SCHIPPEITAROIt was the custom in old times that as soon as a Japanese boyreached manhood he should leave his home and roam through theland in search of adventures. Sometimes he would meet with ayoung man bent on the same business as himself, and then theywould fight in a friendly manner, merely to prove which was thestronger, but on other occasions the enemy would turn out to be arobber, who had become the terror of the neighbourhood, and thenthe battle was in deadly earnest.One day a youth started off from his native village, resolvednever to come back till he had done some great deed that wouldmake his name famous. But adventures did not seem very plentiful...　

The Mysterious Strangerby Mark TwainCONTENTS:THE MYSTERIOUS STRANGERA FABLEHUNTING THE DECEITFUL TURKEYTHE McWILLIAMSES AND THE BURGLAR ALARMTHE MYSTERIOUS STRANGERChapter 1It was in 1590winter. Austria was far away from the world, and asleep;it was still the Middle Ages in Austria, and promised to remain soforever. Some even set it away back centuries upon centuries and saidthat by the mental and spiritual clock it was still the Age of Belief inAustria. But they meant it as a compliment, not a slur, and it was sotaken, and we were all proud of it. I remember it well, although I wasonly a boy; and I remember, too, the pleasure it gave me....　

TAMBURLAINE THE GREATTAMBURLAINE THEGREAT (FIRST PART)EDITED BY THE REV. ALEXANDER DYCE.1- Page 2-TAMBURLAINE THE GREATTamburlaine the Great. Who, from a Scythian Shephearde by his rareand woonderfull Conquests, became a most puissant and mightyeMonarque. And (for his tyranny, and terrour in Warre) was tearmed, TheScourge of God. Deuided into two Tragicall Discourses, as they weresundrie times shewed vpon Stages in the Citie of London. By the right...　

THE VITAL MESSAGETHE VITAL MESSAGEARTHUR CONAN DOYLE1- Page 2-THE VITAL MESSAGEPREFACEIn "The New Revelation" the first dawn of the coming change hasbeen described. In "The Vital Message" the sun has risen higher, and onesees more clearly and broadly what our new relations with the Unseenmay be. As I look into the future of the human race I am reminded of howonce, from amid the bleak chaos of rock and snow at the head of an Alpine...　

FAIRY TALES OF HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSENIN A THOUSAND YEARSby Hans Christian AndersenYES, in a thousand years people will fly on the wings of steamthrough the air, over the ocean! The young inhabitants of America willbecome visitors of old Europe. They will come over to see themonuments and the great cities, which will then be in ruins, just aswe in our time make pilgrimages to the tottering splendors of SouthernAsia. In a thousand years they will come!The Thames, the Danube, and the Rhine still roll their course,Mont Blanc stands firm with its snow-capped summit, and the Northern...　

Louis Lambertby Honore de BalzacTranslated by Clara Bell and James WaringDEDICATION"Et nunc et semper dilectoe dicatum."LOUIS LAMBERTLouis Lambert was born at Montoire, a little town in the Vendomois,where his father owned a tannery of no great magnitude, and intendedthat his son should succeed him; but his precocious bent for studymodified the paternal decision. For, indeed, the tanner and his wifeadored Louis, their only child, and never contradicted him inanything.At the age of five Louis had begun by reading the Old and NewTestaments; and these two Books, including so many books, had sealedhis fate. Could that childish imagination understand the mystical...　

FAIRY TALES OF HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSENA STORYby Hans Christian AndersenIN the garden all the apple-trees were in blossom. They hadhastened to bring forth flowers before they got green leaves, and inthe yard all the ducklings walked up and down, and the cat too: itbasked in the sun and licked the sunshine from its own paws. Andwhen one looked at the fields, how beautifully the corn stood andhow green it shone, without comparison! and there was a twittering anda fluttering of all the little birds, as if the day were a greatfestival; and so it was, for it was Sunday. All the bells were...　

THE ENCHANTED CANARYIONCE upon a time, in the reign of King Cambrinus, there lived atAvesnes one of his lords, who was the finest manby which Imean the fattestin the whole country of Flanders. He ate fourmeals a day, slept twelve hours out of the twenty-four, and the onlything he ever did was to shoot at small birds with his bow andarrow.Still, with all his practice he shot very badly, he was so fat andheavy, and as he grew daily fatter, he was at last obliged to give upwalking, and be dragged about in a wheel-chair, and the peoplemade fun of him, and gave him the name of my Lord Tubby.Now, the only trouble that Lord Tubby had was about his son,...　

The Angel and the Author and othersby Jerome K. JeromeCHAPTER II had a vexing dream one night, not long ago: it was about afortnight after Christmas. I dreamt I flew out of the window in mynightshirt. I went up and up. I was glad that I was going up."They have been noticing me," I thought to myself. "If anything, Ihave been a bit too good. A little less virtue and I might havelived longer. But one cannot have everything." The world grewsmaller and smaller. The last I saw of London was the long line ofelectric lamps bordering the Embankment; later nothing remained but afaint luminosity buried beneath darkness. It was at this point of my...　

THE SKETCH BOOKRURAL LIFE IN ENGLANDby Washington IrvingOh! friendly to the best pursuits of man,Friendly to thought, to virtue, and to peace,Domestic life in rural pleasures past!COWPER.THE stranger who would form a correct opinion of the Englishcharacter must not confine his observations to the metropolis. He mustgo forth into the country; he must sojourn in villages and hamlets; hemust visit castles, villas, farm-houses, cottages; he must wanderthrough parks and gardens; along hedges and green lanes; he must...　

OF SUPERSTITION AND ENTHUSIASMDavid Hume1741,is grown into a maxim, and is commonly proved, among otherinstances, by the pernicious effects of and, the corruptions of true religion.These two species of false religion, though both pernicious,are yet of a very different, and even of a contrary nature. Themind of man is subject to certain unaccountable terrors and...　

Some Considerations of the Consequences of the Lowering of Interest and the Raising the Value of Moneyby John Locke, 1691.Some Considerations of the Consequences of the Lowering of Interest and the Raising the Value of Money In a letter sent to a Member of Parliament, 1691 London Printed for Awnsham and John Churchill, at the Black Swan in Pater-Noster-Row,Sir, These Notions, concerning Coinage, having for the main, as you know, been put into Writing above Twelve Months since; as those other concerning Interest, a great deal above to many Years: I put them now again into your Hands with a Liberty (since you will have it so) to communicate them further, as you please. If, upon a Review, you