Half a Life-Time Agoby Elizabeth GaskellCHAPTER I.Half a life-time ago, there lived in one of the Westmoreland dales asingle woman, of the name of Susan Dixon. She was owner of the smallfarm-house where she resided, and of some thirty or forty acres ofland by which it was surrounded. She had also an hereditary right toa sheep-walk, extending to the wild fells that overhang Blea Tarn.In the language of the country she was a Stateswoman. Her house isyet to be seen on the Oxenfell road, between Skelwith and Coniston.You go along a moorland track, made by the carts that occasionallycame for turf from the Oxenfell. A brook babbles and brattles by the...　

The PrinceThe Princeby Nicolo MachiavelliTranslated by W. K. Marriott1- Page 2-The PrinceNicolo Machiavelli, born at Florence on 3rd May 1469. From 1494 to1512 held an official post at Florence which included diplomatic missionsto various European courts. Imprisoned in Florence, 1512; later exiled andreturned to San Casciano. Died at Florence on 22nd June 1527.2- Page 3-The PrinceINTRODUCTION...　

An Historical Mysteryby Honore de BalzacTranslated by Katharine Prescott WormeleyDEDICATIONTo Monsieur de Margone.In grateful remembrance, from his guest at the Chateau de Sache.De Balzac.AN HISTORICAL MYSTERYPART ICHAPTER IJUDASThe autumn of the year 1803 was one of the finest in the early part ofthat period of the present century which we now call "Empire." Rainhad refreshed the earth during the month of October, so that the treeswere still green and leafy in November. The French people werebeginning to put faith in a secret understanding between the skies andBonaparte, then declared Consul for life,a belief in which that man...　

The Bhagavad-Gita, translatedThe Bhagavad-GitaTranslated Sir Edwin Arnold1- Page 2-The Bhagavad-Gita, translatedDedicationTO INDIASo have I read this wonderful and spirit-thrilling speech, By Krishnaand Prince Arjun held, discoursing each with each; So have I writ itswisdom here,its hidden mystery, For England; O our India! as dear to meas She!EDWIN ARNOLD2- Page 3-The Bhagavad-Gita, translated...　

Eminent Victoriansby Lytton StracheyPrefaceTHE history of the Victorian Age will never be written; we knowtoo much about it. For ignorance is the first requisite of thehistorianignorance, which simplifies and clarifies, whichselects and omits, with a placid perfection unattainable by thehighest art. Concerning the Age which has just passed, ourfathers and our grandfathers have poured forth and accumulated sovast a quantity of information that the industry of a Ranke wouldbe submerged by it, and the perspicacity of a Gibbon would quailbefore it. It is not by the direct method of a scrupulousnarration that the explorer of the past can hope to depict that...　

The Complete Works of Artemus Ward, Part 3by Charles Farrar BrowneWith a biographical sketch by Melville D. Landon, "Eli Perkins"CONTENTS.PART III.Stories and Romances.3.1. Moses the Sassy; or, The Disguised Duke.3.2. Marion: A Romance of the French School.3.3. William Barker, the Young Patriot.3.4. A RomanceThe Conscript.3.5. A RomanceOnly a Mechanic.3.6. Roberto the Rover; A Tale of Sea and Shore.3.7. Red Hand: A Tale of Revenge.3.8. Pyrotechny: A Romance after the French.3.9. The Last of the Culkinses.3.10. A Mormon RomanceReginald Gloverson.PART III. STORIES AND ROMANCES.3.1. MOSES THE SASSY; OR, THE DISGUISED DUKE....　

The Golden Asseby Lucius ApuleiusTranslated by William AdlingtonDedicationTo the Right Honourable and Mighty Lord, THOMAS EARLE OF SUSSEX, Viscount Fitzwalter, Lord of Egremont and of Burnell, Knight of the most noble Order of the Garter, Iustice of the forrests and Chases from Trent Southward; Captain of the Gentleman Pensioners of the House of the QUEENE our Soveraigne Lady.After that I had taken upon me (right Honourable) in manner of that unlearned and foolish Poet, Cherillus, who rashly and unadvisedly wrought a big volume in verses, of the valiant prowesse of Alexander the Great, to translate this present booke, contayning the Metamorphosis of Lucius Apuleius; being mooved thereunto　

The Sequel of Appomattox, A Chronicle of the Reunion of the Statesby Walter Lynwood FlemingCHAPTER I. THE AFTERMATH OF WARWhen the armies of the Union and of the Confederacy were disbanded in 1865, two matters had been settled beyond further dispute: the Negro was to be free, and the Union was to be perpetuated. But, though slavery and state sovereignty were no longer at issue, there were still many problems which pressed for solution. The huge task of reconstruction must be faced. The nature of the situation required that the measures of reconstruction be first formulated in Washington by the victors and then worked out in the conquered South. Since the success of these policies would depe　

The Drums Of Jeopardyby Harold MacGrathCHAPTER IA fast train drew into Albany, on the New York Central, from theWest. It was three-thirty of a chill March morning in the firstyear of peace. A pall of fog lay over the world so heavy thatit beaded the face and hands and deposited a fairy diamond dustupon wool. The station lights had the visibility of stars, andlike the stars were without refulgence - a pale golden aureola,perhaps three feet in diameter, and beyond, nothing. The fewpassengers who alighted and the train itself had the same nebulosityof drab fish in a dim aquarium.Among the passengers to detrain was a man in a long black coat.The high collar was up. The man wore a derby ha　

There are certain unsettled questions in economic theory that have been handed down as a sort of legacy from one generation to another. The discussion of these questions is revived twenty or it may be a hundred times in the course of a decade, and each time the disputants exhaust their intellectual resources in the endeavor to impress their views upon their contemporaries. Not unfrequently the discussion is carried far beyond the limits of weariness and satiety, so that it may well be regarded as an offence against good taste to again recur to so well-worn a theme. And yet these questions return again and again, like troubled spirits doomed restlessly to wander until the hour of their deliv　

APPENDIX DThe Awful German LanguageA little learning makes the whole world kin.Proverbs xxxii, 7.I went often to look at the collection of curiositiesin Heidelberg Castle, and one day I surprised the keeperof it with my German. I spoke entirely in that language.He was greatly interested; and after I had talked a whilehe said my German was very rare, possibly a "unique";and wanted to add it to his museum.If he had known what it had cost me to acquire my art,he would also have known that it would break anycollector to buy it. Harris and I had been hard atwork on our German during several weeks at that time,...　

Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christby Lew Wallaceto THE WIFE OF MY YOUTH who still abides with meBOOK FIRSTCHAPTER IThe Jebel es Zubleh is a mountain fifty miles and more in length, and so narrow that its tracery on the map gives it a likeness to a caterpillar crawling from the south to the north. Standing on its red-and-white cliffs, and looking off under the path of the rising sun, one sees only the Desert of Arabia, where the east winds, so hateful to vinegrowers of Jericho, have kept their playgrounds since the beginning. Its feet are well covered by sands tossed from the Euphrates, there to lie, for the mountain is a wall to the pasture-lands of Moab and Ammon on the westlands which else ha