The Golden Fleeceby Julian HawthorneA RomanceCHAPTER I.The professor crossed one long, lean leg over the other, and punched down the ashes in his pipe-bowl with the square tip of his middle finger. The thermometer on the shady veranda marked eighty-seven degrees of heat, and nature wooed the soul to languor and revery; but nothing could abate the energy of this bony sage."They talk about their Atlantises,their submerged continents!" he exclaimed, with a sniff through his wide, hairy nostrils. "Why, Trednoke, do you realize that we are living literally at the bottom of a Mesozoicat any rate, Cenozoicsea?"The gentleman thus indignantly addressed contemplated his questioner with the serenity　

The Complete Anglerby Izaak WaltonTo the Right worshipfulJohn Offleyof Madeley Manor, in the County of Stafford Esquire, My most honoured FriendSir, I have made so ill use of your former favours, as by them to be encouraged to entreat, that they may be enlarged to the patronage and protection of this Book: and I have put on a modest confidence, that I shall not be denied, because it is a discourse of Fish and Fishing, which you know so well, and both love and practice so much.You are assured, though there be ignorant men of another belief, that Angling is an Art: and you know that Art better than others; and that this is truth is demonstrated by the fruits of that pleasant labour which you 　

THE BLACK THIEFAND KNIGHT OF THE GLEN.IN times of yore there was a King and a Queen in the south ofIreland who had three sons, all beautiful children; but theQueen, their mother, sickened unto death when they were yet veryyoung, which caused great grief throughout the Court, particularlyto the King, her husband, who could in no wise be comforted.Seeing that death was drawing near her, she called the King to herand spoke as follows:`I am now going to leave you, and as you are young and inyour prime, of course after my death you will marry again. Nowall the request I ask of you is that you will build a tower in anisland in the sea, wherein you will keep your three sons until they...　

The Club of Queer Tradesby G.K.ChestertonChapter 1The Tremendous Adventures of Major BrownRabelais, or his wild illustrator Gustave Dore, must have had something to do with the designing of the things called flats in England and America. There is something entirely Gargantuan in the idea of economising space by piling houses on top of each other, front doors and all. And in the chaos and complexity of those perpendicular streets anything may dwell or happen, and it is in one of them, I believe, that the inquirer may find the offices of the Club of Queer Trades. It may be thought at the first glance that the name would attract and startle the passer-by, but nothing attracts or startles in th　

PRINCE DARLINGONCE upon a time there lived a king who was so justand kind that his subjects called him "the Good King."It happened one day, when he was out hunting, that alittle white rabbit, which his dogs were chasing, spranginto his arms for shelter. The King stroked it gently,and said to it:"Well, bunny, as you have come to me for protectionI will see that nobody hurts you."And he took it home to his palace and had it put in apretty little house, with all sorts of nice things to eat.That night, when he was alone in his room, a beautifullady suddenly appeared before him; her long dress wasas white as snow, and she had a crown of white roses upon...　

Lecture VIIIThe Growth and Diffusion of Primitive IdeasMr Tylor has justly observed that the true lesson of the newscience of Comparative Mythology is the barrenness in primitivetimes of the faculty which we most associate with mentalfertility, the Imagination. Comparative Jurisprudence, as mightbe expected from the natural stability of law and custom, yetmore strongly suggests the same inference, and points to thefewness of ideas and the slowness of additions to the mentalstock as among the most general characteristics of mankind in itsinfancy.The fact that the generation of new ideas does not proceed in...　

THE STARIt was on the first day of the New Year that the announcementwas made, almost simultaneously from three observatories, that themotion of the planet Neptune, the outermost of all the planetsthat wheel about the sun, had become very erratic. Ogilvy hadalready called attention to a suspected retardation in its velocityin December. Such a piece of news was scarcely calculated tointerest a world the greater portion of whose inhabitants wereunaware of the existence of the planet Neptune, nor outside theastronomical profession did the subsequent discovery of a faintremote speck of light in the region of the perturbed planet cause...　

THE WIFE OF A KING.IONCE, WHEN THE NORTHLAND was very young, the social and civicvirtues were remarkably alike for their paucity and theirsimplicity. When the burden of domestic duties grew grievous, andthe fireside mood expanded to a constant protest against its bleakloneliness, the adventurers from the Southland, in lieu of better,paid the stipulated prices and took unto themselves native wives. Itwas a foretaste of Paradise to the women, for it must be confessedthat the white rovers gave far better care and treatment of themthan did their Indian copartners. Of course, the white men...　

THE COMPARISON OF DION AND BRUTUSby Plutarchtranslated by John DrydenTHERE are noble points in abundance in the characters of these twomen, and one to be first mentioned is their attaining such a height ofgreatness upon such inconsiderable means; and on this score Dion hasby far the advantage. For he had no partner to contest his glory, asBrutus had in Cassius, who was not, indeed, his equal in proved virtueand honour, yet contributed quite as much to the service of the war byhis boldness, skill, and activity; and some there be who impute to himthe rise and beginning of the whole enterprise, saying that it was...　

Emile Zolaby William Dean HowellsIn these times of electrical movement, the sort of constructionin the moral world for which ages were once needed, takes placealmost simultaneously with the event to be adjusted in history,and as true a perspective forms itself as any in the past. A fewweeks after the death of a poet of such great epical imagination,such great ethical force, as Emile Zola, we may see him asclearly and judge him as fairly as posterity alone was formerlysupposed able to see and to judge the heroes that antedated it.The present is always holding in solution the elements of thefuture and the past, in fact; and whilst Zola still lived, in the...　

FlatlandFlatlandby Edwin A. Abbott 18841- Page 2-FlatlandPART 1THIS WORLDSECTION 1 Of the Nature of FlatlandI call our world Flatland, not because we call it so, but to make itsnature clearer to you, my happy readers, who are privileged to live inSpace.Imagine a vast sheet of paper on which straight Lines, Triangles,...　

Love of Life and other storiesby Jack LondonLOVE OF LIFE"This out of all will remain -They have lived and have tossed:So much of the game will be gain,Though the gold of the dice has been lost."THEY limped painfully down the bank, and once the foremost of thetwo men staggered among the rough-strewn rocks. They were tiredand weak, and their faces had the drawn expression of patiencewhich comes of hardship long endured. They were heavily burdenedwith blanket packs which were strapped to their shoulders. Head-straps, passing across the forehead, helped support these packs.Each man carried a rifle. They walked in a stooped posture, the...