Quick Excerpts, from a Library of 492 Titles

Generated 2022-07-28 13:26:01

Excerpt #1, from Word Portraits of Famous Writers, by Mabel E. Wotton

…has an opportunity of observing them expanded in their natural proportions. The face is far from being in any respect a classical one. The forehead is chiefly remarkable for its prominence from the ear, and not so much for its height. This gives him a lowering sort of look forwards, expressive of great inquisitiveness into matters of fact and the consequences to be deduced from them. His eyes are singularly prominent, which, according to the Gallic system, would indicate an extraordinary development of the organ of language behind them. His nose is too low between the eyes, and not well or boldly formed in any other respect. The lips, although not handsome, have in their fleshy and massy outlines abundant marks of habitual reflection and intellectual occupation. The whole had a fine expression of intellectual dignity, candour, and serenity. The want of elevation, however, which I have already noticed, injures very much the effect even of the structure of the lower part of the head…. It is to be regretted that he wore powder, for this prevents us from having the advantage of seeing what was the natural style of his hair–or, indeed, of ascertaining the form of any part of his head beyond the forehead.” [Sidenote: David Hume’s Life.] “To conclude historically with my own character. I am, or rather was (for that is the style which I must now use in speaking of myself,…

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Excerpt #2, from The Third Officer: A Present

…“She was gone in a brace of shakes. An’ where’s Mr. Burgoyne?” “Anyone seen Mr. Burgoyne?” inquired Captain Blair loudly. “I seed ’im in the boat, sir,” declared the bowman of the lost life-boat. “So did I, sir,” volunteered another seaman. “He was a-holdin’ on the yoke-lines, and was goin’ to tell us to—-” “He was a blamed idiot,” declared Strogoff. “What did he mean by hanging on alongside when the ship was sinking?” “She went that sudden-like,” explained the bowman. “Didn’t give us no chance no-how.” “Anyone else missing?” demanded Captain Blair. There was a pause, then half a dozen voices replied in unison: “Yes, sir, Minalto, the quartermaster of the port watch.” “No sign of them?” Several of the men peered into the now transparent water, for the sand disturbed by the sinking vessel had now settled. Twenty feet below the surface, pinned down by something engaging the starboard gunwale, the life-boat could be seen with fair distinctness. She was lying on her beam ends with her bows slightly lower than her stern. “Can’t see ’em, sir,” replied one of the men. “P’raps they’re trapped between the boat and the side of the ship.”…

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Excerpt #3, 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 #4, from The Observations of Professor Maturin, by Clyde Furst

…merely a series of answers to the body’s expectation of its usual rhythm. As one of your own critics has said, when music seems to be yearning for the unutterable it is only yearning for the next note.” The musician quelled the psychologist with an imaginary baton, which he then pointed at the biologist, saying, “Pray prove to the psychologist that he is nothing but pulp.” “He is surely little else,” smiled the biologist, “built by evolution and run by a chemical engine.” “Out on you scientists and your evolution!” broke in the archaeologist. “Can your mechanism make a Raphael, a Shakespeare, a Beethoven? Can your evolution show any architecture, sculpture, statecraft, drama, or philosophy equal to those of the age of Pericles? The world will produce nothing fine or permanent so long as you fellows tinker with its machinery. Your heresy of universal progress is merely a contemporary mythology that is falser than–” “Softly, softly,” said Professor Maturin, shaking his long forefinger at the disputants. “The true philosopher, with Dante, loves every part of wisdom. Why can we not all enjoy knowing that cats hear better than dogs, and, at the same time, appreciate Blake’s saying that the sun is not a round ball of fire, but the glory of the universe?” Everybody prepared to be mollified until Professor Maturin undid his…

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Excerpt #5, from The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, by Laurence Sterne

…cypress was used by the antients on mournful occasions?_ ] ——’Tis one thing, brother Shandy, for a soldier to hazard his own life—to leap first down into the trench, where he is sure to be cut in pieces:——’Tis one thing, from public spirit and a thirst of glory, to enter the breach the first man,—to stand in the foremost rank, and march bravely on with drums and trumpets, and colours flying about his ears:——’Tis one thing, I say, brother Shandy, to do this,—and ’tis another thing to reflect on the miseries of war;—to view the desolations of whole countries, and consider the intolerable fatigues and hardships which the soldier himself, the instrument who works them, is forced (for sixpence a day, if he can get it) to undergo. Need I be told, dear Yorick, as I was by you, in Le Fever’s funeral sermon, That so soft and gentle a creature, born to love, to mercy, and kindness, as man is, was not shaped for this?——But why did you not add, Yorick,—if not by NATURE—that he is so by NECESSITY?——For what is war? what is it, Yorick, when fought as ours has been, upon principles of liberty, and upon principles of honour—what is it, but the getting together of quiet and harmless people, with their swords in their hands, to keep the ambitious and the turbulent within bounds? And heaven is my witness, brother Shandy, that the pleasure I have taken in these things,—and that infinite delight, in particular,…

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Excerpt #6, from The Gravity Business, by James E. Gunn

…something with him. It’s preposterous that we should be detained here at the whim of a mere blob!" “I don’t figure it’s a whim,” Grampa said. “Circular gravity is what he’s got to have for one reason or another, so he just naturally bends the space-time continuum around him–conscious or subconscious, I don’t know. But protoplasm is always more efficient than machines, so the flivver won’t move.” “I don’t care why that thing does it,” Joyce said icily. “I want it stopped, and the sooner the better. If it won’t turn the gravity off, we’ll just have to do away with it.” “How?” asked Four. “Fweep’s skin is pretty close to impervious and you can’t shoot him, stab him or poison him. He doesn’t breathe, so you can’t drown or strangle him. You can’t imprison him; he ‘eats’ everything. And violence might be more dangerous to us than to him. Right now, Fweep is friendly, but suppose he got mad! He could lower his radioactive shield or he might increase the gravity by a few times. Either way, you’d feel rather uncomfortable, Grammy.” “Don’t call me ‘Grammy!’ Well, what are we going to do, just sit around and wait for that thing to die?” “We’d have a long wait,” Four observed. “Fweep is the only one of his kind on this planet.”…

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Excerpt #7, from Classic French Course in English, by William Cleaver Wilkinson

…wholly into the past.“] Let childhood look forward, and age backward: is not this the signification of Janus’ double face? Let years haul me along if they will, but it shall be backward; as long as my eyes can discern the pleasant season expired, I shall now and then turn them that way; though it escape from my blood and veins, I shall not, however, root the image of it out of my memory:–”Hoc est Vivere bis, vita posse priore frui." MARTIAL, x. 23, 7. [“’Tis to live twice to be able to enjoy former life again.”] Harmlessly, even engagingly, pensive seems the foregoing strain of sentiment. Who could suppose it a prelude to detailed reminiscence on the author’s part of sensual pleasures–the basest–enjoyed in the past? The venerable voluptuary keeps himself in countenance for his lascivious vein, by writing as follows:– I have enjoined myself to dare to say all that I dare to do; even thoughts that are not to be published, displease me; the worst of my actions and qualities do not appear to me so evil, as I find it evil and base not to dare to own them…. …I am greedy of making myself known, and I care not to how many, provided it be truly…. Many things that I would not say to a…

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Excerpt #8, from Rocks and Their Origins, by Grenville A. J. Cole

…extreme minuteness of certain of the particles. True clayiness thus depends on the proportion of grains smaller than ·002 mm. in diameter. Yet Hall and Russell look to other causes to explain the continued suspension of such particles in the water, and they suggest the presence of potassium and sodium silicates of the zeolite group, which liberate by hydrolysis a little alkali in contact with a large bulk of water. Free alkalies prevent flocculation, and so encourage suspension of the particles. To the ordinary observer, a rock possesses the properties of clay, and is a clay, if it contains more than forty per cent. of particles less than ·01 mm. in diameter. But such rocks are found, on chemical analysis, to contain a large amount of kaolin, and the old view, that clays are massive kaolins, is thus substantially correct. None the less, clays are notably impure, and in many there is a large admixture of quartz sand. The kaolin, derived originally from the decay of other silicates, is rarely freed from a variety of minerals and rock-fragments that were associated with it in its place of origin. Grains of quartz and unaltered felspar a tenth of a millimetre in diameter distinctly “lighten” a clay soil, on account of their relative coarseness. A sandy clay is styled a Loam, and a fine-grained loam furnishes the ideal soil for the general purposes of a farmer. It…

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Excerpt #9, from In Great Waters: Four Stories, by Thomas A. Janvier

…at last to the Castle. Oddly enough, the Major was standing again at the same lower window, and saw him, and came out to welcome him. For a moment he had a queer feeling that perhaps it still was that first day–that he might have been dozing in the pine woods, somewhere, and that the past summer was all a dream. The Major was beaming with friendliness. “Aha, Masteh Geo’ge, I’m glad to see yo’ and to congratulate yo’!” he said heartily. And he gave Maltham a cordial dig in the ribs as he added: “Yo’ ah a sly dog, a vehy sly dog, my boy, to keep youah secret from us! But I happened to be up in town yestehday, and by the mehest chance I met Captain Todd, of youah boat, and he told me why yo’ ah going back to Chicago in such a huhy, suh! It is a great match, a magnificent match that yo’ ah making, Geo’ge, and I congratulate yo’ with all my haht. I should be glad of the oppo’tunity to congratulate Miss Strangfo’d also. Fo’ I am not flattehing yo’, Geo’ge, when I tell yo’ that she could not have found a betteh husband had she gone to look fo’ him in South Cahrolina. Suh, I can say no mo’ than that!” The Major’s speech was long enough, fortunately, for Maltham to get over the shock of its beginning before he had to answer it. But even with that breathing space his answer was so lame that the Major had to invent an excuse for its lack of heartiness. "I don’t doubt that afteh…

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Excerpt #10, from Our Pirate Hoard, by Thomas A. Janvier

…destiny too. After talking the matter over quite seriously, we decided that the best thing for us to do was to go and live either in or near Lewes, so that my opportunities for investigation might be ample. I think, too, that Susan was pleased with the prospect of having a nice little house of our own, with a cow and peach-trees and chickens, where we could be very happy together. Moreover, she had notions about house-keeping, especially about house-keeping in the country, which she wanted to put into practice. We found a confirmation of my destiny in the ease with which the preliminaries of my search were accomplished. The house that we wanted seemed to be there just waiting for us–a little bit of a house, well out in the country, with a couple of acres of land around it, the peach-trees really growing, and a shed that the man said would hold a cow nicely. What I think pleased Susan most of all was a swallow’s nest under the eaves, with the mother swallow sitting upon a brood of dear little swallows, and the father swallow flying around chippering like anything. “Just think of it!” said the dear child; “it is like living in a feudal castle, and having kestrels building their nests on the battlements.” I did not check her sweet enthusiasm by asking her to name some particular feudal castle with a frieze of kestrels’ nests. I kissed her,…

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Excerpt #11, from The Pirates’ Who’s Who, by Philip Gosse

…cut an innocent throat. He only had one hand, and used to fire his piece with great skill, laying the barrel on his stump, and drawing the trigger with his right hand. In all the American “plantations” there were rewards offered for him alive or dead. The end of this “penny-dreadful” pirate is unrecorded, but was probably a violent one, as this type of pirate seldom, if ever, died in his bed. JOHNSON, ISAAC. One of Captain Quelch’s crew. Tried for piracy at the Star Tavern at Boston in 1704. JOHNSON, JACOB. Taken prisoner by Captain Roberts out of the King Solomon, he joined the pirates. JOHNSON, JOHN, or JAYNSON. Born “nigh Lancaster.” Taken out of the King Solomon. One of Roberts’s crew. Hanged in 1722 at the age of 22. JOHNSON, MARCUS. One of Captain Roberts’s crew. Hanged in 1722. Stated in his death warrant to be a native of Smyrna. Died at the age of 21. JOHNSON, ROBERT….

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Excerpt #12, from A Breeze from the Woods, 2nd Ed., by W. C. Bartlett

…mischief. After making a hundred young chickens orphans, he broke his chain one night and left for the forest. The thief came back a few nights afterward to make more orphans. That gray pelt tacked up on the rear of the barn is his obituary. A series of brilliant experiments that were to have been made on a young rattlesnake turned out not a whit more satisfactory. The reptile was not “raised” just here, but was presented by a friend. His teeth were to have been drawn, after which various observations were to have been made concerning his tastes and habits, and particularly his disposition when not provoked. There was a prospect of making an honest reptile of him. He was put in an empty barrel for the night; but next morning two half-breed Shanghaes had him, one by the tail and the other by the head. He parted about midway, each miserable rooster swallowing his half, and that without even the excuse of a morbid appetite. Since that time I have never been able to hate a young rattlesnake half as much as that detestable breed of Shanghaes. If one is not sick unto death, what more effectual medication can be found than the sun, and the south wind, and the all-embracing earth? The children of the poor are healthy, because they sprout out of the very dirt. The sun dispels humors, enriches the blood; and the winds execute a sanitary commission for these neglected ones. They live because they…

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