You're to blame if your mind is wasting time. It does the work you select. Fill your head with trifles and there'll be no space for big things. Hack ideas occupy as much room as thoroughbred inspirations. Unimportant details frequently require as much attention as constructive plans. Proportion is the sixth sense and without it the other five are practically useless. Apply your days... more...

December 30, 1914. Abdul the D—d is said to feel it keenly that, when the British decided to appoint a Sultan in Egypt, they did not remember that he was out of a job. Meanwhile Abbas Pasha is reported to have had a presentiment that he would one day be replaced by Kamel Pasha. is said that for some time past he would start nervously whenever he heard the band of a Highland regiment playing "The... more...

PREFACE. This work was originally written to be delivered as a lecture; but as its pages continued to multiply, it was suggested to the author by numerous friends that it ought to be published in book-form; this, at last, the author concluded to do. This work, therefore, does not claim to be an exhaustive discussion of the various departments of which it treats; but rather it has been the aim of the... more...

CHAPTER I WISHING A NEW ONE ON SHORTY Do things just happen, like peculiar changes in the weather, or is there a general scheme on file somewhere? Is it a free-for-all we're mixed up in—with our Harry Thaws and our Helen Kellers; our white slavers, our white hopes, and our white plague campaigns; our trunk murders, and our fire heroes? Or are we runnin' on schedule and headed somewhere? I... more...

January. Welcome, wild North-easter!   Shame it is to seeOdes to every zephyr:   Ne’er a verse to thee.. . . . .Tired we are of summer,   Tired of gaudy glare,Showers soft and steaming,   Hot and breathless air.Tired of listless dreaming   Through the lazy day:Jovial wind of winter   Turn us out to play!Sweep the golden reed-beds;   Crisp the lazy dyke;Hunger into madness   Every... more...

History repeats itself, but on new planes. Often, a symbol appears in one age, and the spirit of which it is the expression is revealed in another. Each answers the need of its own time. From the creative standpoint, which is out of time, spirit and symbol are one; but to us, who see things successively, they seem as prior and posterior. If this be so, it should be possible for a thoughtful and... more...

CHAPTER XVIII. Let a king and a beggar converse freely together, and it is the beggar's fault if he does not say something which makes the king lift his hat to him. The scene shifts back to Gatesboro', the forenoon of the day succeeding the memorable exhibition at the Institute of that learned town. Mr. Hartopp was in the little parlour behind his country-house, his hours of business much... more...

CHAPTER I. GOTTFRIED AND ERARD—PURSUIT OF A HORSEMAN—RESCUE OF THE WOUNDED CHEVALIER In the long and bloody war which followed the martyrdom of John Huss and Jerome of Prague, two hostile armies met, in 1423, in one of the most beautiful valleys of Bohemia. The battle commenced towards the close of day, and continued until after sunset. It was then that old Gottfried, accompanied by Erard, his... more...

If one were to point out the most distinctive feature of the educational system in the Fatherland to-day, it would perhaps be the highly specialized condition of the technical schools. In approaching our problem we naturally ask ourselves the question as to how far the industrial progress of a country is influenced by technical education. In no time as in our own has so much stress been laid upon the... more...

Mark Seaworth. Picture a wide expanse of ocean, smooth as a polished mirror, and shining like molten silver; a sky of intense blue, without a cloud or speck, forming a vast arch resting on the water; no land or rock in sight; the boundless sea on every side; the sun travelling slowly and majestically along the arch, and casting his burning rays upon the glittering plain below. Let us pause and... more...