Beacon Lights of HistoryVolume III Part 2by John LordVolume III.Part IIRenaissance and Reformation.CONTENTS.DANTE.RISE OF MODERN POETRY.The antiquity of PoetryThe greatness of PoetsTheir influence on CivilizationThe true poet one of the rarest of menThe pre-eminence of Homer, Dante, Shakspeare, and GoetheCharacteristics of DanteHis precocityHis moral wisdom and great attainmentsHis terrible scorn and his isolationState of society when Dante was bornHis banishmentGuelphs and GhibellinesDante stimulated to his great task by an absorbing sentimentBeatrice...
The Iceberg ExpressThe Iceberg Expressby David Cory1- Page 2-The Iceberg ExpressThe Magic CombOne bright morning in August little Mary Louise put on her hat andwent trudging across the meadow to the beach.It was the first time she had been trusted out alone since the family hadmoved to the seashore for the summer; for Mary Louise was a little girl,nothing about her was large, except her round gray eyes.There was a pale mist on the far-off sea, and up around the sun were...
The Essays of Montaigne, V17by Michel de MontaigneTranslated by Charles CottonEdited by William Carew Hazilitt1877CONTENTS OF VOLUME 17.IX. Of VanityCHAPTER IXOF VANITYThere is, peradventure, no more manifest vanity than to write of it sovainly. That which divinity has so divinely expressed to us ["Vanityof vanities: all is vanity."Eccles., i. 2.] ought to be carefully andcontinually meditated by men of understanding. Who does not see that Ihave taken a road, in which, incessantly and without labour, I shallproceed so long as there shall be ink and paper in the world? I can giveno account of my life by my actions; fortune has placed them too low: I...
THE INVISIBLE PRINCEOnce upon a time there lived a Fairy who had power over theearth, the sea, fire, and the air; and this Fairy had four sons.The eldest, who was quick and lively, with a vivid imagination,she made Lord of Fire, which was in her opinion the noblest ofall the elements. To the second son, whose wisdom and prudencemade amends for his being rather dull, she gave the government ofthe earth. The third was wild and savage, and of monstrousstature; and the Fairy, his mother, who was ashamed of hisdefects, hoped to hide them by creating him King of the Seas.The youngest, who was the slave of his passions and of a veryuncertain temper, became Prince of the Air....
MALBONE: AN OLDPORT ROMANCE.MALBONE: ANOLDPORT ROMANCE.by THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON."What is Nature unless there is an eventful human life passingwithin her?Many joys and many sorrows are the lights and shadows in whichshe shows most beautiful."THOREAU, MS. Diary.1- Page 2-MALBONE: AN OLDPORT ROMANCE.CHAPTER I.AN ARRIVAL.IT was one of the changing days of our Oldport midsummer. In the...
Glaucus/or The Wonders of the ShoreGlaucus/or The Wondersof the ShoreBy Chas Kingsley1- Page 2-Glaucus/or The Wonders of the ShoreYou are going down, perhaps, by railway, to pass your usual sixweeks at some watering-place along the coast, and as you roll alongthink more than once, and that not over-cheerfully, of what you shall dowhen you get there. You are half-tired, half-ashamed, of making one...
Modern Customs and Ancient Laws of Russiaby Maxime KovalevskyLecture IIThe State of the Modern Russian Family, and Particularly that ofthe Joint or Household Community of Great RussiaWe believe that the theory of the matriarchate finds a solidbasis in the past history of the Russian family. The presentcondition of the latter seems to prove that the next stage in itsevolution was the household community, composed of persons unitedby descent from a common forefather and accompanied by thatworship of ancestors which usually resulted from it. The completesubjection of the wife to the husband, and of the children to thefather; community of goods and the common enjoyment of their...
410 BCELECTRAby Sophoclestranslated by R. C. JebbCHARACTERS IN THE PLAYORESTES, son of Agamemnon and CLYTEMNESTRAELECTRA } sister of ORESTESCHRYSOTHEMIS} " " "AN OLD MAN, formerly the PAEDAGOGUS or Attendant Of ORESTESCLYTEMNESTRAAEGISTHUSCHORUS OF WOMEN OF MYCENAEMute PersonsPYLADES, son of Strophius, King of Crisa, the friend Of ORESTES.A handmaid of CLYTEMNESTRA. Two attendants of ORESTESELECTRA...
Lecture XXCONCLUSIONSThe material of our study of human nature is now spread beforeus; and in this parting hour, set free from the duty ofdescription, we can draw our theoretical and practicalconclusions. In my first lecture, defending the empiricalmethod, I foretold that whatever conclusions we might come tocould be reached by spiritual judgments only, appreciations ofthe significance for life of religion, taken "on the whole."Our conclusions cannot be as sharp as dogmatic conclusions wouldbe, but I will formulate them, when the time comes, as sharply asI can....
Once upon a time in the middle of winter, when the flakes ofsnow were falling like feathers from the sky, a queen sat ata window sewing, and the frame of the window was made of blackebony. And whilst she was sewing and looking out of the windowat the snow, she pricked her finger with the needle, and threedrops of blood fell upon the snow. And the red looked prettyupon the white snow, and she thought to herself, would that I hada child as white as snow, as red as blood, and as black as thewood of the window-frame.Soon after that she had a little daughter, who was as white assnow, and as red as blood, and her hair was as black as ebony,and she was therefore called little snow-white. And wh
SHERLOCK HOLMESTHE ADVENTURE OF THE NOBLE BACHELORby Sir Arthur Conan DoyleThe Lord St. Simon marriage, and its curious termination, havelong ceased to be a subject of interest in those exalted circles inwhich the unfortunate bridegroom moves. Fresh scandals have eclipsedit, and their more piquant details have drawn the gossips away fromthis four-year-old drama. As I have reason to believe, however, thatthe full facts have never been revealed to the general public, andas my friend Sherlock Holmes had a considerable share in clearingthe matter up, I feel that no memoir of him would be complete...
The Half-Brothersby Elizabeth GaskellMy mother was twice married. She never spoke of her first husband,and it is only from other people that I have learnt what little Iknow about him. I believe she was scarcely seventeen when she wasmarried to him: and he was barely one-and-twenty. He rented a smallfarm up in Cumberland, somewhere towards the sea-coast; but he wasperhaps too young and inexperienced to have the charge of land andcattle: anyhow, his affairs did not prosper, and he fell into illhealth, and died of consumption before they had been three years manand wife, leaving my mother a young widow of twenty, with a little...