The Essays of Montaigne, V1by Michel de MontaigneTranslated by Charles CottonEdited by William Carew Hazilitt1877CONTENTS OF VOLUME 1.PrefaceThe Life of MontaigneThe Letters of MontaignePREFACE.The present publication is intended to supply a recognised deficiency inour literaturea library edition of the Essays of Montaigne. This greatFrench writer deserves to be regarded as a classic, not only in the landof his birth, but in all countries and in all literatures. His Essays,which are at once the most celebrated and the most permanent of hisproductions, form a magazine out of which such minds as those of Bacon...　

Roundabout to Bostonby William Dean HowellsDuring the four years of my life in Venice the literary intention waspresent with me at all times and in all places. I wrote many things inverse, which I sent to the magazines in every part of the English-speaking world, but they came unerringly back to me, except in threeinstances only, when they were kept by the editors who finally printedthem. One of these pieces was published in the Atlantic Monthly; anotherin Harpers Magazine; the third was got into the New York Ledger throughthe kindness of Doctor Edward Everett Hale, who used I know not whatmighty magic to that end. I had not yet met him; but he interested...　

Once there was a miller who was poor, but who had a beautifuldaughter. Now it happened that he had to go and speak to theking, and in order to make himself appear important he saidto him, I have a daughter who can spin straw into gold. Theking said to the miller, that is an art whichpleases me well, if your daughter is as clever as you say, bringher to-morrow to my palace, and I will put her to the test.And when the girl was brought to him he took her into a roomwhich was quite full of straw, gave her a spinning-wheel and areel, and said, now set to work, and if by to-morrow morningearly you have not spun this straw into gold during the night,you must die. Thereupon he himself locked up 　

Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennesby Robert Louis Stevenson.My Dear Sidney Colvin,The journey which this little book is to describe was veryagreeable and fortunate for me. After an uncouth beginning, I hadthe best of luck to the end. But we are all travellers in whatJohn Bunyan calls the wilderness of this world - all, too,travellers with a donkey: and the best that we find in our travelsis an honest friend. He is a fortunate voyager who finds many. Wetravel, indeed, to find them. They are the end and the reward oflife. They keep us worthy of ourselves; and when we are alone, weare only nearer to the absent....　

EconomyWhen I wrote the following pages, or rather the bulk of them, Ilived alone, in the woods, a mile from any neighbor, in a housewhich I had built myself, on the shore of Walden Pond, in Concord,Massachusetts, and earned my living by the labor of my hands only.I lived there two years and two months. At present I am a sojournerin civilized life again.I should not obtrude my affairs so much on the notice of myreaders if very particular inquiries had not been made by mytownsmen concerning my mode of life, which some would callimpertinent, though they do not appear to me at all impertinent,but, considering the circumstances, very natural and pertinent....　

Chapter the LastA parting glance at such of the actors in this little history asit has not, in the course of its events, dismissed, will bring itto an end.Mr Haredale fled that night. Before pursuit could be begun, indeedbefore Sir John was traced or missed, he had left the kingdom.Repairing straight to a religious establishment, known throughoutEurope for the rigour and severity of its discipline, and for themerciless penitence it exacted from those who sought its shelter asa refuge from the world, he took the vows which thenceforth shuthim out from nature and his kind, and after a few remorseful years...　

ON LONGEVITY AND SHORTNESS OF LIFEby Aristotletranslated by G. R. T. Ross1THE reasons for some animals being long-lived and othersshort-lived, and, in a word, causes of the length and brevity oflife call for investigation.The necessary beginning to our inquiry is a statement of thedifficulties about these points. For it is not clear whether inanimals and plants universally it is a single or diverse cause thatmakes some to be long-lived, others short-lived. Plants too have insome cases a long life, while in others it lasts but for a year....　

To-morrowby Joseph ConradWhat was known of Captain Hagberd in the littleseaport of Colebrook was not exactly in his favour.He did not belong to the place. He had come tosettle there under circumstances not at all myste-rioushe used to be very communicative aboutthem at the timebut extremely morbid and un-reasonable. He was possessed of some little moneyevidently, because he bought a plot of ground, andhad a pair of ugly yellow brick cottages run upvery cheaply. He occupied one of them himselfand let the other to Josiah Carvilblind Carvil,the retired boat-buildera man of evil repute as a...　

Part 6It may be proper to ask here how long it may be supposed menmight have the seeds of the contagion in them before it discovereditself in this fatal manner, and how long they might go aboutseemingly whole, and yet be contagious to all those that came nearthem. I believe the most experienced physicians cannot answer thisquestion directly any more than I can; and something an ordinaryobserver may take notice of, which may pass their observations. Theopinion of physicians abroad seems to be that it may lie dormant inthe spirits or in the blood-vessels a very considerable time. Why elsedo they exact a quarantine of those who came into their harbours and...　

The Yellow Godor An Idol of Africaby H. Rider HaggardCHAPTER ISAHARA LIMITEDSir Robert Aylward, Bart., M.P., sat in his office in the City ofLondon. It was a very magnificent office, quite one of the finest thatcould be found within half a mile of the Mansion House. Its exteriorwas built of Aberdeen granite, a material calculated to impress theprospective investor with a comfortable sense of security. Otherstucco, or even brick-built, offices might crumble and fall in anactual or a financial sense, but this rock-like edifice of granite,surmounted by a life-sized statue of Justice with her scales, admiredfrom either corner by pleasing effigies of Commerce and of Industry,...　

Of Taxesby David HumeThere is a prevailing maxim, among some reasoners, that everynew tax creates a new ability in the subject to bear it, and thateach encrease of public burdens encreases proportionably theindustry of the people. This maxim is of such a nature as is mostlikely to be abused; and is so much the more dangerous, as itstruth cannot be altogether denied: but it must be owned, whenkept within certain bounds, to have some foundation in reason andexperience.When a tax is laid upon commodities, which are consumed bythe common people, the necessary consequence may seem to be,either that the poor must retrench something from their way of...　

Massacre at Parisby Christopher MarloweTable of Contents with inital stage directions* Dramatis Personae* Scene 1: Enter Charles the French King, [Catherine] the QueeneMother, the King of Navarre, the Prince of Condye, the Lord highAdmirall, and [Margaret] the Queene of Navarre, with others.* Scene 2: Enter the Duke of Guise.* Scene 3: Enter the King of Navar and Queen [Margaret], and his[olde] Mother Queen [of Navarre], the Prince of Condy, theAdmirall, and the Pothecary with the gloves, and gives themto the olde Queene.* Scene 4: Enter [Charles] the King, [Catherine the] QueeneMother, Duke of Guise, Duke Anjoy, Duke Demayne [and Cossin,...