The Poet at the Breakfast Tableby Oliver Wendell HolmesPREFACE.In this, the third series of Breakfast-Table conversations, a slightdramatic background shows off a few talkers and writers, aided bycertain silent supernumeraries. The machinery is much like that ofthe two preceding series. Some of the characters must seem like oldacquaintances to those who have read the former papers. As I readthese over for the first time for a number of years, I notice onecharacter; presenting a class of beings who have greatly multipliedduring the interval which separates the earlier and later...　

Miss Billyby Eleanor H. PorterCONTENTSCHAPTERI. BILLY WRITES A LETTERII. "THE STRATA"III. THE STRATAWHEN THE LETTER COMESIV. BILLY SENDS A TELEGRAMV. GETTING READY FOR BILLYVI. THE COMING OF BILLYVII. INTRODUCING SPUNKVIII. THE ROOMAND BILLYIX. A FAMILY CONCLAVEX. AUNT HANNAHXI. BERTRAM HAS VISITORSXII. CYRIL TAKES HIS TURNXIII. A SURPRISE ALL AROUNDXIV. AUNT HANNAH SPEAKS HER MINDXV. WHAT BERTRAM CALLS "THE LIMIT"XVI. KATE TAKES A HANDXVII. A PINK-RIBBON TRAILXVIII. BILLY WRITES ANOTHER LETTER...　

THE HOLLY-TREETHREE BRANCHESTHE HOLLY-TREETHREE BRANCHES1- Page 2-THE HOLLY-TREETHREE BRANCHESFIRST BRANCHMYSELFI have kept one secret in the course of my life. I am a bashful man.Nobody would suppose it, nobody ever does suppose it, nobody ever didsuppose it, but I am naturally a bashful man. This is the secret which Ihave never breathed until now.I might greatly move the reader by some account of the innumerable...　

The Coming Raceby Edward Bulwer LyttonChapter I.I am a native of _____, in the United States of America. My ancestors migrated from England in the reign of Charles II.; and my grandfather was not undistinguished in the War of Independence. My family, therefore, enjoyed a somewhat high social position in right of birth; and being also opulent, they were considered disqualified for the public service. My father once ran for Congress, but was signally defeated by his tailor. After that event he interfered little in politics, and lived much in his library. I was the eldest of three sons, and 　

Eminent Victoriansby Lytton StracheyPrefaceTHE history of the Victorian Age will never be written; we knowtoo much about it. For ignorance is the first requisite of thehistorianignorance, which simplifies and clarifies, whichselects and omits, with a placid perfection unattainable by thehighest art. Concerning the Age which has just passed, ourfathers and our grandfathers have poured forth and accumulated sovast a quantity of information that the industry of a Ranke wouldbe submerged by it, and the perspicacity of a Gibbon would quail...　

The Garden PartyThe Garden PartyBy Katherine Mansfield1- Page 2-The Garden Party1. AT THE BAY.Chapter 1.I.Very early morning. The sun was not yet risen, and the whole ofCrescent Bay was hidden under a white sea-mist. The big bush-coveredhills at the back were smothered. You could not see where they ended...　

Westward Ho!by Charles KingsleyTOTHE RAJAH SIR JAMES BROOKE, K.C.B.ANDGEORGE AUGUSTUS SELWYN, D.D.BISHOP OF NEW ZEALANDTHIS BOOK IS DEDICATEDBy one who (unknown to them) has no other method of expressing hisadmiration and reverence for their characters.That type of English virtue, at once manful and godly, practicaland enthusiastic, prudent and self-sacrificing, which he has triedto depict in these pages, they have exhibited in a form even purerand more heroic than that in which he has drest it, and than thatin which it was exhibited by the worthies whom Elizabeth, without...　

The Alkahestby Honore de BalzacTranslated by Katharine Prescott WormeleyDEDICATIONTo Madame Josephine Delannoy nee Doumerc.Madame, may God grant that this, my book, may live longer than I,for then the gratitude which I owe to you, and which I hope willequal your almost maternal kindness to me, would last beyond thelimits prescribed for human affection. This sublime privilege ofprolonging life in our hearts for a time by the life of the workwe leave behind us would be (if we could only be sure of gaining...　

The Essays of Montaigne, V4by Michel de MontaigneTranslated by Charles CottonEdited by William Carew Hazilitt1877CONTENTS OF VOLUME 4.XXII. Of custom, and that we should not easily change a law receivedXXIII. Various events from the same counsel.XXIV. Of pedantry.CHAPTER XXIIOF CUSTOM, AND THAT WE SHOULD NOT EASILY CHANGE A LAW RECEIVEDHe seems to me to have had a right and true apprehension of the power ofcustom, who first invented the story of a country-woman who, havingaccustomed herself to play with and carry a young calf in her arms, and...　

To the Right Honourable my very good lord the Dukeof Buckingham his Grace, Lord High Admiral of EnglandEXCELLENT LORD - Solomon says; a good name is as a precious ointment; and I assure my self, such will your Grace's name be, with posterity. For your fortune, and merit both, have been eminent And you have planted things, that are like to last I do now publish my essays; which, of all my other works, have been most current: for that, as it seems, they come home, to men's business, and bosoms. I have enlarged them, both in number, and weight; so that they are indeed a new work. I thought it 　

MISCELLANEOUS PAPERSMISCELLANEOUSPAPERSBY CHARLES DICKENS- Page 2-MISCELLANEOUS PAPERSTHE AGRICULTURALINTERESTThe present Government, having shown itself to be particularly cleverin its management of Indictments for Conspiracy, cannot do better, wethink (keeping in its administrative eye the pacification of some of its mostinfluential and most unruly supporters), than indict the whole...　

1872FAIRY TALES OF HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSENTHE TINDER-BOXby Hans Christian AndersenA SOLDIER came marching along the high road: "Left, right- left,right." He had his knapsack on his back, and a sword at his side; hehad been to the wars, and was now returning home.As he walked on, he met a very frightful-looking old witch inthe road. Her under-lip hung quite down on her breast, and she stopped and said, "Good evening, soldier; you have a very fine sword, and a large knapsack, and you are a real soldier; so you shall have as much money as ever you like.""Thank you, old witch," said the soldier..　

THE MESSENGERSTHE MESSENGERSBy Richard Harding Davis1- Page 2-THE MESSENGERSWhen Ainsley first moved to Lone Lake Farm all of his friends askedhim the same question. They wanted to know, if the farmer who sold itto him had abandoned it as worthless, how one of the idle rich, who couldnot distinguish a plough from a harrow, hoped to make it pay? Hisanswer was that he had not purchased the farm as a means of getting richer...　

Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christby Lew Wallaceto THE WIFE OF MY YOUTH who still abides with meBOOK FIRSTCHAPTER IThe Jebel es Zubleh is a mountain fifty miles and more in length, and so narrow that its tracery on the map gives it a likeness to a caterpillar crawling from the south to the north. Standing on its red-and-white cliffs, and looking off under the path of the rising sun, one sees only the Desert of Arabia, where the east winds, so hateful to vinegrowers of Jericho, have kept their playgrounds since the beginning. Its feet are well covered by sands tossed from the Euphrates, there to l　

1872FAIRY TALES OF HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSENTHE THORNY ROAD OF HONORby Hans Christian AndersenAN old story yet lives of the "Thorny Road of Honor," of amarksman, who indeed attained to rank and office, but only after alifelong and weary strife against difficulties. Who has not, inreading this story, thought of his own strife, and of his own numerous"difficulties?" The story is very closely akin to reality; but stillit has its harmonious explanation here on earth, while reality oftenpoints beyond the confines of life to the regions of eternity. Thehistory of the world is like a magic lantern tha　

Barlaam and Ioasaphby St. John of DamascusIt is not known where or when this story was written, but it is believed to have been translated into Greek (possibly from a Georgian original) sometime in the 11th Century A.D. Although the ultimate author is usually referred to as "John the Monk", it has been traditionally ascribed to St. John of Damascus.BARLAAM AND IOASAPHAN EDIFYING STORY FROM THE INNER LAND OF THE ETHIOPIANS, CALLED THE LAND OF THE INDIANS, THENCE BROUGHT TO THE HOLY CITY, BY JOHN THE MONK (AN HONOURABLE MAN AND A VIRTUOUS, OF THE MONASTERY OF SAINT SABAS); WHEREIN ARE THE LIVE