Selected Prose of Oscar Wildeby Oscar WildeContents:Preface by Robert RossHow They Struck a ContemporaryThe Quality of George MeredithLife in the Fallacious ModelLife the DiscipleLife the PlagiaristThe Indispensable EastThe Influence of the Impressionists on ClimateAn Exposure to NaturalismThomas Griffiths WainewrightWainewright at Hobart TownCardinal Newman and the AutobiographiersRobert BrowningThe Two Supreme and Highest ArtsThe Secrets of ImmortalityThe Critic and his MaterialDante the Living GuideThe Limitations of GeniusWanted A New BackgroundWithout FrontiersThe Poetry of Archaeology...　

400 BCINSTRUMENTS OF REDUCTIONby Hippocratestranslated by Francis AdamsPart 1With regard to the construction of bones, the bones and joints ofthe fingers are simple, the bones of the hand and foot are numerous,and articulated in various ways; the uppermost are the largest; theheel consists of one bone which is seen to project outward, and theback tendons are attached to it. The leg consists of twobones, unitedtogether above and below, but slightly separated in the middle; theexternal bone (fibula), where it comes into proximity with the...　

THE WONDERFUL SHEEPONCE upon a timein the days when the fairies livedthere was a king who had three daughters, who were allyoung, and clever, and beautiful; but the youngest of thethree, who was called Miranda, was the prettiest andthe most beloved.The King, her father, gave her more dresses and jewelsin a month than he gave the others in a year; but she wasso generous that she shared everything with her sisters,and they were all as happy and as fond of one another asthey could be.Now, the King had some quarrelsome neighbors, who,tired of leaving him in peace, began to make war uponhim so fiercely that he feared he would be altogether...　

PART IVTHE ANCIENT PEOPLEITHE San Francisco Mountain lies in Northern Arizona,above Flagstaff, and its blue slopes and snowy summitentice the eye for a hundred miles across the desert. Aboutits base lie the pine forests of the Navajos, where the greatred-trunked trees live out their peaceful centuries in thatsparkling air. The PINONS and scrub begin only where theforest ends, where the country breaks into open, stonyclearings and the surface of the earth cracks into deep can-yons. The great pines stand at a considerable distance from...　

The Purseby Honore de BalzacTranslated by Clara BellTo Sofka"Have you observed, mademoiselle, that the painters andsculptors of the Middle Ages, when they placed two figures inadoration, one on each side of a fair Saint, never failed togive them a family likeness? When you here see your name amongthose that are dear to me, and under whose auspices I place myworks, remember that touching harmony, and you will see inthis not so much an act of homage as an expression of thebrotherly affection of your devoted servant,"DE BALZAC."For souls to whom effusiveness is easy there is a delicious hour...　

THE DEVIL IN MANUSCRIPTOn a bitter evening of December, I arrived by mail in a largetown, which was then the residence of an intimate friend, one ofthose gifted youths who cultivate poetry and the belles-lettres,and call themselves students at law. My first business, aftersupper, was to visit him at the office of his distinguishedinstructor. As I have said, it was a bitter night, clearstarlight, but cold as Nova Zembla,the shop-windows along thestreet being frosted, so as almost to hide the lights, while thewheels of coaches thundered equally loud over frozen earth andpavements of stone. There was no snow, either on the ground orthe roofs of the houses. The wind blew so violently, that I ha　

RECOLLECTIONS OF THE PRIVATE LIFE OF NAPOLEON, V5BY CONSTANTPREMIER VALET DE CHAMBRETRANSLATED BY WALTER CLARKCONTENTS:CHAPTER I. to CHAPTER VI.CHAPTER I.I left the Emperor at Berlin, where each day, and each hour of the day,he received news of some victory gained, or some success obtained by hisgenerals. General Beaumont presented to him eighty flags captured fromthe enemy by his division, and Colonel Gerard also presented sixty takenfrom Blucher at the battle of Wismar. Madgeburg had capitulated, and agarrison of sixty thousand men had marched out under the eyes of GeneralSavary. Marshal Mortier occupied Hanover in the name of France, and...　

Over the Teacupsby Oliver W. HolmesPREFACE.The kind way in which this series of papers has been received hasbeen a pleasure greater than I dared to anticipate. I felt that Iwas a late comer in the midst of a crowd of ardent and eagercandidates for public attention, that I had already had my day, andthat if, like the unfortunate Frenchman we used read about, I had"come again," I ought not to surprised if I received the welcome of"Monsieur Tonson."It has not proved so. My old readers have come forward in thepleasantest possible way and assured me that they were glad to see meagain. There is no need, therefore, of apologies or explanations. I...　

The Secrets of the Princesse de Cadignanby Honore de BalzacTranslated by Katharine Prescott WormeleyDEDICATIONTo Theophile GautierTHE SECRETS OF THE PRINCESSE DE CADIGNANCHAPTER ITHE LAST WORD OF TWO GREAT COQUETTESAfter the disasters of the revolution of July, which destroyed so manyaristocratic fortunes dependent on the court, Madame la Princesse deCadignan was clever enough to attribute to political events the totalruin she had caused by her own extravagance. The prince left Francewith the royal family, and never returned to it, leaving the princessin Paris, protected by the fact of his absence; for their debts, which...　

THE YOUNG MAN WHO WOULD HAVE HIS EYES OPENEDOnce upon a time there lived a youth who was never happy unlesshe was prying into something that other people knew nothingabout. After he had learned to understand the language of birdsand beasts, he discovered accidentally that a great deal tookplace under cover of night which mortal eyes never saw. Fromthat moment he felt he could not rest till these hidden secretswere laid bare to him, and he spent his whole time wandering fromone wizard to another, begging them to open his eyes, but foundnone to help him. At length he reached an old magician calledMana, whose learning was greater than that of the rest, and who...　

For the Term of His Natural Lifeby Marcus ClarkeDEDICATIONTOSIR CHARLES GAVAN DUFFYMy Dear Sir Charles, I take leave to dedicate this work to you, not merely because your nineteen years of political and literary life in Australia render it very fitting that any work written by a resident in the colonies, and having to do with the history of past colonial days, should bear your name upon its dedicatory page; but because the publication of my book is due to your advice and encouragement.The convict of fiction has been hitherto shown only at the beginning or at the end of his career. Either his exile has been the mysterious end to his misdeeds, or he has appeared upon the scene to claim inte　

by Charles DarwinNext ChapterChapter 1 - Variation Under DomesticationWHEN we look to the individuals of the same variety or sub-variety of our older cultivated plants and animals, one of the first points which strikes us, is, that they generally differ much more from each other, than do the individuals of any one species or variety in a state of nature. When we reflect on the vast diversity of the plants and animals which have been cultivated, and which have varied during all ages under the most different climates and treatment, I think we are driven to conclude that this greater variability is simply due to our domestic productions having been raised under conditions of life not so unifor