Gentle reader, hear Poliphilo tell of his dreams,　Dreams sent by the highest heaven.　You will not waste your labour, nor will listening irk you,　For this wonderful work abounds in so many things.　If, grave and dour, you despise love-stories,　Know, I pray, that things are well ordered herein.　You refuse? But at least the style, with its novel language,　Grave discourse and wisdom, mands attention.　If you refuse this, too, note the geometry,　The many ancient things expressed in Nilotic signs . . .　Here you will see the perfect palaces of kings,　The worship of nymphs, fountains and rich banquet　

　　　I am a vampire, and that is the truth. But the modern meaning of the word vampire, the stories that have been told about creatures such as I, are not precisely true. I do not turn to ash in the sun, nor do I cringe when I see a crucifix. I wear a tiny gold cross now around my neck, but only because I like it. I cannot mand a pack of wolves to attack or fly through the air. Nor can I make another of my kind simply by having him drink my blood. Wolves do like me, though, as do most predators, and I can jump so high that one might imagine I can fly. As to blood-ah, blood, the whole subject fa　

Majorie Dawby Thomas Bailey AldrichI.DR. DILLON TO EDWARD DELANEY, ESQ., AT THE PINES.NEAR RYE, N.H.August 8, 1872.My Dear Sir: I am happy to assure you that your anxiety is withoutreason. Flemming will be confined to the sofa for three or fourweeks, and will have to be careful at first how he uses his leg. Afracture of this kind is always a tedious affair. Fortunately thebone was very skilfully set by the surgeon who chanced to be in thedrugstore where Flemming was brought after his fall, and Iapprehend no permanent inconvenience from the accident. Flemming is...　

Legend of the Rose of the Alhambra.FOR SOME time after the surrender of Granada by the Moors, thatdelightful city was a frequent and favorite residence of the Spanishsovereigns, until they were frightened away by successive shocks ofearthquakes, which toppled down various houses, and made the oldMoslem towers rock to their foundation.Many, many years then rolled away, during which Granada was rarelyhonored by a royal guest. The palaces of the nobility remainedsilent and shut up; and the Alhambra, like a slighted beauty, sat in...　

ClocksClocksby Jerome K. Jerome1- Page 2-ClocksThere are two kinds of clocks. There is the clock that is alwayswrong, and that knows it is wrong, and glories in it; and there is the clockthat is always rightexcept when you rely upon it, and then it is morewrong than you would think a clock _could_ be in a civilized country.I remember a clock of this latter type, that we had in the house when I...　

Elinor Wyllysby Susan Fenimore CooperIN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. II.EDITED BY J. FENIMORE COOPER.CHAPTER I {would be CHAPTER XXIV, if numbered from beginning of Vol. I}"But there is matter for another rhyme; And I to this would add another tale." WORDSWORTH."And how do Miss and Madam do; The little boy, and all? All tight and well? and how do you, Good Mr. What-do-you-call?" COWPER.{William Wordsworth (English poet, 1770-1850), "Poems of the Imagination: Hart-Leap Well" lines 95-96. William Cowper (English poet, 1731-1800), "The Yearly Distress, or, Tithing Time at Stock in Essex" lines 33-36}...　

PATRIARCHS AND PROPHETSby ELLEN G.WHITE17PREFACETHE PUBLISHERS SEND OUT THIS WORK FROM A CONVICTION THAT IT THROWS LIGHTUPON A SUBJECT OF PARAMOUNT IMPORTANCE AND UNIVERSAL INTEREST, AND ONE ONWHICH LIGHT IS TO BE GREATLY DESIRED; THAT IT PRESENTS TRUTHS TOO LITTLEKNOWN OR TOO WIDELY IGNORED. THE GREAT CONTROVERSY BETWEEN TRUTH AND ERROR,BETWEEN LIGHT AND DARKNESS, BETWEEN THE POWER OF GOD AND THE ATTEMPTEDUSURPATIONS OF THE ENEMY OF ALL RIGHTEOUSNESS, IS THE ONE GREAT SPECTACLE...　

A WAIF OF THE PLAINSA WAIF OF THEPLAINSby Bret Harte1- Page 2-A WAIF OF THE PLAINSCHAPTER IA long level of dull gray that further away became a faint blue, withhere and there darker patches that looked like water. At times an openspace, blackened and burnt in an irregular circle, with a shred ofnewspaper, an old rag, or broken tin can lying in the ashes. Beyond these...　

We Twoby Edna LyallCHAPTER I. Brian Falls in LoveStill humanity grows dearer, Being learned the more. Jean Ingelow.There are three things in this world which deserve no quarter Hypocrisy, Pharisaism, and Tyranny. F. RobertsonPeople who have been brought up in the country, or in small places where every neighbor is known by sight, are apt to think that life in a large town must lack many of the interests which they have learned to find in their more limited communities. In a somewhat bewildered way, they gaze at the shifting crowd of strange faces, and wonder whether it would be possible to　

AmphitryonAmphitryonTranslated by A.R. Waller, M.A.1- Page 2-AmphitryonPREFACEAmphitryon was played for the first time in Paris, at the Theatre duPalais-Royal, January 13, 1668. It was successfully received, holding theboards until the 18th of March, when Easter intervened. After the re-opening of the theatre, it was played half a dozen times more the same...　

Spoon River Anthologyby Edgar Lee MastersContents:Armstrong, HannahArnett, HaroldAtherton, LuciusBallard, JohnBarker, AmandaBarrett, PaulineBartlett, EzraBateson, MarieBeatty, TomBeethoven, IsaiahBennett, Hon. HenryBindle, NicholasBlind JackBliss, Mrs. CharlesBlood, A. D.Bloyd, Wendell P.Bone, RichardBranson, CarolineBrown, JimBrown, SarahBrowning, ElijahBurleson, John HoraceButler, RoyCabanis, FlossieCalhoun, GranvilleCalhoun, Henry C.Campbell, CalvinCarman, EugeneCheney, ColumbusChilders, ElizabethChurch, John M....　

The Story of Mankindby Hendrik van LoonTHE STORY OF MANKINDBY HENDRIK VAN LOON, PH.D.Professor of the Social Sciences in Antioch College.Author of The Fall of the Dutch Republic, The Rise of the DutchKingdom, The Golden Book of the Dutch Navigators,A Short Story of Discovery, Ancient Man.To JIMMIE``What is the use of a book without pictures?' said Alice.FOREWORDFor Hansje and Willem:WHEN I was twelve or thirteen years old, an uncle ofmine who gave me my love for books and pictures promised...　

To The Last Manby Zane GreyFOREWORDIt was inevitable that in my efforts to write romantic history of thegreat West I should at length come to the story of a feud. For longI have steered clear of this rock. But at last I have reached it andmust go over it, driven by my desire to chronicle the stirring eventsof pioneer days.Even to-day it is not possible to travel into the remote corners ofthe West without seeing the lives of people still affected by afighting past. How can the truth be told about the pioneering ofthe West if the struggle, the fight, the blood be left out? It cannot...　

1872FAIRY TALES OF HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSENTHE SUNBEAM AND THE CAPTIVEby Hans Christian AndersenIT is autumn. We stand on the ramparts, and look out over the sea.We look at the numerous ships, and at the Swedish coast on theopposite side of the sound, rising far above the surface of the waterswhich mirror the glow of the evening sky. Behind us the wood issharply defined; mighty trees surround us, and the yellow leavesflutter down from the branches. Below, at the foot of the wall, standsa gloomy looking building enclosed in palisades. The space betweenis dark and narrow, but still more dismal m　

IN WHICH PHILEAS FOGG AND PASSEPARTOUT ACCEPT EACH OTHER, THE ONE AS MASTER, THE OTHER AS MAN.Mr Phileas Fogg lived, in 1872, at No. 7, Saville Row, Burlington Gardens, the house in which Sheridan died in 1814. He was one of the most noticeable members of the Reform Club, though he seemed always to avoid attracting attention; an enigmatical personage, about whom little was known, except that he was a polished man of the world. People said that he resembled Byron, - at least that his head was Byronic; but he was a bearded, tranquil Byron, who might live on a thousand years without growing old.　

The Last of the Plainsmenby Zane GreyPREFATORY NOTEBuffalo Jones needs no introduction to American sportsmen, but to these of my readers who are unacquainted with him a few words may not be amiss.He was born sixty-two years ago on the Illinois prairie, and he has devoted practically all of his life to the pursuit of wild animals. It has been a pursuit which owed its unflagging energy and indomitable purpose to a singular passion, almost an obsession, to capture alive, not to kill. He has caught and broken the will of every well-known wild beast native to western North America. Killing was rep