Autobiography and Selected Essaysby Thomas Henry HuxleyEdited, with introduction and notes by Ada L. F. SnellAssociate Professor Of EnglishMount Holyoke CollegeCONTENTSPREFACEINTRODUCTIONThe Life of HuxleySubject-matter, Structure, and Style of EssaysSuggested StudiesAUTOBIOGRAPHYON IMPROVING NATURAL KNOWLEDGEA LIBERAL EDUCATIONON A PIECE OF CHALKTHE PRINCIPAL SUBJECTS OF EDUCATIONTHE METHOD OF SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATIONON THE PHYSICAL BASIS OF LIFEON CORAL AND CORAL REEFSNOTESPREFACEThe purpose of the following selections is to present to students...　

THE SON OF THE WOLF.MAN RARELY PLACES A PROPER valuation upon his womankind, at leastnot until deprived of them. He has no conception of the subtleatmosphere exhaled by the sex feminine, so long as he bathes in it;but let it be withdrawn, and an ever-growing void begins to manifestitself in his existence, and he becomes hungry, in a vague sort ofway, for a something so indefinite that he cannot characterize it.If his comrades have no more experience than himself, they willshake their heads dubiously and dose him with strong physic. But thehunger will continue and become stronger; he will lose interest in thethings of his everyday life and wax morbid; and one day, when the...　

THE FORTY THIEVESIN a town in Persia there dwelt two brothers, one namedCassim, the other Ali Baba. Cassim was married to arich wife and lived in plenty, while Ali Baba had to maintainhis wife and children by cutting wood in a neighboringforest and selling it in the town. One day, when AliBaba was in the forest, he saw a troop of men on horseback,coming toward him in a cloud of dust. He wasafraid they were robbers, and climbed into a tree forsafety. When they came up to him and dismounted, hecounted forty of them. They unbridled their horses andtied them to trees. The finest man among them, whomAli Baba took to be their captain, went a little way among...　

Critiasby PlatoTranslated by Benjamin JowettINTRODUCTION AND ANALYSIS.The Critias is a fragment which breaks off in the middle of a sentence. Itwas designed to be the second part of a trilogy, which, like the othergreat Platonic trilogy of the Sophist, Statesman, Philosopher, was nevercompleted. Timaeus had brought down the origin of the world to thecreation of man, and the dawn of history was now to succeed the philosophyof nature. The Critias is also connected with the Republic. Plato, as hehas already told us (Tim.), intended to represent the ideal state engaged...　

Legend of Don Munio Sancho de Hinojosa.IN THE cloisters of the ancient Benedictine convent of SanDomingo, at Silos, in Castile, are the mouldering yet magnificentmonuments of the once powerful and chivalrous family of Hinojosa.Among these reclines the marble figure of a knight, in complete armor,with the hands pressed together, as if in prayer. On one side of histomb is sculptured in relief a band of Christian cavaliers,capturing a cavalcade of male and female Moors; on the other side, thesame cavaliers are represented kneeling before an altar. The tomb,like most of the neighboring monuments, is almost in ruins, and thesculpture is nearly unintelligible, excepting to the keen eye of the...　

A BURLESQUE BIOGRAPHYTwo or three persons having at different times intimated that if Iwould write an autobiography they would read it when they got leisure,I yield at last to this frenzied public demand and herewith tendermy history.Ours is a noble house, and stretches a long way back into antiquity.The earliest ancestor the Twains have any record of was a friend ofthe family by the name of Higgins. This was in the eleventh century,when our people were living in Aberdeen, county of Cork, England.Why it is that our long line has ever since borne the maternalname (except when one of them now and then took a playfulrefuge in an alias to avert foolishness), instead of Higgins,...　

Thoughts on ManHis Nature, Productions and DiscoveriesInterspersed with Some ParticularsRespecting the AuthorbyWilliam GodwinOh, the blood more stirsTo rouse a lion, than to start a hare!SHAKESPEARELONDON: EFFINGHAM WILSON, ROYAL EXCHANGE. 1831.PREFACEIn the ensuing volume I have attempted to give a defined and permanent form to a variety of thoughts, which have occurred to my mind in the course of thirty-four years, it being so long since I published a volume, entitled, the Enquirer,thoughts, which, if they have presented themselves to other men, have, at least so far as I am aware, never been given to the public through the medium of the press. During a part of this period I had remained　

The Story of Doctor Dolittleby Hugh LoftingTHEStory ofDOCTOR DOLITTLEBEING THEHISTORY OF HIS PECULIAR LIFEAT HOME AND ASTONISHING ADVENTURESIN FOREIGN PARTS NEVER BEFORE PRINTED.TOALL CHILDRENCHILDREN IN YEARS AND CHILDREN IN HEARTI DEDICATE THIS STORYThere are some of us now reachingmiddle age who discover themselves to belamenting the past in one respect if in none other,that there are no books written now for childrencomparable with those of thirty years ago. Isay written FOR children because the newpsychological business of writing ABOUT them as thoughthey were small pills or hatched in some...　

FAIRY TALES OF HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSENTHE PUPPET-SHOW MANby Hans Christian AndersenON board a steamer I once met an elderly man, with such a merryface that, if it was really an index of his mind, he must have beenthe happiest fellow in creation; and indeed he considered himselfso, for I heard it from his own mouth. He was a Dane, the owner of atravelling theatre. He had all his company with him in a large box,for he was the proprietor of a puppet-show. His inborn cheerfulness,he said, had been tested by a member of the Polytechnic Institution,and the experiment had made him completely happy. I did not at first...　

HIGH-WATER MARKWhen the tide was out on the Dedlow Marsh, its extended drearinesswas patent. Its spongy, low-lying surface, sluggish, inky pools,and tortuous sloughs, twisting their slimy way, eel-like, towardthe open bay, were all hard facts. So were the few green tussocks,with their scant blades, their amphibious flavor and unpleasantdampness. And if you choose to indulge your fancyalthough theflat monotony of the Dedlow Marsh was not inspiringthe wavy lineof scattered drift gave an unpleasant consciousness of the spentwaters, and made the dead certainty of the returning tide a gloomyreflection which no present sunshine could dissipate. The greener...　

The Gameby Jack LondonCHAPTER IMany patterns of carpet lay rolled out before them on the floortwoof Brussels showed the beginning of their quest, and its ending inthat direction; while a score of ingrains lured their eyes andprolonged the debate between desire pocket-book. The head of thedepartment did them the honor of waiting upon them himselfor didJoe the honor, as she well knew, for she had noted the open-mouthedawe of the elevator boy who brought them up. Nor had she been blindto the marked respect shown Joe by the urchins and groups of youngfellows on corners, when she walked with him in their own...　

FAIRY TALES OF HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSENTHE STORKSby Hans Christian AndersenON the last house in a little village the storks had built a nest,and the mother stork sat in it with her four young ones, who stretchedout their necks and pointed their black beaks, which had not yetturned red like those of the parent birds. A little way off, on theedge of the roof, stood the father stork, quite upright and stiff; notliking to be quite idle, he drew up one leg, and stood on the other,so still that it seemed almost as if he were carved in wood. "Itmust look very grand," thought he, "for my wife to have a sentry...