Inhabitants of the Alhambra.I HAVE often observed that the more proudly a mansion has beentenanted in the day of its prosperity, the humbler are its inhabitantsin the day of its decline, and that the palace of a king commonly endsin being the nestling-place of the beggar.The Alhambra is in a rapid state of similar transition. Whenever atower falls to decay, it is seized upon by some tatterdemalion family,who become joint-tenants, with the bats and owls, of its gilded halls,and hang their rags, those standards of poverty, out of its windowsand loopholes.I have amused myself with remarking some of the motley characters...
A LONELY RIDEAs I stepped into the Slumgullion stage I saw that it was a darknight, a lonely road, and that I was the only passenger. Let meassure the reader that I have no ulterior design in making thisassertion. A long course of light reading has forewarned me whatevery experienced intelligence must confidently look for from sucha statement. The storyteller who willfully tempts Fate by suchobvious beginnings; who is to the expectant reader in danger ofbeing robbed or half-murdered, or frightened by an escaped lunatic,or introduced to his ladylove for the first time, deserves to bedetected. I am relieved to say that none of these things occurred...
The Hunchback of Notre Dameby Victor HugoPREFACE.A few years ago, while visiting or, rather, rummaging about Notre-Dame, the author of this book found, in an obscure nook of one of the towers, the following word, engraved by hand upon the wall:~ANArKH~.These Greek capitals, black with age, and quite deeply graven in the stone, with I know not what signs peculiar to Gothic caligraphy imprinted upon their forms and upon their attitudes, as though with the purpose of revealing that it had been a hand of the Middle Ages which had inscribed them there, and especially the fatal and melancholy meaning contained in them, struck the author deeply.He questioned himself; he sought to divine who could
FAIRY TALES OF HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSENTHE BRAVE TIN SOLDIERby Hans Christian AndersenTHERE were once five-and-twenty tin soldiers, who were allbrothers, for they had been made out of the same old tin spoon. Theyshouldered arms and looked straight before them, and wore a splendiduniform, red and blue. The first thing in the world they ever heardwere the words, "Tin soldiers!" uttered by a little boy, who clappedhis hands with delight when the lid of the box, in which they lay, wastaken off. They were given him for a birthday present, and he stood atthe table to set them up. The soldiers were all exactly alike,...
Lay Moralsby Robert Louis StevensonCHAPTER 1THE problem of education is twofold: first to know, and then to utter. Every one who lives any semblance of an inner life thinks more nobly and profoundly than he speaks; and the best of teachers can impart only broken images of the truth which they perceive. Speech which goes from one to another between two natures, and, what is worse, between two experiences, is doubly relative. The speaker buries his meaning; it is for the hearer to dig it up again; and all speech, written or spoken, is in a dead language until it finds a willing and prepared hearer. Such, moreover, is the complexity of life, that when we condescend upon details i
Letters on LiteratureLetters on LiteratureBy Andrew Lang1- Page 2-Letters on LiteratureDEDICATIONDear Mr. Way,After so many letters to people who never existed, may I venture ashort one, to a person very real to me, though I have never seen him, andonly know him by his many kindnesses? Perhaps you will add another tothese by accepting the Dedication of a little work, of a sort experimental inEnglish, and in prose, though Horacein Latin and in versewas...
The Golden Fleeceby Julian HawthorneA RomanceCHAPTER I.The professor crossed one long, lean leg over the other, and punched down the ashes in his pipe-bowl with the square tip of his middle finger. The thermometer on the shady veranda marked eighty-seven degrees of heat, and nature wooed the soul to languor and revery; but nothing could abate the energy of this bony sage."They talk about their Atlantises,their submerged continents!" he exclaimed, with a sniff through his wide, hairy nostrils. "Why, Trednoke, do you realize that we are living literally at the bottom of a Mesozoicat any rate, Cenozoicsea?"The gentleman thus indignantly addressed contemplated his questioner with the serenity
A TALE OF THE TONTLAWALDLong, long ago there stood in the midst of a country covered withlakes a vast stretch of moorland called the Tontlawald, on whichno man ever dared set foot. From time to time a few bold spiritshad been drawn by curiosity to its borders, and on their returnhad reported that they had caught a glimpse of a ruined house ina grove of thick trees, and round about it were a crowd of beingsresembling men, swarming over the grass like bees. The men wereas dirty and ragged as gipsies, and there were besides a quantityof old women and half-naked children.One night a peasant who was returning home from a feast wandereda little farther into the Tontlawald, and came back with th
Merton of the Moviesby Harry Leon WilsonTo George AdeCONTENTSI. DIRTY WORK AT THE BORDERII. THAT NIGHTTHE APARTMENTS OF CLIFFORD ARMYTAGEIII. WESTERN STUFFIV. THE WATCHER AT THE GATEV. A BREACH IN THE CITY WALLSVI. UNDER THE GLASS TOPSVII. "NOTHING TO-DAY, DEAR!"VIII. CLIFFORD ARMYTAGE, THE OUTLAWIX. MORE WAYS THAN ONEX. OF SHATTERED ILLUSIONSXI. THE MONTAGUE GIRL INTERVENESXII. ALIAS HAROLD PARMALEEXIII. GENIUS COMES INTO ITS OWNXIV. OUT THERE WHERE MEN ARE MENXV. A NEW TRAILXVI. OF SARAH NEVADA MONTAGUEXVII. MISS MONTAGUE USES HER OWN FACEXVIII. "FIVE REELS500 LAUGHS"...
A Complete Account of the Settlementby Watkin TenchPREFACEWhen it is recollected how much has been written to describe the Settlement of New South Wales, it seems necessary if not to offer an apology, yet to assign a reason, for an additional publication.The Author embarked in the fleet which sailed to found the establishment at Botany Bay. He shortly after published a Narrative of the Proceedings and State of the Colony, brought up to the beginning of July, 1788, which was well received, and passed through three editions. This could not but inspire both confidence and gratitude; but gratitude, would be badly manifested were he on the presumption of former favour to lay claim to present i
History of the Impeachment of Andrew Johnson, President of theUnited Statesby Edmund G. RossPREFACE.Little is now known to the general public of the history of the attempt to remove President Andrew Johnson in 1868, on his impeachment by the House of Representatives and trial by the Senate for alleged high crimes and misdemeanors in office, or of the causes that led to it. Yet it was one of the most important and critical events, involving possibly the gravest consequences, in the entire history of the country.The constitutional power to impeach and remove the President had lain dormant since the organization of the Government, and apparently had never been thought of as a means for the sat
The Purcell Papers, Volume 2by Joseph Sheridan Le FanuWith a Memoir byALFRED PERCEVAL GRAVESCONTENTS OF VOL. II.PASSAGE IN THE SECRET HISTORY OF AN IRISH COUNTESSTHE BRIDAL OF CARRIGVARAHSTRANGE EVENT IN THE LIFE OF SCHALKEN THE PAINTERSCRAPS OF HIBERNIAN BALLADSTHE PURCELL PAPERS.PASSAGE IN THESECRET HISTORY OF AN IRISHCOUNTESS.Being a Fifth Extract from the Legacy of the late FrancisPurcell, P.P. of Drumcoolagh.The following paper is written in afemale hand, and was no doubtcommunicated to my much-regretted...