Non-Classifiable Books

"The insect tribes of human kind" is a mode of expression we are familiar with in the poets, moralists and other superior persons, or beings, who viewing mankind from their own vast elevation see us all more or less of one size and very, very small. No doubt the comparison dates back to early, probably Pliocene, times, when some one climbed to the summit of a very tall cliff, and looking down... more...

Herodotus and Xenophon. B.C. 550-401The Persian monarchy.Singular principle of human nature.Cyrus was the founder of the ancient Persian empire—a monarchy, perhaps, the most wealthy and magnificent which the world has ever seen. Of that strange and incomprehensible principle of human nature, under the influence of which vast masses of men, notwithstanding the universal instinct of aversion to... more...

CHAPTER 1. THE BEATIFIC VISION. Reason, revelation, and the experience of six thousand years unite their voices in proclaiming that perfect happiness cannot be found in this world. It certainly cannot be found in creatures; for they were not clothed with the power to give it. It cannot be found even in the practice of virtue; for God has, in His wisdom, decreed that virtue should merit, but never enjoy... more...

Dr. Van Dyke's Spiritual Consolation to the Survivors of the Titanic The Titanic, greatest of ships, has gone to her ocean grave. What has she left behind her? Think clearly. She has left debts. Vast sums of money have been lost. Some of them are covered by insurance which will be paid. The rest is gone. All wealth is insecure. She has left lessons. The risk of running the northern course when it... more...

BLOOMINGDALE HOSPITAL CENTENARY The One Hundredth Anniversary of the establishment of Bloomingdale Hospital as a separate department for mental diseases of The Society of the New York Hospital was celebrated at the Hospital at White Plains on Thursday, May 26, 1921. The addresses were given in the Assembly Hall. Mr. Edward W. Sheldon, the President of the Society, acted as Chairman. MORNING SESSION The... more...

CHAPTER I Apart from tradition, very few ascertained facts are known to us as to Giorgione's life. The date of his birth is conjectural, there being but Vasari's unsupported testimony that he died in his thirty-fourth year. Now we know from unimpeachable sources that his death happened in October-November 1510, so that, assuming Vasari's statement to be correct, Giorgione will have been... more...

INTRODUCTION. For some years I had been engaged in collecting material for a life of my great grandfather, the Rev. William Smith, D. D., Provost of the University of Pennsylvania, and in doing so, I read all the Bibliographical and Historical works which I thought could in any way make mention of him. In no case did I find anything said against his character as a man, until I read Wm. B. Reed's... more...

Chapter I The History of Syphilis Syphilis has a remarkable history, about which it is worth while to say a few words. Many people think of the disease as at least as old as the Bible, and as having been one of the conditions included under the old idea of leprosy. Our growing knowledge of medical history, however, and the finding of new records of the disease, have shown this view to be in all... more...

INTRODUCTION A conundrum is a riddle in the form of a question, the answer to which involves a pun. Originally the term was applied to any quaint expression. It is thus, in its modern form, a union of the elaborated riddle and the impromptu pun. With the earliest development of intelligence came the discovery of likeness and difference in things, and the search for analogy was carried out along both... more...

[The following pages are, with slight changes, a reprint from the Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, of a paper read before that Society, March 8, 1883, in answer to a question propounded at a previous meeting, relative to the authenticity of the tradition that a woman was burned to death in Massachusetts in the year 1755. As this case is the only known instance of the infliction of... more...