Honorineby Honore de BalzacTranslated by Clara BellDEDICATIONTo Monsieur Achille DeveriaAn affectionate remembrance from the Author.HONORINEIf the French have as great an aversion for traveling as the Englishhave a propensity for it, both English and French have perhapssufficient reasons. Something better than England is everywhere to befound; whereas it is excessively difficult to find the charms ofFrance outside France. Other countries can show admirable scenery, andthey frequently offer greater comfort than that of France, which makesbut slow progress in that particular. They sometimes display abewildering magnificence, grandeur, and luxury; they lack neither...　

HIGH-WATER MARKWhen the tide was out on the Dedlow Marsh, its extended drearinesswas patent. Its spongy, low-lying surface, sluggish, inky pools,and tortuous sloughs, twisting their slimy way, eel-like, towardthe open bay, were all hard facts. So were the few green tussocks,with their scant blades, their amphibious flavor and unpleasantdampness. And if you choose to indulge your fancyalthough theflat monotony of the Dedlow Marsh was not inspiringthe wavy lineof scattered drift gave an unpleasant consciousness of the spentwaters, and made the dead certainty of the returning tide a gloomyreflection which no present sunshine could dissipate. The greener...　

THE $30,000 BEQUESTCHAPTER ILakeside was a pleasant little town of five or six thousand inhabitants,and a rather pretty one, too, as towns go in the Far West.It had church accommodations for thirty-five thousand, which isthe way of the Far West and the South, where everybody is religious,and where each of the Protestant sects is represented and has a plantof its own. Rank was unknown in Lakesideunconfessed, anyway;everybody knew everybody and his dog, and a sociable friendlinesswas the prevailing atmosphere.Saladin Foster was book-keeper in the principal store, and the onlyhigh-salaried man of his profession in Lakeside. He was thirty-five...　

Of Taxesby David HumeThere is a prevailing maxim, among some reasoners, that everynew tax creates a new ability in the subject to bear it, and thateach encrease of public burdens encreases proportionably theindustry of the people. This maxim is of such a nature as is mostlikely to be abused; and is so much the more dangerous, as itstruth cannot be altogether denied: but it must be owned, whenkept within certain bounds, to have some foundation in reason andexperience.When a tax is laid upon commodities, which are consumed bythe common people, the necessary consequence may seem to be,either that the poor must retrench something from their way of...　

The Diary of a Nobodyby George and Weedon GrossmithCHAPTER I.We settle down in our new home, and I resolve to keep a diary. Tradesmen trouble us a bit, so does the scraper. The Curate calls and pays me a great compliment.My clear wife Carrie and I have just been a week in our new house, "The Laurels," Brickfield Terrace, Holloway - a nice six-roomed residence, not counting basement, with a front breakfast-parlour. We have a little front garden; and there is a flight of ten steps up to the front door, which, by-the-by, we keep locked with the chain up. Cummings, Gowing, and our other intimate friends always come to the little side entrance, which saves the servant the trouble of going up t　

50 Bab Balladsby W. S. GilbertPREFACE.THE "BAB BALLADS" appeared originally in the columns of "FUN,"when that periodical was under the editorship of the late TOM HOOD.They were subsequently republished in two volumes, one called "THEBAB BALLADS," the other "MORE BAB BALLADS." The period duringwhich they were written extended over some three or four years;many, however, were composed hastily, and under the discomfortingnecessity of having to turn out a quantity of lively verse by acertain day in every week. As it seemed to me (and to others) thatthe volumes were disfigured by the presence of these hastily...　

The High Price of Bullionby David Ricardo1810The High Price of Bullion, a Proof of the Depreciation of BankNotes.by David RicardoLondon: Printed for John Murray, 32, Fleet-Street; And Sold byEvery Other Bookseller in Town and Country1810IntroductionThe writer of the following pages has already submitted somereflections to the attention of the public, on the subject ofpaper-currency, through the medium of the Morning Chronicle. Hehas thought proper to republish his sentiments on this questionin a form more calculated to bring it to fair discussion; and his...　

THE DIAMOND MAKERSome business had detained me in Chancery Lane nine in theevening, and thereafter, having some inkling of a headache, I wasdisinclined either for entertainment or further work. So much ofthe sky as the high cliffs of that narrow canon of traffic leftvisible spoke of a serene night, and I determined to make my waydown to the Embankment, and rest my eyes and cool my head bywatching the variegated lights upon the river. Beyond comparisonthe night is the best time for this place; a merciful darknesshides the dirt of the waters, and the lights of this transitionalage, red glaring orange, gas-yellow, and electric white, are set in...　

LIN McLEANLIN McLEANByOWEN WISTER1- Page 2-LIN McLEANDEDICATIONMY DEAR HARRY MERCER: When Lin McLean was only a hero inmanuscript, he received his first welcome and chastening beneath yourpatient roof. By none so much as by you has he in private been helped andaffectionately disciplined, an now you must stand godfather to him uponthis public page.Always yours,OWEN WISTERPhiladelphia, 1897...　

The Grey BrethrenThe Grey Brethren1- Page 2-The Grey BrethrenThe Grey BrethrenSome of the happiest remembrances of my childhood are of days spentin a little Quaker colony on a high hill.The walk was in itself a preparation, for the hill was long and steepand at the mercy of the north-east wind; but at the top, sheltered by acopse and a few tall trees, stood a small house, reached by a flaggedpathway skirting one side of a bright trim garden....　

Fifty "Bab" Ballads - Much Sound and Little SenseMuchSound and LittleSenseW. S. Gilbert1Fifty "Bab" Ballads - Much Sound and Little SenseFifty "Bab" Ballads - Much Sound and Little SenseTHE "BAB BALLADS" appeared originally in the columns of "FUN,"when that periodical was under the editorship of the late TOM HOOD.They were subsequently republished in two volumes, one called "THEBAB BALLADS," the other "MORE BAB BALLADS." The periodduring which they were written extended over some three or four years;many, however, were composed hastily, and under the discomfortingnecessity of having to turn out a quantity of lively verse by a certain day in...　

Aucassin and NicoleteTranslated by Andrew LangINTRODUCTIONThere is nothing in artistic poetry quite akin to "Aucassin andNicolete."By a rare piece of good fortune the one manuscript of the Song-Storyhas escaped those waves of time, which have wrecked the bark ofMenander, and left of Sappho but a few floating fragments. The veryform of the tale is peculiar; we have nothing else from the twelfthor thirteenth century in the alternate prose and verse of the cante-fable. {1} We have fabliaux in verse, and prose Arthurian romances.We have Chansons de Geste, heroic poems like "Roland," unrhymedassonant laisses, but we have not the alternations of prose with...