ANCIENT PALACE OF HOLYROOD, AT EDINBURGH. Here is another of the resting-places of fallen royalty; and a happy haven has it proved to many a crowned head; a retreat where the plain reproof of flattery— How can you say to me,—I am a king? would sound with melancholy sadness and truth. The reader of "the age and body of the time" need not be told that the tenancy of Holyrood by the Ex-King of... more...

THE LIFE OF HOGARTH. William Hogarth is said to have been the descendant of a family originally from Kirby Thore, in Westmorland. His grandfather was a plain yeoman, who possessed a small tenement in the vale of Bampton, a village about fifteen miles north of Kendal, in that county; and had three sons. The eldest assisted his father in farming, and succeeded to his little freehold. The second settled... more...

It began when a pedestrian got hit by a cab at the corner of 59th Street and Park Avenue, Manhattan, New York City, U.S.A. No doubt it was the first motor mishap in the history of creation that reached out among the stars. The pedestrian was walking south on Park Avenue, toward Grand Central Station. He was looking at the upper skeleton of the vast new Pan Am Building which blocked out the sky in that... more...

INTRODUCTION The life of Bret Harte divides itself, without adventitious forcing, into four quite distinct parts. First, we have the precocious boyhood, with its eager response to the intellectual stimulation of cultured parents; young Bret Harte assimilated Greek with amazing facility; devoured voraciously the works of Shakespeare, Dickens, Irving, Froissart, Cervantes, Fielding; and, with creditable... more...

INTRODUCTION Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker was one of three generations of distinguished professors of medicine.  His father, August Friedrich Hecker, a most industrious writer, first practised as a physician in Frankenhausen, and in 1790 was appointed Professor of Medicine at the University of Erfurt.  In 1805 he was called to the like professorship at the University of Berlin.  He died at Berlin in... more...

Coffee and Chicory, but not for Breakfast. “Just look at him, Dick. Be quiet; don’t speak.” “Oh, the dirty sunburnt little varmint! I’d like the job o’ washing him.” “If you say another word, Dinny, I’ll give you a crack with your own stick.” “An’ is it meself would belave you’d hurt your own man Dinny wid a shtick, Masther Jack? Why ye wouldn’t knock a fly off me.”... more...

Happiness is perfectlyhollow unless there is ameaning behind it, unless ittells of intention somewhere,unless it means love. "Eat anddrink and be merry" is notthe end of it all. Whoever, by a Christian word he speaks or bya Christian life he lives, brings a new soul to seethe perfect life and take the perfect grace, haspoured out of his full hands a blessing on hisbrother that leaves utterly out... more...

After being frequently urged to write upon this subject, and as often declining to do it, from apprehension of my own inability, I am at length compelled to take up the pen, however unqualified I may still feel myself for the task. The use of the Foxglove is getting abroad, and it is better the world should derive some instruction, however imperfect, from my experience, than that the lives of men... more...

A BOARDING-HOUSE IN BLEECKER STREET. "Well, Fosdick, this is a little better than our old room in Mott Street," said Richard Hunter, looking complacently about him. "You're right, Dick," said his friend. "This carpet's rather nicer than the ragged one Mrs. Mooney supplied us with. The beds are neat and comfortable, and I feel better satisfied, even if we do have to pay... more...

ONCE UPON A TIME. Once upon a time, there lived in a city of Asia Minor, not far from Mount Ida, as old Homer tells us in his grand and beautiful poem, a king who had fifty sons and many daughters. How large his family was, indeed, we cannot say, for the storytellers of the olden time were not very careful to set down the actual and exact truth, their chief object being to give the people something to... more...