THE SKETCH BOOKRURAL LIFE IN ENGLANDby Washington IrvingOh! friendly to the best pursuits of man,Friendly to thought, to virtue, and to peace,Domestic life in rural pleasures past!COWPER.THE stranger who would form a correct opinion of the Englishcharacter must not confine his observations to the metropolis. He mustgo forth into the country; he must sojourn in villages and hamlets; hemust visit castles, villas, farm-houses, cottages; he must wanderthrough parks and gardens; along hedges and green lanes; he must...　

A Cumberland Vendettaby John Fox Jr.TO MINERVA AND ELIZABETHA Cumberland VendettaITHE cave had been their hiding-place as children; it was a secret refuge now against hunger or darkness when they were hunting in the woods. The primitive meal was finished; ashes were raked over the red coals; the slice of bacon and the little bag of meal were hung high against the rock wall; and the two stepped from the cavern into a thicket of rhododendrons.Parting the bushes toward the dim light, they stood on a massive shoulder of the mountain, the river girding it far below, and the afternoon shadows at their feet. Both carried guns-the tall mountaineer, a Winchester; the boy, a squirrel rifle longer th　

Riders of the Purple Sageby Zane GreyCHAPTER I. LASSITERA sharp clip-crop of iron-shod hoofs deadened and died away, and clouds of yellow dust drifted from under the cottonwoods out over the sage.Jane Withersteen gazed down the wide purple slope with dreamy and troubled eyes. A rider had just left her and it was his message that held her thoughtful and almost sad, awaiting the churchmen who were coming to resent and attack her right to befriend a Gentile.She wondered if the unrest and strife that had lately come to the little village of Cottonwoods was to involve her. And then she sighed, remembering that her father had founded this remotest border settlement of southern Utah and that he ha　

"POLIKUSHKA;"OR,The Lot of a Wicked Court Servant.CHAPTER I.Polikey was a court manone of the staff of servants belongingto the court household of a boyarinia (lady of the nobility).He held a very insignificant position on the estate, and lived ina rather poor, small house with his wife and children.The house was built by the deceased nobleman whose widow he stillcontinued to serve, and may be described as follows: The fourwalls surrounding the one izba (room) were built of stone, andthe interior was ten yards square. A Russian stove stood in thecentre, around which was a free passage. Each corner was fencedoff as a separate inclosure to the extent of several feet, and...　

OF THE LIBERTY OF THE PRESSDavid Hume1741NOTHING is more apt to surprize a foreigner, than theextreme liberty, which we enjoy in this country, ofcommunicating whatever we please to the public, and ofopenly censuring every measure, entered into by the king orhis ministers. If the administration resolve upon war, it isaffirmed, that, either wilfully or ignorantly, they mistake...　

1872FAIRY TALES OF HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSENTHE TINDER-BOXby Hans Christian AndersenA SOLDIER came marching along the high road: "Left, right- left,right." He had his knapsack on his back, and a sword at his side; hehad been to the wars, and was now returning home.As he walked on, he met a very frightful-looking old witch inthe road. Her under-lip hung quite down on her breast, and she stopped and said, "Good evening, soldier; you have a very fine sword, and a large knapsack, and you are a real soldier; so you shall have as much money as ever you like.""Thank you, old witch," said the soldier."Do you see that large tree," said the witch, pointing to a tree...　

The Boy Captives An Incident of the Indian War of 1695The Boy CaptivesAn Incident of the Indian War of 1695by John Greenleaf Whittier1- Page 2-The Boy Captives An Incident of the Indian War of 1695THE township of Haverhill, even as late as the close of theseventeenth century, was a frontier settlement, occupying an advancedposition in the great wilderness, which, unbroken by the clearing of awhite man, extended from the Merrimac River to the French villages onthe St. Francois. A tract of twelve miles on the river and three or four...　

420 BCHIPPOLYTUSby Euripidestranslated by E. P. ColeridgeCHARACTERS IN THE PLAYAPHRODITEHIPPOLYTUS, bastard son of THESEUSATTENDANTS OF HIPPOLYTUSCHORUS OF TROEZENIAN WOMENNURSE OF PHAEDRAPHAEDRA, wife of THESEUSTHESEUSMESSENGERARTEMISHIPPOLYTUSHIPPOLYTUS(SCENE:-Before the royal palace at Troezen. There is a statue ofAPHRODITE on one side; on the other, a statue of ARTEMIS. There isan altar before each image. The goddess APHRODITE appears alone.)...　

Marieby H. Rider HaggardAN EPISODE IN THE LIFE OF THE LATE ALLAN QUATERMAINDEDICATIONDitchingham, 1912.My dear Sir Henry,Nearly thirty-seven years have gone by, more than a generation, sincefirst we saw the shores of Southern Africa rising from the sea. Sincethen how much has happened: the Annexation of the Transvaal, the ZuluWar, the first Boer War, the discovery of the Rand, the taking ofRhodesia, the second Boer War, and many other matters which in thesequick-moving times are now reckoned as ancient history.Alas! I fear that were we to re-visit that country we should find butfew faces which we knew. Yet of one thing we may be glad. Those...　

A Thief in the Nightby E. W. HornungOut of ParadiseIf I must tell more tales of Raffles, I can but back to our earliest days together, and fill in the blanks left by discretion in existing annals. In so doing I may indeed fill some small part of an infinitely greater blank, across which you may conceive me to have stretched my canvas for the first frank portrait of my friend. The whole truth cannot harm him now. I shall paint in every wart. Raffles was a villain, when all is written; it is no service to his memory to glaze the fact; yet I have done so myself before to-day. I have omitted whole heinous episodes. I have dwelt unduly on the redeeming side. And this I may do again, blind　

OF SUPERSTITION AND ENTHUSIASMDavid Hume1741,is grown into a maxim, and is commonly proved, among otherinstances, by the pernicious effects of and, the corruptions of true religion.These two species of false religion, though both pernicious,are yet of a very different, and even of a contrary nature. Themind of man is subject to certain unaccountable terrors and...　

A UNITARIAN CREED_To Dr. Benjamin Waterhouse__Monticello, June 26, 1822_DEAR SIR, I have received and read with thankfulness andpleasure your denunciation of the abuses of tobacco and wine. Yet,however sound in its principles, I expect it will be but a sermon tothe wind. You will find it as difficult to inculcate these sanativeprecepts on the sensualities of the present day, as to convince anAthanasian that there is but one God. I wish success to bothattempts, and am happy to learn from you that the latter, at least,is making progress, and the more rapidly in proportion as ourPlatonizing Christians make more stir and noise about it. The...