Non-Classifiable Books

CHAPTER 1. It is worse than useless to deplore the irremediable; yet no man, probably, has failed to mourn the fate of mighty poets, whose dawning gave the promise of a glorious day, but who passed from earth while yet the light that shone in them was crescent. That the world should know Marlowe and Giorgione, Raphael and Mozart, only by the products of their early manhood, is indeed a cause for... more...

CHAPTER I.—EXILES, OLD AND NEW. “O what have we ta’en?” said the fisher-prince,   “What have we ta’en this morning’s tide? Get thee down to the wave, my carl,   And row me the net to the meadow’s-side.” In he waded, the fisher-carl,   And “Here,” quoth he, “is a wondrous thing! A cradle, prince, and a fair man-child,   Goodly to see as the son of a king!” The... more...

The First Home in the Metropolis. We had never lived in New York. This fact will develop anyway, as I proceed, but somehow it seems fairer to everybody to state it in the first sentence and have it over with. Still, we had heard of flats in a vague way, and as we drew near the Metropolis the Little Woman bought papers of the train boy and began to read advertisements under the head of "Flats and... more...

CHAPTER I I. As the nineteenth century recedes into history and the essentially romantic quality of its great adventures is confirmed by the "beauty touched with strangeness" which illumines their true perspective, we are discovering, what the adventurers themselves always knew, that the movement for the higher education of women was not the least romantic of those Victorian quests and... more...

The Battle of Stone River. After the battle of Perryville, October 8, 1862, a rather leisurely pursuit of Bragg’s retreating forces was made on the roads to Cumberland Gap, but no engagement was brought on. It soon appeared that Bragg did not intend to again give battle in Kentucky, but would withdraw into Tennessee and join the force under Breckenridge which had been left to watch Nashville during... more...

CHAPTER I. BOY WITH AN IDEA. Men who do great things are men we all like to read about. This is the story of Christopher Columbus, the man who discovered America. He lived four hundred years ago. When he was a little boy he lived in Genoa. It was a beautiful city in the northwestern part of the country called Italy. The mountains were behind it; the sea was in front of it, and it was so beautiful a... more...

PHILOSOPHY AMONG THE GREEKS AND ROMANS. Among the Greeks and Romans of the classical age philosophy occupied the place taken by religion among ourselves. Their appeal was to reason not to revelation. To what, asks Cicero in his Offices, are we to look for training in virtue, if not to philosophy? Now, if truth is believed to rest upon authority it is natural that it should be impressed upon the mind... more...

THOMAS NELSON PAGE THE TORCH OF CIVILIZATION [Speech of Thomas Nelson Page at the twentieth annual dinner of the New England Society in the City of Brooklyn, December 21, 1899. The President, Frederic A. Ward, said: "In these days of blessed amity, when there is no longer a united South or a disunited North, when the boundary of the North is the St. Lawrence and the boundary of the South the Rio... more...

PREFACE This little book is mainly compounded of papers which appeared, part in the Monthly Packet, and part in the Magazine of the Home Reading Union. It will be seen, therefore, that it is not intended for those whom Italians call “Dantists,” but for students at an early stage of their studies. To the former class there will be nothing in the book that is not already familiar—except where they... more...

THE DOG OF ST. BERNARD.   St. Bernard is the name of one of the high mountains of the Alps. The deep snow hangs so loosely on the sides of these mountains, that great masses often fall into the plains below, with a noise like thunder. Wild snow storms also come on, and the passes in the mountains become so blocked up and covered over, that it is impossible to find them out. In this way many travelers... more...