BENITO CERENOby Herman MelvilleIN THE year 1799, Captain Amasa Delano, of Duxbury, in Massachusetts, commanding a large sealer and general trader, lay at anchor, with a valuable cargo, in the harbour of St. Maria- a small, desert, uninhabited island towards the southern extremity of the long coast of Chili. There he had touched for water. On the second day, not long after dawn, while lying in his berth, his mate came below, informing him that a strange sail was coming into the bay. Ships were then not so plenty in those waters as now. He rose, dressed, and went on deck. The morning was one peculiar to that coast. Everything was mute and calm; everything grey. The sea, though undulat
Critoby PlatoTranslated by Benjamin JowettINTRODUCTION.The Crito seems intended to exhibit the character of Socrates in one lightonly, not as the philosopher, fulfilling a divine mission and trusting inthe will of heaven, but simply as the good citizen, who having beenunjustly condemned is willing to give up his life in obedience to the lawsof the state...The days of Socrates are drawing to a close; the fatal ship has been seenoff Sunium, as he is informed by his aged friend and contemporary Crito,who visits him before the dawn has broken; he himself has been warned in adream that on the third day he must depart. Time is precious, and Crito...
De Profundisby Oscar Wilde. . . Suffering is one very long moment. We cannot divide it byseasons. We can only record its moods, and chronicle their return.With us time itself does not progress. It revolves. It seems tocircle round one centre of pain. The paralysing immobility of alife every circumstance of which is regulated after an unchangeablepattern, so that we eat and drink and lie down and pray, or kneelat least for prayer, according to the inflexible laws of an ironformula: this immobile quality, that makes each dreadful day inthe very minutest detail like its brother, seems to communicateitself to those external forces the very essence of whose existence...
The Annals of the Parishby John GaltOr The Chronicle of Dalmailing during the ministry of the Rev. Micah Balwhidder. Written by himself and arranged and edited by John GaltINTRODUCTIONIn the same year, and on the same day of the same month, that his Sacred Majesty King George, the third of the name, came to his crown and kingdom, I was placed and settled as the minister of Dalmailing. {1} When about a week thereafter this was known in the parish, it was thought a wonderful thing, and everybody spoke of me and the new king as united in our trusts and temporalities, marvelling how the same should come to pass, and thinking the hand of Providence was in it, and that surely we were preordaine
The University of Hard Knocksby Ralph ParletteThe School That Completes Our Education"He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son"Revelation 21:7."Sweet are the uses of adversity; Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, Wears yet a precious jewel in his head; And thus our life, exempt from public haunt, Finds tongues in trees, books in running brooks Sermons in stones, and good in everything."ShakespeareWhy It Is PrintedMORE than a million people have sat in audiences in all parts of the United States and have listened to "The University of Hard Knocks." It has been delivered to date more than twenty-five hundred times upon lyceum courses, at
FAIRY TALES OF HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSENTHE TOADby Hans Christian AndersenTHE well was deep, and therefore the rope had to be a long one; itwas heavy work turning the handle when any one had to raise abucketful of water over the edge of the well. Though the water wasclear, the sun never looked down far enough into the well to mirroritself in the waters; but as far as its beams could reach, greenthings grew forth between the stones in the sides of the well.Down below dwelt a family of the Toad race. They had, in fact,come head-over-heels down the well, in the person of the old...
Massacres of the South1551-1815by Alexandre Dumas, PereCHAPTER IIt is possible that our reader, whose recollections may perhaps goback as far as the Restoration, will be surprised at the size of theframe required for the picture we are about to bring before him,embracing as it does two centuries and a half; but as everything, hasits precedent, every river its source, every volcano its centralfire, so it is that the spot of earth on which we are going to fixour eyes has been the scene of action and reaction, revenge ,andretaliation, till the religious annals of the South resemble anaccount-book kept by double entry, in which fanaticism enters the...
R. F. Murray: His Poems with a Memoir by Andrew Langby R. F. Murray/Andrew LangR. F. MURRAY1863-1893Much is written about success and failure in the career ofliterature, about the reasons which enable one man to reach thefront, and another to earn his livelihood, while a third, inappearance as likely as either of them, fails and, perhaps, faintsby the way. Mr. R. F. Murray, the author of The Scarlet Gown, wasamong those who do not attain success, in spite of qualities whichseem destined to ensure it, and who fall out of the ranks. To him,indeed, success and the rewards of this world, money, and praise,did by no means seem things to be snatched at. To him success meant...
The Angel and the Author and othersby Jerome K. JeromeCHAPTER II had a vexing dream one night, not long ago: it was about afortnight after Christmas. I dreamt I flew out of the window in mynightshirt. I went up and up. I was glad that I was going up."They have been noticing me," I thought to myself. "If anything, Ihave been a bit too good. A little less virtue and I might havelived longer. But one cannot have everything." The world grewsmaller and smaller. The last I saw of London was the long line ofelectric lamps bordering the Embankment; later nothing remained but afaint luminosity buried beneath darkness. It was at this point of my...
1872FAIRY TALES OF HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSENTHE STORKSby Hans Christian AndersenON the last house in a little village the storks had built a nest,and the mother stork sat in it with her four young ones, who stretchedout their necks and pointed their black beaks, which had not yetturned red like those of the parent birds. A little way off, on theedge of the roof, stood the father stork, quite upright and stiff; notliking to be quite idle, he drew up one leg, and stood on the other,so still that it seemed almost as if he were carved in wood. "Itmust look very grand," thought he, "for my wife to have a sentryguarding her nest. They do not know that I am her husband; they will...
The Complete Plays of Gilbert and Sullivanby Arthur Gilbert and William Schwenk SullivanTHE 14 GILBERT AND SULLIVAN PLAYSWilliam S. Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan collaborated on 14operas in the period from 1871 to 1896. The are the following:GONDOLIERSGRAND DUKEH.M.S. PINAFOREIOLANTHETHE MIKADOPIRATES OF PENZANCEPRINCESS IDARUDDIGORETHE SORCERERTHESPISTRIAL BY JURYUTOPIA, LIMITEDYEOMEN OF THE GUARDPATIENCEThe GondoliersorThe King of BaratariaLibretto by William S. Gilbert...
BOOK II: OF THEIR TRAFFICBUT it is now time to explain to you the mutual intercourse ofthis people, their commerce, and the rules by which all things aredistributed among them.As their cities are composed of families, so their families aremade up of those that are nearly related to one another. Theirwomen, when they grow up, are married out; but all the males, bothchildren and grandchildren, live still in the same house, in greatobedience to their common parent, unless age has weakened hisunderstanding: and in that case, he that is next to him in agecomes in his room. But lest any city should become either too...