Quick Excerpts, from a Library of 492 Titles

Generated 2022-07-28 13:26:47

Excerpt #1, from Champions of the Fleet, by Edward Fraser

…deemed advisable to keep the news secret if possible. The authorities at Calcutta understood that the French garrison at Chandernagore—barely twenty-five miles off up the Hooghly river—numbered some five hundred Europeans and a thousand Sepoys, and the French also had another garrison at Cossimbazaar (Kasim Bazar), within touch of Chandernagore. What if the French should make common cause with Suraj-u-daulah, then on his march down country, and reinforce his horde of armed men with their drilled troops, officered by men who had seen service. The bare idea was a nightmare to the Council of Calcutta. As it happened, Governor Renault at Chandernagore had received the news of war with England on the very day (the 6th of January) that the officials at Fort William had their information. They, too, for their own particular reasons, had decided for the time being to say nothing about it. The French at Chandernagore were, as a fact, in a very different position from what they were thought to be at Calcutta. The garrison actually numbered only a hundred and forty-six European soldiers, many of whom were invalids, and some three hundred Sepoys. In addition there were between three and four hundred officials, traders, and sailors belonging to ships from France in the river. What was to be done was a very difficult question. There seemed to be two courses open. One was to join with the Nawab in his campaign against Calcutta then—in January—just…

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Excerpt #2, from Recollections and impressions of James A. McNeill Whistler, by Arthur Jerome Eddy

…audience; a man need not own a vineyard to know good wine. The critic stands, or, rather, should stand, between the public and the work he criticises, whether it be poem, painting, statue, or drama; the mistake he commonly makes is in forcing himself between the worker and his work, and in trying to teach him something only another and better worker in the same art is competent to do. Critics make most of their blunders in judging works according to preconceived notions as to how they should be done,–in condemning, for instance, a picture because not painted after prevailing modes and methods, because it is a departure, whereas with these considerations the lay-critic has nothing to do; they fall entirely within the province of the painter-critic, the one man who is competent, in the long run, to pass upon the methods employed. Every work is an appeal to the public,–its completion and exhibition make it such; therefore, every work challenges the critical faculties, great or small, of those who see it. It is inevitable that some more interested should spring up to interpret, rightly or wrongly, the work to the public; the artist seldom takes the trouble,–in fact, has neither the time nor the temperament; his message is complete in the picture, others must understand it as best they can. The playwright cannot address the audience save through the play, the…

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Excerpt #3, from Antiquities of the Jews, by Flavius Josephus

…outer fortifications, for some such fortifications there were in that place. Phasaelus came also to his assistance; yet was Pacorus, the general of the Parthians, at the desire of Antigonus, admitted into the city, with a few of his horsemen, under pretence indeed as if he would still the sedition, but in reality to assist Antigonus in obtaining the government. And when Phasaelus met him, and received him kindly, Pacorus persuaded him to go himself as ambassador to Barzapharnes, which was done fraudulently. Accordingly, Phasaelus, suspecting no harm, complied with his proposal, while Herod did not give his consent to what was done, because of the perfidiousness of these barbarians, but desired Phasaelus rather to fight those that were come into the city. 5. So both Hyrcanus and Phasaelus went on the embassage; but Pacorus left with Herod two hundred horsemen, and ten men, who were called the freemen, and conducted the others on their journey; and when they were in Galilee, the governors of the cities there met them in their arms. Barzapharnes also received them at the first with cheerfulness, and made them presents, though he afterward conspired against them; and Phasaelus, with his horsemen, were conducted to the sea-side. But when they heard that Antigonus had promised to give the Parthians a thousand talents, and five hundred women, to assist him against them, they soon had a suspicion of the barbarians. Moreover, there was one who informed…

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Excerpt #4, from Twenty Four Unusual Stories for Boys and Girls, by Anna Cogswell Tyler

…“‘This is the Feast of All Fools, and it ought to be your birthday,’ said Scrub. ‘Did ever man fling away such an opportunity of getting rich! Much good your merry leaves will do in the midst of rags and poverty!’ So he went on, but Spare laughed at him, and answered with quaint old proverbs concerning the cares that come with gold, till Scrub, at length getting angry, vowed his brother was not fit to live with a respectable man; and, taking his lasts, his awls, and his golden leaf, he left the wattle hut, and went to tell the villagers.”They were astonished at the folly of Spare and charmed with Scrub’s good sense, particularly when he showed them the golden leaf, and told that the cuckoo would bring him one every spring. The new cobbler immediately took him into partnership; the greatest people sent him their shoes to mend; Fairfeather smiled graciously upon him, and in the course of that summer they were married, with a grand wedding feast, at which the whole village danced, except Spare, who was not invited, because the bride could not bear his low-mindedness, and his brother thought him a disgrace to the family. "Indeed, all who heard the story concluded that Spare must be mad, and nobody would associate with him but a lame tinker, a beggar-boy, and a poor woman reputed to be a witch because she was old and ugly. As for Scrub, he established himself with Fairfeather in a cottage close by…

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Excerpt #5, from Under the White Ensign: A Naval Story of the Great War, by Percy F. Westerman

…The Sub was one of the few who were thrown clear. Some, trapped underneath the upturned craft, were unable to dive under the gunwales, owing to the buoyancy of their life-saving gear, until they had wrenched off their belts. Two were stunned by their heads coming into violent contact with the woodwork. Caught by a crested breaker, Webb found himself being urged shorewards at a terrific speed. Presently his feet touched the sand. In vain he started to make his way to land. Gripped by the undertow he was dragged back until the succeeding breaker overtook him, hurling him forwards like a stone from a catapult. Again the wave receded. Prone upon the soft, yielding sand, the Sub endeavoured to obtain a hold by digging his hands into the treacherous shore till the receding mass of water drew him backwards to be again pounded by the next mountain of water. Boats’ gear, hurled shorewards by the waves, was thrown all around him. Several times he was struck by heavy objects. Not only was he in danger of being drowned; there was also a likelihood that he might be battered into a state of insensibility by the flotsam. For how long this state of affairs continued Webb had not the faintest idea. Nor did he know how his companions were faring, except that farther along the shore some saturated figures were staggering…

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Excerpt #6, from My Man Jeeves, by P. G. Wodehouse

…Macbeth might have said to Macbeth, don’t you know. “Do you mean me?” I said. She came down into the light. It was Elizabeth, looking just the same as in the old days. “Is that you, Reggie? I’m so glad you were able to come. I was afraid you might have forgotten all about it. You know what you are. Come along in and have some tea.” Have you ever been turned down by a girl who afterwards married and then been introduced to her husband? If so you’ll understand how I felt when Clarence burst on me. You know the feeling. First of all, when you hear about the marriage, you say to yourself, “I wonder what he’s like.” Then you meet him, and think, “There must be some mistake. She can’t have preferred this to me!” That’s what I thought, when I set eyes on Clarence. He was a little thin, nervous-looking chappie of about thirty-five. His hair was getting grey at the temples and straggly on top. He wore pince-nez, and he had a drooping moustache. I’m no Bombardier Wells myself, but in front of Clarence I felt quite a nut. And Elizabeth, mind you, is one of those tall, splendid girls who look like princesses. Honestly, I believe women do it out of pure cussedness. “How do you do, Mr. Pepper? Hark! Can you hear a mewing cat?” said…

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Excerpt #7, from The Pursuit of the House Boat, by John Kendrick Bangs

…not satisfied with the terms offered you; nor can I ever let it be said of me that to retain my position as janitor of your organization I sacrificed a trust committed to my charge. I’ll gladly lend you my private launch, though I don’t think it will aid you much, because the naphtha-tank has exploded, and the screw slipped off and went to the bottom two weeks ago. Still, it is at your service, and I’ve no doubt that either Phidias or Benvenuto Cellini will carve out a paddle for you if you ask him to.” “Bah!” retorted Raleigh. “You might as well offer us a pair of skates.” “I would, if I thought the river’d freeze,” retorted Charon, blandly. Raleigh and Hamlet turned away impatiently and left Charon to his own devices, which for the time being consisted largely of winking his other eye quietly and outwardly making a great show of grief. “He’s too canny for us, I am afraid,” said Sir Walter. “We’ll have to pay him his money.” “Let us first consult Sherlock Holmes,” suggested Hamlet, and this they proceeded at once to do. “There is but one thing to be done,” observed the astute detective after he had heard Sir Walter’s statement of the case. “It is an old saying that one should fight fire with fire. We must meet modern business methods with modern commercial ideas. Charter his vessel at his own…

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Excerpt #8, from The Radio Amateur’s Hand Book, by A. Frederick Collins

…it will, therefore, be neither positive nor negative, that is, it will be perfectly neutral. When, however, one or more of its electrons are separated from it, and there are several ways by which this can be done, the atom will show a positive charge and it is then called a positive ion. In other words a positive ion is an atom that has lost some of its negative electrons while a negative ion is one that has acquired some additional negative electrons. When a number of electrons are being constantly given by the atoms of an element, which let us suppose is a metal, and are being attracted to atoms of another element, which we will say is also a metal, a flow of electrons takes place between the two oppositely charged elements and form a current of negative electricity as represented by the arrows at A in Fig. 70. [Illustration: Fig. 70.–Action of Two-electrode Vacuum Tube.] When a stream of electrons is flowing between two metal elements, as a filament and a plate in a vacuum tube detector, or an amplifier, they act as carriers for more negative electrons and these are supplied by a battery as we shall presently explain. It has always been customary for us to think of a current of electricity as flowing from the positive pole of a battery to the negative pole of it and hence we have called this the direction of the current. Since the electronic…

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Excerpt #9, from Hard Times, by Charles Dickens

…thirty?’ Mrs. Sparsit laughed outright. ‘A chit,’ said she. ‘Not twenty when she was married.’ ‘I give you my honour, Mrs. Powler,’ returned the stranger, detaching himself from the table, ‘that I never was so astonished in my life!’ It really did seem to impress him, to the utmost extent of his capacity of being impressed. He looked at his informant for full a quarter of a minute, and appeared to have the surprise in his mind all the time. ‘I assure you, Mrs. Powler,’ he then said, much exhausted, ‘that the father’s manner prepared me for a grim and stony maturity. I am obliged to you, of all things, for correcting so absurd a mistake. Pray excuse my intrusion. Many thanks. Good day!’ He bowed himself out; and Mrs. Sparsit, hiding in the window curtain, saw him languishing down the street on the shady side of the way, observed of all the town. ‘What do you think of the gentleman, Bitzer?’ she asked the light porter, when he came to take away. ‘Spends a deal of money on his dress, ma’am.’ ‘It must be admitted,’ said Mrs. Sparsit, ‘that it’s very tasteful.’ ‘Yes, ma’am,’ returned Bitzer, ‘if that’s worth the money.’ ‘Besides which, ma’am,’ resumed Bitzer, while he was polishing the table,…

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Excerpt #10, from Utilitarianism, by John Stuart Mill

…come to be itself a principal ingredient of the individual’s conception of happiness. The same may be said of the majority of the great objects of human life–power, for example, or fame; except that to each of these there is a certain amount of immediate pleasure annexed, which has at least the semblance of being naturally inherent in them; a thing which cannot be said of money. Still, however, the strongest natural attraction, both of power and of fame, is the immense aid they give to the attainment of our other wishes; and it is the strong association thus generated between them and all our objects of desire, which gives to the direct desire of them the intensity it often assumes, so as in some characters to surpass in strength all other desires. In these cases the means have become a part of the end, and a more important part of it than any of the things which they are means to. What was once desired as an instrument for the attainment of happiness, has come to be desired for its own sake. In being desired for its own sake it is, however, desired as part of happiness. The person is made, or thinks he would be made, happy by its mere possession; and is made unhappy by failure to obtain it. The desire of it is not a different thing from the desire of happiness, any more than the love of music, or the desire of health. They are included in happiness. They are some of the elements of which the desire of happiness is made up. Happiness is not an abstract idea,…

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Excerpt #11, from The Astral Plane, by C. W. Leadbeater

…the LIPIKA. It is they also who constantly watch all through life to counterbalance the changes perpetually being introduced into man’s condition by his own free will and that of those around him, so that no injustice may be done, and Karma may be accurately worked out, if not in one way then in another. A learned dissertation upon these marvellous beings will be found in The Secret Doctrine, vol. i., pp. 122-126. They are able to take human material forms at will, and several cases are recorded when they have done so. All the higher nature-spirits and hosts of artificial elementals act as their agents in the stupendous work they carry out, yet all the threads are in their hands, and the whole responsibility rests upon them alone. It is not often that they manifest upon the astral plane, but when they do they are certainly the most remarkable of its non-human inhabitants. A student of occultism will not need to be told that as there are seven great classes both of nature-spirits and elemental essence there must really be seven and not four Devarâjahs but outside the circle of initiation little is known and less may be said of the higher three. III. ARTIFICIAL. This, the largest class of astral entities, is also much the most important to man. Being entirely his own creation, it is inter-related with him by the closest karmic bonds, and its action upon him is…

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Excerpt #12, from The Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer; the Art of Controversy, by Arthur Schopenhauer

…privation. * * * * * Every happiness that a man enjoys, and almost every friendship that he cherishes, rest upon illusion; for, as a rule, with increase of knowledge they are bound to vanish. Nevertheless, here as elsewhere, a man should courageously pursue truth, and never weary of striving to settle accounts with himself and the world. No matter what happens to the right or to the left of him,–be it a chimaera or fancy that makes him happy, let him take heart and go on, with no fear of the desert which widens to his view. Of one thing only must he be quite certain: that under no circumstances will he discover any lack of worth in himself when the veil is raised; the sight of it would be the Gorgon that would kill him. Therefore, if he wants to remain undeceived, let him in his inmost being feel his own worth. For to feel the lack of it is not merely the greatest, but also the only true affliction; all other sufferings of the mind may not only be healed, but may be immediately relieved, by the secure consciousness of worth. The man who is assured of it can sit down quietly under sufferings that would otherwise bring him to despair; and though he has no pleasures, no joys and no friends, he can rest in and on himself; so powerful is the comfort to be derived from a vivid consciousness of this advantage; a…

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