The Muse of the Departmentby Honore de BalzacTranslated by James WaringDEDICATIONTo Monsieur le Comte Ferdinand de Gramont.MY DEAR FERDINAND,If the chances of the world of literature/habent sua fata libelli/should allow these lines to be anenduring record, that will still be but a trifle in return for thetrouble you have takenyou, the Hozier, the Cherin, the King-at-Arms of these Studies of Life; you, to whom the Navarreins,Cadignans, Langeais, Blamont-Chauvrys, Chaulieus, Arthez,Esgrignons, Mortsaufs, Valoisthe hundred great names that form...　

360 BCSOPHISTby Platotranslated by Benjamin JowettSOPHISTPERSONS OF THE DIALOGUE: THEODORUS; THEAETETUS; SOCRATES;An ELEATIC STRANGER, whom Theodorus and Theaetetus bringwith them; The younger SOCRATES, who is a silent auditorTheodorus. Here we are, Socrates, true to our agreement ofyesterday; and we bring with us a stranger from Elea, who is adisciple of Parmenides and Zeno, and a true philosopher.Socrates. Is he not rather a god, Theodorus, who comes to us in...　

THE CRITIC AS ARTIST - WITH SOME REMARKS UPON THE IMPORTANCE OF DOING NOTHINGA DIALOGUE. Part I. Persons: Gilbert and Ernest. Scene: the library of a house in Piccadilly, overlooking the Green Park.GILBERT (at the Piano). My dear Ernest, what are you laughing at?ERNEST (looking up). At a capital story that I have just come across in this volume of Reminiscences that I have found on your table.GILBERT. What is the book? Ah! I see. I have not read it yet. Is it good?ERNEST. Well, while you have been playing, I have been turning over the pages with some amusement, though, as a rule, I　

Dreams & Dustby Don MarquisTOMY MOTHERVIRGINIA WHITMORE MARQUISCONTENTSPROEMDAYLIGHT HUMORSTHIS IS ANOTHER DAYAPRIL SONGTHE EARTH, IT IS ALSO A STARTHE NAMETHE BIRTHA MOOD OF PAVLOWATHE POOL"THEY HAD NO POET"NEW YORKA HYMNTHE SINGERWORDS ARE NOT GUNSWITH THE SUBMARINESNICHOLAS OF MONTENEGRODICKENSA POLITICIANTHE BAYONETTHE BUTCHERS AT PRAYERSHADOWSHAUNTEDA NIGHTMARETHE MOTHER...　

HIGH-WATER MARKWhen the tide was out on the Dedlow Marsh, its extended drearinesswas patent. Its spongy, low-lying surface, sluggish, inky pools,and tortuous sloughs, twisting their slimy way, eel-like, towardthe open bay, were all hard facts. So were the few green tussocks,with their scant blades, their amphibious flavor and unpleasantdampness. And if you choose to indulge your fancyalthough theflat monotony of the Dedlow Marsh was not inspiringthe wavy lineof scattered drift gave an unpleasant consciousness of the spentwaters, and made the dead certainty of the returning tide a gloomy...　

Padre IgnacioOr The Song of Temptationby Owen WisterIAt Santa Ysabel del Mar the season was at one of those moments when theair rests quiet over land and sea. The old breezes were gone; the newones were not yet risen. The flowers in the mission garden opened wide;no wind came by day or night to shake the loose petals from their stems.Along the basking, silent, many-colored shore gathered and lingered thecrisp odors of the mountains. The dust hung golden and motionless longafter the rider was behind the hill, and the Pacific lay like a floor of...　

Industrial BiographyIron Workers and Tool Makersby Samuel SmilesPREFACE.The Author offers the following book as a continuation, in a moregenerally accessible form, of the Series of Memoirs of Industrial Menintroduced in his Lives of the Engineers. While preparing that workhe frequently came across the tracks of celebrated inventors,mechanics, and iron-workersthe founders, in a great measure, of themodern industry of Britainwhose labours seemed to him well worthyof being traced out and placed on record, and the more so as theirlives presented many points of curious and original interest. Hav　

Autobiography of a Pocket-Handkerchiefby James Fenimore CoopoerCHAPTER I.Certain moral philosophers, with a due disdain of the flimsy foundationsof human pride, have shown that every man is equally descended from amillion of ancestors, within a given number of generations; therebydemonstrating that no prince exists who does not participate in theblood of some beggar, or any beggar who does not share in the bloodof princes. Although favored by a strictly vegetable descent myself, thelaws of nature have not permitted me to escape from the influence ofthis common rule. The earliest accounts I po　

The Ethics [Part 4](Ethica Ordine Geometrico Demonstrata)by Benedict de SpinozaTranslated by R. H. M. ElwesPART IV: Of Human Bondage, or the Strength of the EmotionsPREFACEHuman infirmity in moderating and checking the emotions I name bondage:for, when a man is a prey to his emotions, he is not his own master, butlies at the mercy of fortune: so much so, that he is often compelled,while seeing that which is better for him, to follow that which is worse....　

The VillageAfter hoeing, or perhaps reading and writing, in the forenoon, Iusually bathed again in the pond, swimming across one of its covesfor a stint, and washed the dust of labor from my person, orsmoothed out the last wrinkle which study had made, and for theafternoon was absolutely free. Every day or two I strolled to thevillage to hear some of the gossip which is incessantly going onthere, circulating either from mouth to mouth, or from newspaper tonewspaper, and which, taken in homoeopathic doses, was really as...　

The Legacy of Cainby Wilkie CollinsToMRS. HENRY POWELL BARTLEY:Permit me to add your name to my name, in publishing this novel.The pen which has written my books cannot be more agreeablyemployed than in acknowledging what I owe to the pen which hasskillfully and patiently helped me, by copying my manuscripts forthe printer.WILKIE COLLINS.Wimpole Street, 6th December, 1888.THE LEGACY OF CAIN.First Period: 1858-1859.EVENTS IN THE PRISON, RELATED BY THE GOVERNOR.CHAPTER I.THE GOVERNOR EXPLAINS.AT the request of a person who has claims on me that I must not...　

"A Death in the Desert"Everett Hilgarde was conscious that the man in the seatacross the aisle was looking at him intently. He was a large,florid man, wore a conspicuous diamond solitaire upon his thirdfinger, and Everett judged him to be a traveling salesman of somesort. He had the air of an adaptable fellow who had been aboutthe world and who could keep cool and clean under almost anycircumstances.The "High Line Flyer," as this train was derisively calledamong railroad men, was jerking along through the hot afternoon...　

Hieroby XenophonTranslation by H. G. DakynsXenophon the Athenian was born 431 B.C. He was apupil of Socrates. He marched with the Spartans,and was exiled from Athens. Sparta gave him landand property in Scillus, where he lived for manyyears before having to move once more, to settlein Corinth. He died in 354 B.C.The Hiero is an imaginary dialogue, c. 474 B.C.,between Simonides of Ceos, the poet; and Hieron,of Syracuse and Gela, the despot....　

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　

FAIRY TALES OF HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSENOUR AUNTby Hans Christian AndersenYou ought to have known our aunt; she was charming! That is tosay, she was not charming at all as the word is usually understood;but she was good and kind, amusing in her way, and was just as any oneought to be whom people are to talk about and to laugh at. She mighthave been put into a play, and wholly and solely on account of thefact that she only lived for the theatre and for what was donethere. She was an honorable matron; but Agent Fabs, whom she used to...　

The Golden Chersonese and the Way Thitherby Isabella L. Bird (Mrs. Bishop)PREFACEIn presenting to the public the last installment of my travels in theFar East, in 1879, I desire to offer, both to my readers and critics, mygrateful acknowledgments for the kindness with which my letters fromJapan were received, and to ask for an equally kind and lenient estimateof my present volume, which has been prepared for publication under theheavy shadow of the loss of the beloved and only sister to whom theletters of which it consists were written, and whose able and careful...