Quick Excerpts, from a Library of 492 Titles

Generated 2022-07-28 13:25:48

Excerpt #1, from Argot and Slang, by Albert Barrère

…—-, tall chap. Mauvais —-, ill-tempered fellow. (Roughs’) Gas de la grinche, thief. Faut pas frayer avec ça, c’est un —- de la grinche, you must not keep company with the fellow, he is a thief. Un —- qui flanche, a hawker. (Thieves’) Fabriquer un —- à la flan, à la rencontre, or à la dure, to attack a man at night and rob him, “to jump a cove.” GASPARD, m. (popular), cunning fellow, or “sharp file;” rat; cat, or “long-tailed beggar.” Concerning this expression there is a tale that runs thus: A boy, during his first very short voyage to sea, had become so entirely a seaman, that on his return he had forgotten the name for a cat, and pointing to Puss, asked his mother “what she called that ’ere long-tailed beggar?” Accordingly, sailors, when they hear a freshwater tar discoursing too largely on nautical matters, are very apt to say, “but how, mate, about that ’ere long-tailed beggar?” GÂTEAU, m. (popular), feuilleté, shoe out at the sole. (Thieves’) Avoir du —-, to get one’s share of booty, “to stand in.” GÂTE-PÂTE, m. (popular), redoubtable wrestler. GÂTER (popular), de l’eau, to void urine, “to lag.” Se —- la taille, to become pregnant, or “lumpy.” GÂTEUSE, f. (familiar), long garment worn over clothes to protect them from the dust….

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Excerpt #2, from The Principles of the Art of Conversation, by J. P. Mahaffy

…their inferior or equal from a professional point of view. It is this perfect liberty, this spiritual equality, often designated as the free masonry of sport, from which arises the charm of talking upon subjects of common interest to one confessedly inferior in many respects. But in one he is commonly your superior, even apart from his sport. It has been far more important to him all his life to study and know the characters of his employers than it has been for them to study his, and so he is generally your superior in perceiving what will please, and what topics are to be selected or avoided in conversation. Nothing has struck me more in many such talks than the acute estimate which these people form of the strength and weakness of those who are their patrons. These are illustrations of a general kind, to show how inferiority in social station may not imply inferiority for the purposes of conversation, so that we may even here attain that equality which I regard as essential for its success. ———————————————————————— THE RELATIONS OF SEX AND AGE § 45. So far we have been considering the quality of the company as determined by social position, which, if not an absolutely artificial distinction, is at least frequently such, so that it may be even reversed by circumstances. There are great distinctions made by nature…

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Excerpt #3, from Julius Caesar, by William Shakespeare

…[Within.] Let me go in to see the generals, There is some grudge between ’em; ’tis not meet They be alone. LUCILIUS. [Within.] You shall not come to them. POET. [Within.] Nothing but death shall stay me. CASSIUS. How now! What’s the matter? POET. For shame, you generals! What do you mean? Love, and be friends, as two such men should be; For I have seen more years, I’m sure, than ye. CASSIUS. Ha, ha! How vilely doth this cynic rhyme! BRUTUS. Get you hence, sirrah. Saucy fellow, hence! CASSIUS. Bear with him, Brutus; ’tis his fashion. BRUTUS. I’ll know his humour when he knows his time….

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Excerpt #4, from The Odyssey, by Homer

…the armour that is in the house and hide it in the strong store room. Make some excuse when the suitors ask you why you are removing it; say that you have taken it to be out of the way of the smoke, inasmuch as it is no longer what it was when Ulysses went away, but has become soiled and begrimed with soot. Add to this more particularly that you are afraid Jove may set them on to quarrel over their wine, and that they may do each other some harm which may disgrace both banquet and wooing, for the sight of arms sometimes tempts people to use them. But leave a sword and a spear apiece for yourself and me, and a couple of oxhide shields so that we can snatch them up at any moment; Jove and Minerva will then soon quiet these people. There is also another matter; if you are indeed my son and my blood runs in your veins, let no one know that Ulysses is within the house—neither Laertes, nor yet the swineherd, nor any of the servants, nor even Penelope herself. Let you and me exploit the women alone, and let us also make trial of some other of the men servants, to see who is on our side and whose hand is against us.” “Father,” replied Telemachus, “you will come to know me by and by, and when you do you will find that I can keep your counsel. I do not think, however, the plan you propose will turn out well for either of us. Think it over. It will take us a long time to go the round of the farms…

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Excerpt #5, from The Art of War, by active 6th century B.C. Sunzi

…material for raising fire should always be kept in readiness. 3. There is a proper season for making attacks with fire, and special days for starting a conflagration. 4. The proper season is when the weather is very dry; the special days are those when the moon is in the constellations of the Sieve, the Wall, the Wing or the Cross-bar; for these four are all days of rising wind. 5. In attacking with fire, one should be prepared to meet five possible developments: 6. (1) When fire breaks out inside the enemy’s camp, respond at once with an attack from without. 7. (2) If there is an outbreak of fire, but the enemy’s soldiers remain quiet, bide your time and do not attack. 8. (3) When the force of the flames has reached its height, follow it up with an attack, if that is practicable; if not, stay where you are. 9. (4) If it is possible to make an assault with fire from without, do not wait for it to break out within, but deliver your attack at a favourable moment. 10. (5) When you start a fire, be to windward of it. Do not attack from the leeward. 11. A wind that rises in the daytime lasts long, but a night breeze…

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Excerpt #6, from The Moon: considered as a planet, a world, and a satellite., by James Carpenter et al.

…distinguished as Monte Somma became a subsidiary portion of the whole mountain. Then the appearance was that shown in Fig. 19, and which does not differ greatly from that presented in the present day. The summit of the Vesuvian cone, however, has been variously altered; it has been blown away, leaving a large crateral hollow, and it has rebuilt itself nearly upon its former model. When we transfer our attention to the volcanoes of the moon, we find ourselves not quite so well favoured with means for studying the process of their formation; for the sight of the building up of a volcanic mountain such as man has been permitted to behold upon the earth has not been allowed to an observer of the moon. The volcanic activity, enfeebled though it now be, of which we are witnesses from time to time on the earth, has altogether ceased upon our satellite, and left us only its effects as a clue to the means by which they were produced. If we in our time could have seen the actual throwing up of a lunar crater, our task of description would have been simple; as it is we are compelled to infer the constructive action from scrutiny of the finished structure. We can scarcely doubt that where a lunar crater bears general resemblance to a terrestrial crater, the process of formation has been nearly the same in the one case as in the other. Where variations present themselves they may reasonably be ascribed to the difference of…

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Excerpt #7, from A Border Ruffian, by Thomas A. Janvier

…drawing an especially good cigar from his case, betook himself to the smoking-room. Grace did not realize his intentions until they had become accomplished deeds. Mr. Hutchinson Port–although a member (on the retired list) of the First City Troop, and therefore, presumably, inflamed with the martial spirit characteristic of that ancient and honorable organization–was not, perhaps, just the man that a person knowing in such matters would have selected to pit against a New Mexico desperado in a hand-to-hand conflict. But Grace felt her heart sink a little as she saw the round and rather pursy form of her natural protector walk away into the depths of a mirror at the forward end of the car, and so vanish. And in this same mirror she beheld, seated only two sections behind her, the scowling ruffian! The situation, as Grace regarded it, was an alarming one; and it was the more trying to her nerves because it did not, reasonably, admit of action. She was aware that the very presence of a ruffian in a Pullman car was in the nature of a promise, on his part, that for the time being it was not his intention either to murder or to rob–unless, indeed, he were one of a robber band, and was awaiting the appearance of his confederates. For her either to call her uncle, or break in upon the Emersonian seclusion of her aunt, she felt would not be well received,…

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Excerpt #8, from The Voyage of the “Deutschland”, by Paul König

…cat: ‘/home/marc/Dropbox/Marc/books/Unsorted/pgbooks-for-excerpts/The Voyage of the Deutschland by Paul König-pg45922.txt’: No such file or directory

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Excerpt #9, from Studying the short story, by J. Berg Esenwein

…“The Attack on the Mill,” Émile Zola. Translated in Great Short Stories. “The Taking of the Redoubt,” Prosper Mérimée. Translated in Short-Story Masterpieces. “The Man Who Would be King,” Rudyard Kipling. In The Phantom Rickshaw (and other stories). “The Sire de Malétroit’s Door,” Robert Louis Stevenson. In New Arabian Nights. “The Diamond Lens,” Fitz-James O’Brien. In Short Story Classics, American. “The Young Man in a Hurry,” Robert W. Chambers. Harper’s Magazine, Aug., 1903. “A Fight for the Tsarina,” Maurus Jókai. Translated in Masterpieces of Fiction. “The Window that Monsieur Forgot,” Mary Imlay Taylor. The Booklovers Magazine, Jan., 1904. “Blood o’ Innocence,” George W. Knapp. Lippincott’s Magazine, Nov., 1907. FOOTNOTES: [13] AUTHOR’S NOTE.–Corporals were formerly the chief officers of the Corsican communes after they had rebelled against their feudal lords….

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Excerpt #10, from Raw Gold: A Novel, by Bertrand W. Sinclair

…watched her, wondering nervously what she would do. It was a strain to sit there silent, for Lyn neither did or said anything at first. Perhaps she cried afterward, when she got by herself, but not then; just looked at me, through me, almost, her face white and drawn into pained lines, and those purple-blue eyes perfectly black. I got up at last, and put one hand on her shoulder. “It’s hell, little girl, I know.” I said this hardly realizing that I swore. “We can’t bring the old man back to life, but we can surely run down the cold-blooded devils that killed him. I have a crow to pick with them myself; but that doesn’t matter; I’d be in the game anyway. We’ll get them somehow, when Mac gets out and can play his hand again. It was finding your father and giving him decent burial that kept us out so long. I don’t understand, yet, why Lessard should pitch into MacRae so hard for doing that much. You know Mac, Lyn, and you know me–we’ll do what we can.” She didn’t move for a minute, and the shocked, stricken look in her eyes grew more intense. Then she dropped her head in the palms of her hands with a little sobbing cry. “Sarge, I–I wish you’d go, now,” she whispered. “I want to–to be all by myself, for a while. I’ll be all right by and by.” I stood irresolute for a second. It may have been my fancy, but I seemed…

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Excerpt #11, from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, by Adam Smith

…Though there are in Europe indeed, a few towns which, in same respects, deserve the name of free ports, there is no country which does so. Holland, perhaps, approaches the nearest to this character of any, though still very remote from it; and Holland, it is acknowledged, not only derives its whole wealth, but a great part of its necessary subsistence, from foreign trade.

There is another balance, indeed, which has already been explained, very different from the balance of trade, and which, according as it happens to be either favourable or unfavourable, necessarily occasions the prosperity or decay of every nation. This is the balance of the annual produce and consumption. If the exchangeable value of the annual produce, it has already been observed, exceeds that of the annual consumption, the capital of the society must annually increase in proportion to this excess. The society in this case lives within its revenue; and what is annually saved out of its revenue, is naturally added to its capital, and employed so as to increase still further the annual produce. If the exchangeable value of the annual produce, on the contrary, fall short of the annual consumption, the capital of the society must annually decay in proportion to this deficiency. The expense of the society, in this case, exceeds its revenue, and necessarily encroaches upon its capital. Its capital, therefore, must…

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Excerpt #12, from Persuasion, by Jane Austen

…Wentworth should do what he ought to have done himself. But neither Charles Hayter’s feelings, nor anybody’s feelings, could interest her, till she had a little better arranged her own. She was ashamed of herself, quite ashamed of being so nervous, so overcome by such a trifle; but so it was, and it required a long application of solitude and reflection to recover her. Chapter 10 Other opportunities of making her observations could not fail to occur. Anne had soon been in company with all the four together often enough to have an opinion, though too wise to acknowledge as much at home, where she knew it would have satisfied neither husband nor wife; for while she considered Louisa to be rather the favourite, she could not but think, as far as she might dare to judge from memory and experience, that Captain Wentworth was not in love with either. They were more in love with him; yet there it was not love. It was a little fever of admiration; but it might, probably must, end in love with some. Charles Hayter seemed aware of being slighted, and yet Henrietta had sometimes the air of being divided between them. Anne longed for the power of representing to them all what they were about, and of pointing out some of the evils they were exposing themselves to. She did not attribute guile to any. It was the highest satisfaction to her…

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