THE OLD WOMAN AND HER PIG. A littleold woman, who lived in a house,Too small for a giant, too big for a mouse,—Was sweeping her chambers, (though she had not many,)When she found, by good fortune, a bright silver penny![] Delighted she seized it, and, dancing a jig,Exclaim’d, “With this money I’ll purchase a pig.”So saying, away to the market she went,And the fruits of her fortunate sweeping... more...

THE WORLD OF COLD AND DARKNESS I date my birth into the world of sweetness and light on one frosty morning in January, 1857, when I took my seat between two well-known mathematicians, before a blazing fire in the office of the "Nautical Almanac" at Cambridge, Mass. I had come on from Washington, armed with letters from Professor Henry and Mr. Hilgard, to seek a trial as an astronomical... more...

CHAPTER I ANCESTRY 'My father and mother were both Kerry men,' as the saying goes in my native land, and better never stepped. It was my misfortune, but not my fault, that I was born at Bath and not in Kerry. However, my earliest recollection is of Dingle, for I was only three months old when I was taken back to Ireland, and up to that time I did not study the English question very deeply,... more...

CHAPTER I. AT BEDFORD SCHOOL. My father was a solicitor at Hitchin, and much esteemed in the county of Hertford. He was also agent for many of the county families, with whom he was in friendly intercourse. My mother was the daughter of the respected Clerk of the Peace for Bedfordshire, a position of good influence, which might be, and is occasionally, of great assistance to a young man commencing his... more...

PREFACE Many attempts have been made by writers on art and poetry to define beauty in the abstract, to express it in the most general terms, to find a universal formula for it. The value of these attempts has most often been in the suggestive and penetrating things said by the way. Such discussions help us very little to enjoy what has been well done in art or poetry, to discriminate between what is... more...

ARTICLE ONE.THE OLD ITALIAN SCHOOL OF SINGING.The Shibboleth, or trade cry, of the average modern vocal teacher is "The Old Italian School of Singing." How much of value there is in this may be surmised when we stop to consider that of the many who claim to teach the true Old Italian method no two of them teach at all alike, unless they happen to be pupils of the same master. A system, a... more...

INTRODUCTION It was long believed that Hebrew had no place among the modern languages as a literary vehicle. The circumstance that the Jews of Western countries had given up the use of their national language outside of the synagogue was not calculated to discredit the belief. The Hebrew, it was generally held, had once been alive, but now it belonged among the dead languages, in the same sense as the... more...

I was sitting in a birch grove in autumn, near the middle of September. It had been drizzling ever since morning; occasionally the sun shone warmly;—the weather was changeable. Now the sky was overcast with watery white clouds, now it suddenly cleared up for an instant, and then the bright, soft azure, like a beautiful eye, appeared from beyond the dispersed clouds. I was sitting looking about me and... more...

THE RENEWAL OF LIFE Every human being must sooner or later know the facts concerning the origin of his life on the earth. One of the most puzzling questions is how and when such information should be given to the young. There is nothing the parent more desires than that his child should have a high ideal in regard to the sex-life and that he should live in accordance with that ideal, yet nowhere is... more...

CHAPTER I.I. The art of the old liutaro of Italy may be said to have become during the last two or three centuries, identified with the art of constructing such musical instruments as are played with the bow. As was the case with other and kindred arts, that of violin making had its rise in one of the old cities of Italy, where from small beginnings it gradually spread to other places and over the... more...