Before Adamby Jack London"These are our ancestors, and their history is ourhistory. Remember that as surely as we one day swungdown out of the trees and walked upright, just assurely, on a far earlier day, did we crawl up out ofthe sea and achieve our first adventure on land."CHAPTER IPictures! Pictures! Pictures! Often, before I learned,did I wonder whence came the multitudes of picturesthat thronged my dreams; for they were pictures thelike of which I had never seen in real wake-a-day life.They tormented my childhood, making of my dreams aprocession of nightmares and a little later convincing...
FELICIA AND THE POT OF PINKSONCE upon a time there was a poor laborer who, feelingthat he had not much longer to live, wished to divide hispossessions between his son and daughter, whom he loveddearly.So he called them to him, and said: "Your motherbrought me as her dowry two stools and a straw bed; Ihave, besides, a hen, a pot of pinks, and a silver ring,which were given me by a noble lady who once lodged inmy poor cottage. When she went away she said to me:"`Be careful of my gifts, good man; see that you do notlose the ring or forget to water the pinks. As for yourdaughter, I promise you that she shall be more beautiful...
Tour Through the Eastern Counties of Englandby Daniel DefoeI began my travels where I purpose to end them, viz., at the Cityof London, and therefore my account of the city itself will comelast, that is to say, at the latter end of my southern progress;and as in the course of this journey I shall have many occasions tocall it a circuit, if not a circle, so I chose to give it the titleof circuits in the plural, because I do not pretend to havetravelled it all in one journey, but in many, and some of them manytimes over; the better to inform myself of everything I could findworth taking notice of.I hope it will appear that I am not the less, but the more capable...
THE ODYSSEYby Homertranslated by Samuel ButlerBOOK I.TELL ME, O MUSE, of that ingenious hero who travelled far and wideafter he had sacked the famous town of Troy. Many cities did he visit,and many were the nations with whose manners and customs he wasacquainted; moreover he suffered much by sea while trying to savehis own life and bring his men safely home; but do what he might hecould not save his men, for they perished through their own sheerfolly in eating the cattle of the Sun-god Hyperion; so the godprevented them from ever reaching home. Tell me, too, about all...
The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the action of worms withobservations of their habitsby Charles DarwinINTRODUCTION.The share which worms have taken in the formation of the layer ofvegetable mould, which covers the whole surface of the land inevery moderately humid country, is the subject of the presentvolume. This mould is generally of a blackish colour and a fewinches in thickness. In different districts it differs but littlein appearance, although it may rest on various subsoils. Theuniform fineness of the particles of which it is composed is one ofits chief characteristic features; and this may be well observed inany gravelly country, where a recently-ploughed field immediatel
PRESTER JOHNJOHN BUCHANTOLIONEL PHILLIPSTime, they say, must the best of us capture,And travel and battle and gems and goldNo more can kindle the ancient rapture,For even the youngest of hearts grows old.But in you, I think, the boy is not over;So take this medley of ways and warsAs the gift of a friend and a fellow-loverOf the fairest country under the stars.J. B.CONTENTSi. The Man on the Kirkcaple Shoreii. Furth! Fortune!iii. Blaauwildebeestefonteiniv. My Journey to the Winter-Veldv. Mr Wardlaw Has a Premonitionvi. The Drums Beat at Sunsetvii. Captain Arcoll Tells a Taleviii. I Fall in Again with the Reverend John Laputa...
The Red One, and Othersby Jack LondonContents:The Red OneThe HussyLike Argus of the Ancient TimesThe PrincessSTORY: THE RED ONETHERE it was! The abrupt liberation of sound! As he timed it withhis watch, Bassett likened it to the trump of an archangel. Wallsof cities, he meditated, might well fall down before so vast andcompelling a summons. For the thousandth time vainly he tried toanalyse the tone-quality of that enormous peal that dominated theland far into the strong-holds of the surrounding tribes. Themountain gorge which was its source rang to the rising tide of it...
GRACIOSA AND PERCINETONCE upon a time there lived a King and Queen who had onecharming daughter. She was so graceful and pretty andclever that she was called Graciosa, and the Queen was so fond ofher that she could think of nothing else.Everyday she gave the Princess a lovely new frock of gold brocade,or satin, or velvet, and when she was hungry she had bowls full ofsugar-plums, and at least twenty pots of jam. Everybody said shewas the happiest Princess in the world. Now there lived at thissame court a very rich old duchess whose name was Grumbly.She was more frightful than tongue can tell; her hair was red asfire, and she had but one eye, and that not a pretty one! Her face...
The Complete Writings of Charles Dudley Warner Volume 2by Charles Dudley WarnerCONTENTS:SAUNTERINGSMISAPPREHENSIONS CORRECTEDI should not like to ask an indulgent and idle public to saunter about with me under a misapprehension. It would be more agreeable to invite it to go nowhere than somewhere; for almost every one has been somewhere, and has written about it. The only compromise I can suggest is, that we shall go somewhere, and not learn anything about it. The instinct of the public against any thing like information in a volume of this kind is perfectly justifiable; and the reader will perhaps discover that this is illy adapted for a text-book in schools, or for the use of competiti
FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF THE METAPHYSIC OF MORALSby Immanuel Kanttranslated by Thomas Kingsmill AbbottPREFACEAncient Greek philosophy was divided into three sciences: physics,ethics, and logic. This division is perfectly suitable to the natureof the thing; and the only improvement that can be made in it is toadd the principle on which it is based, so that we may both satisfyourselves of its completeness, and also be able to determine correctlythe necessary subdivisions.All rational knowledge is either material or formal: the former...
Unto This LastJohn Ruskin1860Essays from the Cornhill Magazine 1860reprinted as Unto This Last in 1862The Roots of HonourAmong the delusions which at different periods have possessedthemselves of the minds of large masses of the human race,perhaps the most curious certainly the least creditable isthe modern soi-disant science of political economy, based on theidea that an advantageous code of social action may be determinedirrespectively of the influence of social affection.Of course, as in the instances of alchemy, astrology,witchcraft, and other such popular creeds, political economy, has...
Polyuecteby Pierre CorneilleTranslated by Thomas ConstableINTRODUCTORY NOTEPierre Corneille was born in Rouen in 1606, the son of an official;was educated by the Jesuits, and practised unsuccessfully as a lawyer.His dramatic career began with the comedy of "Melite," but it was byhis "Medee" that he first proved his tragic genius. "The Cid" appearedin 1636, and a series of masterpieces followed"Horace," "Cinna,""Polyeucte," "Le Menteur." After a failure in "Pertharite" he retiredfrom the stage, deeply hurt by the disapproval of his audience. Sixyears later he resumed play writing with "OEdipe" and continued till...