Of Taxesby David HumeThere is a prevailing maxim, among some reasoners, that everynew tax creates a new ability in the subject to bear it, and thateach encrease of public burdens encreases proportionably theindustry of the people. This maxim is of such a nature as is mostlikely to be abused; and is so much the more dangerous, as itstruth cannot be altogether denied: but it must be owned, whenkept within certain bounds, to have some foundation in reason andexperience.When a tax is laid upon commodities, which are consumed bythe common people, the necessary consequence may seem to be,either that the poor must retrench something from their way of...　

THE WITCH IN THE STONE BOAT[31][31] From the Icelandic.There were once a King and a Queen, and they had a son calledSigurd, who was very strong and active, and good-looking. Whenthe King came to be bowed down with the weight of years he spoketo his son, and said that now it was time for him to look out fora fitting match for himself, for he did not know how long hemight last now, and he would like to see him married before hedied.Sigurd was not averse to this, and asked his father where hethought it best to look for a wife. The King answered that in acertain country there was a King who had a beautiful daughter,and he thought it would be most desirable if Sigurd could get...　

THE INVISIBLE PRINCEOnce upon a time there lived a Fairy who had power over theearth, the sea, fire, and the air; and this Fairy had four sons.The eldest, who was quick and lively, with a vivid imagination,she made Lord of Fire, which was in her opinion the noblest ofall the elements. To the second son, whose wisdom and prudencemade amends for his being rather dull, she gave the government ofthe earth. The third was wild and savage, and of monstrousstature; and the Fairy, his mother, who was ashamed of hisdefects, hoped to hide them by creating him King of the Seas.The youngest, who was the slave of his passions and of a veryuncertain temper, became Prince of the Air....　

Father and SonA study of two temperamentsby Edmund GosseDer Glaube ist wie der Liebe: Er Lasst sich nicht erzwingen.SchopenhauerPREFACEAT the present hour, when fiction takes forms so ingenious and so specious, it is perhaps necessary to say that the following narrative, in all its parts, and so far as the punctilious attention of the writer has been able to keep it so, is scrupulously true. If it were not true, in this strict sense, to publish it would be to trifle with all those who may be induced to read it. It is offered to them as a document, as a record of educational and religious conditions which, having passed away, will never return. In this respect, as the diagnosis of a dying Pu　

The Firm of Nucingenby Honore de BalzacTranslated by James WaringTO MADAME ZULMA CARRAUDTo whom, madame, but to you should I inscribe this work; to you whose lofty and candid intellect is a treasury to your friends; to you that are to me not only a whole public, but the most indulgent of sisters as well? Will you deign to accept a token of the friendship of which I am proud? You, and some few souls as noble, will grasp the whole of the thought underlying The Firm of Nucingen, appended to Cesar Birotteau. Is there not a whole social lesson in the contrast between the two stories?DE BALZAC.You know how slight the partitions are between the private rooms of fashionable restaurant　

Philosophy 4A Story of Harvard Universityby Owen WisterITwo frowning boys sat in their tennis flannels beneath the glare of lampand gas. Their leather belts were loosened, their soft pink shirtsunbuttoned at the collar. They were listening with gloomy voracity tothe instruction of a third. They sat at a table bared of its customarysporting ornaments, and from time to time they questioned, sucked theirpencils, and scrawled vigorous, laconic notes. Their necks and facesshone with the bloom of out-of-doors. Studious concentration wasevidently a painful novelty to their features. Drops of perspirationcame one by one from their matted hair, and their hands dampened the...　

400 BCON HEMORRHOIDSby Hippocratestranslated by Francis AdamsThe disease of the hemorrhoids is formed in this way: if bile orphlegm be determined to the veins in the rectum, it heats the blood inthe veins; and these veins becoming heated attract blood from thenearest veins, and being gorged the inside of the gut swellsoutwardly, and the heads of the veins are raised up, and being atthe same time bruised by the faeces passing out, and injured by theblood collected in them, they squirt out blood, most frequently...　

Glaucus; or The Wonders of the Shoreby Charles KingsleyDedication.MY DEAR MISS GRENFELL,I CANNOT forego the pleasure of dedicating this little book to you;excepting of course the opening exhortation (needless enough inyour case) to those who have not yet discovered the value ofNatural History. Accept it as a memorial of pleasant hours spentby us already, and as an earnest, I trust, of pleasant hours to bespent hereafter (perhaps, too, beyond this life in the nobler worldto come), in examining together the works of our Father in heaven.Your grateful and faithful brother-in-law,C. KINGSLEY....　

My Discovery of Englandby Leacock, StephenIntroduction of Mr. Stephen Leacock Given by Sir Owen Seaman on the Occasion of His First Lecture in LondonLADIES AND GENTLEMEN: It is usual on these occasions for the chairman to begin something like this: "The lecturer, I am sure, needs no introduction from me." And indeed, when I have been the lecturer and somebody else has been the chairman, I have more than once suspected myself of being the better man of the two. Of course I hope I should always have the good mannersI am sure Mr. Leacock hasto disguise that suspicion. However, one has to go through these formalities, and I will therefore introduce the lecturer to you....　

SHERLOCK HOLMESTHE ADVENTURE OF THE SIX NAPOLEONSby Sir Arthur Conan DoyleIt was no very unusual thing for Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard,to look in upon us of an evening, and his visits were welcome toSherlock Holmes, for they enabled him to keep in touch with all thatwas going on at the police headquarters. In return for the newswhich Lestrade would bring, Holmes was always ready to listen withattention to the details of any case upon which the detective wasengaged, and was able occasionally, without any active interference,to give some hint or suggestion drawn from his own vast knowledge...　

SHERLOCK HOLMESTHE ADVENTURE OF THE RED CIRCLEby Sir Arthur Conan Doyle"Well, Mrs. Warren, I cannot see that you have any particularcause for uneasiness, nor do I understand why I, whose time is of somevalue, should interfere in the matter. I really have other things toengage me." So spoke Sherlock Holmes and turned back to the greatscrapbook in which he was arranging and indexing some of his recentmaterial.But the landlady had the pertinacity and also the cunning of hersex. She held her ground firmly."You arranged an affair for a lodger of mine last year," she said-...　

Muratby Alexander Dumas, pereITOULONOn the 18th June, 1815, at the very moment when the destiny of Europewas being decided at Waterloo, a man dressed like a beggar wassilently following the road from Toulon to Marseilles.Arrived at the entrance of the Gorge of Ollioulles, he halted on alittle eminence from which he could see all the surrounding country;then either because he had reached the end of his journey, orbecause, before attempting that forbidding, sombre pass which iscalled the Thermopylae of Provence, he wished to enjoy themagnificent view which spread to the southern horizon a littlelonger, he went and sat down on the edge of the ditch which bordered...