An Historical Mysteryby Honore de BalzacTranslated by Katharine Prescott WormeleyDEDICATIONTo Monsieur de Margone.In grateful remembrance, from his guest at the Chateau de Sache.De Balzac.AN HISTORICAL MYSTERYPART ICHAPTER IJUDASThe autumn of the year 1803 was one of the finest in the early part ofthat period of the present century which we now call "Empire." Rainhad refreshed the earth during the month of October, so that the treeswere still green and leafy in November. The French people werebeginning to put faith in a secret understanding between the skies andBonaparte, then declared Consul for life,a belief in which that man...　

A Confessionby Lev Nikolayevich TolstoyII was baptized and brought up in the Orthodox Christian faith.I was taught it in childhood and throughout my boyhood and youth.But when I abandoned the second course of the university at the ageof eighteen I no longer believed any of the things I had beentaught.Judging by certain memories, I never seriously believed them,but had merely relied on what I was taught and on what wasprofessed by the grown-up people around me, and that reliance wasvery unstable.I remember that before I was eleven a grammar school pupil,...　

The Writings of Abraham Lincolnby Abraham LincolnVOLUME SIXWRITINGS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN1862-1863RECOMMENDATION OF NAVAL OFFICERSMESSAGE TO CONGRESS.WASHINGTON, D.C., May 14, 1862.TO SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES:The third section of the "Act further to promote the efficiency ofthe Navy," approved 21st of December, 1861, provides:"That the President of the United States by and with the advice andconsent of the Senate, shall have the authority to detail from theretired list of the navy for the command of squadrons and singleships such officers as he may believe that the good of the service...　

　　If anything exists, it is inprehensible.　　If anything was prehensible,　　it would be inmunicable.　　　　- Gorgias　　　　　　PART ONENOTHING EXISTS　　　　　　1　　　　Two hours ago the Railway Expressman delivered the crated, newly published International Encyclopedia of Fine Arts to my Palm Beach apartment. I signed for the set, turned the thermostat of the air-conditioner up three degrees, found a clawhammer in the kitchen, and broke open the crate. Twenty-four beautiful buckram-bound volumes, eggshell paper, decide edged. Six laborious years in preparation, more than twenty-five hundred illustrations- 436 in full-color plates-and each thoroughly researched article written and signed by a noted authority 　

　　Through the curtained windows of the furnished apartment which Mrs. Horace Hignett had rented for her stay in New York rays of golden sunlight peeped in like the foremost spies of some advancing army. It was a fine summer morning. The hands of the Dutch clock in the hall pointed to thirteen minutes past nine; those of the ormolu clock in the sitting-room to eleven minutes past ten; those of the carriage clock on the bookshelf to fourteen minutes to six. In other words, it was exactly eight; and Mrs. Hignett acknowledged the fact by moving her head on the pillow, opening her eyes, and sitting up in bed. She always woke at eight precisely.　Was this Mrs. Hignett the Mrs. Hignett, the world　

Hero Tales From American Historyby Henry Cabot Lodge and Theodore RooseveltHence it is that the fathers of these men and ours also, and they themselves likewise, being nurtured in all freedom and well born, have shown before all men many and glorious deeds in public and private, deeming it their duty to fight for the cause of liberty and the Greeks, even against Greeks, and against Barbarians for all the Greeks." PLATO: "Menexenus."TO E. Y. R.To you we owe the suggestion of writing this book. Its purpose, as you know better than any one else, is to tell in simple fashion the story of some Americans who showed that they knew how to live and how to die; who proved their truth by their endeav　

SECOND EPILOGUECHAPTER IHistory is the life of nations and of humanity. To seize and putinto words, to describe directly the life of humanity or even of asingle nation, appears impossible.The ancient historians all employed one and the same method todescribe and seize the apparently elusive- the life of a people.They described the activity of individuals who ruled the people, andregarded the activity of those men as representing the activity of thewhole nation.The question: how did individuals make nations act as they wishedand by what was the will of these individuals themselves guided? theancients met by recognizing a divinity which subjected the nations...　

THE ENEMY CONQUERED; OR, LOVE TRIUMPHANTSweet girl, thy smiles are full of charms,Thy voice is sweeter still,It fills the breast with fond alarms,Echoed by every rill.I begin this little work with an eulogy upon woman, who has everbeen distinguished for her perseverance, her constancy, and herdevoted attention to those upon whom she has been pleased to placeher AFFECTIONS. Many have been the themes upon which writers andpublic speakers have dwelt with intense and increasing interest.Among these delightful themes stands that of woman, the balmto all our sighs and disappointments, and the most pre-eminent...　

TIMAEUSby Platotranslated by Benjamin JowettTIMAEUSPERSONS OF THE DIALOGUE: SOCRATES; CRITIAS; TIMAEUS; HERMOCRATESSocrates. One, two, three; but where, my dear Timaeus, is the fourthof those who were yesterday my guests and are to be my entertainersto-day?Timaeus. He has been taken ill, Socrates; for he would not willinglyhave been absent from this gathering.Soc. Then, if he is not coming, you and the two others must supplyhis place.Tim. Certainly, and we will do all that we can; having beenhandsomely entertained by you yesterday, those of us who remain should...　

Chapter XIV of Volume II (Chap. 37)THE two gentlemen left Rosings the next morning; and Mr. Collins having been in waiting near the lodges, to make them his parting obeisance, was able to bring home the pleasing intelligence of their appearing in very good health, and in as tolerable spirits as could be expected, after the melancholy scene so lately gone through at Rosings. To Rosings he then hastened to console Lady Catherine and her daughter; and on his return brought back, with great satisfaction, a message from her ladyship, importing that she felt herself so dull as to make her very desirous of having them all to dine with her.Elizabeth could not see Lady Catherine without recollecting　

On HorsemanshipOn HorsemanshipBy XenophonTranslation by H. G. Dakyns1- Page 2-On HorsemanshipIClaiming to have attained some proficiency in horsemanship[1]ourselves, as the result of long experience in the field, our wish is toexplain, for the benefit of our younger friends, what we conceive to be themost correct method of dealing with horses.[1] Lit. "Since, through the accident of having for a long time...　

The Two Captainsby Friedrich Heinrich Karl, Freiherr de La Motte-FouqueCHAPTER I.A Mild summer evening was resting on the shores of Malaga, awakeningthe guitar of many a merry singer among the ships in the harbor, andin the city houses, and in many an ornamental garden villa.Emulating the voices of the birds, the melodious tones greeted therefreshing coolness, and floated like perfumed exhalations frommeadow and water, over the enchanting region. Some troops ofinfantry who were on the shore, and who purposed to spend the nightthere, that they might be ready for embarkation early on thefollowing morning, forgot amid the charms of the pleasant eventide...