A LaodiceanA STORY OF TO-DAYby Thomas HardyCONTENTS.PREFACE CHAPTERSBOOK THE FIRST. GEORGE SOMERSET. I - XV.BOOK THE SECOND. DARE AND HAVILL. I - VII.BOOK THE THIRD. DE STANCY. I - XI.BOOK THE FOURTH. SOMERSET, DARE, AND DE STANCY. I - V.BOOK THE FIFTH. DE STANCY AND PAULA. I - XIV.BOOK THE SIXTH. PAULA. I - V.PREFACEThe changing of the old order in country manors and mansionsmay be slow or sudden, may have many issues romantic orotherwise, its romantic issues being not necessarilyrestricted to a change back to the original order; though this...　

Polyuecteby Pierre CorneilleTranslated by Thomas ConstableINTRODUCTORY NOTEPierre Corneille was born in Rouen in 1606, the son of an official;was educated by the Jesuits, and practised unsuccessfully as a lawyer.His dramatic career began with the comedy of "Melite," but it was byhis "Medee" that he first proved his tragic genius. "The Cid" appearedin 1636, and a series of masterpieces followed"Horace," "Cinna,""Polyeucte," "Le Menteur." After a failure in "Pertharite" he retiredfrom the stage, deeply hurt by the disapproval of his audience. Sixyears later he resumed play writing with "OEdipe" and continued till...　

Aaron Trowby Anthony TrollopeI would wish to declare, at the beginning of this story, that Ishall never regard that cluster of islets which we call Bermuda asthe Fortunate Islands of the ancients. Do not let professionalgeographers take me up, and say that no one has so accounted them,and that the ancients have never been supposed to have gottenthemselves so far westwards. What I mean to assert is thisthat,had any ancient been carried thither by enterprise or stress ofweather, he would not have given those islands so good a name. Thatthe Neapolitan sailors of King Alonzo should have been wrecked here,I consider to be more likely. The vexed Bermoothes is a good name...　

St. Ives, The Adventures of a French Prisoner in Englandby Robert Louis StevensonCHAPTER I - A TALE OF A LION RAMPANTIT was in the month of May 1813 that I was so unlucky as to fall atlast into the hands of the enemy. My knowledge of the Englishlanguage had marked me out for a certain employment. Though Icannot conceive a soldier refusing to incur the risk, yet to behanged for a spy is a disgusting business; and I was relieved to beheld a prisoner of war. Into the Castle of Edinburgh, standing inthe midst of that city on the summit of an extraordinary rock, Iwas cast with several hundred fellow-sufferers, all privates like...　

THE FORGED COUPONPART FIRSTIFEDOR MIHAILOVICH SMOKOVNIKOV, the presi-dent of the local Income Tax Department, a manof unswerving honestyand proud of it, tooa gloomy Liberal, a free-thinker, and an enemyto every manifestation of religious feeling, whichhe thought a relic of superstition, came home fromhis office feeling very much annoyed. The Gov-ernor of the province had sent him an extraordi-narily stupid minute, almost assuming that hisdealings had been dishonest.Fedor Mihailovich felt embittered, and wroteat once a sharp answer. On his return homeeverything seemed to go contrary to his wishes.It was five minutes to five, and he expected the...　

The Beast in the Jungleby Henry JamesCHAPTER IWhat determined the speech that startled him in the course of their encounter scarcely matters, being probably but some words spoken by himself quite without intentionspoken as they lingered and slowly moved together after their renewal of acquaintance. He had been conveyed by friends an hour or two before to the house at which she was staying; the party of visitors at the other house, of whom he was one, and thanks to whom it was his theory, as always, that he was lost in the crowd, had been invited over to luncheon. There had been after luncheon much dispersal, all in the interest of the original motive, a view of Weatherend itself and the f　

A Footnote to Historyby Robert Louis StevensonPREFACEAN affair which might be deemed worthy of a note of a few lines inany general history has been here expanded to the size of a volumeor large pamphlet. The smallness of the scale, and the singularityof the manners and events and many of the characters, considered,it is hoped that, in spite of its outlandish subject, the sketchmay find readers. It has been a task of difficulty. Speed wasessential, or it might come too late to be of any service to adistracted country. Truth, in the midst of conflicting rumours andin the dearth of printed material, was often hard to ascertain, and...　

Romantic BalladsTranslated from the Danish and Miscellaneous Piecesby George BorrowContents:PrefaceLines from Allan Cunningham to George BorrowThe Death-raven. From the Danish of OehlenslaegerFridleif and Helga. From the Danish of OehlenslaegerSir Middel. From the Old DanishElvir-shades. From the Danish of OehlenslaegerThe Heddybee-spectre. From the Old DanishSir John. From the Old DanishMay Asda. From the Danish of OehlenslaegerAager and Eliza. From the Old DanishSaint Oluf. From the Old DanishThe Heroes of Dovrefeld. From the Old DanishSvend Vonved. From the Old DanishThe Tournament. From the Old DanishVidrik Verlandson. From the Old Danish...　

FAIRY TALES OF HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSENTHE RACESby Hans Christian AndersenA PRIZE, or rather two prizes, a great one and a small one, hadbeen awarded for the greatest swiftness in running,- not in a singlerace, but for the whole year."I obtained the first prize," said the hare. "Justice must stillbe carried out, even when one has relations and good friends among theprize committee; but that the snail should have received the secondprize, I consider almost an insult to myself""No," said the fence-rail, who had been a witness at thedistribution of prizes; "there should be some consideration for...　

Money Answers all Things by Jacob Vanderlint1734Money Answers all Things: or, an Essay to Make Money Sufficiently plentiful Amongst all Ranks of People, And Increase our Foreign and Domestick Trade; Fill the Empty Houses with Inhabitants, Encourage the Marriage State, Lessen the Number of Hawkers and Pedlars, and In a great measure, prevent giving long Credit, and making bad Debts in Trade. Likewise shewing, The Absurdity of going to War about Trade; and the most likely Method to prevent the Clandestine Exportation of our Wool: And Also to Reduce the National Debts, and ease the Taxes.by Jacob Vanderlint.The Destruction of the Poor is their Poverty. Prov. X, 15....　

On Books and the Housing of Themby William Ewart GladstoneIn the old age of his intellect (which atthis point seemed to taste a little ofdecrepitude), Strauss declared [1] that the doctrine ofimmortality has recently lost the assistanceof a passable argument, inasmuch as it hasbeen discovered that the stars are inhabited;for where, he asks, could room now be foundfor such a multitude of souls? Again, in viewof the current estimates of prospectivepopulation for this earth, some people have begun toentertain alarm for the probable condition ofEngland (if not Great Britain) when she gets(say) seventy millions that are allotted to heragainst six or eight hundred millions for the...　

Evolution and Ethics and Other Essaysby Thomas H. HuxleyEVOLUTION AND ETHICS. PROLEGOMENAEVOLUTION AND ETHICSSCIENCE AND MORALSCAPITALTHE MOTHER OF LABOURSOCIAL DISEASES AND WORSE REMEDIESThe Struggle for Existence in Human SocietyLetters to the TimesLegal OpinionsThe Articles of War of the Salvation ArmyPREFACETHE discourse on "Evolution and Ethics," reprinted in the first half ofthe present volume, was delivered before the University of Oxford, asthe second of the annual lectures founded by Mr. Romanes: whose name Imay not write without deploring the untimely death, in the flower ofhis age, of a friend endeared to me, as to so many others, by his...