THE COMPARISON OF FABIUS WITH PERICLESby Plutarchtranslated by John DrydenWE have here had two lives rich in examples, both of civil andmilitary excellence. Let us first compare the two men in their warlikecapacity. Pericles presided in his commonwealth when it was in itsmost flourishing and opulent condition, great and growing in power; sothat it may be thought it was rather the common success and fortunethat kept him from any fall or disaster. But the task of Fabius, whoundertook the government in the worst and most difficult times, wasnot to preserve and maintain the well-established felicity of a...　

NICIAS?-413 B.C.by Plutarchtranslated by John DrydenCRASSUS, in my opinion, may most properly be set against Nicias, andthe Parthian disaster compared with that in Sicily. But here it willbe well for me to entreat the reader, in all courtesy, not to thinkthat I contend with Thucydides in matters so pathetically, vividly,and eloquently, beyond all imitation, and even beyond himself,expressed by him; nor to believe me guilty of the like folly withTimaeus, who, hoping in his history to surpass Thucydides in art,and to make Philistus appear a trifler and a novice, pushes on in...　

The Lights of the Church and the Light of Scienceby Thomas Henry HuxleyThere are three ways of regarding any account of pastoccurrences, whether delivered to us orally or recordedin writing.The narrative may be exactly true. That is to say, the words,taken in their natural sense, and interpreted according to therules of grammar, may convey to the mind of the hearer, or ofthe reader an idea precisely correspondent with one which wouldhave remained in the mind of a witness. For example, thestatement that King Charles the First was beheaded at Whitehallon the 30th day of January 1649, is as exactly true as anyproposition in mathematics or physics; no one doubts that any...　

OF THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF THE ARTS AND SCIENCESDavid Hume1742Nothing requires greater nicety, in our enquiries concerninghuman affairs, than to distinguish exactly what is owing to, and what proceeds from ; nor is there anysubject, in which an author is more liable to deceive himself byfalse subtilties and refinements. To say, that any event isderived from chance, cuts short all farther enquiry concerningit, and leaves the writer in the same state of ignorance with therest of mankind. But when the event is supposed to proceed from...　

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 tocall "Flabs," declared that our aunt was stage-struck....　

Kenilworthby Walter ScottINTRODUCTIONA certain degree of success, real or supposed, in the delineationof Queen Mary, naturally induced the author to attempt somethingsimilar respecting "her sister and her foe," the celebratedElizabeth. He will not, however, pretend to have approached thetask with the same feelings; for the candid Robertson himselfconfesses having felt the prejudices with which a Scottishman istempted to regard the subject; and what so liberal a historianavows, a poor romance-writer dares not disown. But he hopes theinfluence of a prejudice, almost as natural to him as his nativeair, will not be found to have greatly affected the sketch he has...　

Bruceby Albert Payson TerhuneTO MY TEN BEST FRIENDS:Who are far wiser in their way and far better in every way, thanI; and yet who have not the wisdom to know itWho do not merely think I am perfect, but who are calmly andpermanently convinced of my perfection;and this in spite offifty disillusions a dayWho are frantically happy at my coming and bitterly woebegone inmy absenceWho never bore me and never are bored by meWho never talk about themselves and who always listen withrapturous interest to anything I may sayWho, having no conventional standards, have no respectability;and who, having no conventional consciences, have no sins...　

Chapter X of Volume II (Chap. 33)MORE than once did Elizabeth in her ramble within the Park, unexpectedly meet Mr. Darcy. She felt all the perverseness of the mischance that should bring him where no one else was brought; and to prevent its ever happening again, took care to inform him at first that it was a favourite haunt of hers. How it could occur a second time, therefore, was very odd! Yet it did, and even a third. It seemed like wilful ill-nature, or a voluntary penance, for on these occasions it was not merely a few formal enquiries and an awkward pause and then away, but he actually thought it necessary to turn back and walk with her. He never said a great deal, nor did she give 　

The Land of Footprintsby Stewart Edward WhiteI. ON BOOKS OF ADVENTUREBooks of sporting, travel, and adventure in countries little known to the average reader naturally fall in two classes-neither, with a very few exceptions, of great value. One class is perhaps the logical result of the other.Of the first type is the book that is written to make the most of far travels, to extract from adventure the last thrill, to impress the awestricken reader with a full sense of the danger and hardship the writer has undergone. Thus, if the latter takes out quite an ordinary routine permit to go into certain districts, he makes the most of travelling in "closed territory," implying that he has obtained 　

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...　

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 KREUTZER SONATA.CHAPTER I.Travellers left and entered our car at every stopping of thetrain. Three persons, however, remained, bound, like myself, forthe farthest station: a lady neither young nor pretty, smokingcigarettes, with a thin face, a cap on her head, and wearing asemi-masculine outer garment; then her companion, a veryloquacious gentleman of about forty years, with baggage entirelynew and arranged in an orderly manner; then a gentleman who heldhimself entirely aloof, short in stature, very nervous, ofuncertain age, with bright eyes, not pronounced in color, butextremely attractive,eyes that darted with rapidity from one...