Beacon Lights of HistoryVolume III Part 2by John LordVolume III.Part IIRenaissance and Reformation.CONTENTS.DANTE.RISE OF MODERN POETRY.The antiquity of PoetryThe greatness of PoetsTheir influence on CivilizationThe true poet one of the rarest of menThe pre-eminence of Homer, Dante, Shakspeare, and GoetheCharacteristics of DanteHis precocityHis moral wisdom and great attainmentsHis terrible scorn and his isolationState of society when Dante was bornHis banishmentGuelphs and GhibellinesDante stimulated to his great task by an absorbing sentimentBeatrice...
Essays and Lecturesby Oscar WildeContentsThe Rise of Historical CriticismThe English Renaissance of ArtHouse DecorationArt and the HandicraftmanLecture to Art StudentsLondon ModelsPoems in ProseTHE RISE OF HISTORICAL CRITICISMCHAPTER IHISTORICAL criticism nowhere occurs as an isolated fact in thecivilisation or literature of any people. It is part of thatcomplex working towards freedom which may be described as therevolt against authority. It is merely one facet of thatspeculative spirit of an innovation, which in the sphere of actionproduces democracy and revolution, and in that of thought is the...
THE CONEThe night was hot and overcast, the sky red, rimmed with thelingering sunset of mid-summer. They sat at the open window,trying to fancy the air was fresher there. The trees and shrubs ofthe garden stood stiff and dark; beyond in the roadway a gas-lamp burnt, bright orange against the hazy blue of the evening.Farther were the three lights of the railway signal against thelowering sky. The man and woman spoke to one another in low tones."He does not suspect?" said the man, a little nervously."Not he," she said peevishly, as though that too irritatedher. "He thinks of nothing but the works and the prices of fuel.He has no imagination, no poetry."...
RECALLED TO LIFECHAPTER IThe PeriodIt was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other wayin short, the period was so. far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.There were a king with a large jaw and a queen with a
The Titanby Theodore DreiserChapter IThe New CityWhen Frank Algernon Cowperwood emerged from the Eastern District Penitentiary in Philadelphia he realized that the old life he had lived in that city since boyhood was ended. His youth was gone, and with it had been lost the great business prospects of his earlier manhood. He must begin again.It would be useless to repeat how a second panic following upon a tremendous failurethat of Jay Cooke & Co.had placed a second fortune in his hands. This restored wealth softened him in some degree. Fate seemed to have his personal welfare in charge. He was sick of the stock-exchange, anyhow, as a means of livelihood, and now decided that he would l
Troilus and Criseydeby Geoffrey ChaucerBOOK IThe double sorwe of Troilus to tellen, 1That was the king Priamus sone of Troye,In lovinge, how his aventures fellenFro wo to wele, and after out of Ioye,My purpos is, er that I parte fro ye. 5Thesiphone, thou help me for tendyteThise woful vers, that wepen as I wryte!To thee clepe I, thou goddesse of torment,Thou cruel Furie, sorwing ever in peyne;Help me, that am the sorwful instrument 10That helpeth lovers, as I can, to pleyne!For wel sit it, the sothe for to seyne,A woful wight to han a drery fere,And, to a sorwful tale, a sory chere.For I, that god of Loves servaunts serve, 15...
The Lumley Autographby Susan Fenimore Cooper[Not long since an American author received an application from aGerman correspondent for "a few Autographs"the number of namesapplied for amounting to more than a hundred, and covering severalsheets of foolscap. A few years since an Englishman of literary notesent his Album to a distinguished poet in Paris for his contribution,when the volume was actually stolen from a room where every otherarticle was left untouched; showing that Autographs were morevaluable in the eyes of the thief than any other property. Amusedwith the recollection of these facts, and others of the same kind,some idle hours were given by the writer to the following view of th
BOOK II: OF THE RELIGIONS OF THE UTOPIANSTHERE are several sorts of religions, not only in different partsof the island, but even in every town; some worshipping the sun,others the moon or one of the planets: some worship such men ashave been eminent in former times for virtue or glory, not only asordinary deities, but as the supreme God: yet the greater andwiser sort of them worship none of these, but adore one eternal,invisible, infinite, and incomprehensible Deity; as a being thatis far above all our apprehensions, that is spread over the wholeuniverse, not by His bulk, but by His power and virtue; Him they...
Balladsby Robert Louis StevensonTHE SONG OF RAHEROA LEGEND OF TAHITITO ORI A ORIORI, my brother in the island mode,In every tongue and meaning much my friend,This story of your country and your clan,In your loved house, your too much honoured guest,I made in English. Take it, being done;And let me sign it with the name you gave.TERIITERA.I. THE SLAYING OF TAMATEAIT fell in the days of old, as the men of Taiarapu tell,A youth went forth to the fishing, and fortune favoured him well.Tamatea his name: gullible, simple, and kind,Comely of countenance, nimble of body, empty of mind,...
SYLLA138-78 B.C.by Plutarchtranslated by John DrydenLUCIUS Cornelius Sylla was descended of a patrician or noble family.Of his ancestors, Rufinus, it is said, had been consul, and incurred adisgrace more signal than his distinction. For being found possessedof more than ten pounds of silver plate, contrary to the law, he wasfor this reason put out of the senate. His posterity continued everafter in obscurity, nor had Sylla himself any opulent parentage. Inhis younger days he lived in hired lodgings, at a low rate, which inaftertimes was adduced against him as proof that he had been fortunate...
Father Damienby Robert Louis StevensonAN OPEN LETTER TO THE REVEREND DR. HYDE OF HONOLULUSYDNEY,FEBRUARY 25, 1890.Sir, - It may probably occur to you that we have met, and visited,and conversed; on my side, with interest. You may remember thatyou have done me several courtesies, for which I was prepared to begrateful. But there are duties which come before gratitude, andoffences which justly divide friends, far more acquaintances. Yourletter to the Reverend H. B. Gage is a document which, in my sight,if you had filled me with bread when I was starving, if you had satup to nurse my father when he lay a-dying, would yet absolve me...
The Wandering Jew, Volume 9by Eugene SueBOOK IX.XV. The Constant WandererXVI. The LuncheonXVII. Rendering the AccountXVIII. The Square of Notre DameXIX. The Cholera MasqueradeXX. The DefianceXXI. Brandy to the RescueXXII. MemoriesXXIII. The PoisonerXXIV. CathedralXXV. The MurderersXXVI. The PatientXXVII. The LureXXVIII. Good NewsXXIX. The OperationXXX. The TortureXXXI. Vice and VirtueXXXII. SuicideCHAPTER XV.THE CONSTANT WANDERER.It is night. The moon shines and the stars glimmer in the midst of aserene but cheerless sky; the sharp whistlings of the north wind, that...