The Potato Child It was certain that Elsie had a very hard and solitary life. When Miss Amanda had selected her from among the girls at "The Home," the motherly matron felt sorry. "She is a tender-hearted little thing, and a kind word goes a great way with Elsie." Miss Amanda looked at the matron as if she were speaking Greek, and said nothing. It was quite plain that few words, either... more...

The New Roman Road. [The present Pope has given his consent to build railroads in his dominions, which the former Pope was averse to. The following lines are predicated on his consent.]Ancient Romans, ancient Romans—Cato, Scipio Africanus,Ye whose fame's eclips'd by no man's,Publius Æmilianus,Sylla, Marius, Pompey, Cæsar,Fabius, dilatory teaser,Coriolanus, and ye GracchiWho gave so... more...

LITERARY FRIENDS AND ACQUAINTANCES—First Visit to New EnglandBIBLIOGRAPHICAL Long before I began the papers which make up this volume, I had meant to write of literary history in New England as I had known it in the lives of its great exemplars during the twenty-five years I lived near them. In fact, I had meant to do this from the time I came among them; but I let the days in which I almost... more...

CHAPTER I—HOW MY MOTHER GOT HER SOFT FACE On the day I was born we bought six hair-bottomed chairs, and in our little house it was an event, the first great victory in a woman’s long campaign; how they had been laboured for, the pound-note and the thirty threepenny-bits they cost, what anxiety there was about the purchase, the show they made in possession of the west room, my father’s unnatural... more...

"The Commission" Did Christ command his disciples to baptize with water? Let us search the New Testament and see what it says. We find the four evangelists and Peter each render Christ's command to his apostles in very different language. Matthew's version is generally adduced to support water baptism. We cannot assume that in Matthew, our Saviour's words are quoted verbatim,... more...

The Spirit of William Shakespeare,sore vexed of them who say that in hisSonnets he writ not from the truth ofhis heart but from the toyings of hisbrain, and that he devised but a feignedobject to fit a feigned affection, hereinmaketh answer, renewing as best ashadow may that rhyme wherein hewas more excellent in theliving body I THE wise world saith I not unlock’d my heartWhen I of thee and thy dear... more...

INTRODUCTION: Dr. Johnson was hailed the colossus of Literature by a generation who measured him against men of no common mould—against Hume, Robertson, Gibbon, Warburton, the Wartons, Fielding, Richardson, Smollett, Gray, Goldsmith, and Burke. Any one of these may have surpassed the great lexicographer in some branch of learning or domain of genius; but as a man of letters, in the highest sense of... more...

This paper will be limited to a consideration of the construction of the tunnels, the broader questions of design, etc., having already been considered in papers by Brig.-Gen. Charles W. Raymond, M. Am. Soc. C. E., and Alfred Noble, Past-President, Am. Soc. C. E. The location of the section of the work to be considered here is shown on Plate XIII of Mr. Noble's paper. There are two permanent... more...

PREFACE MOST of these stories were written on the veldt; at odd times, in out- of-the-way prospecting camps, in the wilds of the Kalahari Desert, or of that equally little-known borderland between Klein Namaqualand, and Gordonia, Cape Colony, and what was at that time known as German South- West Africa. Four of them appeared a few years back in The State an illustrated magazine now unhappily defunct;... more...

CHARLES LAMB THE STORY OF HIS LIFE Charles Lamb's biography should be read at length in his essays and his letters—from them we get to know not only the facts of his life but almost insensibly we get a knowledge of the man himself such as cannot be conveyed in any brief summary. He is as a friend, a loved friend, whom it seems almost sacrilegious to summarize in the compact sentences of a... more...