A writer and physician, Charles John Samuel Thompson wrote several works on poisons which are still consulted today. He is especially informative on early historical poisons. This book discusses many cases of poisoning, famous and not so, as well as various topics on poisons and poisoning.

One man's opinion of woman in 1894. Charles Harper believes in the superiority of the male sex and the subordination of the female. He paints an entire gender with the same brush. He believes all women to be identical in mind (illogical) and body (knock-kneed) and vastly inferior to the male. He presents 'facts' to support his opinions: "Woman's Mission is Submission" "for woman has ever been the immoral sex" "how truly like nature their tongues say 'No,' when their hearts throb 'Yes, yes!'" "She...

From the velocipede to the motor cycle in twenty chapters. A short history of the British bicycle industry from its origins in a Coventry sewing machine factory in 1868 to its transformation into one of the countries most important industries. A reminder of the days when bicycles ruled the roads from the Pitman's Common Commodities and Industry Series.

Anderson served as third officer aboard the Eamont. Eamont was an opium clipper built in Cowes. Eamont was involved in the opening of Japan to foreigners in 1858, serving as a dispatch boat between Nagasaki and Shanghai, and was one of the first vessels to open up a trade with Formosa. The Eamont was employed in the negotiations for the first commercial treaty with Japan. On this occasion she ran into Nagasaki and quietly dropped anchor, in spite of the fact that opposition to the proposed commercial treaty was very strong at the time...

When a man enters a dark room he is not sure of his movements, he cannot see objects around him, or properly locate them, and is liable to hurt himself by coming into sudden contact with them. But let a light be introduced, and immediately all confusion disappears. Every object is seen, and there is no danger of being hurt. To the majority, life is such a dark room, and their frequent hurts—their disappointments, perplexities, sorrows and pains—are caused by sudden contact with principles which they do not see, and are therefore not prepared to deal with...

It is popularly supposed that a greater prosperity for individuals or nations can only come through a political and social reconstruction. This cannot be true apart from the practice of the moral virtues in the individuals that comprise a nation. Better laws and social conditions will always follow a higher realization of morality among the individuals of a community, but no legal enactment can give prosperity to, nay it cannot prevent the ruin of, a man or a nation that has become lax and decadent in the pursuit and practice of virtue...

Arnold and Frost were English archaeologists who traveled to the Yucatan Peninsula and wrote "the first book ever written by Englishmen on Yucatan—that Egypt of the New World, where, it is now generally admitted, Central American Civilisation reached its apogee—and to be, for the present at least, the only Englishmen who can claim to have explored the uncivilised north-eastern portions of the Peninsula and the islands of her eastern coast." Their studies brought them to the conclusion, contrary to the bulk of the body of other contemporary experts, "that America's first architects were Buddhist immigrants from Java and Indo-China."

I address myself to the man or woman of talent—those people who have writing ability, but who need instruction in the manipulation of characters, the formation of plots, and a host of other points with which I shall deal hereafter. Although no school could turn out novelists to order there is yet enough common material in all art-work to be mapped out in a course of lessons. I shall show that the two great requisites of novel-writing are (1) a good story to tell, and (2) ability to tell it effectively...

From 1884 until 1891, James Berry was an executioner. In this time he carried out 131 hangings. In this memoir he writes about the methods he used, and the final moments of some of those he executed.

“Galloped on with no stopping, but merely to change horses until five o’clock in the evening—very tired indeed, but . . . saw fresh horses in the corral, and resolved to push on. At half-past seven, after having galloped a hundred and fifty-three miles, and been fourteen hours and a half on horseback got to the post—quite exhausted—I could scarcely speak . . . an hour before daylight was awakened by the Gaucho, got up, had some mate, mounted my horse, and as I galloped along felt pleased that the sun should find me at my work...

The Elements of Mammalogy is one of seven in a Series of First Books of Natural History Prepared for the Use of Schools and Colleges. This succinct little textbook from 1845 presents an introduction to mammalogy. The information, albeit not current, is still interesting and of use as a general overview of mammal biology. The classification of mammals has changed considerably since this time. The author was a surgeon in the U.S. Navy and president of the Academy of Natural Sciences.

In 1880, the New York Times reported a curious story from St. Albans, Vermont, about a mysterious figure, an attorney and Democratic operative named A. P. Hinman. Hinman privately told local Democratic leaders that he had been hired by the Democratic National Committee to obtain evidence that Vice-President-elect Chester A. Arthur was not qualified to hold the office of Vice President, but rather that Arthur was a Canadian-born alien. President Garfield was assassinated in 1881 and Arthur became twenty first President of the United States, and a pretty good one by all accounts...

Eighteen short nonfiction works in the public domain, independently chosen by the readers. Topics include literary figures--Alice Mangold Diehl, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Arthur Hugh Clough; philosophers--Hegel, Kierkegaard; religious thinkers--Martin Luther, Cotton Mather; political leaders--Thomas Jefferson, John F. Kennedy; important documents--the Constitution of Japan (1946), the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom; moments in history--the Battle of the Crater, the Dred Scott Decision; historical figures--the Pseudo Dionysius and Xenophon; and, lastly, shopper's tips for watermelons and cantaloupes.

This is a literary biography of Joseph Conrad (1857 – 1924) who is regarded as one of the greatest novelists in English. He was granted British nationality in 1886, but always considered himself a Pole. Though he did not speak English fluently until he was in his twenties (and always with a marked accent), he was a master prose stylist who brought a distinctly non-English sensibility into English literature. He wrote stories and novels, many with a nautical setting, that depict trials of the human spirit...

James Allen (1864 - 1912) was a philosopher and a pioneer of New Thought movement. His works have formed the basis of much of the curriculum used today by many motivational and self-help groups. His first book, which published in 1901, was From Poverty to Power, subtitled The Realization of Prosperity and Peace. Allen described this book as "A Book for all those who are in search of better conditions, wider freedom, and increased usefulness." Orinigally ,the book consisted of two separate volumes, The Path To Prosperity (sometimes rendered as The Path of Prosperity) and The Way of Peace. Each volume was later published separately. This recording is of the second volume.

The Sermon On The Mount is one of the teachings in the ministry of Jesus Christ. In The Sermon On The Mount is found many sayings and important precepts held by Christian churches, sayings such as The Beatitudes, The Lord's Prayer, and other teachings about forgiveness, giving, and the "Golden Rule" about doing unto others as you would have them do unto you. Men such as Tolstoy and Gandhi found special meaning in The Sermon On The Mount, and Christians have read and listened to this important portion of scripture for centuries...

An analysis of Johann Sebastian Bach's life and musical compositions, and of the artistic, philosophical, and religious world in which he acted. (Introduction by Kathleen Norland)

This is the third LibriVox collection of speeches given in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. The collection comprises recordings of 10 historic speeches given to the UK House of Commons between 1601 and 1960. Readings are of speeches originally given by Queens Elizabeth I and Victoria, and by parliamentarians Edmund Burke, Herbert Asquith, Winston Churchill, Barbara Castle, Margaret Thatcher and Michael Foot.

François-Dominique Toussaint L’Ouverture (1743-1803) rose to fame in 1791 during the Haitian struggle for independence. In this revolt, he led thousands of slaves on the island of Hispañola to fight against the colonial European powers of France, Spain and England. The former slaves ultimately established the independent state of Haiti and expelled the Europeans. L’Ouverture eventually became the governor and Commander-In-Chief of Haiti before recognizing and submitting to French rule in 1801...

In the following pages an attempt has been made to examine anew in the light of God's Word some of the profoundest questions which can engage the human mind.

This is an early history of the failed attempt to found the colony of North Australia at Gladstone, in what is now Central Queensland.

Schopenhauer used the word "will" as a human's most familiar designation for the concept that can also be signified by other words such as "desire," "striving," "wanting," "effort," and "urging." Schopenhauer's philosophy holds that all nature, including man, is the expression of an insatiable will to life. It is through the will that mankind finds all their suffering. Desire for more is what causes this suffering. He used the word representation (Vorstellung) to signify the mental idea or image of any object that is experienced as being external to the mind...

This book, published in 1920, analyzes the literary progression of Samuel Clemens and his shortcomings (which are debatable). Brooks attributes Clemens' increasing sense of pessimism to the repression of his creative spirit due largely to his mother and his wife.

The Elements of Ornithology is one of seven in a Series of First Books of Natural History Prepared for the Use of Schools and Colleges. This succinct little textbook from 1845 presents an introduction to ornithology. The information, albeit not current, is still interesting and of use as a general overview of bird biology and classification. The author was a surgeon in the U.S. Navy and president of the Academy of Natural Sciences.

John Jacob Astor was pre-eminently the opener of new paths, a breaker of trails. From his first tramp alone through the Black Forest of Baden, at sixteen, his life never lost this typical touch. In America, both shores of the Hudson, and the wilderness to the Northwest knew his trail. The trees of the forests west of the Mississippi were blazed by his hunters and trappers; and his partners and agents planted through this vast region the flag of the American Fur Company. The Atlantic and Pacific Oceans were invisibly lined by the path of his vessels...

In 1906, Eben Francis Thompson,scholar and poet, published a limited edition of his translation of the Quatrains of Omar Khayyam. This edition contains 878 quatrains, and represents the most extensive translation of Omar's rubai in any language.In the Introduction, Nathan Haskell Dole writes: Mr Thompson has put into English verse this whole body of Persian poetry. It is a marvel of close translation, accurate and satisfactory. He has succeeded in doing exactly what he set out to do - to add nothing and to take nothing away, but to put into the typical quatrain, as determined by Fitzgerald and others, exactly what Omar and his unknown imitators said.

Collection of 32 essays by American authors ranging from Benjamin Frannklin to Emerson to Whitman to Henry James to Theodore Roosevelt. On subjects from the gout to insects with a 24 hour life span to old bachelors to leaves of grass to the odes of Horace. It seems to be an attempt to show off the Americans as writers.

Vairagya Shatakam is one of the best books that gives the true picture of Renunciation. The book talks on how a common man gets lured by the endless desires which when satisfied fetches him nothing but the desires again. It concludes saying how these unsatiable desires mislead the man from knowing his real nature-omnipotence, omnipresence and omniscience!

From Dictatorship to Democracy, A Conceptual Framework for Liberation is a book-length essay on the generic problem of how to destroy a dictatorship and to prevent the rise of a new one. The book was written in 1993 by Gene Sharp (b. 1928), a professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts. The book has been published in many countries worldwide and translated into more than 30 languages. Editions in many languages are also published by the Albert Einstein Institution of Boston, Massachusetts...

Early in the course of the Reformation (1520) Martin Luther penned a trilogy of foundational documents addressing the German Nobility, the Church and the Christian. "On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church" appeared second. In it, Luther sifts the wheat from the chaff as regards the seven sacraments of the Roman Church.

Alexander Hamilton was a significant figure in the political and economic development of the early United States. He served in the American Revolutionary War and became an aide to General George Washington. He was one of the authors (along with John Jay and James Madison) of a series of essays know as The Federalist Papers, which were written in support of the ratification of the proposed Constitution. Scholars and others still refer to these essays to this day for interpretation of the Constitution...

Exacerbated by several high-profile Hollywood scandals, a wave of anti-Hollywood rhetoric tried to paint the movie capital as a veritable hotbed of crime, licentiousness, and moral transgression. THE SINS OF HOLLYWOOD, published in May 1922, is perhaps the most prominent anti-Hollywood polemic published during this turbulent time in film history. This anonymously-written booklet recounts in sensational, lurid detail the various high-profile scandals that precipitated the firestorm surrounding Hollywood's supposed moral turpitude...