POST-MORTEM POETRY [1]In Philadelphia they have a custom which it would be pleasantto see adopted throughout the land. It is that of appending topublished death-notices a little verse or two of comforting poetry.Any one who is in the habit of reading the daily PhiladelphiaLEDGER must frequently be touched by these plaintive tributesto extinguished worth. In Philadelphia, the departure of a childis a circumstance which is not more surely followed by a burialthan by the accustomed solacing poesy in the PUBLIC LEDGER.In that city death loses half its terror because the knowledgeof its presence comes thus disguised in the sweet drapery of verse....　

Ragged Lady, v1by William Dean HowellsPart 1.I.It was their first summer at Middlemount and the Landers did not know theroads. When they came to a place where they had a choice of two, shesaid that now he must get out of the carry-all and ask at the housestanding a little back in the edge of the pine woods, which road theyought to take for South Middlemount. She alleged many cases in whichthey had met trouble through his perverse reluctance to find out wherethey were before he pushed rashly forward in their drives. Whilst sheurged the facts she reached forward from the back seat where she sat, andheld her hand upon the reins to prevent his starting the horse, which was...　

Massacre at Parisby Christopher MarloweTable of Contents with inital stage directions* Dramatis Personae* Scene 1: Enter Charles the French King, [Catherine] the QueeneMother, the King of Navarre, the Prince of Condye, the Lord highAdmirall, and [Margaret] the Queene of Navarre, with others.* Scene 2: Enter the Duke of Guise.* Scene 3: Enter the King of Navar and Queen [Margaret], and his[olde] Mother Queen [of Navarre], the Prince of Condy, theAdmirall, and the Pothecary with the gloves, and gives themto the olde Queene.* Scene 4: Enter [Charles] the King, [Catherine the] QueeneMother, Duke of Guise, Duke Anjoy, Duke Demayne [and Cossin,...　

Christie JohnstoneA NOVELby Charles ReadeI dedicate all that is good in this work to my mother.C. R.,NOTETHIS story was written three years ago, and one or two topics in it arenot treated exactly as they would be if written by the same hand to-day.But if the author had retouched those pages with his colors of 1853, hewould (he thinks) have destroyed the only merit they have, viz., that ofcontaining genuine contemporaneous verdicts upon a cant that wasflourishing like a peony, and a truth that was struggling for bare life,in the year of truth 1850.He prefers to deal fairly with the public, and, with this explanation andapology, to lay at its feet a faulty but genuine piece of work....　

THE LOST PRINCESS OF OZby L. FRANK BAUMThis Book is DedicatedTo My GranddaughterOZMA BAUMTo My ReadersSome of my youthful readers are developing wonderfulimaginations. This pleases me. Imagination has broughtmankind through the Dark Ages to its present state ofcivilization. Imagination led Columbus to discoverAmerica. Imagination led Franklin to discoverelectricity. Imagination has given us the steam engine,the telephone, the talking-machine and the automobile,for these things had to be dreamed of before theybecame realities. So I believe that dreams day...　

The Muse of the Departmentby Honore de BalzacTranslated by James WaringDEDICATIONTo Monsieur le Comte Ferdinand de Gramont.MY DEAR FERDINAND,If the chances of the world of literature/habent sua fata libelli/should allow these lines to be anenduring record, that will still be but a trifle in return for thetrouble you have takenyou, the Hozier, the Cherin, the King-at-Arms of these Studies of Life; you, to whom the Navarreins,Cadignans, Langeais, Blamont-Chauvrys, Chaulieus, Arthez,Esgrignons, Mortsaufs, Valoisthe hundred great names that formthe Aristocracy of the "Human Comedy" owe their lordly mottoes andingenious armorial bearings. Indeed, "the Armorial of the Etudes,...　

The Mirror of the Seaby Joseph ConradContents:I. Landfalls and DeparturesIV. Emblems of HopeVII. The Fine ArtX. Cobwebs and GossamerXIII. The Weight of the BurdenXVI. Overdue and MissingXX. The Grip of the LandXXII. The Character of the FoeXXV. Rules of East and WestXXX. The Faithful RiverXXXIII. In CaptivityXXXV. InitiationXXXVII. The Nursery of the CraftXL. The TremolinoXLVI. The Heroic AgeCHAPTER I."And shippes by the brinke comen and gon,...　

Aucassin and NicoleteTranslated by Andrew LangINTRODUCTIONThere is nothing in artistic poetry quite akin to "Aucassin andNicolete."By a rare piece of good fortune the one manuscript of the Song-Storyhas escaped those waves of time, which have wrecked the bark ofMenander, and left of Sappho but a few floating fragments. The veryform of the tale is peculiar; we have nothing else from the twelfthor thirteenth century in the alternate prose and verse of the cante-fable. {1} We have fabliaux in verse, and prose Arthurian romances.We have Chansons de Geste, heroic poems like "Roland," unrhymedassonant laisses, but we have not the alternations of prose with...　

The Libraryby Andrew LangContents:PREFATORY NOTEAN APOLOGY FOR THE BOOK-HUNTERTHE LIBRARYTHE BOOKS OF THE COLLECTORILLUSTRATED BOOKSBooks, books again, and books once more!These are our theme, which some miscallMere madness, setting little storeBy copies either short or tall.But you, O slaves of shelf and stall!We rather write for you that holdPatched folios dear, and prize "the small,Rare volume, black with tarnished gold."A. D.PREFATORY NOTEThe pages in this volume on illuminated and other MSS. (with the exception of some anecdotes about Bussy Rabutin and Julie de Rambouillet) have been contributed by the Rev. W. J. Loftie, who has also written on early printed books (pp. 94-95). The pag　

History Of The Britons (Historia Brittonum)by NenniusTranslated by J. A. GilesI. The Prologue.1. Nennius, the lowly minister and servant of the servants ofGod, by the grace of God, disciple of St. Elbotus,* to all thefollowers of truth sendeth health.* Or Elvod, bishop of Bangor, A.D. 755, who first adopted in theCambrian church the new cycle for regulating Easter.Be it known to your charity, that being dull in intellect andrude of speech, I have presumed to deliver these things in theLatin tongue, not trusting to my own learning, which is littleor none at all, but partly from traditions of our ancestors,partly from writings and monuments of the ancient inhabitants of...　

Original Short Stories, Vol. 13.By Guy de MaupassantVOLUME XIII.OLD JUDASTHE LITTLE CASKBOITELLEA WIDOWTHE ENGLISHMEN OF ETRETATMAGNETISMA FATHERS CONFESSIONA MOTHER OF MONSTERSAN UNCOMFORTABLE BEDA PORTRAITTHE DRUNKARDTHE WARDROBETHE MOUNTAIN POOLA CREMATIONMISTIMADAME HERMETTHE MAGIC COUCHOLD JUDASThis entire stretch of country was amazing; it was characterized by agrandeur that was almost religious, and yet it had an air of sinisterdesolation.A great, wild lake, filled with stagnant, black water, in which thousandsof reeds were waving to and fro, lay in the midst of a vast circle ofnaked hills, where nothing grew but broom, or here and there an oak...　

THE STARIt was on the first day of the New Year that the announcementwas made, almost simultaneously from three observatories, that themotion of the planet Neptune, the outermost of all the planetsthat wheel about the sun, had become very erratic. Ogilvy hadalready called attention to a suspected retardation in its velocityin December. Such a piece of news was scarcely calculated tointerest a world the greater portion of whose inhabitants wereunaware of the existence of the planet Neptune, nor outside theastronomical profession did the subsequent discovery of a faintremote speck of light in the region of the perturbed planet cause...