THOMAS JEFFERSON, AS SEEN BY THE LIGHT OF 1863. Mr. Jefferson, in his lifetime, underwent the extremes of abuse and of adulation. Daily, semi-weekly, or weekly did Fenno, Porcupine Cobbett, Dennie, Coleman, and the other Federal journalists, not content with proclaiming him an ambitious, cunning, and deceitful demagogue, ridicule his scientific theories, shudder at his irreligion, sneer at his courage,... more...

CHAPTER I ANCESTRY AND BIRTH All history, says Emerson, "resolves itself into the biographies of a few stout and earnest persons." These remarks find exemplification in the life of William Ewart Gladstone, of whom they are pre-eminently true. His recorded life, from the early period of his graduation to his fourth premiership, would embrace in every important respect not only the history of the... more...

INTRODUCTION Byron was actually the third Scotsman in about fifty years who awoke and found himself famous; the sudden rise from obscurity to international fame had been experienced earlier by two fellow countrymen, Sir Walter Scott and James Macpherson. Considering the greatness of the reputation of the two younger writers, it may seem strange to link their names with Macpherson's, but in the... more...

CHAPTER I. BELSHAZZAR'S DECISION "Bel, come here!" The Harvester sat in the hollow worn in the hewed log stoop by the feet of his father and mother and his own sturdier tread, and rested his head against the casing of the cabin door when he gave the command. The tip of the dog's nose touched the gravel between his paws as he crouched flat on earth, with beautiful eyes steadily... more...

LESSON I. MOODS AND FRAMES OF MIND.                 "That blessed mood   In which the burden of the mystery,   In which the heavy and the weary weight   Of all this unintelligible world   Is lightened." WORDSWORTH.   "Oh, blessed temper, whose unclouded ray   Can make to-morrow cheerful as to-day."   POPE.   "My heart and mind and self, never in... more...

CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY. It would be natural in a work of this kind, which is a direct review of a particular book, to begin with an account of that book, and with some attempt to characterise it. Such had been my own intention, but there seems to be sufficient reason for pursuing a different course. On the one hand, an account of a book which has so recently appeared, which has been so fully reviewed,... more...

CHAPTER I ERNESTINE She had promised to marry a scientist! It was too overwhelming a thought to entertain standing there by the window. She sought the room's most comfortable chair and braced herself to the situation. If, one month before, a gossiping daughter of Fate had come to her with—"Shall I tell you something?—You are going to marry a man of science!"—she would have smiled... more...

INTRODUCTION It is a happy memory that associates the foundation of our Royal Academy with the delivery of these inaugural discourses by Sir Joshua Reynolds, on the opening of the schools, and at the first annual meetings for the distribution of its prizes.  They laid down principles of art from the point of view of a man of genius who had made his power felt, and with the clear good sense which is... more...

[Transcriber's Notes] Conventional mathematical notation requires specialized fonts andtypesetting conventions. I have adopted modern computer programmingnotation using only ASCII characters. The square root of 9 is thusrendered as square_root(9) and the square of 9 is square(9).10 divided by 5 is (10/5) and 10 multiplied by 5 is (10 * 5 ). The DOC file and TXT files otherwise closely approximate... more...

MATRIMONY UNDER FIRE The interval between the declaration of the Franco-German war of 1870-71, and the "military promenade," at which the poor Prince Imperial received his "baptism of fire," was a pleasant, lazy time at Saarbrücken; to which pretty frontier town I had early betaken myself, in the anticipation, which proved well founded, that the tide of war would flow that way first.... more...