The Book of Teaby Kakuzo OkakuraI. The Cup of HumanityTea began as a medicine and grew into a beverage. In China, in the eighth century, it entered the realm of poetry as one of the polite amusements. The fifteenth century saw Japan ennoble it into a religion of aestheticismTeaism. Teaism is a cult founded on the adoration of the beautiful among the sordid facts of everyday existence. It inculcates purity and harmony, the mystery of mutual charity, the romanticism of the social order. It is essentially a worship of the Imperfect, as it is a tender attempt to accomplish something possib
ON SLEEP AND SLEEPLESSNESSby Aristotletranslated by J. I. Beare1WITH regard to sleep and waking, we must consider what they are:whether they are peculiar to soul or to body, or common to both; andif common, to what part of soul or body they appertain: further,from what cause it arises that they are attributes of animals, andwhether all animals share in them both, or some partake of the one...
Modern Customs and Ancient Laws of Russiaby Maxime Kovalevsky1891Lecture IThe Matrimonial Customs and Usages of the Russian People, and theLight They Throw on the Evolution of MarriageThe wide historical studies pursued by members of theUniversity of Oxford necessarily include the study of theSlavonic race. The part which this race is beginning to play inthe economic and social progress of our time, and theconsiderable achievements which it has already made in the fieldsof literature and science have attracted the attention even ofthose nations whose political interests are supposed not to...
THE INVISIBLE PRINCEOnce upon a time there lived a Fairy who had power over theearth, the sea, fire, and the air; and this Fairy had four sons.The eldest, who was quick and lively, with a vivid imagination,she made Lord of Fire, which was in her opinion the noblest ofall the elements. To the second son, whose wisdom and prudencemade amends for his being rather dull, she gave the government ofthe earth. The third was wild and savage, and of monstrousstature; and the Fairy, his mother, who was ashamed of hisdefects, hoped to hide them by creating him King of the Seas....
The Complete Works of Artemus Ward, Part 3by Charles Farrar BrowneWith a biographical sketch by Melville D. Landon, "Eli Perkins"CONTENTS.PART III.Stories and Romances.3.1. Moses the Sassy; or, The Disguised Duke.3.2. Marion: A Romance of the French School.3.3. William Barker, the Young Patriot.3.4. A RomanceThe Conscript.3.5. A RomanceOnly a Mechanic.3.6. Roberto the Rover; A Tale of Sea and Shore.3.7. Red Hand: A Tale of Revenge.3.8. Pyrotechny: A Romance after the French.3.9. The Last of the Culkinses....
The Lady of the Lake by Sir Walter Scott, Bart. Edited with Notes By William J. Rolfe, A.M. Formerly Head Master of the High School, Cambridge, Mass. Boston
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 Water-Babiesby Charles KingsleyCHAPTER I"I heard a thousand blended notes, While in a grove I sate reclined; In that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts Bring sad thoughts to the mind."To her fair works did Nature link The human soul that through me ran; And much it grieved my heart to think, What man has made of man."WORDSWORTH.Once upon a time there was a little chimney-sweep, and his name was Tom. That is a short name, and you have heard it before, so you will not have much trouble in remembering it. He lived in a great town in the North country, where there were plenty of chimneys to
Minna von Barnhelmby Gotthold Ephraim LessingTranslated By Ernest BellINTRODUCTORY NOTEGotthold Ephraim Lessing was born at Kamenz, Germany, January 22, 1729, the son of a Lutheran minister. He was educated at Meissen and Leipzic, and began writing for the stage before he was twenty. In 1748 he went to Berlin, where he met Voltaire and for a time was powerfully influenced by him. The most important product of this period was his tragedy of "Miss Sara Samson," a modern version of the story of Medea, which began the vogue of the sentimental middle-class play in Germany. After a se
Youthby Leo TolstoyTranslated by C. J. HogarthIWHAT I CONSIDER TO HAVE BEEN THE BEGINNING OF MY YOUTHI have said that my friendship with Dimitri opened up for me anew view of my life and of its aim and relations. The essence ofthat view lay in the conviction that the destiny of man is tostrive for moral improvement, and that such improvement is atonce easy, possible, and lasting. Hitherto, however, I had foundpleasure only in the new ideas which I discovered to arise fromthat conviction, and in the forming of brilliant plans for a...
In the Carquinez Woodsby Bret HarteCHAPTER I.The sun was going down on the Carquinez Woods. The few shafts ofsunlight that had pierced their pillared gloom were lost inunfathomable depths, or splintered their ineffectual lances onthe enormous trunks of the redwoods. For a time the dull red oftheir vast columns, and the dull red of their cast-off bark whichmatted the echoless aisles, still seemed to hold a faint glow ofthe dying day. But even this soon passed. Light and color fledupwards. The dark interlaced treetops, that had all day made animpenetrable shade, broke into fire here and th
BOOK II: OF THEIR TOWNS, PARTICULARLY OF AMAUROTHE that knows one of their towns knows them all, they are so likeone another, except w here the situation makes some difference. Ishall therefore describe one of them; and none is so proper asAmaurot; for as none is more eminent, all the rest yielding inprecedence to this, because it is the seat of their SupremeCouncil, so there was none of them better known to me, I havinglived five years altogether in it.It lies upon the side of a hill, or rather a rising ground: its...
THE HERACLEIDAEby Euripidestranslated by E. P. ColeridgeCHARACTERS IN THE PLAYIOLAUS, friend of HeraclesCOPREUS, herald of EURYSTHEUSDEMOPHON, King of AthensMACARIA, daughter of HeraclesSERVANT, of Hyllus, son of HeraclesALCMENA, mother of HeraclesMESSENGEREURYSTHEUS; King of ArgosCHORUS OF AGED ATHENIANSAcamas, the brother of DEMOPHON, younger sons of Heracles,attendants, guards, etc.HERACLEIDAETHE HERACLEIDAE(SCENE:-Before the altar and temple of Zeus...
The Works of Edgar Allan PoeVolume 1 of the Raven EditionIN FIVE VOLUMESVOLUME I ContentsEdgar Allan Poe, An AppreciationLife of Poe, by James Russell LowellDeath of Poe, by N. P. WillisThe Unparalled Adventures of One Hans PfallThe Gold BugFour Beasts in OneThe Murders in the Rue MorgueThe Mystery of Marie Rog阾The Balloon HoaxMS. Found in a BottleThe Oval PortraitEDGAR ALLAN POEAN APPRECIATIONCaught from some unhappy master whom unmerciful DisasterFollowed fast and followed faster till his songs one burden boreTill the dirges of his Hope that melancholy burden bore...
ConclusionTo the sick the doctors wisely recommend a change of air andscenery. Thank Heaven, here is not all the world. The buckeye doesnot grow in New England, and the mockingbird is rarely heard here.The wild goose is more of a cosmopolite than we; he breaks his fastin Canada, takes a luncheon in the Ohio, and plumes himself for thenight in a southern bayou. Even the bison, to some extent, keepspace with the seasons cropping the pastures of the Colorado onlytill a greener and sweeter grass awaits him by the Yellowstone. Yet...
SolitudeThis is a delicious evening, when the whole body is one sense,and imbibes delight through every pore. I go and come with astrange liberty in Nature, a part of herself. As I walk along thestony shore of the pond in my shirt-sleeves, though it is cool aswell as cloudy and windy, and I see nothing special to attract me,all the elements are unusually congenial to me. The bullfrogs trumpto usher in the night, and the note of the whip-poor-will is borneon the rippling wind from over the water. Sympathy with the...