THE YOUNG TSARTHE young Tsar had just ascended the throne.For five weeks he had worked without ceasing, inthe way that Tsars are accustomed to work. Hehad been attending to reports, signing papers, re-ceiving ambassadors and high officials who cameto be presented to him, and reviewing troops. Hewas tired, and as a traveller exhausted by heatand thirst longs for a draught of water and forrest, so he longed for a respite of just one dayat least from receptions, from speeches, fromparadesa few free hours to spend like an ordi-nary human being with his young, clever, andbeautiful wife, to whom he had been married onlya month before.It was Christmas Eve. The young Tsar had...
La Mere Baucheby Anthony TrollopeThe Pyreneean valley in which the baths of Vernet are situated is notmuch known to English, or indeed to any travellers. Tourists insearch of good hotels and picturesque beauty combined, do notgenerally extend their journeys to the Eastern Pyrenees. They rarelyget beyond Luchon; and in this they are right, as they thus end theirperegrinations at the most lovely spot among these mountains, and areas a rule so deceived, imposed on, and bewildered by guides,innkeepers, and horse-owners, at this otherwise delightful place, asto become undesirous of further travel. Nor do invalids from distantparts frequent Vernet. People of fashion go to the Eaux Bonnes and.
Lecture 2The Ancient Irish LawThe great peculiarity of the ancient laws of Ireland, so faras they are accessible to us, is discussed, with much instructiveillustration, in the General Preface to the Third Volume of theofficial translations. They are not a legislative structure, butthe creation of a class of professional lawyers, the Brehons,whose occupation became hereditary, and who on that ground havebeen designated, though not with strict accuracy, a caste. Thisview, which is consistent with all that early English authorities...
A Footnote to Historyby Robert Louis StevensonPREFACEAN affair which might be deemed worthy of a note of a few lines inany general history has been here expanded to the size of a volumeor large pamphlet. The smallness of the scale, and the singularityof the manners and events and many of the characters, considered,it is hoped that, in spite of its outlandish subject, the sketchmay find readers. It has been a task of difficulty. Speed wasessential, or it might come too late to be of any service to adistracted country. Truth, in the midst of conflicting rumours andin the dearth of printed material, was often hard to ascertain, and...
Of The Nature of Thingsby Lucretius [Titus Lucretius Carus]Translated by William Ellery LeonardBOOK IPROEMMother of Rome, delight of Gods and men,Dear Venus that beneath the gliding starsMakest to teem the many-voyaged mainAnd fruitful lands- for all of living thingsThrough thee alone are evermore conceived,Through thee are risen to visit the great sun-Before thee, Goddess, and thy coming on,Flee stormy wind and massy cloud away,For thee the daedal Earth bears scented flowers,For thee waters of the unvexed deepSmile, and the hollows of the serene skyGlow with diffused radiance for thee!For soon as comes the springtime face of day,And procreant gales blow from the West unbarred,...
THE HUNTING OF THE SNARKLewis CarrollTHE HUNTING OF THE SNARKan Agony in Eight FitsbyLewis CarrollPREFACEIf-and the thing is wildly possible-the charge of writing nonsensewere ever brought against the author of this brief but instructivepoem, it would be based, I feel convinced, on the line (in p.4)"Then the bowsprit got mixed with the rudder sometimes."...
The Faith of Menby Jack LondonContents:A Relic of the PlioceneA Hyperborean BrewThe Faith of MenToo Much GoldThe One Thousand DozenThe Marriage of Lit-litBatardThe Story of Jees UckA RELIC OF THE PLIOCENEI wash my hands of him at the start. I cannot father his tales,nor will I be responsible for them. I make these preliminaryreservations, observe, as a guard upon my own integrity. I possessa certain definite position in a small way, also a wife; and forthe good name of the community that honours my existence with itsapproval, and for the sake of her posterity and mine, I cannot take...
Man of Propertyby John GalsworthyTO MY WIFE: I DEDICATE THE FORSYTE SAGA IN ITS ENTIRETY, BELIEVING IT TO BE OF ALL MY WORKS THE LEAST UNWORTHY OF ONE WITHOUT WHOSE ENCOURAGEMENT, SYMPATHY AND CRITICISM COULD NEVER HAVE BECOME EVEN SUCH A WRITER AS I AM.PREFACE:"The Forsyte Saga" was the title originally destined for that part of it which is called "The Man of Property"; and to adopt it for the collected chronicles of the Forsyte family has indulged the Forsytean tenacity that is in all of us. The word Saga might be objected to on the ground that it connotes the heroic and that there is little heroism in these pages. But it is used with a suitable irony; and, after all, this long tale, t
Worldly Ways and Bywaysby Eliot GregoryA Table of ContentsTo the READER1. Charm2. The Moth and the Star3. Contrasted Travelling4. The Outer and the Inner Woman5. On Some Gilded Misalliances6. The Complacency of Mediocrity7. The Discontent of Talent8. Slouch9. Social Suggestion10. Bohemia11. Social Exiles12. "Seven Ages" of Furniture13. Our Elite and Public Life14. The Small Summer Hotel15. A False Start16. A Holy Land17. Royalty at Play18. A Rock Ahead19. The Grand Prix20. "The Treadmill"21. "Like Master Like Man"22. An English Invasion of the Riviera23. A Common Weakness...
The Dustby David Graham PhillipsThe Grain of DustA NOVELBYDAVID GRAHAM PHILLIPSTHE GRAIN OF DUSTIINTO the offices of Lockyer, Sanders, Benchley, Lockyer & Norman, corporation lawyers, there drifted on a December afternoon a girl in search of work at stenography and typewriting. The firm was about the most important and most famousradical orators often said infamousin New York. The girl seemed, at a glance, about as unimportant and obscure an atom as the city hid in its vast ferment. She was blondetawny hair, fair skin, blue eyes. Aside from this hardly conclusive mark of identity there was nothing positive, nothing definite, about her. She was neither tall nor short, neither fat nor th
THE SKETCH BOOKTHE STAGE COACHby Washington IrvingOmne beneSine poenaTempus est ludendi.Venit horaAbsque moraLibros deponendi.OLD HOLIDAY SCHOOL SONG.IN THE preceding paper I have made some general observations onthe Christmas festivities of England, and am tempted to illustratethem by some anecdotes of a Christmas passed in the country; inperusing which I would most courteously invite my reader to lay...
APPENDIX TO INTRODUCTION (1829), p.