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"Civil Disobedience" is an essay by Henry David Thoreau. Published in 1849 under the title "Resistance to Civil Government", it expressed Thoreau’s belief that people should not allow governments to overrule or atrophy their consciences, and that people have a duty both to avoid doing injustice directly and to avoid allowing their acquiescence to enable the government to make them the agents of injustice. Thoreau was motivated in part by his disgust with slavery and the Mexican-American War.

"The Theogony" (“Birth of the Gods”) is a poem by Hesiod which describes the origin, position and relationships of the gods of the Greek pantheon. Hesiod created a synthesis of the diverse Greek traditions concerning the gods, in the form of a hymn invoking Zeus and the Muses. The Theogony is the first known Greek mythical cosmogony. However, it should not be considered as the authoritative source of Greek mythology, but rather as a portrait of a dynamic tradition that was recorded around 700 BCE.

In a sleepy, little New England village stands a dark, weather-beaten, many-gabled house. This brooding mansion is haunted by a centuries-old curse that casts the shadow of ancestral sin upon the last four members of the distinctive Pyncheon family. Mysterious deaths threaten the living. Musty documents nestle behind hidden panels carrying the secret of the family’s salvation - or its downfall.

The Battle of Fredericksburg was fought in December 1862 in and around Fredericksburg, Virginia. The battle, between the Union Army of the Potomac commanded by Major General Burnside and the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia under General Robert E. Lee, was part of the Union Army's futile frontal attacks against entrenched Confederate defenders on the heights behind the city. Union casualties were more than twice as heavy as those suffered by the Confederates.

The Silence of God is a classic written by Sir Robert Anderson in 1897. In it, the Scottish theologian discusses the oft-answered question, "Why does God not intervene in the affairs of men"?

R.A. Torrey (1856-1928) was the first superintendent of the Moody Bible Institute and dean of the Bible Institute in Los Angeles. Published in 1900, this classic work has guided generations of believers into a more fulfilling prayer life. Based on biblical examples of devotion, it explains the purpose and power of prayer in chapters titled "Abiding in Christ", "The Importance of Prayer", "Obeying and Praying", and "When to Pray". The book also teaches believers how to overcome hindrances to prayer and how to set their hearts on compassion, humility, gentleness, kindness and patience.

A Letter Concerning Toleration by John Locke was originally published in Latin in 1689. It was Locke's response to the problem of religion and government; he proposed religious toleration as the answer. For Locke, the only way a church gains genuine converts is through persuasion, not violence. Arguing that the government should not involve itself in spiritual matters, he offers three main reasons.

This gothic story by Washington Irving appeared in his collection of essays and short stories titled The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. Along with its companion piece "Rip Van Winkle", "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" is among the earliest examples of American fiction with enduring popularity. The tale is set in 1790 in the countryside around the Dutch settlement of Tarry Town in an isolated glen called Sleepy Hollow.