Unconscious Comediansby Honore de BalzacTranslated by Katharine Prescott WormeleyDEDICATIONTo Monsieur le Comte Jules de Castellane.UNCONSCIOUS COMEDIANSLeon de Lora, our celebrated landscape painter, belongs to one of thenoblest families of the Roussillon (Spanish originally) which,although distinguished for the antiquity of its race, has been doomedfor a century to the proverbial poverty of hidalgos. Coming,light-footed, to Paris from the department of the Eastern Pyrenees,with the sum of eleven francs in his pocket for all viaticum, he hadin some degree forgotten the miseries and privations of his childhood...　

　　Walking up the wall had not been easy. But walking across the ceiling was turning out to be pletely impossible. Until I realized that I was going about it the wrong way. It seemed obvious when I thought about it. When I held onto the ceiling with my hands I could not move my feet. So I switched off the molebind gloves and swung down, hanging only from the soles of my boots. The blood rushed to my head-as well it might bringing with it a surge of nausea and a sensation of great unease.　What was I doing here, hanging upside down from the ceiling of the Mint, watching the machine below stamp out five-hundred-thousand-credit coins? They jingled and fell into the waiting baskets-so the answer 　

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHTLike most other young matrons, Meg began her married life with the determination to be a model housekeeper. John should find home a paradise, he should always see a smiling face, should fare sumptuously every day, and never know the loss of a button. She brought so much love, energy, and cheerfulness to the work that she could not but succeed, in spite of some obstacles. Her paradise was not a tranquil one, for the little woman fussed, was over-anxious to please, and bustled about like a true Martha, cumbered with many cares. She was too tired, sometimes, even to smile, John grew dyspeptic after a course of dainty dishes and ungratefully demanded plain fare. As for butto　

FAIRY TALES OF HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSENTHE PORTUGUESE DUCKby Hans Christian AndersenA DUCK once arrived from Portugal, but there were some who saidshe came from Spain, which is almost the same thing. At all events,she was called the "Portuguese," and she laid eggs, was killed, andcooked, and there was an end of her. But the ducklings which creptforth from the eggs were also called "Portuguese," and about thatthere may be some question. But of all the family one only remained inthe duckyard, which may be called a farmyard, as the chickens wereadmitted, and the cock strutted about in a very hostile manner. "He...　

Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, rendered into English verseby Edward FitzgeraldContents:Introduction.First Edition.Fifth Edition.Notes.IntroductionOmar Khayyam,The Astronomer-Poet of Persia.Omar Khayyam was born at Naishapur in Khorassan in the latter half ofour Eleventh, and died within the First Quarter of our TwelfthCentury. The Slender Story of his Life is curiously twined about thatof two other very considerable Figures in their Time and Country: oneof whom tells the Story of all Three. This was Nizam ul Mulk, Vizierto Alp Arslan the Son, and Malik Shah the Grandson, of Toghrul Beg the...　

Chapter IV of Volume III (Chap. 46)ELIZABETH had been a good deal disappointed in not finding a letter from Jane on their first arrival at Lambton; and this disappointment had been renewed on each of the mornings that had now been spent there; but on the third, her repining was over, and her sister justified, by the receipt of two letters from her at once, on one of which was marked that it had been missent elsewhere. Elizabeth was not surprised at it, as Jane had written the direction remarkably ill.They had just been preparing to walk as the letters came in; and her uncle and aunt, leaving her to enjoy them in quiet, set off by themselves. The one missent must be first attended to; it had　

The Wood Beyond the Worldby William MorrisCHAPTER I: OF GOLDEN WALTER AND HIS FATHERAwhile ago there was a young man dwelling in a great and goodly cityby the sea which had to name Langton on Holm. He was but of fiveand twenty winters, a fair-faced man, yellow-haired, tall andstrong; rather wiser than foolisher than young men are mostly wont;a valiant youth, and a kind; not of many words but courteous ofspeech; no roisterer, nought masterful, but peaceable and knowinghow to forbear: in a fray a perilous foe, and a trusty war-fellow.His father, with whom he was dwelling when this tale begins, was agreat merchant, richer than a baron of the land, a head-man of the...　

AN INQUIRY INTO THE NATURE AND CAUSES OF THE WEALTH OF NATIONSby Adam Smith1776BOOK TWOOF THE NATURE, ACCUMULATION, AND EMPLOYMENT OF STOCKINTRODUCTIONIN that rude state of society in which there is no divisionof labour, in which exchanges are seldom made, and in which everyman provides everything for himself, it is not necessary that anystock should be accumulated or stored up beforehand in order tocarry on the business of the society. Every man endeavours tosupply by his own industry his own occasional wants as theyoccur. When he is hungry, he goes to the forest to hunt; when his...　

Manaliveby G. K. ChestertonTable of ContentsPart I: The Enigmas of Innocent SmithI. How the Great Wind Came to Beacon HouseII. The Luggage of an OptimistIII. The Banner of BeaconIV. The Garden of the GodV. The Allegorical Practical JokerPart II: The Explanations of Innocent SmithI. The Eye of Death; or, the Murder ChargeII. The Two Curates; or, the Burglary ChargeIII. The Round Road; or, the Desertion ChargeIV. The Wild Weddings; or, the Polygamy ChargeV. How the Great Wind went from Beacon House...　

The Lodgerby Marie Belloc Lowndes"Lover and friend hast thou put far from me, and mine acquaintance into darkness." PSALM lxxxviii. 18CHAPTER IRobert Bunting and Ellen his wife sat before their dully burning, carefully-banked-up fire.The room, especially when it be known that it was part of a house standing in a grimy, if not exactly sordid, London thoroughfare, was exceptionally clean and well-cared-for. A casual stranger, more particularly one of a Superior class to their own, on suddenly opening the door of that sitting-room; would have thought that Mr. and Mrs. Bunting presented a very pleasant cosy picture of comfortable married life. Bunting, who was leaning back in a deep leather 　

Boyhoodby Leo TolstoyTranslated by CJ HogarthIA SLOW JOURNEYAgain two carriages stood at the front door of the house at Petrovskoe. In one of them sat Mimi, the two girls, and their maid, with the bailiff, Jakoff, on the box, while in the othera britchkasat Woloda, myself, and our servant Vassili. Papa, who was to follow us to Moscow in a few days, was standing bareheaded on the entrance-steps. He made the sign of the cross at the windows of the carriages, and said:"Christ go with you! Good-bye."Jakoff and our coachman (for we had our own horses) lifted their caps in answer, and also made the sign of the cross."Amen. God go with us!"The carriages began to roll away, and the birch-trees of t　

ERYXIASERYXIASby a Platonic ImitatorTranslated by Benjamin Jowett1- Page 2-ERYXIASINTRODUCTION.Much cannot be said in praise of the style or conception of the Eryxias.It is frequently obscure; like the exercise of a student, it is full of smallimitations of Plato:Phaeax returning from an expedition to Sicily(compare Socrates in the Charmides from the army at Potidaea), the figureof the game at draughts, borrowed from the Republic, etc. It has also in...