Quick Excerpts, from a Library of 492 Titles

Generated 2022-07-28 13:25:46

Excerpt #1, from The Time Machine, by H. G. Wells

…these things to him! And even of what he knew, how much could he make his untravelled friend either apprehend or believe? Then, think how narrow the gap between a negro and a white man of our own times, and how wide the interval between myself and these of the Golden Age! I was sensible of much which was unseen, and which contributed to my comfort; but save for a general impression of automatic organisation, I fear I can convey very little of the difference to your mind. “In the matter of sepulture, for instance, I could see no signs of crematoria nor anything suggestive of tombs. But it occurred to me that, possibly, there might be cemeteries (or crematoria) somewhere beyond the range of my explorings. This, again, was a question I deliberately put to myself, and my curiosity was at first entirely defeated upon the point. The thing puzzled me, and I was led to make a further remark, which puzzled me still more: that aged and infirm among this people there were none. “I must confess that my satisfaction with my first theories of an automatic civilisation and a decadent humanity did not long endure. Yet I could think of no other. Let me put my difficulties. The several big palaces I had explored were mere living places, great dining-halls and sleeping apartments. I could find no machinery, no appliances of any kind. Yet these people were clothed in pleasant fabrics that must at…

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Excerpt #2, from On War, by Carl von Clausewitz

…contrary to the nature of the supposed case) it would take up a very small space, which, in the course of the combat, would be exposed to so many disadvantages that, even if strengthened in every possible way by entrenchments, we could hardly expect to make a successful defence. Such a camp, showing front in every direction, must therefore necessarily have an extent of sides proportionably great; but these sides must likewise be as good as unassailable; to give this requisite strength, notwithstanding the required extension, is not within the compass of the art of field fortification; it is therefore a fundamental condition that such a camp must derive part of its strength from natural impediments of ground which render many places impassable and others difficult to pass. In order, therefore, to be able to apply this defensive means, it is necessary to find such a spot, and when that is wanting, the object cannot be attained merely by field works. These considerations relate more immediately to tactical results in order that we may first establish the existence of this strategic means; we mention as examples for illustration, Pirna, Bunzelwitz, Colberg, Torres Vedras, and Drissa. Now, as respects the strategic properties and effects. The first condition is naturally that the force which occupies this camp shall have its subsistence secured for some time, that is, for as long as we think the camp will be required, and…

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Excerpt #3, from Burgess Unabridged: A new dictionary of words you have always needed, by Burgess

…Baedeker, learning about Venice. In Venice, he spent his time in gondolas, reading up Florence. In Florence he sat at little café tables, turning the pages of his red-covered book and getting acquainted with Rome. So he saw Europe,–in type. But there are thousands of Jirriwigs in Paris. They have been there for years, and all the French they know is “Combien?” They are in a state of perpetual disgust, that things are so different to anything in the United States. But there are Jirriwigs in New York also. They live in the Subway, in offices and in flats. (See Cowcat.) Said Mr. Jirriwig, one day, To Mrs. Jirriwig, “Let’s see the Versailles fountains play; They say they’re fine and big!” “Yes,” said his wife, “they’re fine and big, I’ve seen them once, you know!” “Thank God!” said Mr. Jirriwig, “Then I won’t have to go!” [Illustration: JIRRIWIG] =Ju´jasm=, n. 1. A much-needed relief; a long-desired satisfaction. 2. An expansion of sudden joy….

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Excerpt #4, from English as she is spoke; or, a jest in sober earnest, by Carolino and Fonseca

…No, no, bring me my silk stocking’s. Its are make holes. Make its a point, or make to mend them. Comb me, take another comb. Give me my handkarchief. There is a clean, sir. What coat dress you to day? Those that I had yesterday. The tailor do owe to bring soon that of cloth. Have you wexed my shoes? I go wex its now. It must that I may wash my hands, the mouth and my face. The walk. Will you and take a walk with me? Wait for that the warm be out. Go through that meadow. Who the country is beautiful! who the trees are thick! Take the bloom’s perfume. It seems me that the corn does push alredy. You hear the bird’s gurgling? Which pleasure! which charm! The field has by me a thousand charms. Are you hunter? will you go to the hunting in one day this week?…

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Excerpt #5, from Astounding Stories, August, 1931, by Various

…instruments for space navigation that the ensuing years were to bring. Chet’s accuracy was more the result of that flyer’s sixth sense–that same uncanny power that had served aviators so well in an earlier day. But Chet was glad to see his instruments registering once more as he approached a new world. Even the sonoflector was recording; its invisible rays were darting downward to be reflected back again from the surface below. That absolute altitude recording was a joy to read; it meant a definite relationship with the world. “I’ll hold her at fifty thousand,” he told Harkness. “Watch for some outline that you can remember from last time.” There was an irregular area of continental size; only when they had crossed it did Harkness point toward an outflung projection of land. “That peninsula,” he exclaimed; “we saw that before! Swing south and inland…. Now down forty, and east of south…. This ought to be the spot.” Perhaps Harkness, too, had the flyer’s indefinable power of orientation. He guided Chet in the downward flight, and his pointing finger aimed at last at a cluster of shadows where a setting sun brought mountain ranges into strong relief. Chet held the ship steady, hung high in the air, while the quick-spreading mantle of night swept…

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Excerpt #6, from The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne

…object which would fain have been, or at least ought to be, concealed. In this little, lonesome dwelling, with some slender means that she possessed, and by the license of the magistrates, who still kept an inquisitorial watch over her, Hester established herself, with her infant child. A mystic shadow of suspicion immediately attached itself to the spot. Children, too young to comprehend wherefore this woman should be shut out from the sphere of human charities, would creep nigh enough to behold her plying her needle at the cottage-window, or standing in the doorway, or laboring in her little garden, or coming forth along the pathway that led townward; and, discerning the scarlet letter on her breast, would scamper off with a strange, contagious fear. Lonely as was Hester’s situation, and without a friend on earth who dared to show himself, she, however, incurred no risk of want. She possessed an art that sufficed, even in a land that afforded comparatively little scope for its exercise, to supply food for her thriving infant and herself. It was the art—then, as now, almost the only one within a woman’s grasp—of needlework. She bore on her breast, in the curiously embroidered letter, a specimen of her delicate and imaginative skill, of which the dames of a court might gladly have availed themselves, to add the richer and more spiritual…

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Excerpt #7, from Radio Active Substances, by Marie Curie

…the vessel, traverse 30 c.m. of air, and are received upon a series of glass plates, each of thickness 1·3 m.m.; the first plate transmits 49 per cent of the radiation it receives, the second transmits 84 per cent of the radiation it receives, the third transmits 85 per cent of the radiation it receives. In another series of experiments the radium was enclosed in a glass vessel placed 10 c.m. from the condenser which received the rays. A series of similar screens of lead each 0·115 m.m. thick were placed on the vessel. The ratio of the radiation transmitted to the radiation received is given for each of the successive screens by the following numbers:— 0·40 0·60 0·72 0·79 0·89 0·92 0·94 0·94 0·97 For a series of four screens of lead, each of which was 1·5 m.m. thick, the ratio of the radiation transmitted to the radiation received was given for the successive screens by the following numbers:— 0·09 0·78 0·84 0·82 The results of these experiments show that when the thickness of the lead traversed increases from 0·1 m.m. to 6 m.m., the penetrating power of the radiation increases. I found that, under the experimental conditions mentioned, a screen of lead 1·8 c.m. thick transmits 2 per cent of the radiation it receives; a…

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Excerpt #8, from Anne of Green Gables, by L. M. Montgomery

…Diana had stood up very unsteadily; then she sat down again, putting her hands to her head. “I’m–I’m awful sick,” she said, a little thickly. “I–I–must go right home.” “Oh, you mustn’t dream of going home without your tea,” cried Anne in distress. “I’ll get it right off–I’ll go and put the tea down this very minute.” “I must go home,” repeated Diana, stupidly but determinedly. “Let me get you a lunch anyhow,” implored Anne. “Let me give you a bit of fruit cake and some of the cherry preserves. Lie down on the sofa for a little while and you’ll be better. Where do you feel bad?” “I must go home,” said Diana, and that was all she would say. In vain Anne pleaded. “I never heard of company going home without tea,” she mourned. “Oh, Diana, do you suppose that it’s possible you’re really taking the smallpox? If you are I’ll go and nurse you, you can depend on that. I’ll never forsake you. But I do wish you’d stay till after tea. Where do you feel bad?” “I’m awful dizzy,” said Diana. And indeed, she walked very dizzily. Anne, with tears of disappointment in her eyes, got Diana’s hat and went with her as far as the Barry…

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Excerpt #9, from Something New, by P. G. Wodehouse

…though kind-hearted enough in most respects, they listen with a regrettable feeling of impatience to the confessions of those less happily situated as regards the ills of the flesh. Rightly or wrongly, they hold that these statements should be reserved for the ear of the medical profession, and other and more general topics selected for conversation with laymen. “I’m sorry,” he said hastily. “You must have had a bad time. Is there a large house party here just now?” “We are expecting,” said Mr. Beach, “a number of guests. We shall in all probability sit down thirty or more to dinner.” “A responsibility for you,” said Ashe ingratiatingly, well pleased to be quit of the feet topic. Mr. Beach nodded. “You are right, Mr. Marson. Few persons realize the responsibilities of a man in my position. Sometimes, I can assure you, it preys on my mind, and I suffer from nervous headaches.” Ashe began to feel like a man trying to put out a fire which, as fast as he checks it at one point, breaks out at another. “Sometimes when I come off duty everything gets blurred. The outlines of objects grow indistinct and misty. I have to sit down in a chair. The pain is excruciating.”…

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Excerpt #10, from Tales from a Rolltop Desk, by Christopher Morley

…different ages, doing her gymnastic exercises, beginning as a little plump Venus and ending as a stunning profile in tights. We tried to maintain an attitude of merely scientific detachment toward those pictures, admiring them only as connoisseurs of physical culture; but we ended by begging him for copies, insisting that they would be a useful guide to us in our own private exercising. But Larsen said he was keeping them to illustrate a new enlarged edition of his physical-culture book. We told him that it would sell a million copies, and I think we all volunteered to act as selling-agents for the book. Annette Kellermann and Susanna Cocroft, we cried, were scarecrows compared to Gloria. “To all this banter Gloria would listen calmly and unembarrassed, for she had a magnificent unconsciousness of her own superb allure. We would each try to get a moment alone with her to describe the exercises we were taking, and to ask her advice about our muscular development. I remember that Blackmore, after secret practice that we had not suspected, took the wind out of our sails one evening when some of us were bragging of our accomplishment in bending and touching the floor while standing on tiptoe. He jumped up and caught hold of the lintel of the doorway, and chinned himself on it a dozen times or so. We were all crestfallen by this feat until Gloria came forward–all the other…

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Excerpt #11, from The Knights of the Round Table: Stories of King Arthur and the Holy Grail, by Frost

…they went to the cathedral together and they saw an old man kneeling at the altar. He was the same old man whom they had seen so many times before, who had been made to live so far beyond his time by the power of the Holy Grail, Joseph of Arimathæa. On the altar before him lay the spear with the drops of blood flowing from its point. The three knights knelt before the altar, Galahad nearer to it than the others, and they were there for a long time. Then the old man rose and came to the chest where the Grail was and took it out and held it up before them, and the light that shone from the blood that was in it, through the crystal of the cup, was greater and stronger than ever. The whole cathedral was bright with it. It streamed up among the arches of the roof and lighted old pictures that were painted there. For years before they had scarcely been seen, they were so dim with time and with dust and with the smoke of incense. Now, with the light of the Holy Grail upon it, the place was again a piece of Heaven, filled with wonderful forms. There was Elijah, in his chariot of fire; there were saints and angels; and all about them and among them there were little stars of gold, that glowed and twinkled in the new brightness like the stars of the real Heaven. The old man set the Grail upon the altar and came to Galahad and touched his hand and kissed him. Then all at once the church grew dark and…

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Excerpt #12, from Famous Adventures and Prison Escapes of the Civil War, by Basil Wilson Duke et al.

…Tuesday, July 8.–We start to-morrow. Packing the trunks was a problem. Annie and I are allowed one large trunk apiece, the gentlemen a smaller one each, and we a light carpet-sack apiece for toilet articles. I arrived with six trunks and leave with one! We went over everything carefully twice, rejecting, trying to off the bonds of custom and get down to primitive needs. At last we made a judicious selection. Everything old or worn was left; everything merely ornamental, except good lace, which was light. Gossamer evening dresses were all left. I calculated on taking two or three books that would bear the most reading if we were again shut up where none could be had, and so, of course, took Shakspere first. Here I was interrupted to go and pay a farewell visit, and when we returned Max had packed and nailed the cases of books to be left. Chance thus limited my choice to those that happened to be in my room–“Paradise Lost,” the “Arabian Nights,” a volume of Macaulay’s History I was reading, and my prayer-book. To-day the provisions for the trip were cooked: the last of the flour was made into large loaves of bread; a ham and several dozen eggs were boiled; the few chickens that have survived the overflow were fried; the last of the coffee was parched and ground; and the modicum of the tea was well corked up. Our friends across the lake added a jar of butter and two of preserves. H. rode off to X. after dinner to conclude some business…

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