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...　

THE WITCH [28][28] From the Russian.Once upon a time there was a peasant whose wife died, leaving himwith two childrentwinsa boy and a girl. For some years thepoor man lived on alone with the children, caring for them asbest he could; but everything in the house seemed to go wrongwithout a woman to look after it, and at last he made up his mindto marry again, feeling that a wife would bring peace and orderto his household and take care of his motherless children. So hemarried, and in the following years several children were born tohim; but peace and order did not come to the household. For thestep-mother was very cruel to the twins, and beat them, and...　

Vailima Lettersby Robert Louis StevensonCHAPTER IIN THE MOUNTAIN, APIA, SAMOA,MONDAY, NOVEMBER 2ND, 1890MY DEAR COLVIN, - This is a hard and interesting andbeautiful life that we lead now. Our place is in a deepcleft of Vaea Mountain, some six hundred feet above the sea,embowered in forest, which is our strangling enemy, and whichwe combat with axes and dollars. I went crazy over outdoorwork, and had at last to confine myself to the house, orliterature must have gone by the board. NOTHING is sointeresting as weeding, clearing, and path-making; theoversight of labourers becomes a disease; it is quite an...　

Chronicles of the Canongateby Sir Walter ScottCONTENTS.Introduction to Chronicles of the Canongate. Appendix to IntroductionThe Theatrical Fund Dinner. IntroductoryMr. Chrystal Croftangry. The Highland Widow. The Two Drovers. Notes.INTRODUCTION TO CHRONICLES OF THE CANONGATE.The preceding volume of this Collection concluded the last of the pieces originally published under the NOMINIS UMBRA of The Author of Waverley; and the circumstances which rendered it impossible for the writer to continue longer in the possession of his incognito were communicated in 1827, in the Introduction to the first series of Chronicles of the Canongate, consisting (besides a biographical sketch of the 　

The Sleeping-Car - A Farceby William D. HowellsI.SCENE: One side of a sleeping-car on the Boston and Albany Road.The curtains are drawn before most of the berths; from the hooks androds hang hats, bonnets, bags, bandboxes, umbrellas, and othertravelling gear; on the floor are boots of both sexes, set out forTHE PORTER to black. THE PORTER is making up the beds in the upperand lower berths adjoining the seats on which a young mother, slenderand pretty, with a baby asleep on the seat beside her, and a stoutold lady, sit confronting each otherMRS. AGNES ROBERTS and her auntMARY.MRS. ROBERTS. Do you always take down your back hair, aunty?...　

Penguin Islandby Anatole FranceCONTENTSBOOK I. THE BEGINNINGSBOOK II. THE ANCIENT TIMESBOOK III. THE MIDDLE AGES AND THE RENAISSANCEBOOK IV. MODERN TIMES: TRINCOBOOK V. MODERN TIMES: CHATILLONBOOK VI. MODERN TIMESBOOK VII. MODERN TIMESBOOK VIII. FUTURE TIMESBOOK I. THE BEGINNINGSI. LIFE OF SAINT MAELMael, a scion of a royal family of Cambria, was sent in his ninth year to the Abbey of Yvern so that he might there study both sacred and profane learning. At the age of fourteen he renounced his patrimony and took a vow to serve the Lord. His time was divided, according to the rule, between the singing of hymns, the study of grammar, and the meditation of eternal truths....　

A LETTER FROM CAPTAIN GULLIVER TO HIS COUSIN SYMPSON.WRITTEN IN THE YEAR 1727.I hope you will be ready to own publicly, whenever you shall becalled to it, that by your great and frequent urgency youprevailed on me to publish a very loose and uncorrect account ofmy travels, with directions to hire some young gentleman ofeither university to put them in order, and correct the style, asmy cousin Dampier did, by my advice, in his book called "A Voyageround the world." But I do not remember I gave you power toconsent that any thing should be omitted, and much less that anything should be inserted; therefore, as to the latter, I do here...　

Seraphitaby Honore de BalzacTranslated by Katharine Prescott WormeleyDEDICATIONTo Madame Eveline de Hanska, nee Comtesse Rzewuska.Madame,Here is the work which you asked of me. I am happy, inthus dedicating it, to offer you a proof of the respectfulaffection you allow me to bear you. If I am reproached forimpotence in this attempt to draw from the depths of mysticism abook which seeks to give, in the lucid transparency of ourbeautiful language, the luminous poesy of the Orient, to you theblame! Did you not command this struggle (resembling that ofJacob) by telling me that the most imperfect sketch of this...　

The VillageAfter hoeing, or perhaps reading and writing, in the forenoon, Iusually bathed again in the pond, swimming across one of its covesfor a stint, and washed the dust of labor from my person, orsmoothed out the last wrinkle which study had made, and for theafternoon was absolutely free. Every day or two I strolled to thevillage to hear some of the gossip which is incessantly going onthere, circulating either from mouth to mouth, or from newspaper tonewspaper, and which, taken in homoeopathic doses, was really asrefreshing in its way as the rustle of leaves and the peeping offrogs. As I walked in the woods to see the birds and squirrels, so...　

The Psychology of RevolutionGustave le BonCONTENTSINTRODUCTION. THE REVISION OF HISTORYPART ITHE PSYCHOLOGICAL ELEMENTS OF REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENTSBOOK IGENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF REVOLUTIONSCHAPTER I. SCIENTIFIC AND POLITICAL REVOLUTIONS1. Classification of Revolutions2. Scientific Revolutions3. Political Revolutions4. The results of Political RevolutionsCHAPTER II. RELIGIOUS REVOLUTIONS1. The importance of the study of Religious Revolutions inrespect of the comprehension of the great Political...　

The Castle of Otrantoby Horace WalpolePREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.THE following work was found in the library of an ancient Catholic family in the north of England. It was printed at Naples, in the black letter, in the year 1529. How much sooner it was written does not appear. The principal incidents are such as were believed in the darkest ages of Christianity; but the language and conduct have nothing that savours of barbarism. The style is the purest Italian.If the story was written near the time when it is supposed to have happened, it must have been between 1095, the era of the first Crusade, and 1243, the date of the last, or not long afterwards. There is no other circum