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Excerpt: Reprinted from Fraser?s Magazine. The cloud which for the space of a month hung gloomily over the civilized world, black with far worse evils than those of simple war, has passed from over our heads without bursting. The fear has not been realized, that the only two first-rate Powers who are also free nations would take to tearing each other in pieces, both the one and the other in a bad and odious cause. For while, on the American side, the war would have been one of reckless persistency in wrong, on ours it would have been a war in alliance with, and, to practical purposes, in defence and propagation of, slavery. We had, indeed, been wronged....

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If passing through youth was like crossing the mirage of life for Chandra and Nithya, it proved to be chasing the mirage of love for Sathya and Prema though for plain Vasavi, Chandra's pitiable sibling, it was the end of the road. As life brings Chandra, who suffers from an inferiority complex for his perceived ugliness, and Nithya, who was bogged down being jilted by Vasu, together, they script their fate of fulfillment. And as poetic justice would have it, Sathya, who caused Prema's heart burn, himself was led down the garden path by Kala, doing a "Sathya on Sathya". Just not that, life has in store just deserts for Vasu owing to Nithya's retribution as he tries to stalk her. Besides, after many a fictional twist and turn, the way the story ends, challenges the perception that fact is stranger than fiction. ...

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As if all this was not enough for his tender psyche to cope up with, he had to contend with the sternness of the paternal strictness. Thus, it was only time before the seeds of alienation towards his father were sown in his impressionable mind. But the support he got from his sister and the solace he felt in his mother’s lap helped soothe his ruffled feelings a little. In time, he reached the threshold of youth, but couldn’t cross the despair of adolescence. Oblivious of the possibilities of life, man goes through his journey of disarray, in the itinerary of the past, chasing the mirages of malady even amidst the sands of hope. And that despairs him forever. Into his puberty, as his biology induced in him sexual curiosity, owing to his ungainliness, his youthful urge for reciprocity remained unfulfilled. Being naïve to the feminine nuances, his eyes couldn’t comprehend the emanations of their indifference. When in dismay, as he turned to the mirror for a clue, the reflections of his self-doubts stared him in his face. Yet, goaded by desire, he ogled women but to no avail. And as he went back to the mirror to reassess h...

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Shackles on Psyche End of the Tether Burden of Freedom Onto the Turf Respite by Death Lessons of Life Naivety of Love Dilemma of Disclosure Perils of Youth Absurd Proposal Crossing the Mirage Setting the Pace Oasis of Bliss Busy bees in Honeycomb Twist in the Tale Love in the Bind Turn for the Worse Shadows to the Fore Spurring to Err Tempting the Fate Stooping to Conquer Fouling the Soul Poetic Justice Agony of Penitence Embrace of Love Life of a Kind Just deserts?...

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This book is replete with essays on various classics of the Western Canon in the fields of social science, literature, and philosophy. It attempts to explicate works from Ancient to Enlightened eras...

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This brief study of the earliest American Airmen and their influence on the development of an air-minded culture is a work in progress.

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I have collected this beautiful American Folklore - under the form of aphorisms - from car plates, from various anonymous postings, from expressions heard in my discussions, from e-mails received, etc. Computer jokes, life taken upside-down, job related reflections, family connections, inside-out clichés of language, and so on. They are in a paradoxist style, or close, and full of humor… Some of them are cascading Murphy’s Laws (pessimistically), others are opposite - like Peter’s Laws (optimistically). Their sweetness smiles in the face of adversity, full of irony and auto-irony. I hope readers will enjoy them....

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See a few nice examples from the book text: “I think, therefore I’m single”, “Life is short, break some rules”, or “Black Holes are Where God Divided by Zero”!...

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The text translated is in the courtesy of Institute for the Translation of Korean Classics and their Korean translation version of the original Chinese text written by Yi I. The translation may differ from the original Chinese text as the English translation referred to the institute’s Korean translation....

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Men born into this world cannot become truly humane without learning. So called learning is not something estranged or distinct. Only, it is just for a father to be benevolent, a son faithful, the ruled loyal, with propriety between spouses, love between brothers, trust between friends and respect for the elders. In daily lives, all work should be treated with its own worth and a man must not mind with the mysterious to obtain the eccentric. However, a man who is not learnt has a heart that is stagnant because his perspective is limited. He must read, and then after considering the truth in those lines and enlightening the path of learning, it is possible to realise that taking the path is virtuous and accomplishing it brings justice to actions. Men nowadays do not know that learning exists in their daily lives and believe that it is intangibly high and far, difficult to grasp. Likewise, learning is left to the great men and is given up by the common people. How pitiful this is! When I was at the south of Haesan 해산 海山, one or two students came and asked of learning. Although I was embarrassed to be worthy of a teacher,...

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Acknowledgement Preface Introduction·서·序 Chapter 1 On establishing the spirit of learning·입지·立志 Chapter 2 On changing old habits·혁구습·革舊習 Chapter 3 On conducting oneself·지신·持身 Chapter 4 On reading·독서·讀書 Chapter 5 On how to treat parents·사친·事親 Chapter 6 On the rites of funerals·상제·喪祭 Chapter 7 On the rites of ancestral rituals·제례·祭禮 Chapter 8 On how to reside in one’ s own house·거가·居家 Chapter 9 On how to treat others·접인·接人 Chapter 10 On the conduct of life·처세·處世 ...

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The Catcher in the Rye and a .44 Magnum prove to be a volatile mix for 16-year-old Jerome who believes that he is the famous author reincarnated.

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A month ago, I was hanging with my friends at the uni and they were all going on about this book they all read. They were all charged and revving and everybody got something different out of it, but they were all redlining, valve bouncing. The book was Catcher in the Rye....

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Dating back to the 6th century BC, Aesop's Fables tell universal truths through the use of simple allegories that are easily understood. Though almost nothing is known of Aesop himself, and some scholars question whether he existed at all, these stories stand as timeless classics known in almost every culture in the world. This is volume 7 of 12. (Summary by Chip)...

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Philosophy, Satire, Animals, Children, Fairy tales

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Excerpt: The Narrative of Sojourner Truth (1850), Dictated by Sojourner Truth, edited by Olive Gilbert.

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Contents NARRATIVE OF SOJOURNER TRUTH ................................................................................................................................................................................ 4 HER BIRTH AND PARENTAGE.............................................................................................................................................................................................. 4 ACCOMMODATIONS ............................................................................................................................................................................................................. 5 HER BROTHERS AND SISTERS ............................................................................................................................................................................................ 6 HER RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION ........................................................................................................................................................................................... 7 THE AUCTION .....................................................

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This work presents Rousseau's belief in the profoundly transformational effects of the development of civilization on human nature, which Rousseau claims other political philosophers had failed to grasp. Specifically, before the onset of civilization, according to Rousseau, natural man lived a contented, solitary life, naturally good and happy. It is only with the onset of civilization, Rousseau claims, that humans become social beings, and, concomitant with their civilization, natural man becomes corrupted with the social vices of pride, vanity, greed and servility. (summary by ej)...

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Essay/Short nonfiction, Politics, Philosophy

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Voici le premier des douze livres des Fables de La Fontaine. Celles-ci datent du XVIIe siècle et ont été enregistrées par des lecteurs de divers horizons. This is the first book from a collection of 12. The fables were written and first published in the 17th century. They portray humans' behaviour in the society....

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Animals, Children, Philosophy, Satire

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Excerpt: Chapter 1. At the end of the winter, in the Shtcherbatskys? house, a consultation was being held, which was to pronounce on the state of Kitty?s health and the measures to be taken to restore her failing strength. She had been ill, and as spring came on she grew worse. The family doctor gave her cod liver oil, then iron, then nitrate of silver, but as the first and the second and the third were alike in doing no good, and as his advice when spring came was to go abroad, a celebrated physician was called in. The celebrated physician, a very handsome man, still youngish, asked to examine the patient. He maintained, with peculiar satisfaction, it seemed, that maiden modesty is a mere relic of barbarism, and that nothing could be more natural than for a man still youngish to handle a young girl naked. He thought it natural because he did it every day, and felt and thought, as it seemed to him, no harm as he did it and consequently he considered modesty in the girl not merely as a relic of barbarism, but also as an insult to himself....

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This is a charming book on Art History for children (and everyone else). Each chapter focuses on a great painting, reproduced in color in the original text. The authors explain the story behind the paintings, as well as the life, times, and techniques of the artists.You may find downloadable versions of all sixteen paintings at http://www.archive.org/details/Book_of_Art_Illustrations_lv http://www.archive.org/details/Book_of_Art_Illustrations_lv , and you can easily do a google search for the other artworks mentioned in the book. (Summary by Kara)...

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Children, Instruction, History, Art

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Dating back to the 6th century BC, Aesop's Fables tell universal truths through the use of simple allegories that are easily understood. Though almost nothing is known of Aesop himself, and some scholars question whether he existed at all, these stories stand as timeless classics known in almost every culture in the world. This is volume 10 of 12. (Summary by Chip)...

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Animals, Children, Fairy tales, Satire, Philosophy

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Introduction: The Ethics of Aristotle is one half of a single treatise of which his Politics is the other half. Both deal with one and the same subject. This subject is what Aristotle calls in one place the ?philosophy of human affairs;? but more frequently Political or Social Science. In the two works taken together we have their author?s whole theory of human conduct or practical activity, that is, of all human activity which is not directed merely to knowledge or truth. The two parts of this treatise are mutually complementary, but in a literary sense each is independent and self-contained. The proem to the Ethics is an introduction to the whole subject, not merely to the first part; the last chapter of the Ethics points forward to the Politics, and sketches for that part of the treatise the order of enquiry to be pursued (an order which in the actual treatise is not adhered to)....

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Voici le quatrième des douze livres des Fables de La Fontaine. Celles-ci datent du XVIIe siècle et sont lues par des lecteurs de divers horizons. This is the fourth book from a collection of 12. The fables were written and first published in the 17th century. They portray humans' behaviour in the society. (Summary by Ezwa)...

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Animals, Children, Philosophy, Satire

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A series of lectures on landscape painting delivered at Oxford in 1871, by artist, critic, and social commentator, John Ruskin.

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Essay/Short nonfiction, Philosophy, Nature

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Orphaned Mary Lennox is sent to live with her uncle in Yorkshire, and finds herself in a house full of secrets and mysteries.

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Children, Nature, Philosophy, Mystery, Animals

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Dating back to the 6th century BC, Aesop's Fables tell universal truths through the use of simple allegories that are easily understood. Though almost nothing is known of Aesop himself, and some scholars question whether he existed at all, these stories stand as timeless classics known in almost every culture in the world. This is volume 8 of 12. (Summary by Chip)...

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Satire, Philosophy, Animals, Children, Fairy tales

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Introduction: Nicolo Machiavelli was born at Florence on 3rd May 1469. He was the second son of Bernardo di Nicolo Machiavelli, a lawyer of some repute, and of Bartolommea di Stefano Nelli, his wife. Both parents were members of the old Florentine nobility....