SERVANT. Have mercy upon your servant, my queen!QUEEN. The assembly is over and my servants are all gone. Whydo you come at this late hour?SERVANT. When you have finished with others, that is my time.I come to ask what remains for your last servant to do.QUEEN. What can you expect when it is too late?SERVANT. Make me the gardener of your flower garden.QUEEN. What folly is this?SERVANT. I will give up my other work.I will throw my swords and... more...

A Frog he would a-wooing go, Whether his mother would let him or no. Off he set with his opera-hat. On the road he met with a Rat.     "Pray, Mr. Rat, will you go with me, Kind Mrs. Mousey for to see?" They soon arrived at Mousey's hall. They gave a loud tap, and they gave a loud call.     "Pray, Mrs. Mouse, are you within?" "Yes, kind sirs, and sitting to spin." "Pray,... more...

INTRODUCTION.   The golden age—when men were brothers all,  The golden rule their law and God their king;  When no fierce beasts did through the forests roam,  Nor poisonous reptiles crawl upon the ground;  When trees bore only wholesome, luscious fruits,  And thornless roses breathed their sweet perfumes;  When sickness, sin and sorrow were unknown,  And tears... more...

INDEX OF THE FIRST LINES Ah, these jasminesAh, who was it coloured that little frockBless this little heartChild, how happy you are sitting in the dustCome and hire meDay by day I float my paper boatsI am small because I am a little childIf baby only wanted to, he could flyIf I were only a little puppyIf people came to know where my king's palace isI long to go over thereImagine, motherI only said, "When in the evening"I paced aloneIt is time... more...

INTRODUCTION I call you bad, my little child,Upon the title page,Because a manner rude and wildIs common at your age.The Moral of this priceless work(If rightly understood)Will make you—from a little Turk—Unnaturally good.Do not as evil children do,Who on the slightest groundsWill imitate   the Kangaroo,With wild unmeaning bounds: Do not as children badly bred,Who eat like little Hogs,And when they have to go to bedWill... more...

BOOK I Arms, and the man I sing, who, forc'd by fate,And haughty Juno's unrelenting hate,Expell'd and exil'd, left the Trojan shore.Long labors, both by sea and land, he bore,And in the doubtful war, before he wonThe Latian realm, and built the destin'd town;His banish'd gods restor'd to rites divine,And settled sure succession in his line,From whence the race of Alban fathers come,And the long glories of majestic Rome. O Muse! the causes and... more...

INTRODUCTION The impersonal character of the Homeric poems has left us entirely in the dark as to the birthplace, the history, and the date, of their author. So complete is the darkness which surrounds the name of Homer that his very existence has been disputed, and his works have been declared to be an ingenious compilation, drawn from the productions of a multitude of singers. It is not my intention here to enter into the endless and barren... more...

INTRODUCTION "It is about impossible for a man to get rid of his Puritan grandfathers, and nobody who has ever had one has ever escaped his Puritan grandmother;" so said Eugene Field to me one sweet April day, when we talked together of the things of the spirit. It is one of his own confessions that he was fond of clergymen. Most preachers are supposed to be helplessly tied up with such a set of limitations that there are but a few jokes which... more...

BEING A WORD ON BEHALF OF PATCHOULI. AN ingenuous reviewer once described some verses of mine as "unwholesome," because, he said, they had "a faint smell of Patchouli about them." I am a little sorry he chose Patchouli, for that is not a particularly favourite scent with me. If he had only chosen Peau d'Espagne, which has a subtle meaning, or Lily of the Valley, with which I have associations! But Patchouli will serve. Let me ask, then, in... more...

ENGLAND AND SERBIA. Delivered for the first time in the Chapter House of Canterbury Cathedral. Chairman: the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury. THE SIGN OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. YOUR GRACE, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, To come to Canterbury, to visit this Sion of the Church of England, that has been my dream since my fourteenth year, when I for the first time was told of what a spiritual work and of what an immortal glory this place has been the... more...