The Seven Poor Travellersby Charles DickensCHAPTER IIN THE OLD CITY OF ROCHESTERStrictly speaking, there were only six Poor Travellers; but, being aTraveller myself, though an idle one, and being withal as poor as Ihope to be, I brought the number up to seven. This word ofexplanation is due at once, for what says the inscription over thequaint old door?RICHARD WATTS, Esq.by his Will, dated 22 Aug. 1579,founded this Charityfor Six poor Travellers,who not being ROGUES, or PROCTORS,May receive gratis for one Night,Lodging, Entertainment,and Fourpence each.It was in the ancient little city of Rochester in Kent, of all the...　

Lecture VIIIThe Growth and Diffusion of Primitive IdeasMr Tylor has justly observed that the true lesson of the newscience of Comparative Mythology is the barrenness in primitivetimes of the faculty which we most associate with mentalfertility, the Imagination. Comparative Jurisprudence, as mightbe expected from the natural stability of law and custom, yetmore strongly suggests the same inference, and points to thefewness of ideas and the slowness of additions to the mentalstock as among the most general characteristics of mankind in itsinfancy.The fact that the generation of new ideas does not proceed in...　

Lin McLeanby Owen WisterDEDICATIONMY DEAR HARRY MERCER: When Lin McLean was only a hero in manuscript, hereceived his first welcome and chastening beneath your patient roof. Bynone so much as by you has he in private been helped and affectionatelydisciplined, an now you must stand godfather to him upon this publicpage.Always yours,OWEN WISTERPhiladelphia, 1897HOW LIN McLEAN WENT EASTIn the old days, the happy days, when Wyoming was a Territory with afuture instead of a State with a past, and the unfenced cattle grazedupon her ranges by prosperous thousands, young Lin McLean awaked early...　

Memoir of Fleeming Jenkinby Robert Louis StevensonPREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION.ON the death of Fleeming Jenkin, his family and friends determinedto publish a selection of his various papers; by way ofintroduction, the following pages were drawn up; and the whole,forming two considerable volumes, has been issued in England. Inthe States, it has not been thought advisable to reproduce thewhole; and the memoir appearing alone, shorn of that other matterwhich was at once its occasion and its justification, so large anaccount of a man so little known may seem to a stranger out of allproportion. But Jenkin was a man much more remarkable than the...　

On the First Principles of Governmentby David HumeNothing appears more surprising to those, who consider humanaffairs with a philosophical eve, than the easiness with whichthe many are governed by the few; and the implicit submission,with which men resign their own sentiments and passions to thoseof their rulers. When we enquire by what means this wonder iseffected, we shall find, that, as FORCE is always on the side ofthe governed, the governors have nothing to support them butopinion. It is therefore, on opinion only that government isfounded; and this maxim extends to the most despotic and mostmilitary governments, as well as to the most free and most...　

Phyllis of Philistiaby Frank Frankfort MooreCHAPTER I.AN ASTRONOMER WITHOUT A TELESCOPE."After all," said Mr. Ayrton, "what is marriage?""Ah!" sighed Phyllis. She knew that her father had become possessed of a phrase, and that he was anxious to flutter it before her to see how it went. He was a connoisseur in the bric-a-brac of phrases."Marriage means all your eggs in one basket," said he."Ah!" sighed Phyllis once more. She wondered if her father really thought that she would be comforted in her great grief by a phrase. She did not want to know how marriage might be defined. She knew that all definitions are indefinite. She knew that in the case of marriage everything depends upon the defin　

THE INNOCENCE OF FATHER BROWNby G. K. ChestertonContentsThe Blue CrossThe Secret GardenThe Queer FeetThe Flying StarsThe Invisible ManThe Honour of Israel GowThe Wrong ShapeThe Sins of Prince SaradineThe Hammer of GodThe Eye of ApolloThe Sign of the Broken SwordThe Three Tools of DeathThe Blue CrossBetween the silver ribbon of morning and the green glittering ribbon of sea, the boat touched Harwich and let loose a swarm of folk like flies, among whom the man we must follow was by no means conspicuousnor wished to be. There was nothing notable about him, except a slight contrast between the holiday gaiety of his clothes and the official gravity of his face. His clothes included a slight, p　

FAIRY TALES OF HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSENTHE PEA BLOSSOMby Hans Christian AndersenTHERE were once five peas in one shell, they were green, the shellwas green, and so they believed that the whole world must be greenalso, which was a very natural conclusion. The shell grew, and thepeas grew, they accommodated themselves to their position, and sat allin a row. The sun shone without and warmed the shell, and the rainmade it clear and transparent; it was mild and agreeable in broaddaylight, and dark at night, as it generally is; and the peas asthey sat there grew bigger and bigger, and more thoughtful as they...　

Erewhon Revisitedby Samuel ButlerErewhon Revisited Twenty Years Later Both by the OriginalDiscoverer of the Country and by his Son.I forget when, but not very long after I had published "Erewhon" in1872, it occurred to me to ask myself what course events in Erewhonwould probably take after Mr. Higgs, as I suppose I may now callhim, had made his escape in the balloon with Arowhena. Given apeople in the conditions supposed to exist in Erewhon, and giventhe apparently miraculous ascent of a remarkable stranger into theheavens with an earthly bridewhat would be the effect on thepeople generally?There was no use in trying to solve this problem before, say,...　

SHERLOCK HOLMESTHE MUSGRAVE RITUALby Sir Arthur Conan DoyleAn anomaly which often struck me in the character of my friendSherlock Holmes was that, although in his methods of thought he wasthe neatest and most methodical of mankind, and although also heaffected a certain quiet primness of dress, he was nonetheless inhis personal habits one of the most untidy men that ever drove afellow-lodger to distraction. Not that I am in the leastconventional in that respect myself. The rough-and-tumble work inAfghanistan, coming on the top of natural Bohemianism ofdisposition, has made me rather more lax than befits a medical man....　

Oliver Wendell Holmesby William Dean HowellsElsewhere we literary folk are apt to be such a common lot, withtendencies here and there to be a shabby lot; we arrive from all sorts ofunexpected holes and corners of the earth, remote, obscure; and at thebest we do so often come up out of the ground; but at Boston we were ofascertained and noted origin, and good part of us dropped from the skies.Instead of holding horses before the doors of theatres; or capping versesat the plough-tail; or tramping over Europe with nothing but a flute inthe pocket; or walking up to the metropolis with no luggage but the MS.of a tragedy; or sleeping in doorways or under the arches of bridges; or...　

An Inland Voyageby Robert Louis StevensonPREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITIONTo equip so small a book with a preface is, I am half afraid, to sin against proportion. But a preface is more than an author can resist, for it is the reward of his labours. When the foundation stone is laid, the architect appears with his plans, and struts for an hour before the public eye. So with the writer in his preface: he may have never a word to say, but he must show himself for a moment in the portico, hat in hand, and with an urbane demeanour.It is best, in such circumstances, to represent a delicate shade of manner between humility and superiority: as if the book had been written by some one else,