"Reptiles are abhorrent because of their cold body, pale color, cartilaginous skeleton, filthy skin, fierce aspect, calculating eye, offensive smell, harsh voice, squalid habitation, and terrible venom; wherefore their Creator has not exerted his powers to make many of them."　　LINNAEUS, 1797　　"You cannot recall a new form of life."　　ERWIN CHARGAFF, 1972　　Introduction　"The InGen Incident"The late twentieth century has witnessed a scientific gold rush of astonishing proportions: the headlong and furious haste to mercialize genetic engineering. This enterprise has proceeded so rapidly-with so 　

　　This darkness troubles me. I yearn for the light.　　This silence is so deep. I long for voices, the drumming of rain, the whistle of wind, music.　　Why are you being so cruel to me? Let me see. Let me hear. Let me live. I beg of you.　　I am so lonely in this bottomless darkness.　　So lonely.　　Lost.　　You think I have no heart. But if I have no heart, what is this ache? What is this anguish? If I have no heart, what is it that threatens to break inside me?　　This darkness is haunted. I am afraid here. I am lost and afraid here.　　Have you no passion?　　I only wanted to be like you. To walk in the su　

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 intimat　

Of the Jealousy of Tradeby David HumeHaving endeavoured to remove one species of ill-founded jealousy,which is so prevalent among commercial nations, it may not beamiss to mention another, which seems equally groundless. Nothingis more usual, among states which have made some advances incommerce, than to look on the progress of their neighbours with asuspicious eye, to consider all trading states as their rivals,and to suppose that it is impossible for any of them to flourish,but at their expence. In opposition to this narrow and malignantopinion, I will venture to assert, that the encrease o　

The Brotherhood of Consolationby Honore de BalzacTranslated by Katharine Prescott WormeleyFIRST EPISODEMADAME DE LA CHANTERIEITHE MALADY OF THE AGEOn a fine evening in the month of September, 1836, a man about thirtyyears of age was leaning on the parapet of that quay from which aspectator can look up the Seine from the Jardin des Plantes to Notre-Dame, and down, along the vast perspective of the river, to theLouvre. There is not another point of view to compare with it in thecapital of ideas. We feel ourselves on the quarter-deck, as it were,...　

Wild Walesby George BorrowIts People, Language and SceneryINTRODUCTORYWALES is a country interesting in many respects, and deserving ofmore attention than it has hitherto met with. Though not veryextensive, it is one of the most picturesque countries in theworld, a country in which Nature displays herself in her wildest,boldest, and occasionally loveliest forms. The inhabitants, whospeak an ancient and peculiar language, do not call this regionWales, nor themselves Welsh. They call themselves Cymry or Cumry,and their country Cymru, or the land of the Cumry. Wales or...　

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!)...　

A Ward of the Golden Gateby Bret HartePROLOGUE.In San Francisco the "rainy season" had been making itself areality to the wondering Eastern immigrant. There were short daysof drifting clouds and flying sunshine, and long succeeding nightsof incessant downpour, when the rain rattled on the thin shinglesor drummed on the resounding zinc of pioneer roofs. The shiftingsand-dunes on the outskirts were beaten motionless and sodden bythe onslaught of consecutive storms; the southeast trades broughtthe saline breath of the outlying Pacific even to the busy haunts...　

The Governess [The Little Female Academy]by Sarah FieldingThere lived in the northern parts of England, a gentlewoman who undertook the education of young ladies; and this trust she endeavoured faithfully to discharge, by instructing those committed to her care in reading, writing, working, and in all proper forms of behaviour. And though her principal aim was to improve their minds in all useful knowledge; to render them obedient to their superiors, and gentle, kind, and affectionate to each other; yet did she not omit teaching them an exact neatness in their persons and dress, and a perfec　

The Surprising Adventures of Baron MunchausenBy Rudolph Erich RaspeINTRODUCTIONIt is a curious fact that of that class of literature to which Munchausen belongs, that namely of /Voyages Imaginaires/, the three great types should have all been created in England. Utopia, Robinson Crusoe, and Gulliver, illustrating respectively the philosophical, the edifying, and the satirical type of fictitious travel, were all written in England, and at the end of the eighteenth century a fourth type, the fantastically mendacious, was evolved in this country. Of this type Munchausen was the modern original, 　

The Professor at the Breakfast Tableby Oliver Wendell HolmesPREFACE TO REVISED EDITION.The reader of to-day will not forget, I trust, that it is nearly aquarter of a century since these papers were written. Statementswhich were true then are not necessarily true now. Thus, the speedof the trotting horse has been so much developed that the record ofthe year when the fastest time to that date was given must be veryconsiderably altered, as may be seen by referring to a note on page49 of the "Autocrat." No doubt many other statements and opinions...　

Andreas HoferAn HISTORICAL NOVELby Lousia MuhlbachCONTENTS.CHAPTERI 1809II The Emperor FrancisIII The Courier and the AmbassadorIV The Emperor and his BrothersV The Performance of "The Creation"VI Andreas HoferVII Andreas Hofer at the TheatreVIII Consecration of the Flags, and FarewellIX Tis Time!X Anthony Wallner of Windisch-MatreyXI The Declaration of LoveXII Farewell!XIII The BridegroomXIV The Bridge of St. LawrenceXV The Bridge of Laditch...　

FAIRY TALES OF HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSENTHE LITTLE MATCH-SELLERby Hans Christian AndersenIT was terribly cold and nearly dark on the last evening of theold year, and the snow was falling fast. In the cold and the darkness,a poor little girl, with bare head and naked feet, roamed throughthe streets. It is true she had on a pair of slippers when she lefthome, but they were not of much use. They were very large, so large,indeed, that they had belonged to her mother, and the poor littlecreature had lost them in running across the street to avoid two...　

SHERLOCK HOLMESTHE ADVENTURE OF THE MAZARIN STONEby Sir Arthur Conan DoyleIt was pleasant to Dr. Watson to find himself once more in theuntidy room of the first floor in Baker Street which had been thestarting-point of so many remarkable adventures. He looked round himat the scientific charts upon the wall, the acid-charred bench ofchemicals, the violin-case leaning in the corner, the coal-scuttle,which contained of old the pipes and tobacco. Finally, his eyes cameround to the fresh and smiling face of Billy, the young but very...　

ANTHEMANTHEMby Ayn Rand1- Page 2-ANTHEMPART ONEIt is a sin to write this. It is a sin to think words no others think andto put them down upon a paper no others are to see. It is base and evil. Itis as if we were speaking alone to no ears but our own. And we know wellthat there is no transgression blacker than to do or think alone. We have...　

Heartbreak Houseby George Bernard ShawA FANTASIA IN THE RUSSIAN MANNER ON ENGLISH THEMESHEARTBREAK HOUSE AND HORSEBACK HALLWhere Heartbreak House StandsHeartbreak House is not merely the name of the play which followsthis preface. It is cultured, leisured Europe before the war.When the play was begun not a shot had been fired; and only theprofessional diplomatists and the very few amateurs whose hobbyis foreign policy even knew that the guns were loaded. A Russianplaywright, Tchekov, had produced four fascinating dramaticstudies of Heartbreak House, of which three, The Cherry Orchard,...