonly child, was heir to the kingdom. The King and Queen had alsoa foster son, named Hermod, who was just about the same age asHadvor, and was good-looking, as well as clever at most things.Hermod and Hadvor often played together while they were children,and liked each other so much that while they were still youngthey secretly plighted their troth to each other.As time went on the Queen fell sick, and suspecting that it w　

Chapter XIV of Volume II (Chap. 37)THE two gentlemen left Rosings the next morning; and Mr. Collins having been in waiting near the lodges, to make them his parting obeisance, was able to bring home the pleasing intelligence of their appearing in very good health, and in as tolerable spirits as could be expected, after the melancholy scene so lately gone through at Rosings. To Rosings he then hastened to console Lady Catherine and her daughter; and on his return brought back, with great satisfaction, a message from her ladyship, importing that she felt herself so dull as to make her very desi　

The Fall of the House of UsherThe Fall of the House ofUsherEdgar Allen Poe1- Page 2-The Fall of the House of UsherDuring the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn ofthe year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I hadbeen passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract ofcountry; and at length found myself, as the shades of the evening drew on,...　

Mary Stuartby Alexandre Dumas, PereCHAPTER ISome royal names are predestined to misfortune: in France, there isthe name "Henry". Henry I was poisoned, Henry II was killed in atournament, Henry III and Henry IV were assassinated. As to Henry V,for whom the past is so fatal already, God alone knows what thefuture has in store for him.In Scotland, the unlucky name is "Stuart". Robert I, founder of therace, died at twenty-eight of a lingering illness. Robert II, themost fortunate of the family, was obliged to pass a part of his life,...　

At the Back of the North Windby George MacDonaldCHAPTER ITHE HAY-LOFTI HAVE been asked to tell you about the back of the north wind.An old Greek writer mentions a people who lived there,and were so comfortable that they could not bear it any longer,and drowned themselves. My story is not the same as his.I do not think Herodotus had got the right account of the place.I am going to tell you how it fared with a boy who went there.He lived in a low room over a coach-house; and that was not by anymeans at the back of the north wind, as his mother very well knew....　

Carmenby Prosper MerimeeTranslated by Lady Mary LoydCHAPTER II had always suspected the geographical authorities did not know what they were talking about when they located the battlefield of Munda in the county of the Bastuli-Poeni, close to the modern Monda, some two leagues north of Marbella.According to my own surmise, founded on the text of the anonymous author of the /Bellum Hispaniense/, and on certain information culled from the excellent library owned by the Duke of Ossuna, I believed the site of the memorable struggle in which Caesar played double or quits, once and for all, with th　

The Iron Puddlerby James J. DavisMY LIFE IN THE ROLLING MILLS AND WHAT CAME OF ITIntroduction by JOSEPH G. CANNONThe man whose life story is here presented between book covers is at the time of writing only forty-eight years old. When I met him many years ago he was a young man full of enthusiasm. I remember saying to him then, "With your enthusiasm and the sparkle which you have in your eyes I am sure you will make good."Why should so young a man, one so recently elevated to official prominence, write his memoirs? That question will occur to those who do not know Jim Davis. His elevation to 　

CHAPTER VIIThe Lion and the UnicornThe next moment soldiers came running through the wood, at firstin twos and threes, then ten or twenty together, and at last insuch crowds that they seemed to fill the whole forest. Alice gotbehind a tree, for fear of being run over, and watched them go by.She thought that in all her life she had never seen soldiers souncertain on their feet: they were always tripping oversomething or other, and whenever one went down, several morealways fell over him, so that the ground was soon covered with...　

OF TRAGEDYDavid Hume1757It seems an unaccountable pleasure, which the spectators ofa well-written tragedy receive from sorrow, terror, anxiety, andother passions, that are in themselves disagreeable and uneasy.The more they are touched and affected, the more are they...