BEASTS AND SUPER-BEASTS - H. H. MUNRO ("SAKI")CONTENTSTHE SHE-WOLFLAURATHE BOAR-PIGTHE BROGUETHE HENTHE OPEN WINDOWTHE TREASURE-SHIPTHE COBWEBTHE LULLTHE UNKINDEST BLOWTHE ROMANCERSTHE SCHARTZ-METTERKLUME METHODTHE SEVENTH PULLETTHE BLIND SPOTDUSKA TOUCH OF REALISMCOUSIN TERESATHE YARKAND MANNERTHE BYZANTINE OMELETTETHE FEAST OF NEMESISTHE DREAMERTHE QUINCE TREETHE FORBIDDEN BUZZARDSTHE STAKECLOVIS ON PARENTAL RESPONSIBILITIESA HOLIDAY TASKTHE STALLED OXTHE STORY-TELLERA DEFENSIVE DIAMONDTHE ELK"DOWN PENS"THE NAME-DAYTHE LUMBER ROOM...　

Meditations on First Philosophyby Rene Descartes1641Prefatory Note To The Meditations.The first edition of the Meditations was published in Latin by Michael Soly of Paris "at the Sign of the Phoenix" in 1641 cum Privilegio et Approbatione Doctorum. The Royal "privilege" was indeed given, but the "approbation" seems to have been of a most indefinite kind. The reason of the book being published in France and not in Holland, where Descartes was living in a charming country house at Endegeest near Leiden, was apparently his fear that the Dutch ministers might in some way lay hold of it. His friend, Pere Mersenne, took charge of its publication in Paris and wrote to him about any difficulties　

by William WoodPREFACESixty years ago today the guns that thundered round Fort Sumterbegan the third and greatest modern civil war fought byEnglish-speaking people. This war was quite as full of politicsas were the other twothe War of the American Revolution andthat of Puritan and Cavalier. But, though the present Chroniclenever ignores the vital correlations between statesmen andcommanders, it is a book of warriors, through and through.I gratefully acknowledge the indispensable assistance of ColonelG. J. Fiebeger, a West Point expert, and of Dr. Allen Johnson,chief editor of the series and Professor of American History atYale.WILLIAM WOOD,...　

　　Through the curtained windows of the furnished apartment which Mrs. Horace Hignett had rented for her stay in New York rays of golden sunlight peeped in like the foremost spies of some advancing army. It was a fine summer morning. The hands of the Dutch clock in the hall pointed to thirteen minutes past nine; those of the ormolu clock in the sitting-room to eleven minutes past ten; those of the carriage clock on the bookshelf to fourteen minutes to six. In other words, it was exactly eight; and Mrs. Hignett acknowledged the fact by moving her head on the pillow, opening her eyes, and sitting up in bed. She always woke at eight precisely.　Was this Mrs. Hignett the Mrs. Hignett, the world　

FAIRY TALES OF HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSENUNDER THE WILLOW-TREEby Hans Christian AndersenTHE region round the little town of Kjoge is very bleak andcold. The town lies on the sea shore, which is always beautiful; buthere it might be more beautiful than it is, for on every side thefields are flat, and it is a long way to the forest. But whenpersons reside in a place and get used to it, they can always findsomething beautiful in it,- something for which they long, even in themost charming spot in the world which is not home. It must be ownedthat there are in the outskirts of the town some humble gardens on the...　

Villainage in England: Essays in English Mediaeval Historyby Paul Vinogradoff1892First EssayThe Peasantry of the Feudal Age.Chapter OneThe Legal Aspect of Villainage. General ConceptionsIt has become a commonplace to oppose medieval serfdom to ancient slavery, one implying dependence on the lord of the soil and attachment to the glebe, the other being based on complete subjection to an owner. There is no doubt that great landmarks in the course of social development are set by the three modes hitherto employed of organising human labour: using the working man (1) as a chattel at will, (2) as a subordinate whose duties are fixed by custom, (3) as a free agent bound by contract. These landmar　

The Diary of a Nobodyby George and Weedon GrossmithCHAPTER I.We settle down in our new home, and I resolve to keep a diary. Tradesmen trouble us a bit, so does the scraper. The Curate calls and pays me a great compliment.My clear wife Carrie and I have just been a week in our new house, "The Laurels," Brickfield Terrace, Holloway - a nice six-roomed residence, not counting basement, with a front breakfast-parlour. We have a little front garden; and there is a flight of ten steps up to the front door, which, by-the-by, we keep locked with the chain up. Cummings, Gowing, and our other intimate friends always come to the little side entrance, which saves the servant the trouble of going up t　

THE CALASHThe town of B had become very lively since a cavalry regiment hadtaken up its quarters in it. Up to that date it had been mortallywearisome there. When you happened to pass through the town andglanced at its little mud houses with their incredibly gloomy aspect,the pen refuses to express what you felt. You suffered a terribleuneasiness as if you had just lost all your money at play, or hadcommitted some terrible blunder in company. The plaster covering thehouses, soaked by the rain, had fallen away in many places from theirwalls, which from white had become streaked and spotted, whilst oldreeds served to thatch them....　

When the World ShookBeing an Account of the Great Adventureof Bastin, Bickley and Arbuthnotby H. Rider HaggardDEDICATIONDitchingham, 1918.MY DEAR CURZON,More than thirty years ago you tried to protect me, then astranger to you, from one of the falsest and most malignantaccusations ever made against a writer.So complete was your exposure of the methods of those at workto blacken a person whom they knew to be innocent, that, as youwill remember, they refused to publish your analysis whichdestroyed their charges and, incidentally, revealed theirmotives.Although for this reason vindication came otherwise, your...　

Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christby Lew Wallaceto THE WIFE OF MY YOUTH who still abides with meBOOK FIRSTCHAPTER IThe Jebel es Zubleh is a mountain fifty miles and more in length, and so narrow that its tracery on the map gives it a likeness to a caterpillar crawling from the south to the north. Standing on its red-and-white cliffs, and looking off under the path of the rising sun, one sees only the Desert of Arabia, where the east winds, so hateful to vinegrowers of Jericho, have kept their playgrounds since the beginning. Its feet are well covered by sands tossed from the Euphrates, there to lie, for the mountain is a wall to the pasture-lands of Moab and Ammon on the westlands which else ha　

　　If anything exists, it is inprehensible.　　If anything was prehensible,　　it would be inmunicable.　　　　- Gorgias　　　　　　PART ONENOTHING EXISTS　　　　　　1　　　　Two hours ago the Railway Expressman delivered the crated, newly published International Encyclopedia of Fine Arts to my Palm Beach apartment. I signed for the set, turned the thermostat of the air-conditioner up three degrees, found a clawhammer in the kitchen, and broke open the crate. Twenty-four beautiful buckram-bound volumes, eggshell paper, decide edged. Six laborious years in preparation, more than twenty-five hundred illustrations- 436 in full-color plates-and each thoroughly researched article written and signed by a noted authority 　

GULLIVER OF MARSGULLIVER OF MARSby Edwin L. Arnold1- Page 2-GULLIVER OF MARSCHAPTER IDare I say it? Dare I say that I, a plain, prosaic lieutenant in therepublican service have done the incredible things here set out for the loveof a womanfor a chimera in female shape; for a pale, vapid ghost ofwoman-loveliness? At times I tell myself I dare not: that you will laugh,and cast me aside as a fabricator; and then again I pick up my pen and...