FAIRY TALES OF HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSENTHE BUCKWHEATby Hans Christian AndersenVERY often, after a violent thunder-storm, a field of buckwheatappears blackened and singed, as if a flame of fire had passed overit. The country people say that this appearance is caused bylightning; but I will tell you what the sparrow says, and thesparrow heard it from an old willow-tree which grew near a field ofbuckwheat, and is there still. It is a large venerable tree, thougha little crippled by age. The trunk has been split, and out of the...　

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...　

Honore de Balzacby Albert Keim and Louis LumetTranslated from the French by FREDERIC TABER COOPERGENERAL NOTEOf all the books perhaps the one best designed for training the mind and forming the character is "Plutarch." The lives of great men are object-lessons. They teach effort, devotion, industry, heroism and sacrifice.Even one who confines his reading solely to biographies of thinkers, writers, inventors, poets of the spirit or poets of science, will in a short time have acquired an understanding of the whole History of Humanity.And what novel or what drama could be compared to such a hist　

The Old Bachelorby William CongreveQuem tulit ad scenam ventoso Gloria curru, Exanimat lentus spectator; sedulus inflat: Sic leve, sic parvum est, animum quod laudis avarum Subruit, and reficit.HORAT. Epist. I. lib. ii.To the Right Honourable Charles, Lord Clifford of Lanesborough, etc.My Lord,It is with a great deal of pleasure that I lay hold on this first occasion which the accidents of my life have given me of writing to your lordship: for since at the same time I write to all the world, it will be a means of publishing (what I would have everybody know) the respect and duty which I owe　

Lucastaby Richard LovelaceTOWILLIAM HAZLITT, ESQ., OF THE MIDDLE TEMPLE, A REGISTRAR OFTHE COURT OF BANKRUPTCY IN LONDON,This Little VolumeIS INSCRIBED AS A SLIGHT TESTIMONY OF THE GREATEST RESPECT,BY HIS AFFECTIONATE SON, THE EDITOR.CONTENTS.PART I.PAGEDedication 3Verses addressed to the Author 5I. Poems Addressed or Relating To Lucasta.Song. To Lucasta. Going beyond the Seas 25...　

360 BCPHILEBUSby Platotranslated by Benjamin JowettPHILEBUSPERSONS OF THE DIALOGUE: SOCRATES; PROTARCHUS; PHILEBUS.Socrates. Observe, Protarchus, the nature of the position whichyou are now going to take from Philebus, and what the other positionis which I maintain, and which, if you do not approve of it, is tobe controverted by you. Shall you and I sum up the two sides?Protarchus. By all means....　

The Ancient RegimeThe Origins of Contemporary France, Volume 1by Hippolyte A. TainePREFACE.BOOK FIRST. The Structure of the Ancient Society.CHAPTER I. The Origin of Privileges.CHAPTER II. The Privileged Classes.CHAPTER III. Local Services Due by the Privileged Classes.CHAPTER IV. Public services due by the privileged classes.BOOK SECOND. Habits and Characters.CHAPTER I. Social Habits.CHAPTER II. Drawing room Life .CHAPTER III. Disadvantages of this Drawing room Life....　

Modern Customs and Ancient Laws of Russiaby Maxime Kovalevsky1891Lecture IVOld Russian FolkmotesIt is a common saying among the Russian Conservatives, whohave lately been dignified in France by the name of"Nationalists," that the political aspirations of the Liberalsare in manifest contradiction with the genius and with thehistorical past of the Russian people.Sharing these ideas, the Russian Minister of Publicinstruction Count Delianov, a few years ago ordered theProfessors of Public Law and of Legal History to make theirteaching conform to a programme in which Tzarism, the unlimited...　

The Discovery of Guianaby Walter RaleighINTRODUCTORY NOTESir Walter Raleigh may be taken as the great typical figure of theage of Elizabeth. Courtier and statesman, soldier and sailor,scientist and man of letters, he engaged in almost all the mainlines of public activity in his time, and was distinguished inthem all.His father was a Devonshire gentleman of property, connected withmany of the distinguished families of the south of England. Walterwas born about 1552 and was educated at Oxford. He first sawmilitary service in the Huguenot army in France in 1569, and in...　

SHERLOCK HOLMESTHE ADVENTURE OF THE MISSING THREE-QUARTERby Sir Arthur Conan DoyleWe were fairly accustomed to receive weird telegrams at BakerStreet, but I have a particular recollection of one which reached uson a gloomy February morning, some seven or eight years ago, andgave Mr. Sherlock Holmes a puzzled quarter of an hour. It wasaddressed to him, and ran thus:Please await me. Terrible misfortune. Right wing three-quartermissing, indispensable to-morrow.OVERTON....　

Hunting the Grisly and Other Sketchesby Theodore RooseveltAn Account of the Big Game of the UnitedStates and its Chase with HorseHound, and RifleCHAPTER I.THE BISON OR AMERICAN BUFFALO.When we became a nation in 1776, the buffaloes, the first animals tovanish when the wilderness is settled, roved to the crests of themountains which mark the western boundaries of Pennsylvania, Virginia,and the Carolinas. They were plentiful in what are now the States of...　

Glinda of Ozby L. Frank BaumIn which are related the Exciting Experiences of PrincessOzma of Oz, and Dorothy, in their hazardous journeyto the home of the Flatheads, and to the MagicIsle of the Skeezers, and how they wererescued from dire peril by thesorcery of Glinda theGoodby L. FRANK BAUM"Royal Historian of Oz"This Bookis Dedicated toMy SonRobert Stanton BaumLIST OF CHAPTERS...　

The Song of the Cardinalby Gene Stratton-PorterIN LOVING TRIBUTETO THE MEMORY OF MY FATHERMARK STRATTON"For him every work of God manifested a new and heretoforeunappreciated loveliness."Chapter 1"Good cheer! Good cheer!" exulted the CardinalHe darted through the orange orchard searching for slugs for hisbreakfast, and between whiles he rocked on the branches and rangover his message of encouragement to men. The song of theCardinal was overflowing with joy, for this was his holiday, his...　

The Diary of Samuel Pepysby Samuel PepysFROM 1659 TO 1669WITH MEMOIREdited by LORD BRAYBROOKEPREFACE TO THE PRESENT EDITIONThe Celebrated work here presented to the public under peculiar advantages may require a few introductory remarks.By the publication, during the last half century, of autobiographies, Diaries, and Records of Personal Character; this class of literature has been largely enriched, not only with works calculated for the benefit of the student, but for that larger class of readersthe people, who in the byeways of History and Biography which these works present, gather much of　

The Hand of Ethelbertaby Thomas HardyPREFACEThis somewhat frivolous narrative was produced as an interludebetween stories of a more sober design, and it was given the sub-title of a comedy to indicatethough not quite accuratelythe aimof the performance. A high degree of probability was not attemptedin the arrangement of the incidents, and there was expected of thereader a certain lightness of mood, which should inform him with agood-natured willingness to accept the production in the spirit inwhich it was offered. The characters themselves, however, were...　

Marquise de Brinvilliersby Alexandre Dumas, PereTowards the end of the year 1665, on a fine autumn evening, there was a considerable crowd assembled on the Pont-Neuf where it makes a turn down to the rue Dauphine. The object of this crowd and the centre of attraction was a closely shut, carriage. A police official was trying to force open the door, and two out of the four sergeants who were with him were holding the horses back and the other two stopping the driver, who paid no attention to their commands, but only endeavoured to urge his horses to a gallop. The struggle had been going on