A Reading of Life, and Other Poemsby George MeredithContents:A Reading of Life - The Vital ChoiceA Reading of Life - With The HuntressA Reading of Life - With The PersuaderA Reading of Life - The Test Of ManhoodThe Cageing Of AresThe Night-WalkThe Hueless LoveSong In The SonglessUnion In DisseveranceThe Burden Of StrengthThe Main RegretAlternationHawardenAt The CloseForest HistoryA Garden IdylForesight And PatienceThe Invective Of AchillesThe Invective of Achilles - V. 225.Marshalling Of The AchaiansAgamemnon In The FightParis And DiomedesHypnos On Ida...　

Pageant of Summerby Richard JefferiesI.GREEN rushes, long and thick, standing up above the edge of theditch, told the hour of the year as distinctly as the shadow on thedial the hour of the day. Green and thick and sappy to the touch,they felt like summer, soft and elastic, as if full of life, mererushes though they were. On the fingers they left a green scent;rushes have a separate scent of green, so, too, have ferns, verydifferent from that of grass or leaves. Rising from brown sheaths,the tall stems enlarged a little in the middle, like classicalcolumns, and heavy with their sap and freshness, leaned against the...　

The Adventures of Pinocchioby C. Collodi[Pseudonym of Carlo Lorenzini]CHAPTER 1How it happened that Mastro Cherry, carpenter, found a piece of wood that wept and laughed like a childCenturies ago there lived"A king!" my little readers will say immediately.No, children, you are mistaken. Once upon a time there was a piece of wood. It was not an expensive piece of wood. Far from it. Just a common block of firewood, one of those thick, solid logs that are put on the fire in winter to make cold rooms cozy and warm.I do not know how this really happened, yet the fact remains that one fine day this piece of wood found itself in the shop of an old carpenter. His real name was Mastro Antonio, 　

Christie JohnstoneA NOVELby Charles ReadeI dedicate all that is good in this work to my mother.C. R.,NOTETHIS story was written three years ago, and one or two topics in it arenot treated exactly as they would be if written by the same hand to-day.But if the author had retouched those pages with his colors of 1853, hewould (he thinks) have destroyed the only merit they have, viz., that ofcontaining genuine contemporaneous verdicts upon a cant that wasflourishing like a peony, and a truth that was struggling for bare life,in the year of truth 1850.He prefers to deal fairly with the public, and, with this explanation andapology, to lay at its feet a faulty but genuine piece of work....　

The Muse of the Departmentby Honore de BalzacTranslated by James WaringDEDICATIONTo Monsieur le Comte Ferdinand de Gramont.MY DEAR FERDINAND,If the chances of the world of literature/habent sua fata libelli/should allow these lines to be anenduring record, that will still be but a trifle in return for thetrouble you have takenyou, the Hozier, the Cherin, the King-at-Arms of these Studies of Life; you, to whom the Navarreins,Cadignans, Langeais, Blamont-Chauvrys, Chaulieus, Arthez,Esgrignons, Mortsaufs, Valoisthe hundred great names that formthe Aristocracy of the "Human Comedy" owe their lordly mottoes andingenious armorial bearings. Indeed, "the Armorial of the Etudes,...　

SYLLA138-78 B.C.by Plutarchtranslated by John DrydenLUCIUS Cornelius Sylla was descended of a patrician or noble family.Of his ancestors, Rufinus, it is said, had been consul, and incurred adisgrace more signal than his distinction. For being found possessedof more than ten pounds of silver plate, contrary to the law, he wasfor this reason put out of the senate. His posterity continued everafter in obscurity, nor had Sylla himself any opulent parentage. Inhis younger days he lived in hired lodgings, at a low rate, which inaftertimes was adduced against him as proof that he had been fortunate...　

Modern Customs and Ancient Laws of Russiaby Maxime KovalevskyLecture IIThe State of the Modern Russian Family, and Particularly that ofthe Joint or Household Community of Great RussiaWe believe that the theory of the matriarchate finds a solidbasis in the past history of the Russian family. The presentcondition of the latter seems to prove that the next stage in itsevolution was the household community, composed of persons unitedby descent from a common forefather and accompanied by thatworship of ancestors which usually resulted from it. The completesubjection of the wife to the husband, and of the children to thefather; community of goods and the common enjoyment of their...　

Lachesby PlatoTranslated by Benjamin JowettINTRODUCTION.Lysimachus, the son of Aristides the Just, and Melesias, the son of theelder Thucydides, two aged men who live together, are desirous of educatingtheir sons in the best manner. Their own education, as often happens withthe sons of great men, has been neglected; and they are resolved that theirchildren shall have more care taken of them, than they received themselvesat the hands of their fathers.At their request, Nicias and Laches have accompanied them to see a mannamed Stesilaus fighting in heavy armour. The two fathers ask the two...　

HERETICSbyGilbert K. Chesterton"To My Father"The AuthorGilbert Keith Chesterton was born in London, England on the 29thof May, 1874. Though he considered himself a mere "rollicking journalist,"he was actually a prolific and gifted writer in virtually every areaof literature. A man of strong opinions and enormously talentedat defending them, his exuberant personality nevertheless allowedhim to maintain warm friendships with peoplesuch as George BernardShaw and H. G. Wellswith whom he vehemently disagreed....　

THE CRISIS IN RUSSIATHE CRISIS IN RUSSIAby ARTHUR RANSOMETO WILLIAM PETERS OF ABERDEEN1- Page 2-THE CRISIS IN RUSSIAINTRODUCTIONTHE characteristic of a revolutionary country is that change is aquicker process there than elsewhere. As the revolution recedes into thepast the process of change slackens speed. Russia is no longer the dizzyingkaleidoscope that it was in 1917. No longer does it change visibly from...　

An Enquiry Concerning Human Understandingby Davi HumeCONTENTSSection 1: Of the Different Species of PhilosophySection 2: Of the Origin of IdeasSection 3: Of the Association of IdeasSection 4: Sceptical Doubts concerning the Operationsof the UnderstandingSection 5: Sceptical Solution of these DoubtsSection 6: Of ProbabilitySection 7: Of the Idea of Necessary ConnexionSection 8: Of Liberty and NecessitySection 9: Of the Reason of AnimalsSection 10: Of MiraclesSection 11: Of a Particular Providence and of a FutureStateSection 12: Of the Academical or Sceptical Philosophy...　

All For Loveby John DrydenINTRODUCTORY NOTEThe age of Elizabeth, memorable for so many reasons in the history of England, was especially brilliant in literature, and, within literature, in the drama. With some falling off in spontaneity, the impulse to great dramatic production lasted till the Long Parliament closed the theaters in 1642; and when they were reopened at the Restoration, in 1660, the stage only too faithfully reflected the debased moral tone of the court society of Charles II.John Dryden (1631-1700), the great representative figure in the literature of the latter part of the seventeenth century, exemplifies in his work most of the main tendencies of the time. He came into not