The Duchesse de Langeaisby Honore de BalzacTHE DUCHESS OF LANGEAISIIn a Spanish city on an island in the Mediterranean, there stands a convent of the Order of Barefoot Carmelites, where the rule instituted by St. Theresa is still preserved with all the first rigour of the reformation brought about by that illustrious woman. Extraordinary as this may seem, it is none the less true.Almost every religious house in the Peninsula, or in Europe for that matter, was either destroyed or disorganised by the outbreak of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic wars; but as this island was protected through those times by the English fleet, its wealthy convent and peaceable inhabitants were secure fr　

Autobiography of a Pocket-Handkerchiefby James Fenimore CoopoerCHAPTER I.Certain moral philosophers, with a due disdain of the flimsy foundationsof human pride, have shown that every man is equally descended from amillion of ancestors, within a given number of generations; therebydemonstrating that no prince exists who does not participate in theblood of some beggar, or any beggar who does not share in the bloodof princes. Although favored by a strictly vegetable descent myself, thelaws of nature have not permitted me to escape from the influence ofthis common rule. The earliest accounts I possess of my progenitorsrepresent them as a goodly growth of the Linum Usitatissimum, divided...　

- 1A BOOK OF SCOUNDRELSA BOOK OFSCOUNDRELSby CHARLES WHIBLEY1- 2A BOOK OF SCOUNDRELSINTRODUCTIONThere are other manifestations of greatness than to relieve suffering orto wreck an empire. Julius Csar and John Howard are not the onlyheroes who have smiled upon the world. In the supreme adaptation ofmeans to an end there is a constant nobility, for neither ambition nor virtueis the essential of a perfect action. How shall you contemplate withindifference the career of an artist whom genius or good guidance has...　

　　LIKE THE THEATER DISTRICTS OF so many great cities across the Imajica, whether in Reconciled Dominions or in the Fifth, the neighborhood in which the Ipse stood had been a place of some notoriety in earlier times, when actors of both sexes had supplemented their wages with the old five-acter-hiring, retiring, seduction, conjunction, and remittance-all played hourly, night and day. The center of these activities had moved away, however, to the other side of the city, where the burgeoning numbers of middle-class clients felt less exposed to the gaze of their peers out seeking more respectable entertainment. Lickerish Street and its environs had sprung up in a matter of months and quickly be　

Dreams and AwakeningsWHY IS IT forbidden to write down specific knowledge of the magics? Perhaps because we all fear that such knowledge would fall into the hands of one not worthy to use it. Certainly there has always been a system of apprenticeship to ensure that specific knowledge of magic is passed only to those trained and judged worthy of such knowledge. While this seems a laudable attempt to protect us from unworthy practitioners of arcane lore, it ignores the fact that the magics are not derived from this specific knowledge. The predilection for a certain type of magic is either inborn or lacking. For instance, the ability for the magics known as the Skill is tied closely to 　

THE ODYSSEYby Homertranslated by Samuel ButlerBOOK I.TELL ME, O MUSE, of that ingenious hero who travelled far and wideafter he had sacked the famous town of Troy. Many cities did he visit,and many were the nations with whose manners and customs he wasacquainted; moreover he suffered much by sea while trying to savehis own life and bring his men safely home; but do what he might hecould not save his men, for they perished through their own sheerfolly in eating the cattle of the Sun-god Hyperion; so the godprevented them from ever reaching home. Tell me, too, about all...　

　1　　 The house was on Dresden Avenue in the Oak Noll section of Pasadena, a big solid cool-looking house with burgundy brick walls, a terra cotta tile roof, and a white stone trim. The front windows were leaded downstairs. Upstairs windows were of the cottage type and had a lot of rococo imitation stonework trimming around them.　 From the front wall and its attendant flowering bushes a half acre or so of fine green lawn drifted in a gentle slope down to the street, passing on the way an enormous deodar around which it flowed like a cool green tide around a rock. The sidewalk and the parkway were both very wide and in the parkway were three white acacias that were worth seeing. There was a h　

1. First SightThis was the time of day when I wished I were able to sleep.High school.Or was purgatory the right word? If there was any way to atone for my sins, thisought to count toward the tally in some measure. The tedium was not something I grewused to; every day seemed more impossibly monotonous than the last.I suppose this was my form of sleep—if sleep was defined as the inert statebetween active periods.I stared at the cracks running through the plaster in the far corner of the cafeteria,imagining patterns into them that were not there. It was one way to tune out the voicesthat babbled like the gush of a river inside my head.Several hundred of these voices I ignored out of bored　

29BC THE GEORGICS29BC THE GEORGICSby Virgil1- Page 2-29BC THE GEORGICSGEORGIC IWhat makes the cornfield smile; beneath what star Maecenas, it ismeet to turn the sod Or marry elm with vine; how tend the steer; Whatpains for cattle-keeping, or what proof Of patient trial serves for thriftybees;- Such are my themes. O universallights Most glorious! ye that lead the gliding year Along the sky, Liber and...　

Life of Marion.Life of Marion.DOBEIN JAMES.1- Page 2-Life of Marion.Preface.During the siege of Charleston, in May, 1780, the grammar school atSalem, on Black river, where I had been placed by my father, Major JOHNJAMES, broke up; and I was compelled to abandon my school boy studies,and become a militia man, at the age of fifteen. At that time of life it was agreat loss; but still I was so fortunate as to have General MARION as mycommander, and my much honoured father, who was a sincere christian,...　

The Ninth Vibration, et. al.by L. Adams BeckCONTENTSTHE NINTH VIBRATIONTHE INTERPRETERA ROMANCE OF THE EASTTHE INCOMPARABLE LADYA STORY OF CHINA WITH A MORALTHE HATRED OF THE QUEENA STORY OF BURMAFIRE OF BEAUTYTHE BUILDING OF THE TAJ MAHAL"HOW GREAT IS THE GLORY OF KWANNON!""THE ROUND-FACED BEAUTY"THE NINTH VIBRATIONThere is a place uplifted nine thousand feet in purest air where one of the most ancient tracks in the world runs from India into Tibet. It leaves Simla of the Imperial councils by a stately road; it passes beyond, but now narrowing, climbing higher beside the khuds or steep drops to the precipitous valleys beneath, and the rumor of Simla grows distant and the way is quiet, for,　

Massacre at ParisMassacre at Parisby Christopher Marlowe1- Page 2-Massacre at Paris[DRAMATIS PERSONAE]CHARLES THE NINTHKing of France Duke of Anjouhis brother,afterwards KNIG HENRY THE THIRD King of Navarre PRINCE OFCONDEhis brotherbrothers DUKE OF GUISE CARDINAL OF LORRAINE DUKEDUMAINESON TO THE DUKE OF GUISEa boy THE LORD HIGHADMIRAL DUKE OF JOYEUX EPERNOUN PLESHE BARTUS TWOLORDS OF POLAND GONZAGO RETES MOUNTSORRELL...