AN

EMPIRE OF INFORMATION,

UNITING FOUR REGIONS OF THOUGHT.

REALM OF RUIN.

THE ALL-IMPORTANT QUESTION OF

COMMUNISM,

WHICH IS NOW DISQUIETING THE WORLD-THE EARLY THEORISTS-THE BIRTH, Growth, AND PRIMARY FRUITION OF THE IDEA THAT PROPERTY IS Robbery-THE ORGANIZATION AND CONGRESSES OF THE INTERNATIONALE.

A DETAILED ACCOUNT OF THE COMMUNE AT PARIS,

WITH THE APPALLING PENAL SLAUGHTER FOLLOWING THAT SINGULAR EPISODE IN HISTORY
-KARL MARX, CHIEF ENEMY OF CAPITAL-FERDINAND LASSALLE, SOCIALISM,
AND BISMARCK-THE GERMAN ASSASSINS-NIHILISM IN RUSSIA-

SPAIN AND ITALY-THE LEAGUE OF ASSASSINATION.

REALM OF SPECULATION.

AN OFF-HAND ELUCIDATION OF

EVOLUTION;

BEING AN ENDEAVOR TO SECURE AN INTERESTING EXPOSITION OF THE DARWINIAN THEORY
WITHOUT SCIENTIFIC LANGUAGE OR CAST-IRON ARRANGEMENT OF THE SUBJECT,
WITH AN INTENT TO INFUSE MANY USEFUL BITS OF KNOWLEDGE.

REALM OF SPACE.

AN INDEX OF THE PRINCIPAL FEATURES OF

ASTRONOMY;

THE DESIRE BEING TO MAKE THE WONDERS OF THAT MAJESTIC SCIENCE A SUBJECT OF RECREATION RATHER THAN STUDY.

REALM OF THE IMAGINATION.

POETRY.

A LABORIOUSLY-SELECTED AGGREGATION OF THE POETIC GEMS IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE,
CULLED FROM ALMOST EVERY WORTHY QUARTER, AND AFFORDING
AN INVALUABLE MINE OF QUOTATIONS.

+

Reference to the Roman numerals at the inner ends of the page head-lines will inform the casual reader whether he have opened the volume in its First, Second, Third, or Fourth Realm.

Entered According to Act of Congress, in the Year 1879, by

R. M. VAN ARSDALE & Co.,

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washing, D. C.

Steel Engravings by J. N. Allan, New York, Wood Cuts by Chicago Engraving Company, Press and Types of Blakely, Brown & Marsh, Chicago, and Electrotype Plates by A. Zeese & Co.

PRELIMINARY REMARKS.

THERE is a musical tragedy of first rank called (in English) "The Troubadour." In a latter scene of this work, when enacted, the curtain rises upon a tower in which the high tenor is imprisoned. He is soon to be burned by a powerful foe. His lady-love, the famous soprano, peering into the prison, supports herself against its gratings. A chorus of nuns in an invisible chapel is chanting a misereré for the repose of the soul of the doomed man. The grand orchestra begins; the great wooden bassoons set up their weird and owlish cries, and the little wooden oboes carry the peculiar music forward to its juncture with the solemn voices in the chapel. The soprano wails a few heart-broken words of love, and the doomed captive, hearing voice, pours out a death-song of surpassing richness. The despairing notes of the sobbing lady, the soaring tones of the unseen prisoner, the pulsing dirge of the supplicants at the shrine of God, and the muffled intensity of the sympathetic orchestra, complete a combination of sounds and sentiments which has gathered unspeakable plaudits from two generations of the whole civilized world. The auditor with small musical advantages, but with a soul full of harmonies, hears this master-piece, and does not cease to thrill with the close of the act. He goes forth upon the street. He gives utterance to the best musical expression of which he is capable-a whistle. With that whole scene before him, he cuts the air with a slender thread of shrill tone, and carries behind it in his brain the broad and glorious concords which stamped the operatic concert with its beauty. To himself, he is executing, with all its adjuncts, the misereré-scene from "Il Trovatoré." To the prosaic man across the street, however, who wonders what they've been playing over at the theatre