General Books

I. THE THREE HYPOTHESES RESPECTING THE HISTORY OF NATURE We live in and form part of a system of things of immense diversity and perplexity, which we call Nature; and it is a matter of the deepest interest to all of us that we should form just conceptions of the constitution of that system and of its past history. With relation to this universe, man is, in extent, little more than a mathematical point;... more...

INTRODUCTORY NOTE Hippocrates, the celebrated Greek physician, was a contemporary of the historian Herodotus. He was born in the island of Cos between 470 and 460 B. C., and belonged to the family that claimed descent from the mythical AEsculapius, son of Apollo. There was already a long medical tradition in Greece before his day, and this he is supposed to have inherited chiefly through his... more...

Chapter I.—General Remarks. This volume is the first instalment of a work that admits of wide extension. Its object is to serve as an index to the achievements of those families which, having been exceptionally productive of noteworthy persons, seem especially suitable for biographical investigation. The facts that are given here are avowedly bald and imperfect; nevertheless, they lead to certain... more...

WHAT IS EUGENICS? The wisest thing in the world is to cry out before you are hurt. It is no good to cry out after you are hurt; especially after you are mortally hurt. People talk about the impatience of the populace; but sound historians know that most tyrannies have been possible because men moved too late. It is often essential to resist a tyranny before it exists. It is no answer to say, with a... more...

Our fabulist warns "those who in quarrels interpose" of the fate which is probably in store for them; and, in venturing to place myself between so powerful a controversialist as Mr. Gladstone and the eminent divine whom he assaults with such vigour in the last number of this Review, I am fully aware that I run great danger of verifying Gay's prediction. Moreover, it is quite possible that... more...

THE CAT. PART 1.walk´-ingthoughtknewsheathswatchedstrokedsmoothwon´-dergroundfore´-pawsyawnmis-take´shak´-ingtoesstretchedclaw1. Pussy came walking along the garden-path. Harry watched her, and saw that she did not like the damp ground. 2. She jumped over the pools, and then began to run, shaking her paws as she got to the house. 3. 'Now, a dog does not mind wet feet,' Harry thought;... more...

On the 30th November, 1858, Jagadis Chunder was born, in a respectable Hindu family, which hails from village Rarikhal, situated in the Vikrampur Pargana of the Dacca District, in Bengal. He passed his boyhood at Faridpur, where his father, the late Babu Bhugwan Chunder Bose, a member of the then Subordinate Executive Service was the Sub-Divisional Officer; and it was there that he derived "the... more...

Some thousands of years ago there was a city in Mesopotamia called Surippak. One night a strange dream came to a dweller therein, whose name, if rightly reported, was Hasisadra. The dream foretold the speedy coming of a great flood; and it warned Hasisadra to lose no time in building a ship, in which, when notice was given, he, his family and friends, with their domestic animals and a collection of... more...

CHAP. I. Most Excellent, and Prudent Sirs. Before I enter upon the Description of the Philosophick PIGMY,(in this little Theatre of Secrets) overcoming and subduing GIANTS, I pray permit me here to use the words of Vanhelmont, taken out of his Book De Arbore Vitæ, fol. 630. and here Transcribed. I compelled to believe, that there is an Aurifick, and Argentick Stone. But (Friend of the Spagyrick Art) I... more...

COAL AND COAL-MINES. There are few subjects of more importance, and few less known or thought about, than our coal-mines. Coal is one of our greatest blessings, and certainly one originating cause of England's greatness and wealth. It has given us a power over other nations, and vast sums of money are yearly brought to our country from abroad in exchange for the coal we send. Nearly £17,000,000... more...