Quick Excerpts, from a Library of 492 Titles

Generated 2022-07-28 13:25:02

Excerpt #1, from Argonaut stories, by Jerome Hart

…first-mate–well–his people on the other side of the continent lived a different sort of life, went in for another and more conventional style of thing. So did the people of the girl he had meant to make mistress of his beautiful sugar plantation. He had been in love with her since his school-days at home–pretty much ever since he could remember, so far as that went. But it had obviously been out of the question to expect her to marry a deck-hand. He had stopped writing to her before long. It had been better for her. As for himself–it didn’t matter much. His own life was very thoroughly spoiled, anyway. And the girl had married–a man of her own sort, which he himself had ceased to be. He owed all that to Stanwood. He owed a good deal to Stanwood. He had always intended to pay it some day, too–at the first chance that should present itself. Was this the chance? Perhaps. Evidently wrong-doing had not prospered Stanwood. He had probably come out with that degraded, dirty gang, in that “lanch” which stunk of bilge water and other filth beyond a white man’s stomach almost, for no other reason than to get an opportunity to stow, or to ask a passage up–as Marsden himself had been obliged to ask five years before. He would not try it now, of course. He had nerve enough for about anything, but hardly enough for that. He would have to wait at…

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Excerpt #2, from The Blue Castle: a novel, by L. M. Montgomery

…prim, dowdy little figure in her shabby raincoat and three-year-old hat, splashed occasionally by the mud of a passing motor with its insulting shrieks. Motors were still rather a novelty in Deerwood, though they were common in Port Lawrence, and most of the summer residents up at Muskoka had them. In Deerwood only some of the smart set had them; for even Deerwood was divided into sets. There was the smart set–the intellectual set–the old-family set–of which the Stirlings were members–the common run, and a few pariahs. Not one of the Stirling clan had as yet condescended to a motor, though Olive was teasing her father to have one. Valancy had never even been in a motorcar. But she did not hanker after this. In truth, she felt rather afraid of motorcars, especially at night. They seemed to be too much like big purring beasts that might turn and crush you–or make some terrible savage leap somewhere. On the steep mountain trails around her Blue Castle only gaily caparisoned steeds might proudly pace; in real life Valancy would have been quite contented to drive in a buggy behind a nice horse. She got a buggy drive only when some uncle or cousin remembered to fling her “a chance,” like a bone to a dog. CHAPTER V Of course she must buy the tea in Uncle Benjamin’s grocery-store. To buy it anywhere else was unthinkable. Yet Valancy hated to go to Uncle…

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Excerpt #3, 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 #4, from Ghosts I Have Met and Some Others, by John Kendrick Bangs

…“Yeppee, flunny,” returned Chung, with a shiver. “Me no likee. Me flightened.” “Oh, come!” said Dawson, with an affected lightness. “What are you afraid of?” “Slumting,” said Chung. “Do’ know what. Go to bled; no sleepee; pigtail no stay down; heart go thump allee night.” “By Jove !” thought Dawson; “he’s got it too!” “Evlyting flunny here,” resumed Chung. “Jack he no likee too.” Jack was the mastiff. “What’s the matter with Jack?” queried Dawson. “You don’t mean to say Jack’s afraid?” “Do’ know if he ’flaid,” said Chung, “He growl most time.” Clearly there was no comfort for Dawson here. To rid him of his fears it was evident that Chung could be of no assistance, and Chung’s feeling that even Jack was affected by the uncanny something was by no means reassuring. Dawson went out into the yard and whistled for the dog, and in a moment the magnificent animal came bounding up. Dawson patted him on the back, but Jack, instead of rejoicing as was his wont over this token of his master’s affection, gave a yelp of pain, which was quite in accord with Dawson’s own…

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Excerpt #5, from The Book of the Dead, by Sir E. A. Wallis Budge

…“O Usekh-nemmit, comer forth from Anu, I have not committed sin.”O Fenti, comer forth from Khemenu, I have not robbed. “O Neha-hau, comer forth from Re-stau, I have not killed men.”O Neba, comer forth in retreating, I have not plundered the property of God. “O Set-qesu, comer forth from Hensu, I have not lied.”O Uammti, comer forth from Khebt, I have not defiled any man’s wife. “O Maa-anuf, comer forth from Per-Menu, I have not defiled myself.”O Tem-Sep, comer forth from Tetu, I have not cursed the king. “O Nefer-Tem, comer forth from Het-ka-Ptah, I have not acted deceitfully; I have not committed wickedness.”O Nekhen, comer forth from Heqat, I have not turned a deaf ear to the words of the Law (or Truth)." The names of most of the Forty-Two gods are not ancient, but were invented by the priests probably about the same time as the names in the Book of Him that is in the Tuat and the Book of Gates, i.e., between the XIIth and the XVIIIth dynasties. Their artificial character is shown by their meanings. Thus Usekh-nemmit means “He of the long strides”; Fenti means “He of the Nose”; Neha-hau means “Stinking-members”; Set-qesu means “Breaker of bones,” etc. The early Egyptologists called the second part of the CXXVth Chapter the…

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Excerpt #6, from The Extraordinary Adventures of Arsène Lupin, Gentleman

…recreation, and, being an enthusiastic fisherman, he threatens to capture all the fish in our river.” Ganimard! Ah, here is the assistance desired by Baron Cahorn! Who could baffle the schemes of Arsène Lupin better than Ganimard, the patient and astute detective? He was the man for the place. The baron did not hesitate. The town of Caudebec was only six kilometers from the castle, a short distance to a man whose step was accelerated by the hope of safety. After several fruitless attempts to ascertain the detective’s address, the baron visited the office of the ‘Reveil,’ situated on the quai. There he found the writer of the article who, approaching the window, exclaimed: “Ganimard? Why, you are sure to see him somewhere on the quai with his fishing-pole. I met him there and chanced to read his name engraved on his rod. Ah, there he is now, under the trees.” “That little man, wearing a straw hat?” “Exactly. He is a gruff fellow, with little to say.” Five minutes later, the baron approached the celebrated Ganimard, introduced himself, and sought to commence a conversation, but that was a failure. Then he broached the real object of his interview, and briefly stated his case. The other listened, motionless, with his…

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Excerpt #7, from Japanese Fairy Tales, by Yei Theodora Ozaki

…will to dig up the earth and to pat it into shape. “All right,” said Kintaro, “I will look on while you all wrestle with each other. I shall give a prize to the one who wins in each round.” “What fun! we shall all try to get the prize,” said the bear. The deer, the monkey and the hare set to work to help the bear raise the platform on which they were all to wrestle. When this was finished, Kintaro cried out: “Now begin! the monkey and the hare shall open the sports and the deer shall be umpire. Now, Mr. Deer, you are to be umpire!” “He, he!” answered the deer. “I will be umpire. Now, Mr. Monkey and Mr. Hare, if you are both ready, please walk out and take your places on the platform.” Then the monkey and the hare both hopped out, quickly and nimbly, to the wrestling platform. The deer, as umpire, stood between the two and called out: “Red-back! Red-back!” (this to the monkey, who has a red back in Japan). “Are you ready?” Then he turned to the hare: “Long-ears! Long-ears! are you ready?” Both the little wrestlers faced each other while the deer raised a leaf on high as signal. When he dropped the leaf the monkey and the hare…

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Excerpt #8, from Psychology and Social Practice, by John Dewey

…pedagogical rendering of psychological facts and principles. Of necessity, the stress of interest will be elsewhere. But we have already found reason for questioning the possibility of making the somewhat different direction of interest into a rigid dualism of a legislative class on one side and an obedient subject class on the other. Can the teacher ever receive “obligatory prescriptions”? Can he receive from another a statement of the means by which he is to reach his ends, and not become hopelessly servile in his attitude? Would not such a result be even worse than the existing mixture of empiricism and inspiration?–just because it would forever fossilize the empirical element and dispel the inspiration which now quickens routine. Can a passive, receptive attitude on the part of the instructor (suggesting the soldier awaiting orders from a commanding general) be avoided, unless the teacher, as a student of psychology, himself sees the reasons and import of the suggestions and rules that are proffered him? I quote a passage that seems of significance: “Do we not lay a special linking science everywhere else between the theory and practical work? We have engineering between physics and the practical workingmen in the mills; we have a scientific medicine between the natural science and the physician” (p. 138). The sentences suggest, in an almost startling way, that the real essence of the problem is found in an organic connection…

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Excerpt #9, from Second Treatise of Government, by John Locke

…to reinstate their legislative in the exercise of their power: for having erected a legislative, with an intent they should exercise the power of making laws, either at certain set times, or when there is need of it, when they are hindered by any force from what is so necessary to the society, and wherein the safety and preservation of the people consists, the people have a right to remove it by force. In all states and conditions, the true remedy of force without authority, is to oppose force to it. The use of force without authority, always puts him that uses it into a state of war, as the aggressor, and renders him liable to be treated accordingly. Sect. 156. The power of assembling and dismissing the legislative, placed in the executive, gives not the executive a superiority over it, but is a fiduciary trust placed in him, for the safety of the people, in a case where the uncertainty and variableness of human affairs could not bear a steady fixed rule: for it not being possible, that the first framers of the government should, by any foresight, be so much masters of future events, as to be able to prefix so just periods of return and duration to the assemblies of the legislative, in all times to come, that might exactly answer all the exigencies of the commonwealth; the best remedy could be found for this defect, was to trust this to the prudence of one who was always to be present, and whose business it was…

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Excerpt #10, from Twenty Four Unusual Stories for Boys and Girls, by Anna Cogswell Tyler

…vaulted heavens opened before his eyes, and his glance traveled to the distant Orient. He saw a lowly stable behind a steep rock wall, and in the open doorway a few shepherds kneeling. Within the stable he saw a young mother on her knees before a little child, who lay upon a bundle of straw on the floor. And the sibyl’s big, knotty fingers pointed toward the poor babe. “Hail, Cæsar!” cried the sibyl, in a burst of scornful laughter. “There is the god who shall be worshiped on Capitol Hill!” Then Augustus shrank back from her, as from a maniac. But upon the sibyl fell the mighty spirit of prophecy. Her dim eyes began to burn, her hands were stretched toward heaven, her voice was so changed that it seemed not to be her own, but rang out with such resonance and power that it could have been heard over the whole world. And she uttered words which she appeared to be reading among the stars. “Upon Capitol Hill shall the Redeemer of the world be worshiped–Christ–but not frail mortals.” When she had said this, she strode past the terror-stricken men, walked slowly down the mountain, and disappeared. But, on the following day, Augustus strictly forbade the people to raise any temple to him on Capitol Hill. In place of it he built a sanctuary to the new-born GodChild, and called it HEAVEN’S ALTAR–Ara Coeli….

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Excerpt #11, from The Prince, by Niccolò Machiavelli

…to give or take away authority when it pleases him. Therefore, to make this point clearer, I say that the nobles ought to be looked at mainly in two ways: that is to say, they either shape their course in such a way as binds them entirely to your fortune, or they do not. Those who so bind themselves, and are not rapacious, ought to be honoured and loved; those who do not bind themselves may be dealt with in two ways; they may fail to do this through pusillanimity and a natural want of courage, in which case you ought to make use of them, especially of those who are of good counsel; and thus, whilst in prosperity you honour them, in adversity you do not have to fear them. But when for their own ambitious ends they shun binding themselves, it is a token that they are giving more thought to themselves than to you, and a prince ought to guard against such, and to fear them as if they were open enemies, because in adversity they always help to ruin him. Therefore, one who becomes a prince through the favour of the people ought to keep them friendly, and this he can easily do seeing they only ask not to be oppressed by him. But one who, in opposition to the people, becomes a prince by the favour of the nobles, ought, above everything, to seek to win the people over to himself, and this he may easily do if he takes them under his protection. Because men, when they receive good from him of whom they were expecting evil, are bound more…

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Excerpt #12, from A Parody Outline of History, by Donald Ogden Stewart

…The pilgrims disembark. II Plymouth. A year later. Night. She lay sleepless on her bed. She heard the outside door open; Kennicott returning from prayer meeting. He sat down on the bed and began pulling off his boots. She knew that the left boot would stick. She knew exactly what he would say and how long it would take him to get it off. She rolled over in bed, a tactical movement which left no blanket for her husband. “You weren’t at prayer meeting,” he said. “I had a headache,” she lied. He expressed no sympathy. “Miles Standish was telling me what you did today at the meeting of the Jolly Seventeen.” He had got the boot off at last; he lay down beside her and pulled all the blankets off her onto himself. “That was kind of Miles.” She jerked at the covers but he held them tight. “What charming story did he tell this time?” "Now look here, Prissie–Miles Standish isn’t given to fabrication. He said you told the Jolly Seventeen that next Thanksgiving they ought to…

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