Marathon was a plain on the North-East coast of Attica (or Attic Peninsula), divided from the plain of Athens by the range of Pentelicus. It contained four villages: Marathon, Probalinthos, Tricorythos and Oenoe, which originally formed an independent tetrapolis and in historical times still upheld peculiar rites and legendary associations, chiefly connected with Heracles and Theseus. In the 6th century B.C. it served as a base for Peisistratus, who owned much property in that district, fo...

Hannibal was a Famous Carthaginian General Officer and Statesman. His influence over men is perhaps his most wonderful trait. As a distinguishing mark, we may well call him The Father of Strategy.“Son of Hamilcar Barcas, Hannibal was born in 247 B. C. At this period, Rome and Carthage were rival powers and both seated upon the borders of the Mediterranean Sea. Rome had been in existence about five hundred years, and had already extended her conquests over Italy and a portion of Spa...

Charlemagne,or Charles the Great, was great in war and great in peace; a great conqueror,great law-maker, great scholar, great organizer, great civilizer. He subduedsavage nations, introduced learning, extended religion, encouraged the arts andsciences, and established one of the mightiest empires of the olden times. Allthe races of Germany, of Italy, and of France were welded by him into one greatmonarchy. He maintained and extended the influence of Christian culture. Alarge part of his l...

However many legends of other kindsthere may be, the buried treasure or lost mine legend is the typical legend ofTexas…The people who tell these legendsrepresent many standards and strata of life, but the ultimate source of theirlegendary gold and their tales is common: Mexican or Spanish.The nativeTexan frequently makes no distinction between “Spaniard” and “Mexican”; thewealth of legend, however, is generally Spanish. And that wealth would fade theactual riches of Potosi ...

Clovis came to rule over a larger country than any Gaulish chief had ever done and it was a country which was worth governing. He called himself King of the Franks, but I think you had better emember him by the title which fits him best that of the First King of France.The baptism of Clovis, which implied the general conversion of the Franks to Christianity, set the crown on a century of striking successes for the Western Church.Who really was Clovis the founder of Frank Mona...

Ulysses was king of Ithaca, and had been, like many other princes of Greece, a suitor of the beautiful Helen. Believing that he had no hope for success among so many competitors, Ulysses asked the hand of Penelope, daughter of Icarus...The Odyssey, the second of the two great poems attributed to Homer, is a history of the wanderings of Ulysses. After some adventures of minor importance, the ships of the hero were overtaken by a storm which drove them southward for nine days, and as...

It is now four or five years since my attention was called to the collection of native American ballads from the Southwest, already begun by Professor Lomax. At that time, he seemed hardly to appreciate their full value and importance. To my colleague, Professor G.L. Kittredge, probably the most eminent authority on folk-song in America, this value and importance appeared as indubitable as it appeared to me. We heartily joined in encouraging the work, as a real contribution both to literat...

This book deals with the Christian philosophy of love.Jesus taught his philosophy of life in three ways: the personal, by example; the artistic, by parable; and the scientific, by propositions.The first, though most vital and effective of all, is expensive and wasteful. For in life principles are so embedded in "muddy particulars," trivial and sordid details, that they are liable to get lost. The Master may be a long time with His disciples, and yet not really be known. Eve...

This book deals with the general intelligence of Bees and Wasps; their powers of Communication; powers of special sense, memory and emotions; their general habits in architecture, wars...“Those who have stored honey in their houses understand very well how important it is to prevent a single bee from discovering its location. Such discovery is sure to be followed by a general onslaught from the hive unless all means of access is prevented...According to De Fravière, bees have...

This book deals with the life of Florence Nightingale, the famous nurse.Everyone knows the popular conception of Florence Nightingale. The saintly, self-sacrificing woman, the delicate maiden of high degree who threw aside the pleasures of a life of ease to succor the afflicted, the Lady with the Lamp, gliding through the horrors of the hospital at Scutari, and consecrating with the radiance of her goodness the dying soldier's couch—the vision is familiar to all. But the truth was ...

The history of dolphins is one of the most fascinating and instructive in the history of ideas in the western world. Indeed, it provides one of the most illuminating examples of what has probably occurred many times in human culture – a virtually complete loss of knowledge, at least in most segments of the culture, of what was formerly well understood by generations of men.Dolphins are mammals. They belong in the order Cetacea, suborder Odontoceti, family Delphinidae. Within the Del...

Seated on the dry hill-side here, by the belted blue Mediterranean, I have picked up from the ground a bit of blanched and moldering bone, well cleaned to my hand by the unconscious friendliness of the busy ants; and looking closely at it I recognize it at once, with a sympathetic sigh, for the solid welded tail-piece of some departed British tourist swallow. He came here like ourselves, no doubt, to escape the terrors of an English winter: but among these pine-clad Provençal summits some ...