Quick Excerpts, from a Library of 492 Titles

Generated 2022-07-28 13:26:33

Excerpt #1, from Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott

…words. His very clothes seemed to partake of the hospitable nature of the wearer. They looked as if they were at ease, and liked to make him comfortable. His capacious waistcoat was suggestive of a large heart underneath. His rusty coat had a social air, and the baggy pockets plainly proved that little hands often went in empty and came out full. His very boots were benevolent, and his collars never stiff and raspy like other people’s. “That’s it!” said Jo to herself, when she at length discovered that genuine good will toward one’s fellow men could beautify and dignify even a stout German teacher, who shoveled in his dinner, darned his own socks, and was burdened with the name of Bhaer. Jo valued goodness highly, but she also possessed a most feminine respect for intellect, and a little discovery which she made about the Professor added much to her regard for him. He never spoke of himself, and no one ever knew that in his native city he had been a man much honored and esteemed for learning and integrity, till a countryman came to see him. He never spoke of himself, and in a conversation with Miss Norton divulged the pleasing fact. From her Jo learned it, and liked it all the better because Mr. Bhaer had never told it. She felt proud to know that he was an honored Professor in Berlin, though only a poor…

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Excerpt #2, from Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare

…Romeo slew Tybalt, Romeo must not live. PRINCE. Romeo slew him, he slew Mercutio. Who now the price of his dear blood doth owe? MONTAGUE. Not Romeo, Prince, he was Mercutio’s friend; His fault concludes but what the law should end, The life of Tybalt. PRINCE. And for that offence Immediately we do exile him hence. I have an interest in your hate’s proceeding, My blood for your rude brawls doth lie a-bleeding. But I’ll amerce you with so strong a fine That you shall all repent the loss of mine. I will be deaf to pleading and excuses; Nor tears nor prayers shall purchase out abuses. Therefore use none. Let Romeo hence in haste, Else, when he is found, that hour is his last. Bear hence this body, and attend our will. Mercy but murders, pardoning those that kill….

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Excerpt #3, from The Aztec Treasure

…group of Indians. In the midst of the group was a very old man, who with out-stretched arm was pointing towards Pablo and El Sabio, and who at the same time was talking to his companions in grave and earnest tones. There was a look of awe upon his age-worn face, and as we fairly came abreast of him he dropped upon his knees and raised his arms above his head, as though in supplication to some higher power. The action, truly, was a most impressive one; and even more strongly than we were affected by it did it affect those who were clustered around him. In a moment all in the group had fallen upon their knees and had raised their arms upward; and then a low moaning, that presently grew louder and more thrilling, broke forth among them as they gave vent to the feeling of awful dread that was in their hearts. “That’s business, that is,” Young said, in tones of great satisfaction. "Those fellows do believe in th’ prophecy, for a fact; and if th’ folks once get it fairly into their heads that th’ time has come for their rascally Priest Captain t’ have an upset, that’s a good long start for our side towards upsettin’ him. It was just everlastin’ly level-headed in th’ Colonel t’ make Pablo ride El Sabio, and so regularly cram th’ thing down these critters’ throats. I don’t know how much of th’ prophecy he believes himself, but he’s workin’ it for all it’s worth, any way. There don’t seem t’ be any flies worth speakin’ of on th’…

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Excerpt #4, from Sir Gawayne and the Green Knight, by Richard Morris

…Green Chapel; there passes none by that place, however proud in arms, that he does not ‘ding him to death with dint of his hand.’ He is a man immoderate and ‘no mercy uses,’ for be it churl or chaplain that by the chapel rides, monk or mass-priest, or any man else, it is as pleasant to him to kill them as to go alive himself. Wherefore I tell thee truly, ‘come ye there, ye be killed, though ye had twenty lives to spend. He has dwelt there long of yore, and on field much sorrow has wrought. Against his sore dints ye may not defend you’ (ll. 2069-2117). Therefore, good Sir Gawayne, let the man alone, and for God’s sake go by some other path, and then I shall hie me home again. I swear to you by [Footnote 1: He only in part keeps to his covenant, as he holds back the love-lace.] God and all His saints that I will never say that ever ye attempted to flee from any man." Gawayne thanks his guide for his well-meant kindness, but declares that to the Green Chapel he will go, though the owner thereof be “a stern knave,” for God can devise means to save his servants. “Mary!” quoth the other, "since it pleases thee to lose thy life I will not hinder thee. Have thy helmet on thy head, thy spear in thy hand, and ride down this path by yon rock-side, till thou be brought to the…

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Excerpt #5, from Primitive & Mediaeval Japanese Texts, by F. Victor Dickins

…forth from, or their combinations. =imogakami=, my love’s hair; with age, lift up (to knot), in Agesasabanu, Moor of Agesasaba. =imogakeru=, by my love worn; to mikasa (fine hat), of Mikasa Hill (pl. n.). =imogamewo=, my love’s eye; with mi-somu, fall in love; Tomi no saki (Cape Tomi, mi = see); Mimakuhoriye (pl. n.), mimakuhori, desire to see and love. =imogarito=, or imoragari (imo ga ari), towards where my love is; with ima (now, or place where), as in Imaki (Peak); with Ikoma (Hill)–Ikoma = yuku (iku) koma. =imogasode=, my love’s sleeve; with maki, roll up, of Makimuku Hill. =imogatewo=, my love’s hand; with tori (take), toru or toro; Toroshi no ike, Pool of Toroshi. =inamushiro=, rice-straw matting; used as kaha (skin employed also as mat); with kake and shiku, apply, spread, by quibble with kaha, stream, 102. =inanomeno=, the word means daybreak (not-sleep-eye); applied to ake, open, break as dawn; another explanation is, ina no me (ina–rice-plant–no mure) no, ake is then confounded with aku akaramu, grow ruddy, ripe, and an involved word-play results….

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Excerpt #6, from Wild Animals I Have Known, by Ernest Thompson Seton

…Running rills cure many ills. Never take the open if you can keep the cover. Never leave a straight trail if a crooked one will do. If it’s strange, it’s hostile. Dust and water burn the scent. Never hunt mice in a rabbit-woods, or rabbits in a henyard. Keep off the grass. Inklings of the meanings of these were already entering the little ones’ minds–thus, ‘Never follow what you can’t smell,’ was wise, they could see, because if you can’t smell it, then the wind is so that it must smell you. One by one they learned the birds and beasts of their home woods, and then as they were able to go abroad with their parents they learned new animals. They were beginning to think they knew the scent of everything that moved. But one night the mother took them to a field where there was a strange black flat thing on the ground. She brought them on purpose to smell it, but at the first whiff their every hair stood on end, they trembled, they knew not why–it seemed to tingle through their blood and fill them with instinctive hate and fear. And when she saw its full effect she told them– “That is man-scent.”…

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Excerpt #7, from Planet of the Damned, by Harry Harrison

…curious–and he’s going to stay that way. The truth behind the Twenties is none of his business. But it’s going to be yours. You must come to realize that the life you lead here is a complete and artificial construction, developed by Societics experts and put into application by skilled field workers." “Nonsense!” Brion broke in. “Systems of society can’t be dreamed up and forced on people like that. Not without bloodshed and violence.” “Nonsense, yourself,” Ihjel told him. “That may have been true in the dawn of history, but not any more. You have been reading too many of the old Earth classics; you imagine that we still live in the Ages of Superstition. Just because fascism and communism were once forced on reluctant populations, you think this holds true for all time. Go back to your books. In exactly the same era democracy and self-government were adapted by former colonial states, like India and the Union of North Africa, and the only violence was between local religious groups. Change is the lifeblood of mankind. Everything we today accept as normal was at one time an innovation. And one of the most recent innovations is the attempt to guide the societies of mankind into something more consistent with the personal happiness of individuals.” “The God complex,” Brion said; "forcing human lives into a mold…

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Excerpt #8, from A Week at Waterloo in 1815, by Lady Magdalene De Lancey

…essential. I then asked for wine, both of which General Dundas sent down next day. That night I had no difficulty in keeping awake. Sir William was restless and uncomfortable; his breathing was oppressed, and I had constantly to raise him on the pillow. The pain in his chest increased, and he was twice bled before morning. He was very much better on Friday forenoon. Mr Woolriche told us that every day since the battle the people of Brussels sent down carriages to take the wounded to the hospital; from twenty to thirty private carriages came every day. On Friday evening Sir William was very feverish, and the appearance of the blood was very inflammatory. I had learnt now to judge for myself, as Mr Powell, seeing how anxious I was, sometimes had the kindness to give me a little instruction. About ten at night Mr Powell and Mr Woolriche came. While I told them how Sir William had been since their last visit, and mentioned several circumstances that had occurred, I watched them and saw they looked at each other. I guessed their thoughts. I turned away to the window and wept. They remained a little time, and I recovered myself enough to speak to them cheerfully as they went out. They lingered, and seemed to wish to speak to me, but I was well aware of what they had to say. I felt…

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Excerpt #9, from Ivanhoe: A Romance, by Walter Scott

…If this yeoman can cleave that rod, I give him the bucklers—or rather, I yield to the devil that is in his jerkin, and not to any human skill; a man can but do his best, and I will not shoot where I am sure to miss. I might as well shoot at the edge of our parson’s whittle, or at a wheat straw, or at a sunbeam, as at a twinkling white streak which I can hardly see.” “Cowardly dog!” said Prince John.—“Sirrah Locksley, do thou shoot; but, if thou hittest such a mark, I will say thou art the first man ever did so. However it be, thou shalt not crow over us with a mere show of superior skill.” “I will do my best, as Hubert says,” answered Locksley; “no man can do more.” So saying, he again bent his bow, but on the present occasion looked with attention to his weapon, and changed the string, which he thought was no longer truly round, having been a little frayed by the two former shots. He then took his aim with some deliberation, and the multitude awaited the event in breathless silence. The archer vindicated their opinion of his skill: his arrow split the willow rod against which it was aimed. A jubilee of acclamations followed; and even Prince John, in admiration of Locksley’s skill, lost for an instant his dislike to his person. “These twenty nobles,” he said,…

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Excerpt #10, from Literary Lapses, by Stephen Leacock

…with wrinkles; better let me rub some of this Rejuvenator into the face." This process is continued until one of two things happens. Either the customer is obdurate, and staggers to his feet at last and gropes his way out of the shop with the knowledge that he is a wrinkled, prematurely senile man, whose wicked life is stamped upon his face, and whose unstopped hair-ends and failing follicles menace him with the certainty of complete baldness within twenty-four hours–or else, as in nearly all instances, he succumbs. In the latter case, immediately on his saying “yes” there is a shout of exultation from the barber, a roar of steaming water, and within a moment two barbers have grabbed him by the feet and thrown him under the tap, and, in spite of his struggles, are giving him the Hydro-magnetic treatment. When he emerges from their hands, he steps out of the shop looking as if he had been varnished. But even the application of the Hydro-magnetic and the Rejuvenator do not by any means exhaust the resources of the up-to-date barber. He prefers to perform on the customer a whole variety of subsidiary services not directly connected with shaving, but carried on during the process of the shave. In a good, up-to-date shop, while one man is shaving the customer, others black his boots; brush his clothes, darn his socks, point his…

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Excerpt #11, from Rambles and Recollections of an Indian Official, by William Sleeman

…which the old gentleman took for an unequivocal recognition of his victory, and his adversary was silenced. He was an old man when I first became acquainted with him. I put into his hands, when in camp, Miss Edgeworth’s novels, in the hope of being able to induce him to read by degrees; and I have frequently seen the tears stealing down over his furrowed cheeks, as he sat pondering over her pages in the corner of his tent. A braver soldier never lived than old G——; and he distinguished himself greatly in the command of his regiment, under Lord Lake, at the battle of Laswâri[8] and siege of Bharatpur.[9] It was impossible ever to persuade him that the characters and incidents of these novels were the mere creations of fancy–he felt them to be true–he wished them to be true, and he would have them to be true. We were not very anxious to undeceive him, as the illusion gave him pleasure and did him good. Bolingbroke says, after an ancient author, ‘History is philosophy teaching by example.’[10] With equal truth may we say that fiction, like that of Maria Edgeworth, is philosophy teaching by emotion. It certainly taught old G—— to be a better man, to leave much of the little evil he had been in the habit of doing, and to do much of the good he had been accustomed to leave undone. Notes:…

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Excerpt #12, from Diego Collado’s Grammar of the Japanese Language, by Diego Collado

…same as coto de gozaru; e.g., naranu made or naranu coto de gozaru mean the same as naranu ‘it is not possible.’ Guijet tçucamatçurǒ to zonzuru coto va cacugo itasanu coto gia (10v) ‘the breaking of this friendship does not come to mind.’ Here the itasanu coto gia is the same as itasanu alone. The particle madeio is used to confirm what has been said; e.g., caita madeio ‘that which I wrote, I wrote.’ The particle toqi when added to the present tense, forms a preterit imperfect; e.g., jennin tachi va saigo ni voiobi tamó toqi va buji ni gozatta ‘when saints arrive at the time of their death, they are peaceful and quiet.’ Changing the ta of the preterit to tçu and the da of the negative to zzu[131] the meaning becomes ‘I do it this way and then that way’; e.g., mono vo caitçu, iôzzu, nando xite curasu bacari gia ‘I spend my life reading, writing and doing other things,’ tattçu itçu vocu iori zaxiqi ie ide zaxiqi iori vocu ie iri xitten battǒ xeraruru (11v) ‘standing and sitting, entering and departing, he stands up and falls down.’ The particle ri gives the same meaning after the preterit; e.g., xeqen no mono va netari voqitari nǒdari curasu bacari gia (11) ‘men of the world spend their lives sleeping, arising, and drinking,’ mazzu (46 _ite niva vo mo facaxetari, cusa vo mo ficaxetari iroiro no xigoto vo ategǒte cosó…

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