The White Stone - 8 Author:Anatole France Volume: 8 General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1910 Original Publisher: John Lane Subjects: Fiction / General Fiction / Classics Fiction / Literary History / General Literary Criticism / European / French Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there ma... more »y be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: II GALLIC N the 8o4th year of the foundation of Rome, and the I3th of the principality of Claudius Caesar, Junius Annaeus Novatus was proconsul of Achaia. Born of a knightly family of Spanish origin, a son of Seneca the Rhetor and of the chaste Helvia, a brother of Annaeus Mela, and of the famed Lucius Annaeus, he bore the name of his adoptive father, the Rhetor Gallio, exiled by Tiberius. In his mother's veins flowed the same blood as that of Cicero, and he had inherited from his father, together with immense wealth, a love of letters and of philosophy. He studied the works of the Greeks even more assiduously than those of the Latins. His mind was a prey to noble aspiration. He was an interested student of nature and of what appertains to her. The activity of his intelligence was so keen that he enjoyed being read to while in his bath, and that, even when joining in the chase, he was wont tocarry with him his tablets of wax and his stylus. During the leisure moments which he managed to secure in the intervals of most serious duties and most important works, he wrote books on subjects relating to nature, and composed tragedies. His clients and his freedmen loudly proclaimed his gentleness. His was indeed a genial character. He had never been known to give way to a fit of anger. He looked upon violence as the worst and most unpardonable of weaknesses. A.11 deeds of cruelty were held in execration by him, save when their true character ...« less