IThe man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.The desert was the apotheosis of all deserts, huge, standing to the sky for what might have been parsecs in all directions. White; blinding; waterless; without feature save for the faint, cloudy haze of the mountains which sketched themselves on the horizon and the devil-grass which brought sweet dreams, nightmares, death. An occasional tombstone sign pointed the way, for once the drifted track that cut its way through the thick crust of alkali had been a highway and coaches had followed it. The world had moved on since then. The world had emptied.The gunslinger walked stolidly, not hurrying, not loafing. A hide waterbag 　

　　Inasmuch as the scene of this story is that historic pile, Belpher Castle, in the county of Hampshire, it would be an agreeable task to open it with a leisurely description of the place, followed by some notes on the history of the Earls of Marshmoreton, who have owned it since the fifteenth century. Unfortunately, in these days of rush and hurry, a novelist works at a disadvantage. He must leap into the middle of his tale with as little delay as he would employ in boarding a moving tramcar. He must get off the mark with the smooth swiftness of a jack-rabbit surprised while lunching. Otherwise, people throw him aside and go out to picture palaces.　I may briefly remark that the present Lor　

A New England Girlhoodby Lucy LarcomI dedicated this sketchTo my girlfriends in general;And in particularTo my namesake-niece,Lucy Larcom Spaulding.Happy those early days, when IShined in my angel-infancy!When on some gilded cloud or flowerMy gazing soul would dwell an hour,And in those weaker glories spySome shadows of eternity:Before I taught my tongue to woundMy conscience by a sinful sound;But felt through all this fleshy dressBright shoots of everlastingness.HENRY VAUGHANThe thought of our past years in me doth breedPerpetual benediction.WORDSWORTHPREFACETHE following sketch was written for the young, at the suggestion of friends....　

SHERLOCK HOLMESTHE ADVENTURE OF THE DYING DETECTIVEby Sir Arthur Conan DoyleMrs. Hudson, the landlady of Sherlock Holmes, was a long-sufferingwoman. Not only was her first-floor flat invaded at all hours bythrongs of singular and often undesirable characters but herremarkable lodger showed an eccentricity and irregularity in hislife which must have sorely tried her patience. His incredibleuntidiness, his addiction to music at strange hours, his occasionalrevolver practice within doors, his weird and often malodorousscientific experiments, and the atmosphere of violence and danger...　

OF THE DELICACY OF TASTE AND PASSIONDavid Hume1741/SOME People are subject to a certain of, which makes them extremely sensible to all theaccidents of life, and gives them a lively joy upon everyprosperous event, as well as a piercing grief, when theymeet with misfortunes and adversity. Favours and goodoffices easily engage their friendship; while the smallestinjury provokes their resentment. Any honour or mark of...　

AN INQUIRY INTO THE NATURE AND CAUSES OF THE WEALTH OF NATIONSby Adam Smith1776INTRODUCTION AND PLAN OF THE WORKTHE annual labour of every nation is the fund whichoriginally supplies it with all the necessaries and conveniencesof life which it annually consumes, and which consist alwayseither in the immediate produce of that labour, or in what ispurchased with that produce from other nations.According therefore as this produce, or what is purchasedwith it, bears a greater or smaller proportion to the number ofthose who are to consume it, the nation will be better or worse...　

THE COMPARISON OF FABIUS WITH PERICLESby Plutarchtranslated by John DrydenWE have here had two lives rich in examples, both of civil andmilitary excellence. Let us first compare the two men in their warlikecapacity. Pericles presided in his commonwealth when it was in itsmost flourishing and opulent condition, great and growing in power; sothat it may be thought it was rather the common success and fortunethat kept him from any fall or disaster. But the task of Fabius, whoundertook the government in the worst and most difficult times, wasnot to preserve and maintain the well-established felicity of a...　

NICIAS?-413 B.C.by Plutarchtranslated by John DrydenCRASSUS, in my opinion, may most properly be set against Nicias, andthe Parthian disaster compared with that in Sicily. But here it willbe well for me to entreat the reader, in all courtesy, not to thinkthat I contend with Thucydides in matters so pathetically, vividly,and eloquently, beyond all imitation, and even beyond himself,expressed by him; nor to believe me guilty of the like folly withTimaeus, who, hoping in his history to surpass Thucydides in art,and to make Philistus appear a trifler and a novice, pushes on in...　

The Lights of the Church and the Light of Scienceby Thomas Henry HuxleyThere are three ways of regarding any account of pastoccurrences, whether delivered to us orally or recordedin writing.The narrative may be exactly true. That is to say, the words,taken in their natural sense, and interpreted according to therules of grammar, may convey to the mind of the hearer, or ofthe reader an idea precisely correspondent with one which wouldhave remained in the mind of a witness. For example, thestatement that King Charles the First was beheaded at Whitehallon the 30th day of January 1649, is as exactly true as anyproposition in mathematics or physics; no one doubts that any...　

OF THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF THE ARTS AND SCIENCESDavid Hume1742Nothing requires greater nicety, in our enquiries concerninghuman affairs, than to distinguish exactly what is owing to, and what proceeds from ; nor is there anysubject, in which an author is more liable to deceive himself byfalse subtilties and refinements. To say, that any event isderived from chance, cuts short all farther enquiry concerningit, and leaves the writer in the same state of ignorance with therest of mankind. But when the event is supposed to proceed from...　

The Americanization of Edward BokThe Autobiography of a Dutch Boy Fifty Years Afterby Edward William BokTo the American woman I owe much, but to two women I owe more, My mother and my wife. And to them I dedicate this account of the boy to whom one gave birth and brought to manhood and the other blessed with all a home and family may mean.An ExplanationThis book was to have been written in 1914, when I foresaw some leisure to write it, for I then intended to retire from active editorship. But the war came, an entirely new set of duties commanded, and the project was laid aside.Its title and the form, however, were then chosen. By the form I refer particularly to the use of the third perso　

Kenilworthby Walter ScottINTRODUCTIONA certain degree of success, real or supposed, in the delineationof Queen Mary, naturally induced the author to attempt somethingsimilar respecting "her sister and her foe," the celebratedElizabeth. He will not, however, pretend to have approached thetask with the same feelings; for the candid Robertson himselfconfesses having felt the prejudices with which a Scottishman istempted to regard the subject; and what so liberal a historianavows, a poor romance-writer dares not disown. But he hopes theinfluence of a prejudice, almost as natural to him as his nativeair, will not be found to have greatly affected the sketch he has...