Non-Classifiable Books

Let me live harmlessly, and near the brinkOf Trent or Avon have a dwelling-place:Where I may see my fly or cork down sink,With eager bite of pike, or bass, or dace,And on the world and my Creator think:While some men strive ill-gotten goods t'embrace:And others spend their time in base excessOf wine, or worse, in war or wantonness.Let them that will, these pastimes still pursue,And on such pleasing... more...

PREPARATORY CONSIDERATIONS. I deem it unnecessary to prove that mankind stood in need of a revelation because I have met with no serious person who thinks that, even under the Christian revelation, we have too much light, or any degree of assurance which is superfluous. I desire, moreover, that in judging of Christianity, it may be remembered that the question lies between this religion and none: for,... more...

What is America? I have never managed to lose my old conviction that travel narrows the mind. At least a man must make a double effort of moral humility and imaginative energy to prevent it from narrowing his mind. Indeed there is something touching and even tragic about the thought of the thoughtless tourist, who might have stayed at home loving Laplanders, embracing Chinamen, and clasping Patagonians... more...

To a largely increasing number of young girls college doors are opening every year. Every year adds to the number of men who feel as a friend of mine, a successful lawyer in a great city, felt when in talking of the future of his four little children he said, "For the two boys it is not so serious, but I lie down at night afraid to die and leave my daughters only a bank account." Year by year,... more...

The Memoirs of the time of Napoleon may be divided into two classes—those by marshals and officers, of which Suchet's is a good example, chiefly devoted to military movements, and those by persons employed in the administration and in the Court, giving us not only materials for history, but also valuable details of the personal and inner life of the great Emperor and of his immediate... more...

THE RUBBER. 1. The rubber is the best of three games. If the first two games are won by the same players, the third game is played; should the score of the third game lap, a fourth game is played. 2. A game consists of five points. Should a player order up, assist, adopt, or make the trump, and he and his partner take five tricks, they score two; three or four tricks, they score one. If they fail to... more...

KINDS OF FLIES FOUND IN HOUSES. Several species of flies are found commonly in houses. Some of them so closely resemble the true house fly that it requires very careful observation to distinguish them from it. One of these is the biting stable fly (fig. 1). It occurs frequently in houses and differs from the house fly in the important particular that its mouth parts are formed for piercing the skin.... more...

PREFATORY NOTE “OF making many books there is no end.” Surely, the weary observation of the sage must have an especial application to the literature of Song. One could not number the books—anatomical, physiological, philosophical—on the Voice. A spacious library could easily be furnished with “Methods” of Singing. Works treating of the laws governing the effective interpretation of... more...

AN EVENING IN VENICE It was a glorious summer evening. The moon, rising over the city of Venice, shone down on towers and domes and marble palaces, and made a golden path in the rippling waters of the lagoon. The squares of the city were all ablaze with lights, while from every window and balcony twinkling jets of flame found their reflection in the canals, and lengthened into shimmering arrows of... more...

THE BEGINNINGS In Paris, in the Rue Coquillière, Louis the Fifteenth being King of France—or rather the Pompadour holding sway thereover—there lived a witty, amiable fellow who plied the art of painting portraits in oils and pastels after the mediocre fashion that is called "pleasing." This Louis Vigée and his wife, Jeanne Maissin, moved in the genial enthusiastic circle of the lesser... more...