The Marriage Contractby Honore de BalzacTranslated by Katharine Prescott WormeleyDEDICATIONTo Rossini.THE MARRIAGE CONTRACTCHAPTER IPRO AND CONMonsieur de Manerville, the father, was a worthy Norman gentleman,well known to the Marechael de Richelieu, who married him to one ofthe richest heiresses of Bordeaux in the days when the old dukereigned in Guienne as governor. The Norman then sold the estate heowned in Bessin, and became a Gascon, allured by the beauty of thechateau de Lanstrac, a delightful residence owned by his wife. Duringthe last days of the reign of Louis XV., he bought the post of major...　

The Writings of Abraham Lincolnby Abraham LincolnVOLUME THREETHE LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATES IPOLITICAL SPEECHES & DEBATES of LINCOLN WITH DOUGLASIn the Senatorial Campaign of 1858 in IllinoisSPEECH AT SPRINGFIELD, JUNE 17, 1858[The following speech was delivered at Springfield, Ill., at theclose of the Republican State Convention held at that time andplace, and by which Convention Mr. LINCOLN had been named astheir candidate for United States Senator. Mr. DOUGLAS was notpresent.]Mr. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN OF THE CONVENTION:If we could firstknow where we are, and whither we are tending, we could better...　

THE IRON HEELby Jack LondonFOREWORD.IT CANNOT BE SAID THAT THE Everhard Manuscript is an importanthistorical document. To the historian it bristles with errors- noterrors of fact, but errors of interpretation. Looking back acrossthe seven centuries that have lapsed since Avis Everhard completed hermanuscript, events, and the bearings of events, that were confused andveiled to her, are clear to us. She lacked perspective. She was tooclose to the events she writes about. Nay, she was merged in theevents she has described.Nevertheless, as a personal document, the Everhard Manuscript is...　

The Man of the Forestby Zane GreyCHAPTER IAt sunset hour the forest was still, lonely, sweet with tangof fir and spruce, blazing in gold and red and green; andthe man who glided on under the great trees seemed to blendwith the colors and, disappearing, to have become a part ofthe wild woodland.Old Baldy, highest of the White Mountains, stood up roundand bare, rimmed bright gold in the last glow of the settingsun. Then, as the fire dropped behind the domed peak, achange, a cold and darkening blight, passed down the blackspear-pointed slopes over all that mountain world.It was a wild, richly timbered, and abundantly wateredregion of dark forests and grassy parks, ten thousand feet...　

THE YOUNG TSARTHE young Tsar had just ascended the throne.For five weeks he had worked without ceasing, inthe way that Tsars are accustomed to work. Hehad been attending to reports, signing papers, re-ceiving ambassadors and high officials who cameto be presented to him, and reviewing troops. Hewas tired, and as a traveller exhausted by heatand thirst longs for a draught of water and forrest, so he longed for a respite of just one dayat least from receptions, from speeches, fromparadesa few free hours to spend like an ordi-nary human being with his young, clever, andbeautiful wife, to whom he had been married onlya month before.It was Christmas Eve. The young Tsar had...　

SERTORIUS130?-72 B.C.by Plutarchtranslated by John DrydenIT is no great wonder if in long process of time, while fortunetakes her course hither and thither, numerous coincidences shouldspontaneously occur. If the number and variety of subjects to bewrought upon be infinite, it is all the more easy for fortune, withsuch an abundance of material, to effect this similarity of results.Or if, on the other hand, events are limited to the combinations ofsome finite number, then of necessity the same must often recur, andin the same sequence. There are people who take a pleasure in making...　

THE LUTE PLAYEROnce upon a time there was a king and queen who lived happily andcomfortably together. They were very fond of each other and hadnothing to worry them, but at last the king grew restless. Helonged to go out into the world, to try his strength in battleagainst some enemy and to win all kinds of honour and glory.So he called his army together and gave orders to start for adistant country where a heathen king ruled who ill-treated ortormented everyone he could lay his hands on. The king then gavehis parting orders and wise advice to his ministers, took atender leave of his wife, and set off with his army across theseas.I cannot say whether the voyage was short or long; but at 　

An Accursed Raceby Elizabeth GaskellWe have our prejudices in England. Or, if that assertion offends anyof my readers, I will modify it: we have had our prejudices inEngland. We have tortured Jews; we have burnt Catholics andProtestants, to say nothing of a few witches and wizards. We havesatirized Puritans, and we have dressed-up Guys. But, after all, Ido not think we have been so bad as our Continental friends. To besure, our insular position has kept us free, to a certain degree,from the inroads of alien races; who, driven from one land of refuge,steal into another equally unwilling to receive them; and where, for...　

A JOURNAL OF THE PLAGUE YEARby DANIEL DEFOEPart 1being observations or memorialsof the most remarkable occurrences,as well public as private, which happened inLondon during the last great visitation in 1665.Written by a Citizen who continuedall the while in London.Never made public beforeIt was about the beginning of September, 1664, that I, among the restof my neighbours, heard in ordinary discourse that the plague wasreturned again in Holland; for it had been very violent there, andparticularly at Amsterdam and Rotterdam, in the year 1663, whither,they say, it was brought, some said from Italy, others from the Levant,...　

MY ANTONIAby Willa Sibert CatherTO CARRIE AND IRENE MINERIn memory of affections old and trueOptima dies ... prima fugitVIRGILINTRODUCTIONLAST summer I happened to be crossing the plains of Iowa in a seasonof intense heat, and it was my good fortune to have for a travelingcompanion James Quayle BurdenJim Burden, as we still call himin the West. He and I are old friendswe grew up togetherin the same Nebraska townand we had much to say to each other.While the train flashed through never-ending miles of ripe wheat,by country towns and bright-flowered pastures and oak groves wilting...　

Part 3When the buriers came up to him they soon found he was neither aperson infected and desperate, as I have observed above, or a persondistempered -in mind, but one oppressed with a dreadful weight ofgrief indeed, having his wife and several of his children all in the cartthat was just come in with him, and he followed in an agony andexcess of sorrow. He mourned heartily, as it was easy to see, but witha kind of masculine grief that could not give itself vent by tears; andcalmly defying the buriers to let him alone, said he would only see thebodies thrown in and go away, so they left importuning him. But nosooner was the cart turned round and the bodies shot into the pit...　

The Idea of Justice in Political Economyby Gustav Schmoller1881Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social ScienceVolume 4, (1893-4)German edition: Jahrbuch fur Gesetzgebung Verwallung, undVolkswirtschaft.volume 1, new series 1881.Translated by Ernest Halle and Carl SchutzIs there a just distribution of economic goods? Or shouldthere be? This is a question which is raised again to-day, aquestion which has been asked as long as human society and socialinstitutions have existed. The greatest thinker of ancienthistory asked the question and thousands after him have repeatedit, sages and scholars, great statesmen and hungry proletarians,...