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Marquise de Françoise-Athénaïs de Rochechouart de Mortemart Montespan was the chief mistress of French king Louis XV, which gave her an inside look at life in the royal court at the time.

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The duchesse d' Charlotte-Elisabeth Orléans was a German princess in the 17th and 18th century best known for her detailed correspondence that profiled what life was like in the royal court of the famous Sun King, France's Louis XIV.

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This biography of the philosopher John Locke (1632-1704) was published in the first series of English Men of Letters in 1880. Its author, Thomas Fowler (1832-1904) held the posts of Wykeham Professor of Logic, President of Corpus Christi College, and Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University; the editor of the series, John Morley, had been his pupil. The influence of Locke is pervasive in many fields - theology, education, psychology, economics and political theory as well as philosophy - and Fowler analyses the effect of his writings in five chapters (one dedicated to the Essay Concerning Human Understanding) as well as giving a chronological account of Locke's life from his obscure beginnings through his time at Oxford, his role in the household of the earl of Shaftesbury, and his two periods of travel in Europe, to a position at the heart of political and intellectual life in Restoration England.

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Kipling portrays school as the first stage of a much larger game, a pattern maker for the experiences of life. Implied throughout the book is the question 'What happened to the fifteen-year boys, and how did the lessons they learned at school apply to the world of warfare and imperial government?' These stories are based on Kipling's own schooling, the United Services College at Westward Ho! in Devon.

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Herbert Spencer (1820-1903), Victorian philosopher, biologist, sociologist and political theorist, one of the founders of Social Darwinism and author of the phrase 'survival of the fittest', was nominated for the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1902, losing out to Theodor Mommsen. Spencer left his post at The Economist in 1857 to focus on writing his ten-volume System of Synthetic Philosophy, a work that offers an ethics-based guide to human conduct to replace that provided by conventional religious belief. Published in 1879, this volume seeks to demonstrate that social evolution tends towards greater individualism, altruism and co-operation. Spencer argues that it is possible to establish rules of right conduct on a scientific basis, and declares that this work is the culmination of his life's study. He was anxious to publish it outside the planned order of the System, because he feared (wrongly) that his death would prevent its completion.

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According to Charles Darwin in this classic botany essay, climbing plants may be divided into four classes. First, those which twine spirally round a support, and are not aided by any other movement. Secondly, those endowed with irritable organs, which when they touch any object clasp it; such organs consisting of modified leaves, branches, or flower-peduncles.On the Movements and Habits of Climbing Plants is a book by Charles Darwin first printed in book form in 1875 by John Murray. 

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This is a reproduction of Darwin's early essay arguing that species change over time, drafted in 1842, seventeen years before he published 'On the Origin of Species'.

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The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.II. From William and Mary to George II. Tobias George Smollett (1721 –1771) was a Scottish poet and author. He was best known for his picaresque novels, such as The Adventures of Roderick Random (1748) and The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle (1751), which influenced later novelists such as Charles Dickens and George Orwell.

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The History of England (1754–61) is David Hume's great work on the history of England which was written in instalments while he was serving as librarian to the Faculty of Advocates in Edinburgh, on what was to become the core collection of the National Library of Scotland. It was published in six volumes in 1754, 1756, 1759, and 1761. The first publication of his History was greeted with outrage by all political factions, but it became a best-seller, finally giving him the financial independence he had long sought. Both the British Library and the Cambridge University Library, as well as Hume's own library, still list him as "David Hume, the historian." Hume's History spanned "from the invasion of Julius Caesar to the Revolution of 1688" and went through over 100 editions. Many considered it the standard history of England in its day.

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The History of England (1754–61) is David Hume's great work on the history of England which was written in instalments while he was serving as librarian to the Faculty of Advocates in Edinburgh, on what was to become the core collection of the National Library of Scotland. It was published in six volumes in 1754, 1756, 1759, and 1761. The first publication of his History was greeted with outrage by all political factions, but it became a best-seller, finally giving him the financial independence he had long sought. Both the British Library and the Cambridge University Library, as well as Hume's own library, still list him as "David Hume, the historian." Hume's History spanned "from the invasion of Julius Caesar to the Revolution of 1688" and went through over 100 editions. Many considered it the standard history of England in its day.

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The History of England (1754–61) is David Hume's great work on the history of England which was written in instalments while he was serving as librarian to the Faculty of Advocates in Edinburgh, on what was to become the core collection of the National Library of Scotland. It was published in six volumes in 1754, 1756, 1759, and 1761. The first publication of his History was greeted with outrage by all political factions, but it became a best-seller, finally giving him the financial independence he had long sought. Both the British Library and the Cambridge University Library, as well as Hume's own library, still list him as "David Hume, the historian." Hume's History spanned "from the invasion of Julius Caesar to the Revolution of 1688" and went through over 100 editions. Many considered it the standard history of England in its day.

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The History of England (1754–61) is David Hume's great work on the history of England which was written in instalments while he was serving as librarian to the Faculty of Advocates in Edinburgh, on what was to become the core collection of the National Library of Scotland. It was published in six volumes in 1754, 1756, 1759, and 1761. The first publication of his History was greeted with outrage by all political factions, but it became a best-seller, finally giving him the financial independence he had long sought. Both the British Library and the Cambridge University Library, as well as Hume's own library, still list him as "David Hume, the historian." Hume's History spanned "from the invasion of Julius Caesar to the Revolution of 1688" and went through over 100 editions. Many considered it the standard history of England in its day.

Download e-book

The History of England (1754–61) is David Hume's great work on the history of England which was written in instalments while he was serving as librarian to the Faculty of Advocates in Edinburgh, on what was to become the core collection of the National Library of Scotland. It was published in six volumes in 1754, 1756, 1759, and 1761. The first publication of his History was greeted with outrage by all political factions, but it became a best-seller, finally giving him the financial independence he had long sought. Both the British Library and the Cambridge University Library, as well as Hume's own library, still list him as "David Hume, the historian." Hume's History spanned "from the invasion of Julius Caesar to the Revolution of 1688" and went through over 100 editions. Many considered it the standard history of England in its day.

Download e-book

The History of England (1754–61) is David Hume's great work on the history of England which was written in instalments while he was serving as librarian to the Faculty of Advocates in Edinburgh, on what was to become the core collection of the National Library of Scotland. It was published in six volumes in 1754, 1756, 1759, and 1761. The first publication of his History was greeted with outrage by all political factions, but it became a best-seller, finally giving him the financial independence he had long sought. Both the British Library and the Cambridge University Library, as well as Hume's own library, still list him as "David Hume, the historian." Hume's History spanned "from the invasion of Julius Caesar to the Revolution of 1688" and went through over 100 editions. Many considered it the standard history of England in its day.

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Book contents following essays: Of the delicacy of taste and passion -- Of the liberty of the press -- That politics may be reduced to a science -- Of the first principles of government -- Of the origin of government -- Of the independency of Parliament -- Whether the British government inclines more to absolute monarchy or to a republic -- Of parties in general -- Of the parties of Great Britain -- Of superstition and enthusiasm -- Of the dignity or meanness of human nature -- Of civil liberty -- Of eloquence.

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Letters from the Earth is one of Mark Twain's posthumously published works. The essays were written during a difficult time in Twain's life; he was deep in debt and had lost his wife and one of his daughters. The book consists of a series of short stories, many of which deal with God and Christianity. Twain penned a series of letters from the point-of-view of a dejected angel on Earth. This title story consists of letters written by the archangel Satan to archangels, Gabriel and Michael, about his observations on the curious proceedings of earthly life and the nature of man's religions. By analyzing the idea of heaven and God that is widely accepted by those who believe in both, Twain is able to take the silliness that is present and study it with the common sense that is absent. Not so much an attack as much as a cold dissection. Other short stories in the book include a bedtime story about a family of cats Twain wrote for his daughters, and an essay explaining why an anaconda is morally superior to Man. Twain's writings in Letters From the Earth find him at perhaps his most quizzical and questioning state ever.

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OF INTEREST TO: readers of 20th-century history, students of economics I do not admit error in having based The Economic Consequences of the Peace on a literal interpretation of the Treaty of Versailles, or in having examined the results of actually carrying it out. I argued that much of it was impossible; but I do not agree with many critics, who held that, for this very reason, it was also harmless. -from "The State of Opinion" Almost immediately after its ratification, it became clear that the Treaty of Versailles, ending World War I, was at least partly unworkable-and in this 1922 work, famed economist John Maynard Keynes dissected the problems he saw as the Treaty was being put into practice. In what he called a sequel to his 1919 book The Economic Consequences of the Peace, Keynes discusses: . the debate over German reparations . the legality of occupying Germany east of the Rhine . the division of reparations among the allies . how to best handle inter-ally debt . and more... British economist JOHN MAYNARD KEYNES (1883-1946) also wrote The End of Laissez-Faire (1926), The Means to Prosperity (1933), and General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money (1936). ALSO FROM COSIMO: Keynes's A Treatise on Probability and Indian Currency and Finance

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The present book is to show that there exists a definite and unmistakable relationship between Jewish law and Babylonian law. 

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"Stefan Zweig was a dark and unorthodox artist; it's good to have him back."--Salman Rushdie

The great Austrian writer Stefan Zweig was a master anatomist of the deceitful heart, and Beware of Pity, the only novel he published during his lifetime, uncovers the seed of selfishness within even the finest of feelings.

Hofmiller, an Austro-Hungarian cavalry officer stationed at the edge of the empire, is invited to a party at the home of a rich local landowner, a world away from the dreary routine of the barracks. The surroundings are glamorous, wine flows freely, and the exhilarated young Hofmiller asks his host's lovely daughter for a dance, only to discover that sickness has left her painfully crippled. It is a minor blunder that will destroy his life, as pity and guilt gradually implicate him in a well-meaning but tragically wrongheaded plot to restore the unhappy invalid to health.

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The post-office girl is Christine, who looks after her ailing mother and toils in a provincial Austrian post office in the years just after the Great War. One afternoon, as she is dozing among the official forms and stamps, a telegraph arrives addressed to her. It is from her rich aunt, who lives in America and writes requesting that Christine join her and her husband in a Swiss Alpine resort. After a dizzying train ride, Christine finds herself at the top of the world, enjoying a life of privilege that she had never imagined.

But Christine’s aunt drops her as abruptly as she picked her up, and soon the young woman is back at the provincial post office, consumed with disappointment and bitterness. Then she meets Ferdinand, a wounded but eloquent war veteran who is able to give voice to the disaffection of his generation. Christine’s and Ferdinand’s lives spiral downward, before Ferdinand comes up with a plan which will be either their salvation or their doom. 

Never before published in English, this extraordinary book is an unexpected and haunting foray into noir fiction by one of the masters of the psychological novel.

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Written in prison before his brutal execution in AD 524, Boethius’s The Consolation of Philosophy is a conversation between the ailing prisoner and his ‘nurse’ Philosophy, whose instruction restores him to health and brings him to enlightenment. Boethius was an eminent public figure who had risen to great political heights in the court of King Theodoric when he was implicated in conspiracy and condemned to death. Although a Christian, it was to the pagan Greek philosophers that he turned for inspiration following his abrupt fall from grace. With great clarity of thought and philosophical brilliance, Boethius adopted the classical model of the dialogue to debate the vagaries of Fortune, and to explore the nature of happiness, good and evil, fate and free will.

Victor Watts’s English translation makes The Consolation of Philosophy accessible to the modern reader while losing nothing of its poetic artistry and breadth of vision. This edition includes an introduction discussing Boethius’s life and writings, a bibliography, glossary and notes.

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Gibraltar – it once marked the edge of the world. From it you can see both Europe and Africa; the Atlantic and The Mediterranean. It’s fortifications have been contested for centuries. “You are standing on the very top of one of the Pillars of Hercules, the ancient Calpe, and in full view of the other, on the African coast, where, above the present town of Ceuta, whose white walls glisten in the sun, rises the ancient Abyla, the Mount of God. These are the two Pillars which to the ancient navigators set bounds to the habitable world.” Also covered is the unsuccessful Siege of Gibraltar of 1782, by the Spanish and the French. Much attention is paid to the issue of whether Gibraltar should be Spanish or English. Today, Gibraltar remains a British Protectorate. This Illustrated eBook edition of the 1888 original has been carefully edited for scanning and spelling errors, and is as true to the original as possible.

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The Novum Organum, full original title Novum Organum Scientiarum, is a philosophical work by Francis Bacon, written in Latin and published in 1620. The title translates as new instrument, i.e. new instrument of science. This is a reference to Aristotle's work Organon, which was his treatise on logic and syllogism. In Novum Organum, Bacon details a new system of logic he believes to be superior to the old ways of syllogism. This is now known as theBaconian method.

For Bacon, finding the essence of a thing was a simple process of reduction, and the use of inductive reasoning. In finding the cause of a phenomenal nature such as heat, one must list all of the situations where heat is found. Then another list should be drawn up, listing situations that are similar to those of the first list except for the lack of heat. A third table lists situations where heat can vary. The form nature, or cause, of heat must be that which is common to all instances in the first table, is lacking from all instances of the second table and varies by degree in instances of the third table.

The title page of Novum Organum depicts a galleon passing between the mythical Pillars of Hercules that stand either side of the Strait of Gibraltar, marking the exit from the well-charted waters of the Mediterranean into the Atlantic Ocean. The Pillars, as the boundary of the Mediterranean, have been smashed through opening a new world for exploration. Bacon hopes that empirical investigation will, similarly, smash the old scientific ideas and lead to greater understanding of the world and heavens.

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