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 Perpetuation of Living Beingsby Thomas Henry HuxleyThe inquiry which we undertook, at our last meeting, into the state ofour knowledge of the causes of the phenomena of organic nature,of thepast and of the present,resolved itself into two subsidiaryinquiries: the first was, whether we know anything, either historicallyor experimentally, of the mode of origin of living beings; the secondsubsidiary inquiry was, whether, granting the origin, we know anythingabout the perpetuation and modifications of the forms of organicbeings. The reply which I had to give to the first question was...
THE $30,000 BEQUESTCHAPTER ILakeside was a pleasant little town of five or six thousand inhabitants,and a rather pretty one, too, as towns go in the Far West.It had church accommodations for thirty-five thousand, which isthe way of the Far West and the South, where everybody is religious,and where each of the Protestant sects is represented and has a plantof its own. Rank was unknown in Lakesideunconfessed, anyway;everybody knew everybody and his dog, and a sociable friendlinesswas the prevailing atmosphere.Saladin Foster was book-keeper in the principal store, and the only...
AN INQUIRY INTO THE NATURE AND CAUSES OF THE WEALTH OF NATIONSby Adam Smith1776BOOK FIVEOF THE REVENUE OF THE SOVEREIGN OR COMMONWEALTHCHAPTER IOf the Expenses of the Sovereign or CommonwealthPART 1Of the Expense of DefenceTHE first duty of the sovereign, that of protecting thesociety from the violence and invasion of other independentsocieties, can be performed only by means of a military force....
THE VISION SPLENDIDTHE VISIONSPLENDIDWilliam MacLeod Raine1- Page 2-THE VISION SPLENDIDCHAPTER 1Of all the remote streams of influence that pour both before and afterbirth into the channel of our being, what an insignificant fewand theseonly the more obviousare traceable at all. We swim in a sea ofenvironment and heredity, are tossed hither and thither by we know not...
109 ADHISTORIESby P. Cornelius Tacitustranslated by Alfred John Church and William Jackson BrodribbBOOK I, January - March, A.D. 69I BEGIN my work with the time when Servius Galba was consul forthe second time with Titus Vinius for his colleague. Of the formerperiod, the 820 years dating from the founding of the city, manyauthors have treated; and while they had to record the transactions ofthe Roman people, they wrote with equal eloquence and freedom. After...
A TALE OF THE TONTLAWALDLong, long ago there stood in the midst of a country covered withlakes a vast stretch of moorland called the Tontlawald, on whichno man ever dared set foot. From time to time a few bold spiritshad been drawn by curiosity to its borders, and on their returnhad reported that they had caught a glimpse of a ruined house ina grove of thick trees, and round about it were a crowd of beingsresembling men, swarming over the grass like bees. The men wereas dirty and ragged as gipsies, and there were besides a quantityof old women and half-naked children....
ON SENSE AND THE SENSIBLEby Aristotletranslated by J. I. Beare1HAVING now definitely considered the soul, by itself, and itsseveral faculties, we must next make a survey of animals and allliving things, in order to ascertain what functions are peculiar,and what functions are common, to them. What has been alreadydetermined respecting the soul [sc. by itself] must be assumedthroughout. The remaining parts [sc. the attributes of soul and...
The Crown of ThornsA token for the sorrowingby E. H. ChapinPREFACE.One of the discourses in this volume-"The Mission of Little Children"was written just after the death of a dear son, and was published in pamphlet form. The edition having become exhausted sooner than the demand, it was deemed advisable to reprint it; and accordingly it is now presented to the reader, accompanied by others of a similar cast, most of them growing out of the same experience. This fact will account for any repetition of sentiment which may appear in these discourses, especially as they were written without any
The Way of the WorldThe Way of the WorldWilliam Congreve1- Page 2-The Way of the WorldTO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE RALPH, EARL OFMOUNTAGUE, ETC.My Lord,Whether the world will arraign me of vanity or not, that Ihave presumed to dedicate this comedy to your lordship, I am yet in doubt;though, it may be, it is some degree of vanity even to doubt of it. One who...
The Hunchbackby James Sheridan KnowlesINTRODUCTIONJames Sheridan Knowles was born at Cork in 1784, and died at Torquayin December, 1862, at the age of 78. His father was a teacher ofelocution, who compiled a dictionary, and who was related to theSheridans. He moved to London when his son was eight years old, andthere became acquainted with William Hazlitt and Charles Lamb. Theson, after his school education, obtained a commission in the army,but gave up everything for the stage, and made his first appearanceat the Crow Street Theatre, in Dublin. He did not become a great...
TARTUFFE OR THE HYPOCRITETARTUFFE OR THEHYPOCRITEby JEAN BAPTISTE POQUELIN MOLIERETranslated By Curtis Hidden PageINTRODUCTORY NOTEJean Baptiste Poquelin, better known by his stage name of Moliere,stands without a rival at the head of French comedy. Born at Paris inJanuary, 1622, where his father held a position in the royal household, hewas educated at the Jesuit College de Clermont, and for some time studied...
Aucassin and NicoleteAucassin and Nicolete1- Page 2-Aucassin and NicoleteINTRODUCTIONThere is nothing in artistic poetry quite akin to "Aucassin andNicolete."By a rare piece of good fortune the one manuscript of the Song-Storyhas escaped those waves of time, which have wrecked the bark ofMenander, and left of Sappho but a few floating fragments. The very...
THE HISTORY OF THE CALIPH VATHEKTHE HISTORY OF THECALIPH VATHEK1- Page 2-THE HISTORY OF THE CALIPH VATHEKINTRODUCTIONWilliam Beckford, born in 1759, the year before the accession of KingGeorge the Third, was the son of an Alderman who became twice LordMayor of London. His family, originally of Gloucestershire, had thrivenby the plantations in Jamaica; and his father, sent to school in England,...