A brief biographical sketch of Franklin's life, followed by a collection (published in 1899) of 670 aphorisms, apothegms, or proverbs - short, pithy, instructive sayings - that were scattered throughout the pages of his Poor Richard's Almanack over its 25 years of once-a-year publication (1732-1758). Many of these sayings are familiar to all . . . "a penny saved is a penny earned" . . . "a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush" . . . but there are many more for you to laugh at, ponder over and learn from! Most were not invented by him, but these little gems of wisdom Franklin gleaned from all over the world are what made his Almanack so wildly popular, and himself a wealthy man.

This volume, published in 1919 by the American Women's Baptist Home Mission Society, opens with an introduction spelling out the important work done by African American women. It speaks both to the "invisible work" of as mothers and wives, and the work done outside the homes in all sorts of industries, as well as in medicine, education, and arts. In addition, it contains short biographies of five brave, inspiring women. - Summary by kathrinee

An historical and sociological view of race relations in America as it pertains to the African-American. - Summary by KevinS

The recollections of a British infantryman who served in the British army during the Napoleonic Wars.

The State of the Union address is a speech presented by the President of the United States to a joint session of the United States Congress, typically delivered annually. The address not only reports on the condition of the nation but also allows the President to outline his legislative agenda and national priorities. This album contains recordings of addresses from Benjamin Harrison. - Summary by Wikipedia

A book for students of history to test their knowledge and to direct their studies. As the title tells us, this is a book of 1001 questions, with answers, regarding world history. - Summary by KevinS

A book for students interested in finding out how many things about the English language have changed, and how many have weathered the test of time. - Summary by jasonb

Benjamin N. Cardozo, one of the most influential American justists of his era, served as the New York Court of Appeals Chief Justice, before joining the Supreme Court. His 1921 book The Nature of the Judicial Process, now considered a legal classic, was compiled from The Storrs Lectures delivered at Yale Law School earlier that year. In it he analyzes various factors underlying judicial decisions, and how these decisions in their turn influence the development of law, contrasting abstract ideals with court practice, and comparing American and English common law with legal systems of continental Europe...

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...

Benvenuto Cellini, a 16th century Florentine goldsmith and sculptor, is perhaps better known for his colorful autobiography than his works of art. In his "Trattati", Cellini explains how he made his intricate pieces in gold, such as the salt cellar intended for the table of King Francis I of France, and his monumental sculptures, including the bronze Perseus and Medusa that stands in Florence's Loggia dei Lanzi. Cellini allows himself numerous digressions, so what might in the hands of another author have proved a dry textbook is instead an amusing companion to his "Vita". - Summary by Rob Marland

This book is a popular science book written in the late 1600s. It is written as a series of conversations between a gallant philosopher and a countess, while walking in her garden and gazing at the stars. The philosopher explains the heliocentric model of the solar system and also muses on the possibility of extraterrestrial life. While it explains the heliocentric model, unlike other astronomy works of the time, it did not attract the attention of the Church.

Bernard Mandeville's didactic poem praising the virtues that personal vices bestow on society as a whole, along with several treatises and dialogues explaining and defending it. Mandeville's theories were influential in the development of both the moral philosophy of the Scottish Enlightenment and the methodology of modern economics. - Summary by Matthew Muñoz

On Loving God is one of the best-known and most influential works of Medieval Christian mysticism. Written at the request of one of the cardinals of Rome, it describes the four “levels” of love for God, and puts Christian devotion in the context of God’s love for mankind.

An accessible, comprehensive summary of the science and art of forestry, from its ancient roots to its 20th century techniques . This book synthesizes forestry efforts and practices from around the globe, providing the reader with unique lens into the sociocultural, historic and, of course, economic processes of nearly every world region.

The full title of this book, published in 1909, is The Apocryphal Acts of Paul, Peter, John, Andrew and Thomas. As early as the second century, numerous legends concerning the fates of the Christian apostles were in circulation. These Acts, widely regarded as originating circa 150 CE, are among the earliest accounts still in existence of the lives, preaching and martyrdoms of the apostles Paul, Peter, John, Andrew and Thomas. They are written in a fantastic and romantic style, and although they were influential in later Christian conceptions of these apostles, they are historically worthless as biographies...

"He was brave and kind and merry always, and all the English people—except England's oppressors—loved him with all their hearts and delighted in his adventures. The story of what he did was put into songs and sung at every fireside; and no man was better loved than this outlaw with a price upon his head. Here are a few stories of Robin Hood and his men, and a great many more may be found which are well worth your reading." - Summary by preface

GENERAL SCIENCEBY BERTHA M. CLARK, PH.D.PREFACEThis book is not intended to prepare for college entrance examinations; it will not, in fact, prepare for any of the present-day stock examinations in physics, chemistry, or hygiene, but it should prepare the thoughtful reader to meet wisely and actively some of life's important problems, and should enable him to pass muster on the principles and theories underlying scientific, and therefore economic, management, whether in the shop or in the home. We...

Die Waffen Nieder, in English: Lay Down Your Arms is a fictional biography, which describes four wars from the perspective of a soldier's wife. The response to the book was worldwide; it became popular, and it can be described as the beginning of the peace movements of our times. Von Suttner received the Nobel Peace Prize - she was a candidate since the first award-ceremony . She foresaw and watched the rise of the First World War, was warning and campaigning against it; but died before the beginning of WW1...

A stranger appears in the middle of the night at Heath Hover while John Seward Mervyn is tending the modest location in a wooded area near a pond. Legends abound regarding Heath Hover; legends such as one's inability to spend a full night at the Heath on certain nights of the year, and that the place was quite simply.... haunted. These were legends which Mervyn has set out to disprove. He would, however, soon find that these were but a few of the mysteries surrounding this peculiar locale. And what was beyond that cellar door that appeared to open by itself at the right times? A trip to the other side of the world might just hold the answers to the Heath Hover mystery.

Published in 1912, The Problems of Philosophy by Bertrand Russell is one of his most popular books. It renders philosophical issues and questions in a way in which they become relevant and accessible to the man or woman on the street, provoking them to devote time and effort into thinking about these aspects of life. Here, the great philosopher and humanist thinker Bertrand Russell examines the importance of empirical (that which can be verified by observation or experience rather than deduced from logic or reasoning) thinkers like David Hume and George Berkeley the Anglo-Irish philosopher and scientist...

Bertrand Russell, 3rd Earl Russell (1872 – 1970) was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, political activist and Nobel laureate. He led the British “revolt against idealism” in the early 1900s and is considered one of the founders of analytic philosophy along with his predecessor Gottlob Frege and his protégé Ludwig Wittgenstein. In this book, written in 1918, he offers his assessment of three competing streams in the thought of the political left: Marxian socialism, anarchism and syndicalism.

A neat work on philosophy of mind by the 20th century analytic philosopher Bertrand Russell.

'The Philosophy of Logical Atomism' is a series of lectures by Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) that touches on numerous topics, including the nature of propositions, the relations of propositions to facts and of different types of words to the varieties of things, what kinds of facts there are, existence, monism and pluralism, and aspects of philosophical logic and of reference. Guiding the lectures, at least according to Russell's headnote to his lectures, is Russell's intent to fully flesh out ideas he learned from his former pupil, Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951).

Bertrand Russell gave the Lowell Lectures in March and April of 1914; these lectures produced 'Our Knowledge of the External World'. Russell attempts to analyze the relationship of the crude data of our senses to the notions of physics such as space, time, and matter. Russell takes his analysis to illustrate the method of logical analysis used to such wonderful effect by thinkers in the late nineteenth-century to the notions of continuity, infinity, and the infinitesimal. These analyses effected...

This anthology collects a number of fascinating strands of Bertrand Russell's thought. "Mathematics and the Metaphysicians" details the impact of the 1900 World Congress of Philosophers on Russell's development and the hope that new methods in mathematics could be applied to the solution of ancient philosophical problems. Many of the subsequent essays show the evolution of this hope as Russell worked on the foundations of mathematics and applied the new methods to the reconstruction of physical objects on the basis of sense-data, and the redefinition of matter and cause.

Six out of seven essays appearing here were reprinted from other publications; indeed, this 1910 collection went out of print, so that two of the essays occurring here were reprinted in Russell's 1917 "Mysticism and Logic, and Other Essays". Nonetheless, this essay records Russell's thinking at a critical juncture, just before the publication of Volume I of the co-authored "Principia Mathematica" and just after the passing of the American pragmatist, William James. These essays record Russell's reactions...

Bertrand Russell wrote 'Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy' while imprisoned for protesting Britain's involvement in World War I. Russell summarizes the significance of the momentous work of mathematicians in the late nineteenth-century. He further describes his own philosophy of mathematics, Logicism (the view that all mathematical truths are logical truths), and his earlier, influential work solving the paradoxes that plagued mathematical foundations, which crystallized after ten years of dogged effort into the co-authored (with Alfred North Whitehead), three-volume 'Principia Mathematica'...

A short introductory book about atoms, subatomic particles and new physics theories.

The ABC of Relativity clearly and engagingly explains Einstein's Theory of Relativity to the layperson. It is considered to be a significant contribution to the popularization of science. Its author, Bertrand Russell, was an acclaimed British mathematician, philosopher and logician. Please note that in a few of the chapters, diagrams are included which clarify the author's discourse. The listener may wish to consult a published text to refer to these diagrams.

In this piece, Bertrand Russell offers an account of propositions. This essay has been widely regarded as a turning point in Russell's thought: fresh from his prison sentence, during which he read numerous works of psychology, he now rejects the existence of the unitary, lasting metaphysical subject and the act-object analysis of sensation. He here embraces the view advocated by American philosophers like William James, namely, neutral monism. This far-ranging essay includes a lengthy discussion of behaviorism and of the structure of facts, complete with an endorsement of negative facts and criticisms of attempts to avoid them. - Summary by Landon D. C. Elkind

This 1912 book remains among the most widely-used and well-written introductions to philosophy in English. It was aimed to be an accessible introduction to philosophy for the average shopkeeper in England in 1912. Despite its accessibility It has engaged scholarly philosophical commentators on a range of issues raised in the work. Above all it conveys in easy and witty manner the philosophical frame of mind to those that have never encountered it before. It was almost immediately, and remains today, a classic. This recording is dedicated to Jill Evans, Esq.

This book records Bertrand Russell's impressions of the new regime after a 1920 visit to Russia following the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, including his meetings with Lenin, Trostky, and Gorky. It includes a chapter that was authored by Dora Black, educational theorist and feminist author, and Russell's spouse. This chapter was unfortunately removed in the second edition, which was issued after Dora and Bertrand divorced. This recording is dedicated to my darling wife, Jill. Happy Hanukkah and Happy 2020! - Summary by Landon D. C. Elkind

Hollister, returning home from the war physically scarred but otherwise healthy and intact, finds life difficult among society, and so chooses to roam about a bit seeking a future for himself. He eventually leads himself to a remote area in British Columbia, which begins the tale of the next phase of his life; a life which becomes far richer in totality than he would have imagined in his old unwelcoming haunts. A life among the hidden places.

Bertrand W. Sinclair was known for his novels which centered in and around the rugged and frozen terrain of Montana and later, British Columbia. The Land of Frozen Suns is primarily an action and adventure novel which takes place near the northern most reaches of British Columbia at the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Bob Sumner, after having been shanghaied onto a boat heading north up the Mississippi from his comfortable home town of St. Louis, is put to work on the "New Moon" and finds himself...

An English Girl's First Impressions of Burmah, by Beth Ellis, is a well-edited, turn-of-the-century journal documenting a young woman’s visit to Burma. The account documents her ocean voyage to Rangoon, and her stay in a small, jungle-embedded, European community in Remyo. The author, who travelled to Asia alone to visit her brother, is quick to laugh at her own exaggerated fears. She gives us a glimpse into the less-than-glamorous lives to Myanmar’s British occupiers. The book was published in 1899, just thirteen years after the conclusion of the third Anglo-Burmese war, when Britain took formal control of Myanmar and made it a province of India.

Each person is born in or under one of the twelve signs of the Zodiac and is thus influenced throughout life by the planetary conditions at their time of birth. By referring to your sign, which is indicated by your date and month of birth you can determine your natural tendencies and what is best for you to attract. No matter what one of the twelve signs of the Zodiac you are born under, you can develop into a good and successful person if you will pay strict attention to the golden truths printed in this book. (Bhakti Seva)

The Bible in Basic English, translated by an American committee led by S.H. Hooke, uses Basic English, a simplified English vernacular developed by linguist Charles Kay Ogden for use in teaching English to non-native speakers and as an international auxiliary language. Basic English utilizes a limited vocabulary of around 850 English words. - Summary by Mark Penfold

The Bible in Basic English, translated by an American committee led by S.H. Hooke, uses Basic English, a simplified English vernacular developed by linguist Charles Kay Ogden for use in teaching English to non-native speakers and as an international auxiliary language. Basic English utilizes a limited vocabulary of around 850 English words. - Summary by Mark Penfold

The Bible in Basic English, translated by an American committee led by S.H. Hooke, uses Basic English, a simplified English vernacular developed by linguist Charles Kay Ogden for use in teaching English to non-native speakers and as an international auxiliary language. Basic English utilizes a limited vocabulary of around 850 English words. - Summary by Mark Penfold

The Bible in Basic English, translated by an American committee led by S.H. Hooke, uses Basic English, a simplified English vernacular developed by linguist Charles Kay Ogden for use in teaching English to non-native speakers and as an international auxiliary language. Basic English utilizes a limited vocabulary of around 850 English words. - Summary by Mark Penfold

The Bible in Basic English, translated by an American committee led by S.H. Hooke, uses Basic English, a simplified English vernacular developed by linguist Charles Kay Ogden for use in teaching English to non-native speakers and as an international auxiliary language. Basic English utilizes a limited vocabulary of around 850 English words. - Summary by Mark Penfold

An inside look into the wild world of silent movie cowboy William S. Hart... as narrated by his horse! This is a fascinating (if fictionalized) behind-the-scenes look into the wild, action-packed world of a Hollywood cowboy and stuntman. TOLD UNDER A WHITE OAK TREE is a charming children's book that not only gives us a fanciful account of Hart's career as Hollywood's premier western hero, but also tells a rousing adventure story of his exceptional (if somewhat smart-alecky) equine companion, who strives to become as renowned a screen legend as his master...

For American journalist and humorist Edgar Wilson Nye who wrote under the pen name Bill Nye in the late 19th century, facts are not to be presented in their newborn, bare state. They should be properly draped and embellished before they can be presented before the public. Hence, in the Comic History of the United States published in 1894, he gives his readers the facts. But in a bid to make the historical figures more human he describes them as “people who ate and possibly drank, people who were born, flourished and died, not grave tragedians posing perpetually for their photographs...

If you thought history was dull, dry and boring, you haven't read Bill Nye's books! He brings wit, humor, satire, irony and sheer nonsensical fun into the subject, making it both entertaining and memorable. The Comic History of England was published posthumously in 1896 after the writer's tragic and untimely death half-way through the project. Hence it remains incomplete and covers the history of the island nation only up to the Tudor period. However, beginning with Julius Caesar, the Roman invasion of Britain, the Druids and Stonehenge, this book is still a rib-tickling ride through the centuries...

Bill Nye was a famous American humor columnist in the middle 1800's. He said "We can never be a nation of snobs so long as we are willing to poke fun at ourselves." And he did exactly that in hundreds of newspaper columns that were later collected into books. This is a selection of just 35 of the most humorous, wry and downright funny cogitations of his, written of course in the somewhat convoluted style common in the 19th century which just adds to their flavor in my opinion. The selection process was rigorous: only those that made me laugh, giggle or snort are included.

Bill Nye was a respected journalist who also became known as a humorist. His short pieces range from a description of a visit to a friend residing in Ludlow prison, to “advice” to a son, to a wry commentary on his visits to Oakland, California. From real estate “investments” to accounts of less than ideal train passengers, Mr. Nye had his eye trained on the ironies of life, addressing them in the only sure way to preserve sanity, with humor.

"The range of subjects treated in this book is wonderful, even to me. It is a library of universal knowledge, and the facts contained in it are different from any other facts now in use. I have carefully guarded, all the way through, against using hackneyed and moth-eaten facts. As a result, I am able to come before the people with a set of new and attractive statements, so fresh and so crisp that an unkind word would wither them in a moment." - Summary by The Author

There can really be no excuse for this last book of trite and beautiful sayings. I do not attempt, in any way, to palliate this great wrong. I would not do so even if I had an idea what palliate meant. . . . I have taken great care to thoroughly eradicate anything that would have the appearance of poetry in this work, and there is not a thought or suggestion contained in it that would soil the most delicate fabric. Do not read it all at once, however, in order to see whether he married the girl or not. Take a little at a time, and it will cure gloom on the "similia simili-bus curanter" principle. - Summary by Bill Nye

"A Happy Boy" was written in 1859 and 1860. It is, in my estimation, Bjørnson's best story of peasant life. In it the author has succeeded in drawing the characters with remarkable distinctness, while his profound psychological insight, his perfectly artless simplicity of style, and his thorough sympathy with the hero and his surroundings are nowhere more apparent. This view is sustained by the great popularity of "A Happy Boy" throughout Scandinavia. (From the Preface) Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1903.

LibriVox volunteers bring you nine recordings of "Mountain Song” by Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson. The Weekly Poem for August 31, 2014 takes us up to the mountain heights of Norway.

Pascal’s Pensées is widely considered to be a masterpiece, and a landmark in French prose. When commenting on one particular section (Thought #72), Sainte-Beuve praised it as the finest pages in the French language. Will Durant, in his 11-volume, comprehensive The Story of Civilization series, hailed it as “the most eloquent book in French prose.” In Pensées, Pascal surveys several philosophical paradoxes: infinity and nothing, faith and reason, soul and matter, death and life, meaning and vanity—seemingly arriving at no definitive conclusions besides humility, ignorance, and grace. Rolling these into one he develops Pascal’s Wager.

This book is one of a series that aims at describing other cultures to children in an entertaining way that honors the culture, educates the child and keeps their minds open to the possibility of other people living wonderful lives in far off places. "Our little cousins of Hindustan are charming little people, even though their manners and customs and their religion are so very different from our own. India is a big country, and there are many different races of people living within its borders, the two principal ones being the Mohammedans and the Hindus...

This delightful little book is another in the "Our Little Cousin" series that offered American children insight into what their young counterparts in other lands were like; the games they played and the life they lived.

Find out about the life of Edith, a little English child living at the turn of the last century. This is a fictionalised account of her daily life and also relates special events including visits to Windsor Castle, Kew Gardens and many other delightful parts of the country. The story is simply-told and highly suitable for all ages. This recording is dedicated to the Distributed Proofreaders who created the Project Gutenberg text -- thankyou!

This collection of lyric poems evokes the sea in every line, from birth (A Son of the Sea) to death (Outbound). The smells, sights and sounds of the Canada's East Coast feature prominently.

In 1904, Canadian poet Bliss Carman published Sappho: One Hundred Lyrics, which was not just a translation of the fragments but an imaginative reconstruction of the lost poems. While of little to no scholarly value, Carman's translations brought Sappho's work to the attention of a wide readership. Our Fortnightly Poem is the Epilogue to this collection by Bliss Carman.

volunteers bring you 15 recordings of The Hearse-Horse by Bliss Carman. This was the Weekly Poetry project for October 28, 2018. ------- Bliss Carman, FRSC was a Canadian poet who lived most of his life in the United States, where he achieved international fame. He was acclaimed as Canada's poet laureate during his later years. Richard Hovey was an American poet.. He collaborated with Canadian poet Bliss Carman on three volumes of "tramp" verse: Songs from Vagabondia , More Songs from Vagabondia , and Last Songs from Vagabondia , the last being published after Hovey's death...

volunteers bring you 19 recordings of Nocturne: In Anjou by Bliss Carman and Richard Hovey. This was the Weekly Poetry project for November 10, 2019. ------ Richard Hovey collaborated with Canadian poet Bliss Carman on three volumes of "tramp" verse: Songs from Vagabondia , More Songs from Vagabondia , and Last Songs from Vagabondia , the last being published after Hovey's death. Hovey and Carman were members of the "Visionists" social circle along with F. Holland Day and Herbert Copeland, who published the "Vagabondia" series. - Summary by Wikipedia

Sappho lived six centuries before Christ, at a period when lyric poetry was peculiarly esteemed and cultivated at the centres of Greek life. The metropolis of this lyric realm was Mitylene of Lesbos, where, amid the myrtle groves and temples, Beauty and Love in their young warmth could fuse the most rigid forms to fluency. Here Sappho was the acknowledged queen of song. Sappho's poetry was venerated for a thousand years, but almost all has been lost to us; only two small odes and a few scintillating fragments surviving...

This is a small volume of beautiful melancholy verses by Canadian poet Bliss Carman. The poems share a common theme which is the death of persons known and unknown to the poet. - Summary by Carolin