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...
Bruceby Albert Payson TerhuneTO MY TEN BEST FRIENDS:Who are far wiser in their way and far better in every way, thanI; and yet who have not the wisdom to know itWho do not merely think I am perfect, but who are calmly andpermanently convinced of my perfection;and this in spite offifty disillusions a dayWho are frantically happy at my coming and bitterly woebegone inmy absenceWho never bore me and never are bored by meWho never talk about themselves and who always listen withrapturous interest to anything I may sayWho, having no conventional standards, have no respectability;and who, having no conventional consciences, have no sins...
Chapter X of Volume II (Chap. 33)MORE than once did Elizabeth in her ramble within the Park, unexpectedly meet Mr. Darcy. She felt all the perverseness of the mischance that should bring him where no one else was brought; and to prevent its ever happening again, took care to inform him at first that it was a favourite haunt of hers. How it could occur a second time, therefore, was very odd! Yet it did, and even a third. It seemed like wilful ill-nature, or a voluntary penance, for on these occasions it was not merely a few formal enquiries and an awkward pause and then away, but he actually thought it necessary to turn back and walk with her. He never said a great deal, nor did she give
The Land of Footprintsby Stewart Edward WhiteI. ON BOOKS OF ADVENTUREBooks of sporting, travel, and adventure in countries little known to the average reader naturally fall in two classes-neither, with a very few exceptions, of great value. One class is perhaps the logical result of the other.Of the first type is the book that is written to make the most of far travels, to extract from adventure the last thrill, to impress the awestricken reader with a full sense of the danger and hardship the writer has undergone. Thus, if the latter takes out quite an ordinary routine permit to go into certain districts, he makes the most of travelling in "closed territory," implying that he has obtained
To The Last Manby Zane GreyFOREWORDIt was inevitable that in my efforts to write romantic history of thegreat West I should at length come to the story of a feud. For longI have steered clear of this rock. But at last I have reached it andmust go over it, driven by my desire to chronicle the stirring eventsof pioneer days.Even to-day it is not possible to travel into the remote corners ofthe West without seeing the lives of people still affected by afighting past. How can the truth be told about the pioneering ofthe West if the struggle, the fight, the blood be left out? It cannotbe done. How can a novel be stirring and thrilling, as were those...
SHERLOCK HOLMESTHE ADVENTURE OF THE SPECKLED BANDby Sir Arthur Conan DoyleOn glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I haveduring the last eight years studied the methods of my friendSherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number merelystrange, but none commonplace; for, working as he did rather for thelove of his art than for the acquirement of wealth, he refused toassociate himself with any investigation which did not tend towardsthe unusual, and even the fantastic. Of all these varied cases,however, I cannot recall any which presented more singular features...
THE KREUTZER SONATA.CHAPTER I.Travellers left and entered our car at every stopping of thetrain. Three persons, however, remained, bound, like myself, forthe farthest station: a lady neither young nor pretty, smokingcigarettes, with a thin face, a cap on her head, and wearing asemi-masculine outer garment; then her companion, a veryloquacious gentleman of about forty years, with baggage entirelynew and arranged in an orderly manner; then a gentleman who heldhimself entirely aloof, short in stature, very nervous, ofuncertain age, with bright eyes, not pronounced in color, butextremely attractive,eyes that darted with rapidity from one...
Adventure VThe Musgrave RitualAn anomaly which often struck me in the character ofmy friend Sherlock Holmes was that, although in hismethods of thought he was the neatest and mostmethodical of mankind, and although also he affected acertain quiet primness of dress, he was none the lessin his personal habits one of the most untidy men thatever drove a fellow-lodger to distraction. Not that Iam in the least conventional in that respect myself.The rough-and-tumble work in Afghanistan, coming onthe top of a natural Bohemianism of disposition, hasmade me rather more lax than befits a medical man whokeeps his cigars in the coal-scuttle, his tobacco in...
The Argonauticaby Apollonius RhodiusINTRODUCTIONMuch has been written about the chronology of Alexandrian literature and the famous Library, founded by Ptolemy Soter, but the dates of the chief writers are still matters of conjecture. The birth of Apollonius Rhodius is placed by scholars at various times between 296 and 260 B.C., while the year of his death is equally uncertain. In fact, we have very little information on the subject. There are two "lives" of Apollonius in the Scholia, both derived from an earlier one which is lost. From these we learn that he was of Alexandria by birth, (1) that he lived in the time of the Ptolemies, and was a pupil of Callimachus; that while still a you
INTRODUCTION TO THE METAPHYSIC OF MORALSby Immanuel Kanttranslated by W. HastieDIVISIONSGENERAL DIVISIONS OF THE METAPHYSIC OF MORALSI. DIVISION OF THE METAPHYSIC OF MORALS AS A SYSTEM OFDUTIES GENERALLY.1. All duties are either duties of right, that is, juridicalduties (officia juris), or duties of virtue, that is, ethical duties(officia virtutis s. ethica). Juridical duties are such as may bepromulgated by external legislation; ethical duties are those forwhich such legislation is not possible. The reason why the lattercannot be properly made the subject of external legislation is because...
MANIFESTO OF THE COMMUNIST PARTYFrom the English edition of 1888, edited by Friedrich EngelsTranscribed by allen lutinswith assistance from Jim TarziaA spectre is haunting Europe the spectre of Communism.All the Powers of old Europe have entered into a holy alliance toexorcise this spectre: Pope and Czar, Metternich and Guizot,French Radicals and German police-spies.Where is the party in opposition that has not been decried asCommunistic by its opponents in power? Where the Oppositionthat has not hurled back the branding reproach of Communism,...