OF THE LIBERTY OF THE PRESSDavid Hume1741NOTHING is more apt to surprize a foreigner, than theextreme liberty, which we enjoy in this country, ofcommunicating whatever we please to the public, and ofopenly censuring every measure, entered into by the king orhis ministers. If the administration resolve upon war, it isaffirmed, that, either wilfully or ignorantly, they mistake...　

THE VOICE OF DEATHONCE upon a time there lived a man whose one wish and prayerwas to get rich. Day and night he thought of nothing else,and at last his prayers were granted, and he became very wealthy.Now being so rich, and having so much to lose, he felt that it wouldbe a terrible thing to die and leave all his possessions behind; so hemade up his mind to set out in search of a land where there was nodeath. He got ready for his journey, took leave of his wife, andstarted. Whenever he came to a new country the first questionthat he asked was whether people died in that land, and when heheard that they did, he set out again on his quest. At last he...　

MOTHER HOLLEONCE upon a time there was a widow who had two daughters;one of them was pretty and clever, and the other ugly andlazy. But as the ugly one was her own daughter, she liked her farthe best of the two, and the pretty one had to do all the work of thehouse, and was in fact the regular maid of all work. Every day shehad to sit by a well on the high road, and spin till her fingers wereso sore that they often bled. One day some drops of blood fell onher spindle, so she dipped it into the well meaning to wash it, but, asluck would have it, it dropped from her hand and fell right in. Sheran weeping to her stepmother, and told her what had happened,...　

THE GIANTS AND THE HERD-BOY[12][12] From the Bukowniaer. Von Wliolocki.There was once upon a time a poor boy who had neither father normother. In order to gain a living he looked after the sheep of agreat Lord. Day and night he spent out in the open fields, andonly when it was very wet and stormy did he take refuge in alittle hut on the edge of a big forest. Now one night, when hewas sitting on the grass beside his flocks, he heard not very farfrom him the sound as of some one crying. He rose up andfollowed the direction of the noise. To his dismay andastonishment he found a Giant lying at the entrance of the wood;he was about to run off as fast as his legs could carry him, when...　

IN THE LAND OF SOULS [21][21] From the Red Indian.Far away, in North America, where the Red Indians dwell, therelived a long time ago a beautiful maiden, who was lovelier thanany other girl in the whole tribe. Many of the young bravessought her in marriage, but she would listen to one onlyahandsome chief, who had taken her fancy some years before. Sothey were to be married, and great rejoicings were made, and thetwo looked forward to a long life of happiness together, when thevery night before the wedding feast a sudden illness seized thegirl, and, without a word to her friends who were weeping roundher, she passed silently away....　

SCHIPPEITAROIt was the custom in old times that as soon as a Japanese boyreached manhood he should leave his home and roam through theland in search of adventures. Sometimes he would meet with ayoung man bent on the same business as himself, and then theywould fight in a friendly manner, merely to prove which was thestronger, but on other occasions the enemy would turn out to be arobber, who had become the terror of the neighbourhood, and thenthe battle was in deadly earnest.One day a youth started off from his native village, resolvednever to come back till he had done some great deed that wouldmake his name famous. But adventures did not seem very plentiful...　

FAIRY TALES OF HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSENA LEAF FROM HEAVENby Hans Christian AndersenHIGH up in the clear, pure air flew an angel, with a flowerplucked from the garden of heaven. As he was kissing the flower a verylittle leaf fell from it and sunk down into the soft earth in themiddle of a wood. It immediately took root, sprouted, and sent outshoots among the other plants."What a ridiculous little shoot!" said one. "No one will recognizeit; not even the thistle nor the stinging-nettle.""It must be a kind of garden plant," said another; and so theysneered and despised the plant as a thing from a garden....　

FAIRY TALES OF HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSENDELAYING IS NOT FORGETTINGby Hans Christian AndersenTHERE was an old mansion surrounded by a marshy ditch with adrawbridge which was but seldom let down:- not all guests are goodpeople. Under the roof were loopholes to shoot through, and to pourdown boiling water or even molten lead on the enemy, should heapproach. Inside the house the rooms were very high and had ceilingsof beams, and that was very useful considering the great deal of smokewhich rose up from the chimney fire where the large, damp logs of woodsmouldered. On the walls hung pictures of knights in armour and...　

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: itsfigure is almost square, for from the one side of it, which shoots...　

THE COMPARISON OF FABIUS WITH PERICLESby Plutarchtranslated by John DrydenWE have here had two lives rich in examples, both of civil andmilitary excellence. Let us first compare the two men in their warlikecapacity. Pericles presided in his commonwealth when it was in itsmost flourishing and opulent condition, great and growing in power; sothat it may be thought it was rather the common success and fortunethat kept him from any fall or disaster. But the task of Fabius, whoundertook the government in the worst and most difficult times, wasnot to preserve and maintain the well-established felicity of a...　

Preface Of The Author.It is not my intention to detain the reader by expatiatingon the variety or the importance of the subject, which I haveundertaken to treat; since the merit of the choice would serve torender the weakness of the execution still more apparent, andstill less excusable. But as I have presumed to lay before thepublic a first volume only ^1 of the History of the Decline andFall of the Roman Empire, it will, perhaps, be expected that Ishould explain, in a few words, the nature and limits of mygeneral plan.[Footnote 1: The first volume of the quarto, which contained thesixteen first chapters.]...　

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 twocarriages that were rolling along at a terrible rate. One of the...