A sea of mist drifted through the cloud forest: soft, grey, luminescent. On the high ridges the fog showed brighter as the morning sun began to warm and lift the moisture, although in the ravine a cool, soundless dimness still counterfeited a pre-dawn twilight.　mander Cordelia Naismith glanced at her team botanist and adjusted the straps of her biological collecting equipment a bit more fortably before continuing her breathless climb. She pushed a long tendril of fog-dampened copper hair out of her eyes, clawing it impatiently toward the clasp at the nape of her neck. Their next survey area would definitely be at a lower altitude. The gravity of this planet was slightly lower than their ho　

　To William Howells　　　"Praise not the day until evening has e; a woman until she is burnt; a sword until it is tried; a maiden until she is married; ice until it has been crossed; beer until it has been drunk."　VIKING PROVERB　　"Evil is of old date."　ARAB PROVERB　　INTRODUCTION　THE IBN FADLAN MANUSCRIPT REPRESENTS THE earliest known eyewitness account of Viking life and society. It is an extraordinary document, describing in vivid detail events which occurred more than a thousand years ago. The manuscript has not, of course, survived intact over that enormous span of time. It has a peculiar history of its own, and one no less remarkable than the text itself.　...　

　　His mind absorbed the scene before him, so quiet and calm and . . . normal. It was the life he had always wanted, a gathering of family and friends-he knew that they were just that, though the only one he recognized was his dear mother.　　This was the way it was supposed to be. The warmth and the love, the laughter and the quiet times. This was how he had always dreamed it would be, how he had always prayed it would be. The warm, inviting smiles. The pleasant conversation. The gentle pats on shoulders.　　But most of all there was the smile of his beloved mother, so happy now, no more a slave. When she looked at him, he saw all of that and more, saw how proud she was of him, how joyful her l　

FAIRY TALES OF HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSENTHE DRYADby Hans Christian AndersenWE are travelling to Paris to the Exhibition.Now we are there. That was a journey, a flight without magic. Weflew on the wings of steam over the sea and across the land.Yes, our time is the time of fairy tales.We are in the midst of Paris, in a great hotel. Blooming flowersornament the staircases, and soft carpets the floors.Our room is a very cosy one, and through the open balcony doorwe have a view of a great square. Spring lives down there; it has cometo Paris, and arrived at the same time with us. It has come in the...　

Algernon Charles Swinburne, _Chastelard, a tragedy_ . Boston: E.P. Dutton, 1866.ChastelardAlgernon Charles Swinburne1- Page 2-Algernon Charles Swinburne, _Chastelard, a tragedy_ . Boston: E.P. Dutton, 1866.PERSONS.MARY STUART. MARY BEATON. MARY SEYTON. MARYCARMICHAEL. MARY HAMILTON. PIERRE DE BOSCOSEL DECHASTELARD. DARNLEY. MURRAY. RANDOLPH. MORTON.LINDSAY. FATHER BLACK.Guards, Burgesses, a Preacher, Citizens, &c....　

Eugenie Grandetby Honore de BalzacTranslated by Katharine Prescott WormeleyDEDICATIONTo Maria.May your name, that of one whose portrait is the noblest ornamentof this work, lie on its opening pages like a branch of sacredbox, taken from an unknown tree, but sanctified by religion, andkept ever fresh and green by pious hands to bless the house.De Balzac.EUGENIE GRANDETIThere are houses in certain provincial towns whose aspect inspiresmelancholy, akin to that called forth by sombre cloisters, drearymoorlands, or the desolation of ruins. Within these houses there is,perhaps, the silence of the cloister, the barrenness of moors, the...　

Castle Rackrentby Maria EdgeworthWith an Introduction by Anne Thackeray RitchieINTRODUCTIONIThe story of the Edgeworth Family, if it were properly told, should be as long as the ARABIAN NIGHTS themselves; the thousand and one cheerful intelligent members of the circle, the amusing friends and relations, the charming surroundings, the cheerful hospitable home, all go to make up an almost unique history of a county family of great parts and no little character. The Edgeworths were people of good means and position, and their rental, we are told, amounted to nearly L3000 a year. At one time there was some talk of a peerage for Mr. Edgeworth, but he was considered too independent for a peerag　

VOLUME ICHAPTER ILord Angelo is precise; Stands at a guard with envy; Scarce confesses That his blood flows, or that his appetite Is more to bread than stone. Measure for Measure.Scarcely had the Abbey Bell tolled for five minutes,and already was the Church of the Capuchins thronged with Auditors. Do not encourage the idea that the Crowd was assembled either from motives of piety or thirst of information. But very few were influenced by those reasons; and in a city where superstition reigns with such despotic sway as in Madrid, to seek for true devotion would be a fruitless attempt. The Audience now assembled in the Capuchin Church was collected by various ca　

The Diary of a Man of Fiftyby Henry JamesFlorence, April 5th, 1874.They told me I should find Italy greatlychanged; and in seven-and-twenty years there is room for changes.But to me everything is so perfectly the same that I seem to beliving my youth over again; all the forgotten impressions of thatenchanting time come back to me. At the moment they were powerfulenough; but they afterwards faded away. What in the world became ofthem? Whatever becomes of such things, in the long intervals ofconsciousness? Where do they hide themselves away? in what unvisitedcupboards and crannies of our being do they preserve themselves?...　

Caesar and Cleopatraby George Bernard ShawACT IAn October night on the Syrian border of Egypt towards the end ofthe XXXIII Dynasty, in the year 706 by Roman computation,afterwards reckoned by Christian computation as 48 B.C. A greatradiance of silver fire, the dawn of a moonlit night, is risingin the east. The stars and the cloudless sky are our owncontemporaries, nineteen and a half centuries younger than weknow them; but you would not guess that from their appearance.Below them are two notable drawbacks of civilization: a palace,and soldiers. The palace, an old, low, Syrian building ofwhitened mud, is not so ugly as Buckingham Palace; and the...　

THE SUPPLIANTSby Aeschylustranslated by E.D.A. MorsheadCHARACTERS IN THE PLAYDANAUSTHE KING OF ARGOSHERALD OF AEGYPTUSCHORUS OF THE DAUGHTERS OF DANAUSAttendantsSUPPLIANTS(SCENE:-A sacred precinct near the shore in Argos. Several statuesof the gods can be seen, as well as a large altar. As the playopens, DANAUS, and his fifty daughters, the maidens who composethe CHORUS, enter. Their costumes have an oriental richness aboutthem not characteristic of the strictly Greek. They carry also the...　

Lecture IICIRCUMSCRIPTION OF THE TOPICMost books on the philosophy of religion try to begin with aprecise definition of what its essence consists of. Some ofthese would-be definitions may possibly come before us in laterportions of this course, and I shall not be pedantic enough toenumerate any of them to you now. Meanwhile the very fact thatthey are so many and so different from one another is enough toprove that the word "religion" cannot stand for any singleprinciple or essence, but is rather a collective name. Thetheorizing mind tends always to the oversimplification of its...