Europe Books

PREFACE.   The long abandoned purpose, of which the following pages begin some attempt at fulfilment, has been resumed at the request of a young English governess, that I would write some pieces of history which her pupils could gather some good out of;—the fruit of historical documents placed by modern educational systems at her disposal, being to them labour only, and sorrow. What else may be said... 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...

INTRODUCTION Of late years, that is to say, within the last thirty odd years, there has existed a certain amount of doubt as to whether or no the work known to us as "The History of the Four Last Years of the Queen," was really the product of Swift's pen. That a work of this nature had occupied Swift during his retirement at Windsor in 1713, is undoubted. That the work here reprinted from... more...

CHAPTER I. JANUARY."Come then, come then, and let us bringUnto our pretty Twelfth-Tide King,Each one his several offering."Herrick'sStar Song. Dedication Festivals—New Year's Day—"Wassail"—Twelfth Night—"King of the Bean"—St. Distaff's Day—Plough Monday—Winter Games—Skating—Sword-dancing. N the old life of rural England few things are more... more...

The Abbe Alberoni, having risen by the means I have described, and acquired power by following in the track of the Princesse des Ursins, governed Spain like a master. He had the most ambitious projects. One of his ideas was to drive all strangers, especially the French, out of the West Indies; and he hoped to make use of the Dutch to attain this end. But Holland was too much in the dependence of... more...

HENRIE THE SECOND, The Second Sonne of Geffrey Plantagenet. An. Reg. 1. Henrie the second of that name, a French man borne, the second sonne of Geffrey Plantagenet earle of Aniou, begotten of Maud the empresse, daughter to Henrie the first, began his reigne ouer England the fiue and twentith of October, in the yeare after the creation of the world 5121. and in the yeare after the incarnation of our... more...

The ill humor of the commons, thus wantonly irritated by the court, and finding no gratification in the legal impeachment of Buckingham, sought other objects on which it might exert itself. The never-failing cry of Popery here served them in stead. They again claimed the execution of the penal laws against Catholics; and they presented to the king a list of persons intrusted with offices, most of them... more...

THEINTRODUCTION. I AM very much concerned when I see young gentlemen of fortune and quality so wholly set upon pleasure and diversions, that they neglect all those improvements in wisdom and knowledge which may make them easy to themselves and useful to the world.  The greatest part of our British youth lose their figure, and grow out of fashion, by that time they are five and twenty.  As soon as the... more...

INTRODUCTION No library of Court documents could pretend to be representative which ignored the famous "Memoirs" of the Duc de Saint-Simon. They stand, by universal consent, at the head of French historical papers, and are the one great source from which all historians derive their insight into the closing years of the reign of the "Grand Monarch," Louis XIV: whom the author shows to be... more...

LETTER I. PARIS, September, 1805. MY LORD:—Since my return here, I have never neglected to present myself before our Sovereign, on his days of grand reviews and grand diplomatic audiences. I never saw him more condescending, more agreeable, or, at least, less offensive, than on the day of his last levee, before he set out to be inaugurated a King of Italy; nor worse tempered, more petulant, agitated,... more...