On Public Creditby David HumeIt appears to have been the common practice of antiquity,make provision, during peace, for the necessities of war, and tohoard up treasures before-hand, as the instruments either ofconquest or defence; without trusting to extraordinaryimpositions, much less to borrowing, in times of disorder andconfusion. Besides the immense sums above mentioned, which wereamassed by ATHENS, and by the PTOLEMIES, and other successors ofALEXANDER; we learn from PLATO, that the frugal LACEDEMONIANS hadalso collected a great treasure; and ARRIAN and PLUTARCH take...
Swan Songby Anton CheckovPLAYS BY ANTON TCHEKOFFTRANSLATED FROM THE RUSSIAN, WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY MARIAN FELLCONTENTSIntroductionChronological List of WorksThe Swan SongINTRODUCTIONANTON TCHEKOFFTHE last years of the nineteenth century were for Russia tingedwith doubt and gloom. The high-tide of vitality that had risenduring the Turkish war ebbed in the early eighties, leavingbehind it a dead level of apathy which lasted until life wasagain quickened by the high interests of the Revolution. Duringthese grey years the lonely country and stagnant provincial towns...
Love-Songs of Childhoodby Eugene FieldTo Mrs. Belle AnglerDearest Aunt:Many years ago you used to rock me to sleep, cradling me in yourarms and singing me petty songs. Surely you have not forgottenthat time, and I recall it with tenderness. You were verybeautiful then. But you are more beautiful now; for, in the yearsthat have come and gone since then, the joys and the sorrows ofmaternity have impressed their saintly grace upon the dear face Iused to kiss, and have made your gentle heart gentler still....
A Little Tour In Franceby Henry JamesWe good Americans - I say it without presumption - are too apt to think that France is Paris, just as we are accused of being too apt to think that Paris is the celestial city. This is by no means the case, fortun- ately for those persons who take an interest in modern Gaul, and yet are still left vaguely unsatisfied by that epitome of civilization which stretches from the Arc de Triomphe to the Gymnase theatre. It had already been intimated to the author of these light pages that there are many good things in the _doux pays de France_ of which you get n
Legend of Don Munio Sancho de Hinojosa.IN THE cloisters of the ancient Benedictine convent of SanDomingo, at Silos, in Castile, are the mouldering yet magnificentmonuments of the once powerful and chivalrous family of Hinojosa.Among these reclines the marble figure of a knight, in complete armor,with the hands pressed together, as if in prayer. On one side of histomb is sculptured in relief a band of Christian cavaliers,capturing a cavalcade of male and female Moors; on the other side, thesame cavaliers are represented kneeling before an altar. The tomb,...
THE DECAMERONby Boccaccio GiovanniTHE INDUCTION OF THE AUTHOR TO THE FOLLOWING DISCOURSESGracious Ladies, so often as I consider with my selfe, and observerespectively, how naturally you are enclined to compassion; as manytimes doe I acknowledge, that this present worke of mine, will (inyour judgement) appeare to have but a harsh and offensive beginning,in regard of the mournfull remembrance it beareth at the verieentrance of the last Pestilentiall mortality, universally hurtfull...
Tartuffe or the Hypocriteby Jean Baptiste Poquelin MoliereTranslated by Curtis Hidden PageINTRODUCTORY NOTEJean Baptiste Poquelin, better known by his stage name of Moliere,stands without a rival at the head of French comedy. Born at Paris inJanuary, 1622, where his father held a position in the royalhousehold, he was educated at the Jesuit College de Clermont, and forsome time studied law, which he soon abandoned for the stage. His lifewas spent in Paris and in the provinces, acting, directingperformances, managing theaters, and writing plays. He had his share...
Tea-table Talkby Jerome K. JeromeCHAPTER I"They are very pretty, some of them," said the Woman of the World; "not the sort of letters I should have written myself.""I should like to see a love-letter of yours," interrupted the Minor Poet."It is very kind of you to say so," replied the Woman of the World. "It never occurred to me that you would care for one.""It is what I have always maintained," retorted the Minor Poet; "you have never really understood me.""I believe a volume of assorted love-letters would sell well," said the Girton Girl; "written by the same hand, if you like, but to diffe
Gobseckby Honore de BalzacTranslated by Ellen MarriageDEDICATIONTo M. le Baron Barchou de Penhoen.Among all the pupils of the Oratorian school at Vendome, we are, Ithink, the only two who have afterwards met in mid-career of alife of letterswe who once were cultivating Philosophy when byrights we should have been minding our De viris. When we met, youwere engaged upon your noble works on German philosophy, and Iupon this study. So neither of us has missed his vocation; andyou, when you see your name here, will feel, no doubt, as much...
Through the curtained windows of the furnished apartment which Mrs. Horace Hignett had rented for her stay in New York rays of golden sunlight peeped in like the foremost spies of some advancing army. It was a fine summer morning. The hands of the Dutch clock in the hall pointed to thirteen minutes past nine; those of the ormolu clock in the sitting-room to eleven minutes past ten; those of the carriage clock on the bookshelf to fourteen minutes to six. In other words, it was exactly eight; and Mrs. Hignett acknowledged the fact by moving her head on the pillow, opening her eyes, and sittin
What I did was take all the spades out of a deck of cards plus a joker. Ace to King = 1-13. Joker = 14. I shuffled the cards and dealt them. The order in which they came out of the deck became the order of the stories, based on their position in the list my publisher sent me. And it actually created a very nice balance between the literary stories and the all-out screamers. I also added an explanatory note before or after each story, depending on which seemed the more fitting position. Next collection: selected by Tarot. Introduction: Practicing the (Almost) Lost Art...
SHERLOCK HOLMESTHE ADVENTURE OF WISTERIA LODGEby Sir Arthur Conan Doyle1. The Singular Experience of Mr. John Scott EcclesI find it recorded in my notebook that it was a bleak and windy day,towards the end of March in the year 1892. Holmes had received atelegram while we sat at our lunch, and he had scribbled a reply. Hemade no remark, but the matter remained in his thoughts, for hestood in front of the fire afterwards with a thoughtful face,smoking his pipe, and casting an occasional glance at the message....
TIBERIUS GRACCHUSHaving completed the first two narratives, we now may proceedto take a view of misfortunes, not less remarkable, in theRoman couple, and with the lives of Agis and Cleomenes,compare these of Tiberius and Caius. They were the sons ofTiberius Gracchus, who, though he had been once censor, twiceconsul, and twice had triumphed, yet was more renowned andesteemed for his virtue than his honors. Upon this account,after the death of Scipio who overthrew Hannibal, he wasthought worthy to match with his daughter Cornelia, thoughthere had been no friendship or familiarity between Scip
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 only...
EXTRACTS(Supplied by a Sub-Sub-Librarian)It will be seen that this mere painstaking burrower and grub-worm ofa poor devil of a Sub-Sub appears to have gone through the longVaticans and street-stalls of the earth, picking up whatever randomallusions to whales he could anyways find in any book whatsoever,sacred or profane. therefore you must not, in every case at least,take the higgledy-piggledy whale statements, however authentic, inthese extracts, for veritable gospel cetology. Far from it. Astouching the ancient authors generally, as well as the poets here...
Common Senseby Thomas PaineINTRODUCTIONPerhaps the sentiments contained in the following pages,are not YET sufficiently fashionable to procure them general favour;a long habit of not thinking a thing WRONG, gives it a superficialappearance of being RIGHT, and raises at first a formidable outcryin defense of custom. But the tumult soon subsides.Time makes more converts than reason.As a long and violent abuse of power, is generally the Meansof calling the right of it in question (and in Matters too whichmight never have been thought of, had not the Sufferers been aggravated...