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As a gifted writer with a strong interest in supernatural phenomena, Charles Dickens produced a string of ghost stories with enduring charm. Three of them are presented here, of which The Signal Man is one of the best known. Though quite different from his most celebrated realistic and humorous critical novels, these ghost stories, Gothic and grotesque as they are, are of good portrayal, and worth a read/listen. Summary by Vivian Chan...

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Horror/Ghost stories, Short stories

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The Book of the Damned was the first published nonfiction work of the author Charles Fort (first edition 1919). Dealing with various types of anomalous phenomena including UFOs, strange falls of both organic and inorganic materials from the sky, odd weather patterns, the possible existence of creatures generally held to be mythological, disappearances of people under strange circumstances, and many other phenomena, the book is historically considered to be the first written in the specific field of anomalistics. - Summary from Wikipedia...

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Science, Nature

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The Pre-Socratic Greek philosophers, that is, the philosopher-scientists who lived before or contemporaneously to Socrates, were the first men in the Western world to establish a line of inquiry regarding the natural phenomena that rejected the traditional religious explanations and searched for rational explanations. Even though they do not form a school of thought, they can be considered the fathers of philosophy and many other sciences as we have them now. None of their works is extant, so, in this collection, we present the textual fragments, when existing, of ten Pre-Socratic philosopher-scientists, and quotations and testimonials about them left by later authors. (Summary by Leni)...

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Philosophy, Essay/Short nonfiction

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These Five Stories were written by Alan Edward Nourse, an American science fiction (SF) author and physician. He wrote both juvenile and adult science fiction, as well as nonfiction works about medicine and science. His SF works generally focused on medicine and/or psionics. Psionics refers to the practice, study, or psychic ability of using the mind to induce paranormal phenomena. Examples of this include telepathy, telekinesis, and other workings of the outside world through the psyche. ( Summary compiled from Wikipedia.org )...

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Adventure, Fantasy, Science fiction, Short stories

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The Catholic brings to history (when I say history in these pages I mean the history of Christendom) self-knowledge. As a man in the confessional accuses himself of what he knows to be true and what other people cannot judge, so a Catholic, talking of the united European civilization, when he blames it, blames it for motives and for acts which are his own. He himself could have done those things in person. He is not relatively right in his blame, he is absolutely right. As a man can testify to his own motive so can the Catholic testify to unjust, irrelevant, or ignorant conceptions of the European story; for he knows why and how it proceeded. Others, not Catholic, look upon the story of Europe externally as strangers. They have to deal with something which presents itself to them partially and disconnectedly, by its phenomena alone: he sees it all from its centre in its essence, and together. (Hilaire Belloc)...

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History, Religion

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Cellini's autobiographical memoirs, which he began writing in Florence in 1558, give a detailed account of his singular career, as well as his loves, hatreds, passions, and delights, written in an energetic, direct, and racy style. They show a great self-regard and self-assertion, sometimes running into extravagances which are impossible to credit. He even writes in a complacent way of how he contemplated his murders before carrying them out. He writes of his time in Paris: Parts of his tale recount some extraordinary events and phenomena; such as his stories of conjuring up a legion of devils in the Colosseum, after one of his not innumerous mistresses had been spirited away from him by her mother; of the marvelous halo of light which he found surrounding his head at dawn and twilight after his Roman imprisonment, and his supernatural visions and angelic protection during that adversity; and of his being poisoned on two separate occasions. The autobiography is a classic, and commonly regarded as one of the most colourful; it is certainly the most important autobiography from the Renaissance. Cellini's autobiography is one of the bo...

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Biography, Adventure, History

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Cellini's autobiographical memoirs, which he began writing in Florence in 1558, give a detailed account of his singular career, as well as his loves, hatreds, passions, and delights, written in an energetic, direct, and racy style. They show a great self-regard and self-assertion, sometimes running into extravagances which are impossible to credit. He even writes in a complacent way of how he contemplated his murders before carrying them out. He writes of his time in Paris: Parts of his tale recount some extraordinary events and phenomena; such as his stories of conjuring up a legion of devils in the Colosseum, after one of his not innumerous mistresses had been spirited away from him by her mother; of the marvelous halo of light which he found surrounding his head at dawn and twilight after his Roman imprisonment, and his supernatural visions and angelic protection during that adversity; and of his being poisoned on two separate occasions. The autobiography is a classic, and commonly regarded as one of the most colourful; it is certainly the most important autobiography from the Renaissance. Cellini's autobiography is one of the bo...

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Biography, Adventure, History

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Parva Naturalia [the short treatises on nature (a conventional Latin title first used by Giles of Rome)] is a collection of books by Aristotle, which discuss natural phenomena involving the body and the soul. The books are as follows: I - On Sensation and the Sensible II - On Memory and Recollection III - On Sleeping and Waking IV - On Dreams V - On Prophecy in Sleep VI - On Longevity and Shortness of Life VII - On Youth and Old Age, Life and Death VIII - On Respiration ( Summary Adapted from Wikipedia )...

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Philosophy, Classics (antiquity), Ancient Texts, Psychology, Science

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Although Lieh Tzu's work has evidently passed through the hands of many editors and gathered numerous accretions, there remains a considerable nucleus which in all probability was committed to writing by Lieh Tzu's immediate disciples, and is therefore older than the genuine parts of Chuang Tzu. There are some obvious analogies between the two authors, and indeed a certain amount of matter common to both; but on the whole Lieh Tzu's book bears an unmistakable impress of its own. The geniality of its tone contrasts with the somewhat hard brilliancy of Chuang Tzu, and a certain kindly sympathy with the aged, the poor and the humble of this life, not excluding the brute creation, makes itself felt throughout. - From Lionel Giles Introduction...

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History, Literature

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Written in the first century b.C., On the Nature of Things (in Latin, De Rerum Natura ) is a poem in six books that aims at explaining the Epicurean philosophy to the Roman audience. Among digressions about the importance of philosophy in men's life and praises of Epicurus, Lucretius created a solid treatise on the atomic theory, the falseness of religion and many kinds of natural phenomena. With no harm to his philosophical scope, the author composed a didactic poem of epic flavor, of which the imagery and style are highly praised. (Summary by Leni)...

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Poetry, Nature, Science

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This book, published in two volumes called books by the author, is a treatment of everything from the origin of our ideas to how they are to be divided. It includes important statements of Scepticism and Hume's experimental method. Part 1 deals with the nature of ideas. Part 2 deals with the ideas of space and time. Part 3 deals with knowledge and probability. Part 4 deals with skeptical and other systems of philosophy, including a discussion of the soul and personal identity. This is a recording of Volume I (or Book 1). Volume II (which contains Books 2 and 3) is in production at the moment....

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Philosophy

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The stories, first published in 1902, are fantastic accounts of how various natural phenomena came about. The original editions of Just So Stories were illustrated with woodcuts by Kipling himself. Read along online and see the illustrations at http://www.mainlesson.com/display.php?author=kipling&book=just&story=_contents mainlesson.com . Each story is accompanied by a poem, in a somewhat ballad style. Many of the stories are addressed to Best Beloved (they were first written for Kipling's eldest daughter, Josephine, who had died during an outbreak of influenza in 1899), and throughout they use a comically elevated style inspired by the formal speech of India, full of long and improbable-sounding words, some of them made up. As a result, it is a delight to read them aloud, and easy to memorise passages from them. (Summary from Wikipedia)...

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Children, Animals, Humor, Nature, Short stories

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Published in 1911 as part of the Harper's Library of Living Thought, this volume presents an introduction to the chemistry of cells in the context of plant physiology and gives an interesting overview of the field of biochemistry and related sciences at the time. The author, Frederick Czapek, was a Czech botanist and professor of Plant Physiology at the University of Prague. He is perhaps best known for his two-volume work on Plant Physiology, Biochemie der Pflanzen and for Czapek solution agar or Czapek-Dox medium, a culture medium for cultivation of fungus species such as Aspergillus and Penicillium molds . ( Summary by J. M. Smallheer )...

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Science

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Excerpt: Muirhead Library Of Philosophy. An admirable statement of the aims of the Library of Philosophy was provided by the first editor, the late Professor J. H. Muirhead, in his description of the original programme printed in Erdmann?s History of Philosophy under the date 1890. This was slightly modified in subsequent volumes to take the form of the following statement:...

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Contents MUIRHEAD LIBRARY OF PHILOSOPHY .............................................................................................................. 4 PREFACE ..................................................................................................................................................................... 5 THE ANALYSIS OF MIND............................................. 7 LECTURE I. RECENT CRITICISMS OF ?CONSCIOUSNESS? ........................................................................... 7 LECTURE II. INSTINCT AND HABIT ................................................................................................................... 29 LECTURE III. DESIRE AND FEELING ................................................................................................................. 41 LECTURE IV. INFLUENCE OF PAST ..................................................................................................................... 54 HISTORY ON PRESENT OCCURRENCES IN LIVING ORGANISMS ............................................................. 54 LECTURE V. PSYCHOLOGICAL AND PHYSICAL CAUSAL LAWS ..............

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Excerpt: The house of Heine Brothers, in Munich, was of good repute at the time of which I am about to tell,--a time not long ago; and is so still, I trust. It was of good repute in its own way, seeing that no man doubted the word or solvency of Heine Brothers; but they did not possess, as bankers, what would in England be considered a large or profitable business. The operations of English bankers are bewildering in their magnitude. Legions of clerks are employed. The senior book-keepers, though only salaried servants, are themselves great men; while the real partners are inscrutable, mysterious, opulent beyond measure, and altogether unknown to their customers. Take any firm at random,--Brown, Jones, and Cox, let us say,--the probability is that Jones has been dead these fifty years, that Brown is a Cabinet Minister, and that Cox is master of a pack of hounds in Leicestershire....

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Excerpt: A Theologico-Political Treatise: Part One -- Chapters One through Five by Baruch Spinoza, translated by R.H.M. Elwes.

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Contents CHAPTER I ? Of Prophecy Definition of prophecy. Distinction between revelation to Moses and to the other prophets. Between Christ and other recipients of revelation. Ambiguity of the word ?Spirit.? The different senses in which things may be referred to God. Different senses of ?Spirit of God.? Prophets perceived revelation by imagination. CHAPTER II ? Of Prophets. A mistake to suppose that prophecy can give knowledge of phenomena Certainty of prophecy based on: (1) Vividness of imagination, (2) A Sign, (3) Goodness of the Prophet. Variation of prophecy with the temperament and opinions of the individual...

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Birdseye Views of Far Lands is an interesting, wholesome presentation of something that a keen-eyed, alert traveler with the faculty of making contrasts with all classes of people in all sorts of places, in such a sympathetic way as to win their esteem and confidence, has been able to pick up as he has roamed over the face of the earth for a quarter of a century. The book is not a geography, a history, a treatise on sociology or political economy. It is a Human Interest book which appeals to the reader who would like to go as the writer has gone and to see as the writer has seen the conformations of surface, the phenomena of nature and the human group that make up what we call a world. The reader finds facts indicating travel and study set forth in such vigorous, vivid style that the attention is held by a story while most valuable information is being obtained. The casual reader, the pupil in the public school and student in the high school, professional men and women, will all find the book at once highly interesting and instructive. In no other book with which I am acquainted can so much that is interesting be learned of the worl...

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Travel