Europe Books

PREFACE IN THE SOCRATIC MANNER "Nothing broadens and mellows the mind so much as foreign travel."—Dr. Orison Swett Marden. The scene is the brow of the Hungerberg at Innsbruck. It is the half-hour before sunset, and the whole lovely valley of the Inn—still wie die Nacht, tief wie das Meer—begins to glow with mauves and apple greens, apricots and silvery blues. Along the peaks of the great... more...

CAMBRIDGE, 1856. DEAR M.,—You say in your last letter, "Do tell me something about your school." If I only had the time, I could write volumes about my school, and especially about my teachers. To begin with, Professor Agassiz gives us lectures on zoölogy, geology, and all other ologies, and draws pictures on the blackboard of trilobites and different fossils, which is very amusing. We call... more...

THE FIRST CHAPTER. INAS. 689. After that Ceadwalla, late K. of the Westsaxons was gone to Rome, where he departed this life (as afore is shewed) his coosen Inas or Ine was made king of the Westsaxons, begining his reigne in the yéere of our Lord 689, in the third yeere of the emperor Iustinianus the third, the 11 yéere of the reigne of Theodoricus K. of France, and about the second The Britains... more...

HOW TROY WAS TAKEN. The far-famed Helen, wife of King Menelaus of Sparta, was the most beautiful woman in the world. And from her beauty and faithlessness came the most celebrated of ancient wars, with death and disaster to numbers of famous heroes and the final ruin of the ancient city of Troy. The story of these striking events has been told only in poetry. We propose to tell it again in sober prose.... more...

CHAPTER I Celtic Literature—Antiquity of our Annals—Moore—How we should estimate Tradition—The Materials for Irish History—List of the Lost Books—The Cuilmenn—The Saltair of Tara, &c.—The Saltair of Cashel—Important MSS. preserved in Trinity College—By the Royal Irish Academy—In Belgium.   he study of Celtic literature, which is daily becoming of increased importance to the... more...

CHAPTER I COMMUNISTIC FARMING.—GROWTH OF THE MANOR.—EARLY PRICES.—THE ORGANIZATION AND AGRICULTURE OF THE MANOR When the early bands of English invaders came over to take Britain from its Celtic owners, it is almost certain that the soil was held by groups and not by individuals, and as this was the practice of the conquerors also they readily fell in with the system they found. These English,... more...

Since the appearance of this book in its original form, some seventeen years since, the construction of Railways has continued to make extraordinary progress.  Although Great Britain, first in the field, had then, after about twenty-five years’ work, expended nearly 300 millions sterling in the construction of 8300 miles of railway, it has, during the last seventeen years, expended about 288... more...

INTRODUCTION The history of the Belgian nation is little known in England. This ignorance, or rather this neglect, may seem strange if we consider the frequent relations which existed between the two countries from the early Middle Ages. It is, however, easy enough to explain, and even to justify. The general idea has been for a long time that the existence of Belgium, as a nation, dated from its... more...

LIFE OF SAXO. Of Saxo little is known but what he himself indicates, though much doubtful supposition has gathered round his name. That he was born a Dane his whole language implies; it is full of a glow of aggressive patriotism. He also often praises the Zealanders at the expense of other Danes, and Zealand as the centre of Denmark; but that is the whole contemporary evidence for the statement that he... more...

PREFACE This second part of "Les Origines de la France Contemporaine" will consist of two volumes.—Popular insurrections and the laws of the Constituent Assembly end in destroying all government in France; this forms the subject of the present volume.—A party arises around an extreme doctrine, grabs control of the government, and rules in conformity with its doctrine. This will form the... more...