The Professor at the Breakfast Tableby Oliver Wendell HolmesPREFACE TO REVISED EDITION.The reader of to-day will not forget, I trust, that it is nearly aquarter of a century since these papers were written. Statementswhich were true then are not necessarily true now. Thus, the speedof the trotting horse has been so much developed that the record ofthe year when the fastest time to that date was given must be veryconsiderably altered, as may be seen by referring to a note on page49 of the "Autocrat." No doubt many other statements and opinionsmight be more or less modified if I were writing today instead ofhaving written before the war, when the world and I were both more...
Carmenby Prosper MerimeeTranslated by Lady Mary LoydCHAPTER II had always suspected the geographical authorities did not know what they were talking about when they located the battlefield of Munda in the county of the Bastuli-Poeni, close to the modern Monda, some two leagues north of Marbella.According to my own surmise, founded on the text of the anonymous author of the /Bellum Hispaniense/, and on certain information culled from the excellent library owned by the Duke of Ossuna, I believed the site of the memorable struggle in which Caesar played double or quits, once and for all, with the champions of the Republic, should be sought in the neighbourhood of Montilla....
An Anthology of Australian VerseEdited by Bertram StevensDedicated toDAVID SCOTT MITCHELL, Esq.SydneyPrefaceThe Editor has endeavoured to make this selection representativeof the best short poems written by Australians or inspired byAustralian scenery and conditions of life, "Australian" in this connectionbeing used to include New Zealand. The arrangement isas nearly as possible chronological; and the appendix containsbrief biographical particulars of the authors, together with noteswhich may be useful to readers outside Australia.The Editor thanks Messrs. H. H. Champion, Henry Gyles Turner,...
What Diantha Didby Charlotte Perkins GilmanCHAPTER I.HANDICAPPEDOne may use the Old Man of the Sea,For a partner or patron,But helpless and hapless is heWho is ridden, inextricably,By a fond old mer-matron.The Warden house was more impressive in appearance than its neighbors.It had "grounds," instead of a yard or garden; it had wide pillaredporches and "galleries," showing southern antecedents; moreover, it hada cupola, giving date to the building, and proof of the continuingambitions of the builders.The stately mansion was covered with heavy flowering vines, also withheavy mortgages. Mrs. Roscoe Warden and her four daughters reposed...
The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the action of worms withobservations of their habitsby Charles DarwinINTRODUCTION.The share which worms have taken in the formation of the layer ofvegetable mould, which covers the whole surface of the land inevery moderately humid country, is the subject of the presentvolume. This mould is generally of a blackish colour and a fewinches in thickness. In different districts it differs but littlein appearance, although it may rest on various subsoils. Theuniform fineness of the particles of which it is composed is one ofits chief characteristic features; and this may be well observed inany gravelly country, where a recently-ploughed field immediatel
The Man From Glengarryby Ralph ConnorA TALE OF THE OTTAWADEDICATIONTO THE MEN OF GLENGARRY WHO IN PATIENCE, IN COURAGE AND IN THE FEAROF GOD ARE HELPING TO BUILD THE EMPIRE OF THE CANADIAN WEST THISBOOK IS HUMBLY DEDICATEDPREFACEThe solid forests of Glengarry have vanished, and with the foreststhe men who conquered them. The manner of life and the type ofcharacter to be seen in those early days have gone too, andforever. It is part of the purpose of this book to so picturethese men and their times that they may not drop quite out of mind.The men are worth remembering. They carried the marks of theirblood in their fierce passions, their courage, their loyalty; and...
The Queen of the Pirate Isleby Bret HarteI first knew her as the Queen of the Pirate Isle. To the best ofmy recollection she had no reasonable right to that title. She wasonly nine years old, inclined to plumpness and good humor,deprecated violence, and had never been to sea. Need it be addedthat she did NOT live in an island and that her name was Polly?Perhaps I ought to explain that she had already known otherexperiences of a purely imaginative character. Part of herexistence had been passed as a Beggar Child,solely indicated by ashawl tightly folded round her shoulders, and chills; as aSchoolmistress, unnecessarily severe; as a Preacher, singularly...
RECOLLECTIONS OF THE PRIVATE LIFE OF NAPOLEON, V11BY CONSTANTPREMIER VALET DE CHAMBRETRANSLATED BY WALTER CLARK1895CONTENTS:CHAPTER XV. to CHAPTER XXIII.CHAPTER XV.During the second day of the battle of Dresden, at the end of which theEmperor had the attack of fever I mentioned in the preceding chapter, theKing of Naples, or rather Marshal Murat, performed prodigies of valor.Much has been said of this truly extraordinary prince; but only those whosaw him personally could form a correct idea of him, and even they neverknew him perfectly until they had seen him on a field of battle. Therehe seemed like those great actors who produce a complete illusion amid...
The Drums Of Jeopardyby Harold MacGrathCHAPTER IA fast train drew into Albany, on the New York Central, from theWest. It was three-thirty of a chill March morning in the firstyear of peace. A pall of fog lay over the world so heavy thatit beaded the face and hands and deposited a fairy diamond dustupon wool. The station lights had the visibility of stars, andlike the stars were without refulgence - a pale golden aureola,perhaps three feet in diameter, and beyond, nothing. The fewpassengers who alighted and the train itself had the same nebulosityof drab fish in a dim aquarium.Among the passengers to detrain was a man in a long black coat.The high collar was up. The man wore a derby ha
Cressyby Bret HarteCHAPTER I.As the master of the Indian Spring school emerged from the pinewoods into the little clearing before the schoolhouse, he stoppedwhistling, put his hat less jauntily on his head, threw away somewild flowers he had gathered on his way, and otherwise assumed thesevere demeanor of his profession and his mature agewhich was atleast twenty. Not that he usually felt this an assumption; it wasa firm conviction of his serious nature that he impressed others,as he did himself, with the blended austerity and ennui of deep andexhausted experience.The building which was assigned to him and his flock by the Board...
SolitudeThis is a delicious evening, when the whole body is one sense,and imbibes delight through every pore. I go and come with astrange liberty in Nature, a part of herself. As I walk along thestony shore of the pond in my shirt-sleeves, though it is cool aswell as cloudy and windy, and I see nothing special to attract me,all the elements are unusually congenial to me. The bullfrogs trumpto usher in the night, and the note of the whip-poor-will is borneon the rippling wind from over the water. Sympathy with thefluttering alder and poplar leaves almost takes away my breath; yet,like the lake, my serenity is rippled but not ruffled. These small...
450 BCEUMENDIDESby Aeschylustranslated by E. D. A. MorsheadCHARACTERS IN THE PLAYTHE PYTHIAN PRIESTESAPOLLOORESTESTHE GHOST OF CLYTEMNESTRACHORUS OF FURIESATHENAATTENDANTS OF ATHENATWELVE ATHENIAN CITIZENSEUMENDIDES(SCENE:-Before the temple of APOLLO at Delphi. The PYTHIANPRIESTESS enters and approaches the doors of the temple.)THE PYTHIAN PRIESTESFirst, in this prayer, of all the gods I nameThe prophet-mother Earth; and Themis next,...