CONTENTS

EDITOR’S PREFACE

I. Introduction

“I AM NOT HERE TO DECEIVE; I AM HERE TO TEACH

(From an address delivered on Twain’s seventieth birthday, December 5, 1905)

II. Boys and Girls

“YOU DO A GIRL TOLERABLE POOR

(From Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Chapter 11)

ADVICE TO YOUTH

(Address delivered on April 15, 1882)

THE STORY OF THE BAD LITTLE BOY

(In Sketches New and Old)

THE STORY OF THE GOOD LITTLE BOY

(In Sketches New and Old)

GIRLS

(Address delivered on February 10, 1887)

THE BABIES

(Address delivered on November 13, 1879)

III. The Human Condition

CONCLUSION

(From What Is Man? And Other Essays)

THE LADIES

(An address delivered in November 1873)

THE FIVE BOONS OF LIFE

(In The $30,000 Bequest)

THE TURNING POINT OF MY LIFE

(Harpers Bazar, February 1910)

IV. America and Americans

PLYMOUTH ROCK AND THE PILGRIMS

(From an address delivered on December 22, 1881)

THE WEATHER

(Address delivered on December 22, 1876)

NEW YORK CITY

(From an address delivered on December 6, 1906)

TAXES AND MORALS

(From an address delivered on January 22, 1906)

CHARACTERISTICS OF AMERICANS

(From “What Mr. Paul Bourget Thinks of Us,” North American Review, January 1895)

DISGRACEFUL PERSECUTION OF A BOY

(In Galaxy, May 1870)

THE PRIVATE HISTORY OF A CAMPAIGN THAT FAILED

(In The American Claimant)

V. Religion and the Moral Order

ABOUT SMELLS

(In Galaxy, May 1870)

REFLECTIONS ON THE SABBATH

(In San Francisco Golden Era, March 18, 1866)

HOW I BECAME INTERESTED IN SATAN

(From Is Shakespeare Dead?)

THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL MORALS

(Address delivered on July 8, 1899)

JOURNEY TO DAMASCUS

(From Chapter 43, Innocents Abroad)

AS CONCERNS INTERPRETING THE DEITY

(In What Is Man? And Other Essays)

BENARES

(Following the Equator, Chapter 51)

VI. The Social Order

THE BEE

(In What Is Man? And Other Essays)

A CURIOUS SCRAP OF HISTORY

(In Harper’s Magazine, October 1914)

VII. Literature and Art

HOW TO TELL A STORY

(In The $30,000 Bequest)

DISAPPEARANCE OF LITERATURE

(Address delivered November 20, 1900)

THE LICENSE OF ART

(A Tramp Abroad, Chapter 50)

VIII. The World at Large

IMPERIAL HONORS TO AN AMERICAN

(From The Innocents Abroad, Chapter 15)

SNOBS, AT HOME AND ABROAD

(From The Innocents Abroad, Chapter 23)

MICHELANGELO

(From The Innocents Abroad, Chapter 27)

SOCIABLE ARMENIAN GIRLS

(From The Innocents Abroad, Chapter 38)

THE MAJESTIC SPHINX

(From The Innocents Abroad, Chapter 58)

ARRIVAL OF MISSIONARIES

(Roughing It, Chapter 72)

JUDICIOUS MR. RHODES

(From Following the Equator, Chapter 68)