On the Improvement of the UnderstandingOn the Improvement ofthe Understandingby Baruch SpinozaTranslated by R. H. M. Elwes1- Page 2-On the Improvement of the Understanding[1] (1) After experience had taught me that all the usual surroundingsof social life are vain and futile; seeing that none of the objects of my fearscontained in themselves anything either good or bad, except in so far asthe mind is affected by them, I finally resolved to inquire whether theremight be some real good having power to communicate itself, which...　

Ernest Miller Hemingway was born in 1899 at Oak Park, a highly respectable suburb of Chicago, where his father, a keen sportsman, was a doctor. He was the second of six children. The family spent holidays in a lakeside hunting lodge in Michigan, near Indian settlements. Although energetic and successful in all school activities, Ernest twice ran away from home before joining the Kansas City Star as a cub reporter in 1917. Next year he volunteered as an ambulance driver on the Italian front and was badly wounded. Returning to America he began to write features for the Toronto Star Weekly in 1919 and was married in 1921. That year he came to Europe as a roving correspondent and covered severa　

A CONVERT OF THE MISSIONThe largest tent of the Tasajara camp meeting was crowded to itsutmost extent. The excitement of that dense mass was at itshighest pitch. The Reverend Stephen Masterton, the single erect,passionate figure of that confused medley of kneeling worshipers,had reached the culminating pitch of his irresistible exhortatorypower. Sighs and groans were beginning to respond to his appeals,when the reverend brother was seen to lurch heavily forward andfall to the ground.At first the effect was that of a part of his performance; thegroans redoubled, and twenty or thirty brethren threw themselvesprostrate in humble imitation of the preacher. But Sister Deborah...　

420 BCPEACEby Aristophanesanonymous translatorCHARACTERS IN THE PLAYTRYGAEUSTWO SERVANTS OF TRYGAEUSDAUGHTERS OF TRYGAEUSHERMESWARTUMULTHIEROCLES, a SoothsayerAN ARMOURERA SICKLE-MAKERA CREST-MAKERSON OF LAMACHUSSON OF CLEONYMUSCHORUS OF HUSBANDMENPEACE(SCENE:-Behind the Orchestra on the right the farmhouse ofTRYGAEUS, in the centre the mouth of a cave closed up with hugeboulders, on the left the palace of ZEUS. In front of the...　

WYOMING:A STORY OF THE OUTDOOR WESTWYOMINGA STORY OF THE OUTDOOR WESTWilliam MacLeod Raine1- Page 2-WYOMING:A STORY OF THE OUTDOOR WESTCHAPTER 1. A DESERTMEETINGAn automobile shot out from a gash in the hills and slipped swiftlydown to the butte. Here it came to a halt on the white, dusty road, while itsoccupant gazed with eager, unsated eyes on the great panorama thatstretched before her. The earth rolled in waves like a mighty sea to the...　

SHERLOCK HOLMESTHE ADVENTURE OF THE EMPTY HOUSEby Sir Arthur Conan DoyleIt was in the spring of the year 1894 that all London wasinterested, and the fashionable world dismayed, by the murder of theHonourable Ronald Adair under most unusual and inexplicablecircumstances. The public has already learned those particulars of thecrime which came out in the police investigation, but a good dealwas suppressed upon that occasion, since the case for theprosecution was so overwhelmingly strong that it was not necessaryto bring forward all the facts. Only now, at the end of nearly ten...　

Lecture IXThe Primitive Forms of Legal RemediesI.I stated on a former occasion (Lecture 1. p. 8) that thebranch of law which we now call the Law of Distress occupies thegreatest part of the largest Brehon law-tract, the Senchus Mor.The importance thus given to Distress is a fact of muchsignificance, and in this and the following Lecture I propose todiscuss the questions it raises and the conclusions it suggests.The value of the precious discovery made by Niebuhr, when he...　

SHERLOCK HOLMESTHE SCANDAL IN BOHEMIAby Sir Arthur Conan Doyle1To Sherlock Holmes she is always the woman. I have seldom heardhim mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses andpredominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt any emotionakin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that one particularly,were abhorrent to his cold, precise but admirably balanced mind. Hewas, I take it, the most perfect reasoning and observing machinethat the world has seen, but as a lover he would have placed himselfin a false position. He never spoke of the softer passions, save...　

Rosamund, Queen of the Lombardsby Algernon Charles SwinburnePERSONS REPRESENTEDALBOVINE, King of the Lombards.ALMACHILDES, a young Lombard warrior.NARSETES, an old leader and counsellor.ROSAMUND, Queen of the LombardsHILDEGARD, a noble Lombard maiden.SCENE, VERONATime, June 573ACT IA hall in the Palace: a curtain drawn midway across it.Enter ALBOVINE and NARSETES.ALBOVINE.This is no matter of the wars: in warThy king, old friend, is less than king of thine,And comrade less than follower. Hast thou lovedEverloved woman, not as chance may love,But as thou hast loved thy sword or friendor me?Thou hast shewn me love more stout of heart than death....　

Flatland: A Romance of Many DimensionsEdwin A. Abbott (1838-1926. English scholar, theologian, and writer.)ToThe Inhabitants of SPACE IN GENERALAnd H. C. IN PARTICULARThis Work is DedicatedBy a Humble Native of FlatlandIn the Hope thatEven as he was Initiated into the MysteriesOf THREE DimensionsHaving been previously conversantWith ONLY TWOSo the Citizens of that Celestial RegionMay aspire yet higher and higher...　

THE IMITATION OF CHRISTTHE IMITATION OFCHRISTby Thomas a KempisTranslated by Rev. William Benham1- Page 2-THE IMITATION OF CHRISTINTRODUCTORY NOTEThe treatise "Of the Imitation of Christ" appears to have beenoriginally written in Latin early in the fifteenth century. Its exact dateand its authorship are still a matter of debate. Manuscripts of the Latinversion survive in considerable numbers all over Western Europe, and they,...　

TEA-TABLE TALKTEA-TABLE TALKby Jerome K. Jerome1- Page 2-TEA-TABLE TALKCHAPTER I"They are very pretty, some of them," said the Woman of the World;"not the sort of letters I should have written myself.""I should like to see a love-letter of yours," interrupted the Minor Poet."It is very kind of you to say so," replied the Woman of the World. "Itnever occurred to me that you would care for one.""It is what I have always maintained," retorted the Minor Poet; "you...