Confessio AmantisorTales of the Seven Deadly SinsBy John Gower, 1330-1408 A.D.PrologusTorpor, ebes sensus, scola parua labor minimusqueCausant quo minimus ipse minora canam:Qua tamen Engisti lingua canit Insula BrutiAnglica Carmente metra iuuante loquar.Ossibus ergo carens que conterit ossa loquelisAbsit, et interpres stet procul oro malus.Of hem that writen ous toforeThe bokes duelle, and we therforeBen tawht of that was write tho:Forthi good is that we alsoIn oure tyme among ous hiereDo wryte of newe som matiere,Essampled of these olde wyseSo that it myhte in such a wyse,Whan we ben dede and elleswhere,Beleve to the worldes eere 10...　

RECORDS OF A FAMILY OF ENGINEERSRECORDS OF AFAMILY OF ENGINEERSROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON1- Page 2-RECORDS OF A FAMILY OF ENGINEERSINTRODUCTIONTHE SURNAME OF STEVENSONFROM the thirteenth century onwards, the name, under the variousdisguises of Stevinstoun, Stevensoun, Stevensonne, Stenesone, andStewinsoune, spread across Scotland from the mouth of the Firth of Forthto the mouth of the Firth of Clyde. Four times at least it occurs as a...　

I and My Chimneyby Herman MelvilleI and my chimney, two grey-headed old smokers, reside in thecountry. We are, I may say, old settlers here; particularly myold chimney, which settles more and more every day.Though I always say, I AND MY CHIMNEY, as Cardinal Wolsey used tosay, "I AND MY KING," yet this egotistic way of speaking, whereinI take precedence of my chimney, is hereby borne out by thefacts; in everything, except the above phrase, my chimney takingprecedence of me.Within thirty feet of the turf-sided road, my chimneya huge,corpulent old Harry VIII of a chimneyrises full in front of meand all my possessions. Standing well up a hillside, my chimney,...　

TWICE-TOLD TALESTHE GREAT STONE FACEby Nathaniel HawthorneONE AFTERNOON, When the sun was going down, a mother and her littleboy sat at the door of their cottage, talking about the Great StoneFace. They had but to lift their eyes, and there it was plainly tobe seen, though miles away, with the sunshine brightening all itsfeatures.And what was the Great Stone Face?Embosomed amongst a family of lofty mountains, there was a valleyso spacious that it contained many thousand inhabitants. Some of thesegood people dwelt in log huts, with the black forest all around...　

The Efficiency Expertby Edgar Rice BurroughsCHAPTER I.JIMMY TORRANCE, JR.The gymnasium was packed as Jimmy Torrance stepped into the ring for the final event of the evening that was to decide the boxing championship of the university. Drawing to a close were the nearly four years of his college careerprofitable years, Jimmy considered them, and certainly successful up to this point. In the beginning of his senior year he had captained the varsity eleven, and in the coming spring he would again sally forth upon the diamond as the star initial sacker of collegedom.His football triumphs were in the past, his continued baseball successes a foregone conclusionif he won to-night his cup of happin　

Sunday Under Three Headsby Charles DickensDEDICATIONTo The Right ReverendTHE BISHOP OF LONDONMY LORD,You were among the first, some years ago, to expatiate on thevicious addiction of the lower classes of society to Sundayexcursions; and were thus instrumental in calling forth occasionaldemonstrations of those extreme opinions on the subject, which arevery generally received with derision, if not with contempt.Your elevated station, my Lord, affords you countless opportunitiesof increasing the comforts and pleasures of the humbler classes ofsociety - not by the expenditure of the smallest portion of yourprincely income, but by merely sanctioning with the influence of...　

On Books and the Housing of Themby William Ewart GladstoneIn the old age of his intellect (which atthis point seemed to taste a little ofdecrepitude), Strauss declared [1] that the doctrine ofimmortality has recently lost the assistanceof a passable argument, inasmuch as it hasbeen discovered that the stars are inhabited;for where, he asks, could room now be foundfor such a multitude of souls? Again, in viewof the current estimates of prospectivepopulation for this earth, some people have begun toentertain alarm for the probable condition ofEngland (if not Great Britain) when she gets(say) seventy millions that are allotted to heragainst six or eight hundred millions for the...　

THE GREAT STONE FACEOne afternoon, when the sun was going down, a mother and herlittle boy sat at the door of their cottage, talking about theGreat Stone Face. They had but to lift their eyes, and there itwas plainly to be seen, though miles away, with the sunshinebrightening all its features.And what was the Great Stone Face?Embosomed amongst a family of lofty mountains, there was a valleyso spacious that it contained many thousand inhabitants. Some ofthese good people dwelt in log-huts, with the black forest allaround them, on the steep and difficult hill-sides. Others hadtheir homes in comfortable farm-houses, and cultivated the rich...　

Vanity Fairby William Makepeace ThackerayBEFORE THE CURTAINAs the manager of the Performance sits before the curtainon the boards and looks into the Fair, a feeling of profoundmelancholy comes over him in his survey of the bustling place.There is a great quantity of eating and drinking, making loveand jilting, laughing and the contrary, smoking, cheating,fighting, dancing and fiddling; there are bullies pushing about,bucks ogling the women, knaves picking pockets, policemenon the look-out, quacks (OTHER quacks, plague take them!)bawling in front of their booths, and yokels looking up atthe tinselled dancers and poor old rouged tumblers, while thelight-fingered folk are operating upon their 　

KING HENRY THE EIGHTHKING HENRY THEEIGHTHWilliam Shakespeare16111- Page 2-KING HENRY THE EIGHTHDRAMATIS PERSONAEKING HENRY THE EIGHTH CARDINAL WOLSEY CARDINALCAMPEIUS CAPUCIUS, Ambassador from the Emperor Charles VCRANMER, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY DUKE OF NORFOLKDUKE OF BUCKINGHAM DUKE OF SUFFOLK EARL OF SURREYLORD CHAMBERLAIN LORD CHANCELLOR GARDINER, BISHOPOF WINCHESTER BISHOP OF LINCOLN LORD ABERGAVENNY...　

THE MASTER THIEFTHERE was once upon a time a husbandman who had three sons.He had no property to bequeath to them, and no means of puttingthem in the way of getting a living, and did not know what todo, so he said that they had his leave to take to anything they mostfancied, and go to any place they best liked. He would gladlyaccompany them for some part of their way, he said, and that he did.He went with them till they came to a place where three roadsmet, and there each of them took his own way, and the father badethem farewell and returned to his own home again. What becameof the two elder I have never been able to discover, but the youngest...　

SHERLOCK HOLMESTHE ADVENTURE OF THE VEILED LODGERby Sir Arthur Conan DoyleWhen one considers that Mr. Sherlock Holmes was in active practicefor twenty-three years, and that during seventeen of these I wasallowed to cooperate with him and to keep notes of his doings, it willbe clear that I have a mass of material at my command. The problem hasalways been not to find but to choose. There is the long row ofyear-books which fill a shelf, and there are the dispatch-cases filledwith documents, a perfect quarry for the student not only of crime butof the social and official scandals of the late Victorian era....