History Books

This life of Napoleon was first published in 1896 as a book: for the years 1895-96 it ran as a serial in the pages of the Century Magazine. Judging from the sales, it has been read by many tens if not hundreds of thousands of readers; and it has been extensively noticed in the critical journals of both worlds. Throughout these fourteen years the demand has been very large and steady, considering the... more...

CHAPTER I OPPOSING CLAIMS International disputes that end in war are not generally questions of absolute right and wrong. They may quite as well be questions of opposing rights. But, when there are rights on both sides; it is usually found that the side which takes the initiative is moved by its national desires as well as by its claims of right. This could hardly be better exemplified than by the... more...

CHAPTER I CANADA IN 1672 The Canada to which Frontenac came in 1672 was no longer the infant colony it had been when Richelieu founded the Company of One Hundred Associates. Through the efforts of Louis XIV and Colbert it had assumed the form of an organized province.[] Though its inhabitants numbered less than seven thousand, the institutions under which they lived could not have been more elaborate... more...

To return now to the date from which I started. On the 6th of August, 1695, Harlay, Arch-bishop of Paris, died of epilepsy at Conflans. He was a prelate of profound knowledge and ability, very amiable, and of most gallant manners. For some time past he had lost favour with the King and with Madame de Maintenon, for opposing the declaration of her marriage— of which marriage he had been one of the... more...

CHAPTER I. THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF Moving among the members of the second Continental Congress, which met at Philadelphia in May, 1775, was one, and but one, military figure. George Washington alone attended the sittings in uniform. This colonel from Virginia, now in his forty-fourth year, was a great landholder, an owner of slaves, an Anglican churchman, an aristocrat, everything that stands in... more...

THE VOYAGE OF THE GOLDEN HIND All through the sixteenth century the South Seas were regarded as a mysterious wonderworld, whence Spain drew unlimited wealth of gold and silver bullion, of pearls and precious stones. Spain had declared the Pacific 'a closed sea' to the rest of the world. But in 1567 it happened that Sir John Hawkins, an English mariner, was cruising in the Gulf of Mexico, when... more...

When a man poses before the world—even the Canadian world—in the role of an author, he is expected to step up to the footlights, and explain his purpose in presenting himself before the public in that capacity. The thoughts of the world are sown broadcast, very much as the seed falls from the sweep of the husbandman's hand. It drops here and there, in good ground and in stony places. Its... more...

PREFACE. All creation is musical—all nature speaks the language of song. 'There's music in the sighing of a reed,There's music in the gushing of a rill;There's music in all things, if man had ears;The earth is but an echo of the spheres.' And who is not moved by music? "Who ever despises music," says Martin Luther, "I am displeased with him." 'There is a... more...

CHAPTER I Triumphant returning at night with the spoil,Like Bachanals, shouting and gay:How sweet with a bottle and song to refresh,And lose the fatigues of the day.With sport, wit, and wine, fickle fortune defy,Dull 'wisdom all happiness sours;Since Life is no more than a passage at best,Let's strew the way over with flowers. "THEY order these things better in London," replied the... more...

CHAPTER I EVENTS PRIOR TO, AND INCLUDING, FIRST AFGHAN WAR OF 1839-41 Proposed Invasion of India by Napoleon I.—Mission of Burnes to Cabul—Its Failure—Hostility of Russia and Persia—First Afghan War, 1839-41—Its Vicissitudes and Collapse. In considering the important and somewhat intricate subject of policy on the North-Western frontier of our Indian Empire it will be desirable, in the first... more...