The Ancien Regimeby Charles KingsleyPREFACEThe rules of the Royal Institution forbid (and wisely) religious orpolitical controversy. It was therefore impossible for me in theseLectures, to say much which had to be said, in drawing a just andcomplete picture of the Ancien Regime in France. The passagesinserted between brackets, which bear on religious matters, wereaccordingly not spoken at the Royal Institution.But more. It was impossible for me in these Lectures, to bringforward as fully as I could have wished, the contrast between thecontinental nations and England, whether now, or during theeighteenth century. But that contrast cannot be too carefully...　

Letters to His Son, 1766-71by The Earl of ChesterfieldLETTERS TO HIS SONBy the EARL OF CHESTERFIELDon the Fine Art of becoming aMAN OF THE WORLDand aGENTLEMANLETTER CCLXXXIVLONDON, February 11, 1766MY DEAR FRIEND: I received two days ago your letter of the 25th past;and your former, which you mention in it, but ten days ago; this mayeasily be accounted for from the badness of the weather, and consequentlyof the roads. I hardly remember so severe a win ter; it has occasioned...　

RECORDS OF A FAMILY OF ENGINEERSRECORDS OF AFAMILY OF ENGINEERSROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON1- Page 2-RECORDS OF A FAMILY OF ENGINEERSINTRODUCTIONTHE SURNAME OF STEVENSONFROM the thirteenth century onwards, the name, under the variousdisguises of Stevinstoun, Stevensoun, Stevensonne, Stenesone, andStewinsoune, spread across Scotland from the mouth of the Firth of Forthto the mouth of the Firth of Clyde. Four times at least it occurs as a...　

THE FLOWER OF THE MINDTHE FLOWER OF THEMINDAlice Meynell1- Page 2-THE FLOWER OF THE MINDINTRODUCTIONPartial collections of English poems, decided by a common subject orbounded by narrow dates and periods of literary history, are made at veryshort intervals, and the makers are safe from the reproach of proposingtheir own personal taste as a guide for the reading of others. But a generalAnthology gathered from the whole of English literaturethe whole from...　

Book ICHAPTER I.MASLOVA IN PRISON.Though hundreds of thousands had done their very best todisfigure the small piece of land on which they were crowdedtogether, by paying the ground with stones, scraping away everyvestige of vegetation, cutting down the trees, turning away birdsand beasts, and filling the air with the smoke of naphtha andcoal, still spring was spring, even in the town.The sun shone warm, the air was balmy; everywhere, where it didnot get scraped away, the grass revived and sprang up between thepaving-stones as well as on the narrow strips of lawn on theboulevards. The birches, the poplars, and the wild cherryunfolded their gummy and fragrant leaves, the limes were...　

A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATEA WARD OF THEGOLDEN GATEBret Harte1- Page 2-A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATEPROLOGUE.In San Francisco the "rainy season" had been making itself a realityto the wondering Eastern immigrant. There were short days of driftingclouds and flying sunshine, and long succeeding nights of incessantdownpour, when the rain rattled on the thin shingles or drummed on theresounding zinc of pioneer roofs. The shifting sand-dunes on the outskirts...　

OWL POSTHarry Potter was a highly unusual boy in many ways. For one thing, he hated the summer holidays more than any other time of year. For another, he really wanted to do his homework but was forced to do it in secret, in the dead of night. And he also happened to be a wizard.It was nearly midnight, and he was lying on his stomach in bed, the blankets drawn right over his head like a tent, a flashlight in one hand and a large leather-bound book (A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot) propped open against the pillow. Harry moved the tip of his eagle-feather quill down the page, frowning as he looked for something that would help him write his essay, "Witch Burning in the Fourteenth Ce　

　　"Reptiles are abhorrent because of their cold body, pale color, cartilaginous skeleton, filthy skin, fierce aspect, calculating eye, offensive smell, harsh voice, squalid habitation, and terrible venom; wherefore their Creator has not exerted his powers to make many of them."　　LINNAEUS, 1797　　"You cannot recall a new form of life."　　ERWIN CHARGAFF, 1972　　Introduction　"The InGen Incident"The late twentieth century has witnessed a scientific gold rush of astonishing proportions: the headlong and furious haste to mercialize genetic engineering. This enterprise has proceeded so rapidly-with so little outside mentary-that its dimensions and implications are hardly understood at all....　

The Country Doctorby Honore de BalzacTranslated by Ellen Marriage and Clara Bell"For a wounded heartshadow and silence."To my Mother.CHAPTER ITHE COUNTRYSIDE AND THE MANOn a lovely spring morning in the year 1829, a man of fifty or thereabouts was wending his way on horseback along the mountain road that leads to a large village near the Grande Chartreuse. This village is the market town of a populous canton that lies within the limits of a valley of some considerable length. The melting of the snows had filled the boulder-strewn bed of the torrent (often dry) that flows through this valley, which is closely shut in between two parallel mountain barriers, above which the peaks of Savoy and 　

Letters to His Son, 1752by The Earl of ChesterfieldLETTERS TO HIS SONBy the EARL OF CHESTERFIELDon the Fine Art of becoming aMAN OF THE WORLDand aGENTLEMANLETTER CLVLONDON, January 2, O. S. 1752.MY DEAR FRIEND: Laziness of mind, or inattention, are as great enemies to knowledge as incapacity; for, in truth, what difference is there between a man who will not, and a man who cannot be informed? This difference only, that the former is justly to be blamed, the latter to be pitied. And yet how many there are, very capable of receiving knowledge, who from laziness, inattention, and incuriousness, will not so much as ask for it, much less take the least pains to acquire it!...　

　　THOMAS COVENANT is a happy and successful author until an unfelt infection leads to the amputation of two fingers. Then his doctor tells him he has leprosy. The disease is arrested at a leprosarium, but he returns home to find himself an outcast. His wife has divorced him and ignorant fear makes all his neighbors shun him. He bees a lonely, bitter pariah.　In rebellion, he goes to town. There, just after he meets a strange beggar, he stumbles in front of a police car. Disorientation overes him. He revives in a strange world where the evil voice of Lord Foul gives him a mocking message of doom to the Lords of the Land. When Foul leaves, a young girl named Lena takes him to her home. There h　

　　Book One　　Chapter 01　　Behind every great fortune there is a crime.　BALZAC　Amerigo Bonasera sat in New York Criminal Court Number 3 and waited for justice; vengeance on the men who had so cruelly hurt his daughter, who had tried to dishonor her.　　The judge, a formidably heavy-featured man, rolled up the sleeves of his black robe as if to physically chastise the two young men standing before the bench. His face was cold with majestic contempt. But there was something false in all this that Amerigo Bonasera sensed but did not yet understand.　　"You acted like the worst kind of degenerates," the judge said harshly. Yes, yes, thought Amerigo Bonasera. Animals. Animals. The two young men, glossy