Preface Of The Author.It is not my intention to detain the reader by expatiatingon the variety or the importance of the subject, which I haveundertaken to treat; since the merit of the choice would serve torender the weakness of the execution still more apparent, andstill less excusable. But as I have presumed to lay before thepublic a first volume only ^1 of the History of the Decline andFall of the Roman Empire, it will, perhaps, be expected that Ishould explain, in a few words, the nature and limits of mygeneral plan.[Footnote 1: The first volume of the quarto, which contained thesixteen first chapters.]...　

VisitorsI think that I love society as much as most, and am ready enoughto fasten myself like a bloodsucker for the time to any full-bloodedman that comes in my way. I am naturally no hermit, but mightpossibly sit out the sturdiest frequenter of the bar-room, if mybusiness called me thither.I had three chairs in my house; one for solitude, two forfriendship, three for society. When visitors came in larger andunexpected numbers there was but the third chair for them all, butthey generally economized the room by standing up. It is surprisinghow many great men and women a small house will contain. I have had...　

Sarrasineby Honore de BalzacTranslated by Clara Bell and othersDEDICATIONTo Monsieur Charles Bernard du Grail.SARRASINEI was buried in one of those profound reveries to which everybody,even a frivolous man, is subject in the midst of the most uproariousfestivities. The clock on the Elysee-Bourbon had just struck midnight.Seated in a window recess and concealed behind the undulating folds ofa curtain of watered silk, I was able to contemplate at my leisure thegarden of the mansion at which I was passing the evening. The trees,being partly covered with snow, were outlined indistinctly against thegrayish background formed by a cloudy sky, barely whitened by the...　

Letters of Two Bridesby Honore de BalzacTranslated by R. S. ScottDEDICATIONTo George SandYour name, dear George, while casting a reflected radiance on mybook, can gain no new glory from this page. And yet it is neitherself-interest nor diffidence which has led me to place it there,but only the wish that it should bear witness to the solidfriendship between us, which has survived our wanderings andseparations, and triumphed over the busy malice of the world. Thisfeeling is hardly likely now to change. The goodly company offriendly names, which will remain attached to my works, forms anelement of pleasure in the midst of the vexation caused by their...　

THE MONKEY AND THE JELLY-FISHChildren must often have wondered why jelly-fishes have noshells, like so many of the creatures that are washed up everyday on the beach. In old times this was not so; the jelly-fishhad as hard a shell as any of them, but he lost it through hisown fault, as may be seen in this story.The sea-queen Otohime, whom you read of in the story ofUraschimatoro, grew suddenly very ill. The swiftest messengerswere sent hurrying to fetch the best doctors from every countryunder the sea, but it was all of no use; the queen grew rapidlyworse instead of better. Everyone had almost given up hope, whenone day a doctor arrived who was cleverer than the rest, and said...　

THE MUDFOG AND OTHER SKETCHESPUBLIC LIFE OF MR. TULRUMBLE - ONCE MAYOR OF MUDFOGMudfog is a pleasant town - a remarkably pleasant town - situatedin a charming hollow by the side of a river, from which river,Mudfog derives an agreeable scent of pitch, tar, coals, and rope-yarn, a roving population in oilskin hats, a pretty steady influxof drunken bargemen, and a great many other maritime advantages.There is a good deal of water about Mudfog, and yet it is notexactly the sort of town for a watering-place, either. Water is aperverse sort of element at the best of times, and in Mudfog it isparticularly so. In winter, it comes oozing down the streets and...　

Autobiography of Andrew Dickson White Volume IIby Andrew Dickson WhiteVOLUME IIAUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ANDREW DICKSON WHITEVolume IICHAPTER XXXIIIAS MINISTER TO RUSSIA1892-1894During four years after my return from service as minister toGermany I devoted myself to the duties of the presidency atCornell, and on resigning that position gave all time possible tostudy and travel, with reference to the book on which I was thenengaged: "A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology."...　

Under Western Eyesby Joseph Conrad"I would take liberty from any handas a hungry man would snatch a piece of bread."Miss HALDINPART FIRSTTo begin with I wish to disclaim the possession of those highgifts of imagination and expression which would have enabled mypen to create for the reader the personality of the man whocalled himself, after the Russian custom, Cyril son ofIsidorKirylo Sidorovitch-Razumov,If I have ever had these gifts in any sort of living form theyhave been smothered out of existence a long time ago under awilderness of words. Words, as is well known, are the great foes...　

We Twoby Edna LyallCHAPTER I. Brian Falls in LoveStill humanity grows dearer, Being learned the more. Jean Ingelow.There are three things in this world which deserve no quarter Hypocrisy, Pharisaism, and Tyranny. F. RobertsonPeople who have been brought up in the country, or in small places where every neighbor is known by sight, are apt to think that life in a large town must lack many of the interests which they have learned to find in their more limited communities. In a somewhat bewildered way, they gaze at the shifting crowd of strange faces, and wonder whether it would be possible to feel completely at home where all the surroundings of life seem ever changing and unfamiliar....　

Seraphitaby Honore de BalzacTranslated by Katharine Prescott WormeleyDEDICATIONTo Madame Eveline de Hanska, nee Comtesse Rzewuska.Madame,Here is the work which you asked of me. I am happy, inthus dedicating it, to offer you a proof of the respectfulaffection you allow me to bear you. If I am reproached forimpotence in this attempt to draw from the depths of mysticism abook which seeks to give, in the lucid transparency of ourbeautiful language, the luminous poesy of the Orient, to you theblame! Did you not command this struggle (resembling that ofJacob) by telling me that the most imperfect sketch of this...　

Anabasisby XenophonTranslation by H. G. DakynsDedicated To Rev. B. Jowett, M.A. Master of Balliol College Regius Professor of Greek in the University of OxfordXenophon the Athenian was born 431 B.C. He was a pupil of Socrates. He marched with the Spartans, and was exiled from Athens. Sparta gave him land and property in Scillus, where he lived for many years before having to move once more, to settle in Corinth. He died in 354 B.C.The Anabasis is his story of the march to Persia to aid Cyrus, who enlisted Greek help to try and take the throne from Artaxerxes, and the ensuing return of the Greeks, in which Xenophon played a leading role. This occurred between 401 B.C. and March 399 B.C....　

SHERLOCK HOLMESTHE ADVENTURE OF THE SOLITARY CYCLISTby Sir Arthur Conan DoyleFrom the years 1894 to 1901 inclusive, Mr. Sherlock Holmes was avery busy man. It is safe to say that there was no public case ofany difficulty in which he was not consulted during those eight years,and there were hundreds of private cases, some of them of the mostintricate and extraordinary character, in which he played aprominent part. Many startling successes and a few unavoidablefailures were the outcome of this long period of continuous work. As Ihave preserved very full notes of all these cases, and was myself...