Quick Excerpts, from a Library of 492 Titles

Generated 2022-07-28 13:25:49

Excerpt #1, from The King James Version of the Bible

…35:10 Because thou hast said, These two nations and these two countries shall be mine, and we will possess it; whereas the LORD was there: 35:11 Therefore, as I live, saith the Lord GOD, I will even do according to thine anger, and according to thine envy which thou hast used out of thy hatred against them; and I will make myself known among them, when I have judged thee. 35:12 And thou shalt know that I am the LORD, and that I have heard all thy blasphemies which thou hast spoken against the mountains of Israel, saying, They are laid desolate, they are given us to consume. 35:13 Thus with your mouth ye have boasted against me, and have multiplied your words against me: I have heard them. 35:14 Thus saith the Lord GOD; When the whole earth rejoiceth, I will make thee desolate. 35:15 As thou didst rejoice at the inheritance of the house of Israel, because it was desolate, so will I do unto thee: thou shalt be desolate, O mount Seir, and all Idumea, even all of it: and they shall know that I am the LORD. 36:1 Also, thou son of man, prophesy unto the mountains of Israel, and say, Ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the LORD: 36:2 Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because the enemy hath said against you, Aha, even the ancient high places are ours in possession: 36:3 Therefore…

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Excerpt #2, from Cliff Castles and Cave Dwellings of Europe, by S. Baring

…ambition and avarice, vanity and luxury; and, as a background to all these seething heaps of decay, misrule and misery, hung the black cloud of the barbarians, waxing stronger and stronger so that the wisest Romans saw clearly as the years rolled on, they would soon be the conquerors of the Caesars and the masters of the Western world. “No wonder, if in such a state of things, the minds of men were stirred by a passion akin to despair, which ended in a new and grand form of suicide. It would have ended often, but for Christianity, in such an actual despair as that which had led in past ages more than one noble Roman to slay himself, when he lost all hope for the Republic. That the world–such at least as they saw it then–was doomed, Scripture and their own reason taught them. They did not merely believe, but saw, in the misery and confusion, the desolation and degradation around them, that the world was passing away, and the lust thereof, and that only he who did the will of God could abide for ever. They did not merely believe, but saw that the wrath of God was revealed from Heaven against all unrighteousness of men. Under these terrible forebodings, men began to flee from a doomed world, and try to be alone with God, if by any means they might save each man his own soul in that dread day.” [Footnote: Kingsley (C.), “The Hermits,” Lond. 1868.] In the year 336 Athanasius was in exile at Trèves. He is traditionally…

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Excerpt #3, from The Prince, by Niccolò Machiavelli

…Those who by valorous ways become princes, like these men, acquire a principality with difficulty, but they keep it with ease. The difficulties they have in acquiring it rise in part from the new rules and methods which they are forced to introduce to establish their government and its security. And it ought to be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things, because the innovator has for enemies all those who have done well under the old conditions, and lukewarm defenders in those who may do well under the new. This coolness arises partly from fear of the opponents, who have the laws on their side, and partly from the incredulity of men, who do not readily believe in new things until they have had a long experience of them. Thus it happens that whenever those who are hostile have the opportunity to attack they do it like partisans, whilst the others defend lukewarmly, in such wise that the prince is endangered along with them. It is necessary, therefore, if we desire to discuss this matter thoroughly, to inquire whether these innovators can rely on themselves or have to depend on others: that is to say, whether, to consummate their enterprise, have they to use prayers or can they use force? In…

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Excerpt #4, from Canadian Fairy Tales, by Cyrus MacMillan

…warrior, and the wedding party will soon be along this way. They asked me to sit here and make music for them with my flute as they pass by. They have promised to pay me well, and they have invited me to the wedding feast. Come and join me and play too, and you will be well paid, and we will go to the wedding feast together and get good things to eat." Fox thought he would let Rabbit get the pay he had been promised, for he was a very greedy fellow; then he would rob him and kill him, and he would take his flute and go to the wedding feast alone, and his vengeance would then be complete. So he decided to let his anger cool for a little time. And he said, “I have no flute, and I cannot therefore make music; but I will sit with you to see the wedding guests go by.” But Rabbit said, “Take my flute. I have another at home. I will go and get it, for there is yet time.” So Fox took the flute and began to play loudly, and Rabbit slipped hurriedly out of sight, pretending to go for his Indian pipe. But he resolved to make an end of Fox, for he feared for his own life, and instead of going home, he set the underbrush on fire. He kindled the fire at many places all around the log on which Fox sat. Fox could not hear the fire crackling because of the loud music of his flute, and he thought the light was but the bright light of the moon. And the fire was almost upon him before he knew that he was in danger. Then he…

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Excerpt #5, from Old Mines of Southern California, by Harold W. Fairbanks and William H. Storms

…gangue minerals. The two veins are curiously formed at contact with massive blue limestone and mica schist. The schist is from 1 to 4 feet in width, the ore lying both above and below it, the whole being inclosed between hanging and foot walls of crystalline limestone. At various points in the workings is a light-colored, much decomposed rock, resembling felsite, which has the appearance of having been injected between the strata in a thin sheet. It is a notable fact that where this buff-colored, granular appearing rock occurs in contact with the vein an enrichment of the ore is noticeable, and its absence is marked by the low value of the ore or no ore at all. In this incline, at a depth of 40 feet, a short drift has been run in on ore of good grade. At 180 feet from the collar of the shaft the discovery was made that caused this mine, and, in fact, the entire camp, to become at once the scene of excitement. At this place a small wedge of crystalline, granular quartz and calcite appeared, and with it flakes of free gold. Just below the point of this discovery the wedge widened to several inches, and the rock was a mass of glittering sheets and shot-like pieces of gold. Assays of the material gave fabulous returns. The ore was broken down on canvas, and every ounce of it sacked on the spot. This was followed down some distance, but gradually thinned out below the 200-foot level, where…

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Excerpt #6, from Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad

…me, ‘He does not hear.’ ‘What! Dead?’ I asked, startled. ‘No, not yet,’ he answered, with great composure. Then, alluding with a toss of the head to the tumult in the station-yard, ‘When one has got to make correct entries, one comes to hate those savages—hate them to the death.’ He remained thoughtful for a moment. ‘When you see Mr. Kurtz’ he went on, ‘tell him from me that everything here’—he glanced at the deck—’ is very satisfactory. I don’t like to write to him—with those messengers of ours you never know who may get hold of your letter—at that Central Station.’ He stared at me for a moment with his mild, bulging eyes. ‘Oh, he will go far, very far,’ he began again. ‘He will be a somebody in the Administration before long. They, above—the Council in Europe, you know—mean him to be.’ “He turned to his work. The noise outside had ceased, and presently in going out I stopped at the door. In the steady buzz of flies the homeward-bound agent was lying finished and insensible; the other, bent over his books, was making correct entries of perfectly correct transactions; and fifty feet below the doorstep I could see the still tree-tops of the grove of death. “Next day I left that station at last, with a caravan of sixty men, for a two-hundred-mile tramp. “No use telling you much about that. Paths, paths, everywhere; a…

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Excerpt #7, from Anthem, by Ayn Rand

…“We have given you a name in our thoughts, Liberty 5-3000.” “What is our name?” they asked. “The Golden One.” “Nor do we call you Equality 7-2521 when we think of you.” “What name have you given us?” They looked straight into our eyes and they held their head high and they answered: “The Unconquered.” For a long time we could not speak. Then we said: “Such thoughts as these are forbidden, Golden One.” “But you think such thoughts as these and you wish us to think them.” We looked into their eyes and we could not lie. “Yes,” we whispered, and they smiled, and then we said: “Our dearest one, do not obey us.” They stepped back, and their eyes were wide and still. “Speak these words again,” they whispered. “Which words?” we asked. But they did not answer, and we knew it. “Our dearest one,” we whispered. Never have men said this to women. The head of the Golden One bowed slowly, and they stood still before us, their arms at their sides, the palms of their hands…

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Excerpt #8, from Oliver Twist, by Charles Dickens

…and nieces, who had been perfectly inconsolable during the previous illness, and whose grief had been wholly irrepressible even on the most public occasions, they would be as happy among themselves as need be—quite cheerful and contented—conversing together with as much freedom and gaiety, as if nothing whatever had happened to disturb them. Husbands, too, bore the loss of their wives with the most heroic calmness. Wives, again, put on weeds for their husbands, as if, so far from grieving in the garb of sorrow, they had made up their minds to render it as becoming and attractive as possible. It was observable, too, that ladies and gentlemen who were in passions of anguish during the ceremony of interment, recovered almost as soon as they reached home, and became quite composed before the tea-drinking was over. All this was very pleasant and improving to see; and Oliver beheld it with great admiration. That Oliver Twist was moved to resignation by the example of these good people, I cannot, although I am his biographer, undertake to affirm with any degree of confidence; but I can most distinctly say, that for many months he continued meekly to submit to the domination and ill-treatment of Noah Claypole: who used him far worse than before, now that his jealousy was roused by seeing the new boy promoted to the black stick and hatband, while he, the old one, remained stationary in…

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Excerpt #9, from The Critique of Pure Reason, by Immanuel Kant

…admit the existence of a necessary being, and consider that there exists a necessity for a definite and final answer to these questions. In such a case, we cannot make a better choice, or rather we have no choice at all, but feel ourselves obliged to declare in favour of the absolute unity of complete reality, as the highest source of the possibility of things. But if there exists no motive for coming to a definite conclusion, and we may leave the question unanswered till we have fully weighed both sides—in other words, when we are merely called upon to decide how much we happen to know about the question, and how much we merely flatter ourselves that we know—the above conclusion does not appear to be so great advantage, but, on the contrary, seems defective in the grounds upon which it is supported. For, admitting the truth of all that has been said, that, namely, the inference from a given existence (my own, for example) to the existence of an unconditioned and necessary being is valid and unassailable; that, in the second place, we must consider a being which contains all reality, and consequently all the conditions of other things, to be absolutely unconditioned; and admitting too, that we have thus discovered the conception of a thing to which may be attributed, without inconsistency, absolute necessity—it does not follow from all this that the conception of a limited being, in which the supreme…

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Excerpt #10, from Mr. Punch’s History of the Great War, by Charles L. Graves

…interesting has been the sudden re-emergence of Mr. John Burns. He sank without a trace two years ago, but has now bobbed up to denounce the proposal to strengthen the Charing Cross railway-bridge. We could have wished that he had been ready to “keep the bridge” in another sense; but at least he has been a silent Pacificist. Mr. Winston Churchill, when his journalistic labours permit, has contributed to the debates, and Lord Haldane has again delivered his famous lecture on the defects of English education. But for Parliamentary sagacity in excelsis commend us to Mr. McCallum Scott. He is seriously perturbed about the shortage of sausage-skins and, in spite of the bland assurance of Mr. Harcourt that supplies are ample, is alleged to be planning a fresh campaign with the assistance of Mr. Hogge. Another shortage has given rise to no anxiety, but rather the reverse. In a police court it was recently stated that there are no longer any tramps in England. Evidently the appeal of that stirring old song, “Tramp! tramp! tramp! the boys are marching,” has not been without its effect. [Illustration: CONJURER (unconscious of the approach of hostile aircraft): “Now, Ladies and Gentlemen, I want you to watch me closely.”] Yet another endurable shortage is reported from the seaside, where an old sailor on the local sea front has been lamenting the spiritual starvation brought about by the war. “Why,” he said, "for the first time for twenty…

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Excerpt #11, from The Tempest, by William Shakespeare

…Like poison given to work a great time after, 105 Now ’gins to bite the spirits. I do beseech you, That are of suppler joints, follow them swiftly, And hinder them from what this ecstasy May now provoke them to. Adr. Follow, I pray you. [Exeunt. Notes: III, 3. 2: ache] ake F2 F3 F4. akes F1. 3: forth-rights] F2 F3 F4. fourth rights F1. 8: flatterer] F1. flatterers F2 F3 F4. 17: Prospero above] Malone. Prosper on the top Ff. See note (XIV). 20: were] F1 F2 F3. are F4. 26: ’tis true] to ’t Steevens conj. did lie] lied Hanmer. 29: islanders] F2 F3 F4. islands F1. 32: gentle-kind] Theobald. gentle, kind Ff. gentle kind Rowe. 36: muse] F1 F2 F3. muse, F4. muse; Capell. 48: of five for one] Ff. on five for one Theobald. of one for five Malone, (Thirlby conj.) See note (XV). 49-51: I will … past] Mason conjectured that these lines formed a rhyming couplet….

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Excerpt #12, from History of the war in the Peninsula and in the south of France from the year

…the Guadalquivir. A demonstration by the allies in the Isla de Leon arrested the march of these French troops for a moment, but on the 14th eight thousand men under generals Godinot and Semélé advanced upon St. Roque and Algeziras. The inhabitants of those places immediately fled to the green island, and Ballesteros took refuge under Gibraltar, where his flanks were covered by the gun-boats of the place. The garrison was too weak to assist him with men, and thus cooped up, he lived upon the resources of the place, while efforts were therefore made to draw off the French by harassing their flanks. The naval means were not sufficient to remove his whole army to another quarter, but seven hundred were transported to Manilba, where the Serranos and some Partidas had assembled on the left of the French, and at the same time twelve hundred British troops with four guns, under colonel Skerrett, and two thousand Spaniards, under Copons, sailed from Cadiz to Tarifa to act upon the French right. Copons was driven back by a gale of wind, but Skerrett arrived the 17th. The next day Godinot sent a detachment against him, but the sea-road by which it marched was so swept with the guns of the Tuscan frigate, aided by the boats of the Stately, that the French after losing some men returned. Then Godinot and Semélé being in dispute, and without provisions, retreated; they were followed by Ballesteros’…

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