Fanny and the Servant Problemby Jerome K. JeromeTHE CHARACTERSFannyHer Husband, Vernon Wetherell, Lord BantockHer Butler, Martin BennetHer Housekeeper, Susannah BennetHer Maid, Jane BennetHer Second Footman, Ernest BennetHer Still-room Maid, Honoria BennetHer Aunts by marriage, the Misses WetherellHer Local Medical Man, Dr. FreemantleHer quondam Companions, "Our Empire":EnglandScotlandIrelandWalesCanadaAustraliaNew ZealandAfricaIndiaNewfoundlandMalay ArchipelagoStraits SettlementsHer former Business Manager, George P. Newte...　

CHRISTIANITY AND THE COMMON LAW_To Dr. Thomas Cooper__Monticello, February 10, 1814_DEAR SIR, In my letter of January 16, I promised you asample from my common-place book, of the pious disposition of theEnglish judges, to connive at the frauds of the clergy, a dispositionwhich has even rendered them faithful allies in practice. When I wasa student of the law, now half a century ago, after getting throughCoke Littleton, whose matter cannot be abridged, I was in the habitof abridging and common-placing what I read meriting it, and of...　

The Poor Clareby Elizabeth GaskellCHAPTER I.December 12th, 1747.My life has been strangely bound up with extraordinary incidents, some of which occurred before I had any connection with the principal actors in them, or indeed, before I even knew of their existence. I suppose, most old men are, like me, more given to looking back upon their own career with a kind of fond interest and affectionate remembrance, than to watching the events though these may have far more interest for the multitude immediately passing before their eyes. If this should be the case with the generality of old people　

At the Sign of the Cat and Racketby Honore de BalzacTranslated by Clara BellDEDICATIONTo Mademoiselle Marie de MontheauAT THE SIGN OF THE CAT AND RACKETHalf-way down the Rue Saint-Denis, almost at the corner of the Rue duPetit-Lion, there stood formerly one of those delightful houses whichenable historians to reconstruct old Paris by analogy. The threateningwalls of this tumbledown abode seemed to have been decorated withhieroglyphics. For what other name could the passer-by give to the Xsand Vs which the horizontal or diagonal timbers traced on the front,...　

Is Shakespeare Dead?by Mark TwainFROM MY AUTOBIOGRAPHYCHAPTER IScattered here and there through the stacks of unpublished manuscript which constitute this formidable Autobiography and Diary of mine, certain chapters will in some distant future be found which deal with "Claimants"claimants historically notorious: Satan, Claimant; the Golden Calf, Claimant; the Veiled Prophet of Khorassan, Claimant; Louis XVII., Claimant; William Shakespeare, Claimant; Arthur Orton, Claimant; Mary Baker G. Eddy, Claimantand the rest of them. Eminent Claimants, successful Claimants, defeated Claimants, royal Cl　

Lectures XVI and XVIIMYSTICISMOver and over again in these lectures I have raised points andleft them open and unfinished until we should have come to thesubject of Mysticism. Some of you, I fear, may have smiled asyou noted my reiterated postponements. But now the hour has comewhen mysticism must be faced in good earnest, and those brokenthreads wound up together. One may say truly, I think, thatpersonal religious experience has its root and centre in mysticalstates of consciousness; so for us, who in these lectures are...　

Three Ghost Storiesby Charles DickensContents:The Signal-ManThe Haunted-HouseThe Trial For MurderTHE SIGNAL-MAN"Halloa! Below there!"When he heard a voice thus calling to him, he was standing at thedoor of his box, with a flag in his hand, furled round its shortpole. One would have thought, considering the nature of the ground,that he could not have doubted from what quarter the voice came; butinstead of looking up to where I stood on the top of the steepcutting nearly over his head, he turned himself about, and looked...　

IS SHAKESPEARE DEAD?(from My Autobiography)Scattered here and there through the stacks of unpublished manuscript which constitute this formidable Autobiography and Diary of mine, certain chapters will in some distant future be found which deal with "Claimants"claimants historically notorious: Satan, Claimant; the Golden Calf, Claimant; the Veiled Prophet of Khorassan, Claimant; Louis XVII., Claimant; William Shakespeare, Claimant; Arthur Orton, Claimant; Mary Baker G. Eddy, Claimantand the rest of them. Eminent Claimants, successful Claimants, defeated Claimants, royal Claimants, pleb Claim　

An Old Town By The Seaby Thomas Bailey AldrichPISCATAQUA RIVERThou singest by the gleaming isles,By woods, and fields of corn,Thou singest, and the sunlight smilesUpon my birthday morn.But I within a city, I,So full of vague unrest,Would almost give my life to lieAn hour upon upon thy breast.To let the wherry listless go,And, wrapt in dreamy joy,Dip, and surge idly to and fro,Like the red harbor-buoy;To sit in happy indolence,To rest upon the oars,And catch the heavy earthy scentsThat blow from summer shores;To see the rounded sun go down,...　

Those Extraordinary Twinsby Mark TwainA man who is born with the novel-writing gift has a troublesome time ofit when he tries to build a novel. I know this from experience. He hasno clear idea of his story; in fact he has no story. He merely has somepeople in his mind, and an incident or two, also a locality. He knowsthese people, he knows the selected locality, and he trusts that he canplunge those people into those incidents with interesting results. So hegoes to work. To write a novel? Nothat is a thought which comeslater; in the beginning he is only proposing to tell a little tale;　

EURASIAEURASIAChris. Evans1- Page 2-EURASIAPREFACE.In "Eurasia" the author describes an ideal republic where many of theproblems that confront us are worked out. The book describes in aninteresting and readable way how government is administered in this idealrepublic. The government is one in which women take their full share ofresponsibility, the school children are trained in the problems they will...　

The Essays of Montaigne, V16by Michel de MontaigneTranslated by Charles CottonEdited by William Carew Hazilitt1877CONTENTS OF VOLUME 16.VI. Of Coaches.VII. Of the Inconvenience of Greatness.VIII. Of the Art of Conference.CHAPTER VIOF COACHESIt is very easy to verify, that great authors, when they write of causes,not only make use of those they think to be the true causes, but also ofthose they believe not to be so, provided they have in them some beautyand invention: they speak true and usefully enough, if it be ingeniously....　

The Mahatma and the HareA Dream Storyby H. Rider Haggard"Ultimately a good hare was found which took the field at . . .There the hounds pressed her, and on the hunt arriving at the edgeof the cliff the hare could be seen crossing the beach and goingright out to sea. A boat was procured, and the master and someothers rowed out to her just as she drowned, and, bringing thebody in, gave it to the hounds. A hare swimming out to sea is asight not often witnessed."/Local paper, January/ 1911.". . . A long check occurred in the latter part of this hunt, the...　

THE CHILDRENTHE CHILDREN1- Page 2-THE CHILDRENFELLOW TRAVELLERS WITH ABIRD, I.To attend to a living child is to be baffled in your humour,disappointed of your pathos, and set freshly free from all the pre-occupations. You cannot anticipate him. Blackbirds, overheard year byyear, do not compose the same phrases; never two leitmotifs alike. Not...　

A Book of Strife in the Form of The Diary of an Old Soulby George MacDonaldDEDICATIONSweet friends, receive my offering. You will findAgainst each worded page a white page set:This is the mirror of each friendly mindReflecting that. In this book we are met.Make it, dear hearts, of worth to you indeed:Let your white page be ground, my print be seed,Growing to golden ears, that faith and hope shall feed.YOUR OLD SOULThe Diary of an Old Soul.JANUARY.1.LORD, what I once had done with youthful might,Had I been from the first true to the truth,...　

The Playboy of the Western Worldby J. M. SyngeA COMEDY IN THREE ACTSPREFACEIn writing THE PLAYBOY OF THE WESTERN WORLD, as in my other plays, I have usedone or two words only that I have not heard among the country people ofIreland, or spoken in my own nursery before I could read the newspapers. Acertain number of the phrases I employ I have heard also from herds andfishermen along the coast from Kerry to Mayo, or from beggar-women andballadsingers nearer Dublin; and I am glad to acknowledge how much I owe tothe folk imagination of these fine people. Anyone who has lived in real...