The Adventures of Pinocchioby C. Collodi[Pseudonym of Carlo Lorenzini]CHAPTER 1How it happened that Mastro Cherry, carpenter, found a piece of wood that wept and laughed like a childCenturies ago there lived"A king!" my little readers will say immediately.No, children, you are mistaken. Once upon a time there was a piece of wood. It was not an expensive piece of wood. Far from it. Just a common block of firewood, one of those thick, solid logs that are put on the fire in winter to make cold rooms cozy and warm.I do not know how this really happened, yet the fact remains that one fine day this piece of wood found itself in the shop of an old carpenter. His real name was Mastro Antonio, 　

Christie JohnstoneA NOVELby Charles ReadeI dedicate all that is good in this work to my mother.C. R.,NOTETHIS story was written three years ago, and one or two topics in it arenot treated exactly as they would be if written by the same hand to-day.But if the author had retouched those pages with his colors of 1853, hewould (he thinks) have destroyed the only merit they have, viz., that ofcontaining genuine contemporaneous verdicts upon a cant that wasflourishing like a peony, and a truth that was struggling for bare life,in the year of truth 1850.He prefers to deal fairly with the public, and, with this explanation andapology, to lay at its feet a faulty but genuine piece of work....　

THE SKETCH BOOKA ROYAL POETby Washington IrvingThough your body be confined,And soft love a prisoner bound,Yet the beauty of your mindNeither check nor chain hath found.Look out nobly, then, and dareEven the fetters that you wear.FLETCHER.ON A soft sunny morning in the genial month of May, I made anexcursion to Windsor Castle. It is a place full of storied andpoetical associations. The very external aspect of the proud old...　

The Friendly Road; New Adventures in Contentmentby David Grayson"Surely it is good to be alive at a time like this."A WORD TO HIM WHO OPENS THIS BOOKI did not plan when I began writing these chapters to make an entire book, but only to put down the more or less unusual impressions, the events and adventures, of certain quiet pilgrimages in country roads. But when I had written down all of these things, I found I had material in plenty."What shall I call it now that I have written it?" I asked myself.At first I thought I should call it "Adventures on the Road," or "The Country Road," or something equally simple, for I would not have the title arouse any appetite which the book itself could n　

AFTER THE DANCE"AND you say that a man cannot, of himself,understand what is good and evil; that it is allenvironment, that the environment swamps theman. But I believe it is all chance. Take myown case . . ."Thus spoke our excellent friend, Ivan Vasilie-vich, after a conversation between us on the impos-sibility of improving individual character withouta change of the conditions under which men live.Nobody had actually said that one could not ofoneself understand good and evil; but it was ahabit of Ivan Vasilievich to answer in this way thethoughts aroused in his own mind by conversation,and to illustrate those thoughts by relating inci-dents in his own life. He often quite forgot the..　

THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMESA Case of Identity"My dear fellow," said Sherlock Holmes as we sat on either side ofthe fire in his lodgings at Baker Street, "life is infinitelystranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. Wewould not dare to conceive the things which are really merecommonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that windowhand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the roofs,and peep in at the queer things which are going on, the strangecoincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the wonderfulchains of events, working through generations, and leading to the...　

SHERLOCK HOLMESTHE ADVENTURE OF THE CARDBOARD BOXby Sir Arthur Conan DoyleIn choosing a few typical cases which illustrate the remarkablemental qualities of my friend, Sherlock Holmes, I have endeavoured, asfar as possible, to select those which presented the minimum ofsensationalism, while offering a fair field for his talents. It is,however, unfortunately impossible entirely to separate the sensationalfrom the criminal, and a chronicler is left in the dilemma that hemust either sacrifice details which are essential to his statement andso give a false impression of the problem, or he must use matter which...　

ARTAXERXES437-359 B.C.by Plutarchtranslated by John DrydenTHE first Artaxerxes, among all the kings of Persia the mostremarkable for a gentle and noble spirit, was surnamed theLong-handed, his right hand being longer than his left, and was theson of Xerxes. The second, whose story I am now writing, who had thesurname of the Mindful, was the grandson of the former, by hisdaughter Parysatis, who brought Darius four sons, the eldestArtaxerxes, the next Cyrus, and two younger than these, Ostanes andOxathres. Cyrus took his name of the ancient Cyrus, as he, they say,...　

The Darwinian Hypothesisby Thomas H. HuxleyDARWIN ON THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES.THERE is a growing immensity in the speculations of science to which nohuman thing or thought at this day is comparable. Apart from theresults which science brings us home and securely harvests, there is anexpansive force and latitude in its tentative efforts, which lifts usout of ourselves and transfigures our mortality. We may have apreference for moral themes, like the Homeric sage, who had seen andknown much:"Cities of menAnd manners, climates, councils, governments";yet we must end by confession that"The windy ways of menAre but dust which rises up...　

The Life of Flavius Josephusby Flavius JosephusTranslated by William Whiston1. The family from which I am derived is not an ignoble one, buthath descended all along from the priests; and as nobility amongseveral people is of a different origin, so with us to be of thesacerdotal dignity, is an indication of the splendor of a family.Now, I am not only sprung from a sacerdotal family in general,but from the first of the twenty-four (1) courses; and as amongus there is not only a considerable difference between one familyof each course and another, I am of the chief family of thatfirst course also; nay, further, by my mother I am of the royalblood; for the children of Asamoneus, from whom that 　

THESEUSLegendaryby Plutarchtranslated by John DrydenAs geographers, Sosius, crowd into the edges of their maps partsof the world which they do not know about, adding notes in themargin to the effect, that beyond this lies nothing but the sandydeserts full of wild beasts, unapproachable bogs, Scythian ice, or afrozen sea, so in this work of mine, in which I have compared thelives of the greatest men with one another, after passing throughthose periods which probable reasoning can reach to and real historyfind a footing in, I might very well say of those that are farther...　

440 BCANTIGONEby Sophoclestranslated by R. C. JebbCHARACTERS IN THE PLAYdaughters of Oedipus:ANTIGONEISMENECREON, King of ThebesEURYDICE, his wifeHAEMON, his sonTEIRESIAS, the blind prophetGUARD, set to watch the corpse of PolyneicesFIRST MESSENGERSECOND MESSENGER, from the houseCHORUS OF THEBAN ELDERSANTIGONEANTIGONEANTIGONE(SCENE:-The same as in the Oedipus the King, an open space beforethe royal palace, once that of Oedipus, at Thebes. The backscene...