The Inca of Perusalemby George Bernard ShawAN ALMOST HISTORICAL COMEDIETTAI must remind the reader that this playlet was written when itsprincipal character, far from being a fallen foe and virtually aprisoner in our victorious hands, was still the Caesar whoselegions we were resisting with our hearts in our mouths. Manywere so horribly afraid of him that they could not forgive me fornot being afraid of him: I seemed to be trifling heartlessly witha deadly peril. I knew better; and I have represented Caesar asknowing better himself. But it was one of the quaintnesses ofpopular feeling during the war that anyone who breathed theslightest doubt of the absolute perfection of German...　

The Old Bachelorby William CongreveQuem tulit ad scenam ventoso Gloria curru, Exanimat lentus spectator; sedulus inflat: Sic leve, sic parvum est, animum quod laudis avarum Subruit, and reficit.HORAT. Epist. I. lib. ii.To the Right Honourable Charles, Lord Clifford of Lanesborough, etc.My Lord,It is with a great deal of pleasure that I lay hold on this first occasion which the accidents of my life have given me of writing to your lordship: for since at the same time I write to all the world, it will be a means of publishing (what I would have everybody know) the respect and duty which I owe and pay to you. I have so much inclination to be yours that I need no other engagement. But the p　

To The Last Manby Zane GreyFOREWORDIt was inevitable that in my efforts to write romantic history of thegreat West I should at length come to the story of a feud. For longI have steered clear of this rock. But at last I have reached it andmust go over it, driven by my desire to chronicle the stirring eventsof pioneer days.Even to-day it is not possible to travel into the remote corners ofthe West without seeing the lives of people still affected by afighting past. How can the truth be told about the pioneering ofthe West if the struggle, the fight, the blood be left out? It cannotbe done. How can a novel be stirring and thrilling, as were those...　

April Hopesby William Dean HowellsFrom his place on the floor of the Hemenway Gymnasium Mr. Elbridge G.Mavering looked on at the Class Day gaiety with the advantage which hisstature, gave him over most people there. Hundreds of these were prettygirls, in a great variety of charming costumes, such as the eclecticismof modern fashion permits, and all sorts of ingenious compromises betweenwalking dress and ball dress. It struck him that the young men on whosearms they hung, in promenading around the long oval within the crowd ofstationary spectators, were very much younger than students used to be,whether they wore the dress-coats of the Seniors or the cut-away of the...　

The Courtship of Susan Bellby Anthony TrollopeJohn Munroe Bell had been a lawyer in Albany, State of New York, andas such had thriven well. He had thriven well as long as thrift andthriving on this earth had been allowed to him. But the Almightyhad seen fit to shorten his span.Early in life he had married a timid, anxious, pretty, good littlewife, whose whole heart and mind had been given up to do his biddingand deserve his love. She had not only deserved it but hadpossessed it, and as long as John Munroe Bell had lived, HenriettaBellHetta as he called herhad been a woman rich in blessings.After twelve years of such blessings he had left her, and had left...　

SHERLOCK HOLMESTHE ADVENTURE OF THE SPECKLED BANDby Sir Arthur Conan DoyleOn glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I haveduring the last eight years studied the methods of my friendSherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number merelystrange, but none commonplace; for, working as he did rather for thelove of his art than for the acquirement of wealth, he refused toassociate himself with any investigation which did not tend towardsthe unusual, and even the fantastic. Of all these varied cases,however, I cannot recall any which presented more singular features...　

The Argonauticaby Apollonius RhodiusINTRODUCTIONMuch has been written about the chronology of Alexandrian literature and the famous Library, founded by Ptolemy Soter, but the dates of the chief writers are still matters of conjecture. The birth of Apollonius Rhodius is placed by scholars at various times between 296 and 260 B.C., while the year of his death is equally uncertain. In fact, we have very little information on the subject. There are two "lives" of Apollonius in the Scholia, both derived from an earlier one which is lost. From these we learn that he was of Alexandria by birth, (1) that he lived in the time of the Ptolemies, and was a pupil of Callimachus; that while still a you　

THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OFBENJAMIN FRANKLININTRODUCTORY NOTEBENJAMIN FRANKLIN was born in Milk Street, Boston, on January6, 1706. His father, Josiah Franklin, was a tallow chandler whomarried twice, and of his seventeen children Benjamin was the youngestson. His schooling ended at ten, and at twelve he was bound apprenticeto his brother James, a printer, who published the "New EnglandCourant." To this journal he became a contributor, and later was fora time its nominal editor. But the brothers quarreled, and Benjaminran away, going first to New York, and thence to Philadelphia, wherehe arrived in October, 1723. He soon obtained work as a printer,...　

The Pond in WinterAfter a still winter night I awoke with the impression that somequestion had been put to me, which I had been endeavoring in vain toanswer in my sleep, as what how when where? But there wasdawning Nature, in whom all creatures live, looking in at my broadwindows with serene and satisfied face, and no question on her lips.I awoke to an answered question, to Nature and daylight. The snowlying deep on the earth dotted with young pines, and the very slopeof the hill on which my house is placed, seemed to say, Forward!Nature puts no question and answers none which we mortals ask. Shehas long ago taken her resolution. "O Prince, our eyes contemplate...　

A UNITARIAN CREED_To Dr. Benjamin Waterhouse__Monticello, June 26, 1822_DEAR SIR, I have received and read with thankfulness andpleasure your denunciation of the abuses of tobacco and wine. Yet,however sound in its principles, I expect it will be but a sermon tothe wind. You will find it as difficult to inculcate these sanativeprecepts on the sensualities of the present day, as to convince anAthanasian that there is but one God. I wish success to bothattempts, and am happy to learn from you that the latter, at least,is making progress, and the more rapidly in proportion as ourPlatonizing Christians make more stir and noise about it. The...　

Three Ghost Storiesby Charles DickensContents:The Signal-ManThe Haunted-HouseThe Trial For MurderTHE SIGNAL-MAN"Halloa! Below there!"When he heard a voice thus calling to him, he was standing at thedoor of his box, with a flag in his hand, furled round its shortpole. One would have thought, considering the nature of the ground,that he could not have doubted from what quarter the voice came; butinstead of looking up to where I stood on the top of the steepcutting nearly over his head, he turned himself about, and lookeddown the Line. There was something remarkable in his manner of...　

Youthby Leo TolstoyTranslated by C. J. HogarthIWHAT I CONSIDER TO HAVE BEEN THE BEGINNING OF MY YOUTHI have said that my friendship with Dimitri opened up for me anew view of my life and of its aim and relations. The essence ofthat view lay in the conviction that the destiny of man is tostrive for moral improvement, and that such improvement is atonce easy, possible, and lasting. Hitherto, however, I had foundpleasure only in the new ideas which I discovered to arise fromthat conviction, and in the forming of brilliant plans for amoral, active future, while all the time my life had beencontinuing along its old petty, muddled, pleasure-seeking course,...