Quick Excerpts, from a Library of 492 Titles

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Excerpt #1, 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 #2, from The Coral Island: A Tale of the Pacific Ocean, by R. M. Ballantyne

…infants along with them. One of those women was much younger than her companions, and we were struck with the modesty of her demeanour and the gentle expression of her face, which, although she had the flattish nose and thick lips of the others, was of a light-brown colour, and we conjectured that she must be of a different race. She and her companions wore short petticoats and a kind of tippet on their shoulders. Their hair was jet black, but instead of being long, was short and curly,–though not woolly–somewhat like the hair of a young boy. While we gazed with interest and some anxiety at these poor creatures, the big chief advanced to one of the elder females and laid his hand upon the child. But the mother shrank from him, and clasping the little one to her bosom, uttered a wail of fear. With a savage laugh, the chief tore the child from her arms and tossed it into the sea. A low groan burst from Jack’s lips as we witnessed this atrocious act and heard the mother’s shriek, as she fell insensible on the sand. The rippling waves rolled the child on the beach, as if they refused to be a party in such a foul murder, and we could observe that the little one still lived. The young girl was now brought forward, and the chief addressed her; but although we heard his voice, and even the words distinctly, of course we could not understand what he said. The girl made no answer to his fierce questions, and we saw by the way in which he pointed to the fire that he…

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Excerpt #3, from Simple Sabotage Field Manual, by United States. Office of Strategic Services

…of poor machines. (7) Insist on perfect work in relatively unimportant products; send back for refinishing those which have the least flaw. Approve other defective parts whose flaws are not visible to the naked eye. (8) Make mistakes in routing so that parts and materials will be sent to the wrong place in the plant. (9) When training new workers, give incomplete or misleading instructions. (10) To lower morale and with it, production, be pleasant to inefficient workers; give them undeserved promotions. Discriminate against efficient workers; complain unjustly about their work. (11) Hold conferences when there is more critical work to be done. (12) Multiply paper work in plausible ways. Start duplicate files. (13) Multiply the procedures and clearances involved in issuing instructions, pay checks, and so on. See that three people have to approve everything where one would do. (14) Apply all regulations to the last letter. (c) Office Workers (1) Make mistakes in quantities of material when you are copying orders. Confuse similar names. Use wrong addresses….

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

…216 [E] & al bigrauen with grene, in gracios[1] werkes; A lace lapped aboute, þat louked at þe hede, & so after þe halme halched ful ofte, Wyth tryed tassele3 þerto tacched in-noghe, 220 [F] On botoun3 of þe bry3t grene brayden ful ryche. Þis haþel helde3 hym in, & þe halle entres, Driuande to þe he3e dece, dut he no woþe, [G] Haylsed he neuer one, bot he3e he ouer loked. 224 Þe fyrst word þat he warp, “wher is,” he sayd, [H] “Þe gouernour of þis gyng? gladly I wolde Se þat segg in sy3t, & with hym self speke raysoun.” 228 To kny3te3 he kest his y3e, & reled hym vp & doun, [I] He stemmed & con studie, Quo walt þer most renoun. [Sidenote A: The knight carried neither spear nor shield,] [Sidenote B: In one hand was a holly bough,] [Sidenote C: in the other an axe,] [Sidenote D: the edge of which was as keen as a sharp razor,] [Sidenote E: and the handle was encased in iron, curiously "graven with…

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Excerpt #5, from Radio Activity, by Ernest Rutherford

…t should be given by an equation of the same form (section 207) as for thorium and actinium, viz.,
$$ \frac {I_t} {I_T} = \frac {e^{-\lambda_3 t} - e^{-\lambda_2 t}} {e^{-\lambda_3 T} - e^{-\lambda_2 T}} $$
, where I{T}_ is the maximum activity observed, which is reached after an interval T. Since the activity finally decays according to an exponential law (half value in 28 minutes), one of the values of λ is equal to 4·13 × 10⁻⁴. As in the case of thorium and actinium, the experimental curves do not allow us to settle whether this value of λ is to be given to λ₂ or λ₃. From other data (see section 226) it will be shown later that it must refer to λ₃. Thus λ₃ = 4·13 × 10⁻⁴ (sec)⁻¹. The experimental curve agrees very closely with theory if λ₂ = 5·38 × 10⁻⁴ (sec)⁻¹. The agreement between theory and experiment is shown by the table given below. The maximum value I{T}_ (which is taken as 100) is reached at a time T = 36 minutes. In order to obtain the β-ray curve, the following procedure was adopted. A layer of thin aluminium was placed inside a glass tube, which was then exhausted. A large quantity of radium emanation was then suddenly introduced by opening a stopcock communicating with the emanation vessel, which was at atmospheric pressure. The emanation was left in the…

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Excerpt #6, from Curiosities of Human Nature, by Samuel G. Goodrich

…at Prague; but in reality I have written it principally to please myself and my friends." Ample justice has however at length been rendered to this great production; it is heard with enthusiasm in nearly all the principal cities of that quarter of the globe where music is cultivated as a science–from the frozen regions of Russia, to the foot of Mount Vesuvius. Its praise is not limited by the common attributes of good musical composition; it is placed in the higher rank of fine poetry; for not only are to be found in it exquisite melodies and profound harmonies, but the playful, the tender, the pathetic, the mysterious, the sublime, and the terrible, are to be distinctly traced in its various parts. The overture to this opera is generally esteemed Mozart’s best effort; yet it was only composed the night previous to the first representation, after the general rehearsal had taken place. About eleven o’clock in the evening, when retired to his apartment, he desired his wife to make him some punch, and to stay with him, in order to keep him awake. She accordingly began to tell him fairy tales, and odd stories, which made him laugh till the tears came. The punch, however, made him so drowsy, that he could go on only while his wife was talking, and dropped asleep as soon as she ceased. The efforts which he made to keep himself awake, the continual alternation of sleep and watching, so fatigued him, that…

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Excerpt #7, from History of the war in the Peninsula and in the south of France from the year

…sap, which they overturned, and killed the sappers, but were finally repulsed by the reserve, and the approach was immediately pushed forward to the place of arms. Thus, on the seventh night of open trenches, the besiegers were lodged in the covered way, before a shot had been fired from either breaching or counter-batteries; a remarkable instance of activity and boldness, and a signal proof that the defence was ill-conducted. The night of the 27th, the works were enlarged as much as the fire of the place which was untouched would permit; but the Spaniards seeing the besiegers’ batteries ready to open, made a general sally through the eastern gates, against the false attack at Fort Orleans; and through the southern gates against the works in the plain. General Habert drove them back with slaughter from the former point, but at the latter they beat the French from the covered way, and arriving at the second parallel, burnt the gabions and did much damage ere the reserves could repulse them. The night of the 28th, the batteries were armed with forty-five pieces, of which seventeen were placed on the right bank, to take the Spanish works at the main attack in reverse and to break the bridge. At day-break all these guns opened, and with success, against the demi-bastion, on the left bank of the river; but the fire from the…

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Excerpt #8, from A History of Indian Philosophy, Volume 1, by Surendranath Dasgupta

…no means of right knowledge, then there would be no means of knowledge by means of which the objector would refute all means of right knowledge; if the objector presumes to have any means of valid knowledge then he cannot say that there are no means of valid knowledge at all. Just as from the diverse kinds of sounds of different musical instruments, one can infer the previous existence of those different kinds of musical instruments, so from our knowledge of objects we can infer the previous existence of those objects of knowledge [Footnote ref 1]. The same things (e.g. the senses, etc.) which are regarded as instruments of right knowledge with reference to the right cognition of other things may themselves be the objects of right ____________________________________________________________________ [Footnote 1: Yathâpas’câtsiddhena s’abdena pûrvasiddham âtodyamanumîyate sâdhyam ca âtodyam sâdhanam ca s’abda@h antarhite hyâtodye svanata@h anumânam bhavatîti, vî@nâ vâdyate ve@nu@h pûryyate iti svanavis’e@se@na âtodyavis’e@sam pratipadyate tathâ pûrvasiddham upalabdhivi@sayam pas’câtsiddhena upalabdhihetunâ pratipadyate. Vâtsyâyana bhâ@sya, II. i. 15.] 297 knowledge. There are no hard and fast limits that those which…

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Excerpt #9, 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 #10, from Old Mines of Southern California, by Harold W. Fairbanks and William H. Storms

…well as that of the schists and quartzites by which it is inclosed, is north 30° to 40° west, dip 75° to the southwest. The color of the limestone varies from white to streaked and variegated. It was carefully examined for fossils, but no traces of them could be found. The limestone is, however, filled in many places with the holes of borers, and one small incrusting coral and one barnacle were found. The elevation of the north peak is 1,700 feet, and these were found nearly at the top. Everything points to a great elevation here in times so recent that the atmospheric agencies have not yet had time to remove the surface exposed to the ocean waters. Another factor enters into this time computation, however, and that is that in this climate, where the rainfall is so slight, a great many years are required to effect slight changes. Toward the south peak the rock is almost wholly micaceous and quartzose schists. Judging from the great amount of metamorphism shown by these rocks, fossils, if they ever existed, must have been destroyed. At various points on the northern end of the mountain are horizontal deposits of a soft, shaly sandstone full of fossils, similar to those found north of Carrizo Creek. The corals are very large and perfect. Some nearly entire specimens of large oysters were also obtained, but most of the bivalve shells are represented only by casts. With all the exploration which has been done, it seems probable that these beds have…

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Excerpt #11, from The Intrusion of Jimmy, by P. G. Wodehouse

…left, and grinned feebly. “Say, youse won’t want me any more, boss?” he whispered. “No, you can go, Spike.” “You stay where you are, you red-headed devil!” said McEachern, tartly. “Run along, Spike,” said Jimmy. The Bowery boy looked doubtfully at the huge form of the ex-policeman, which blocked access to the door. “Would you mind letting my man pass?” said Jimmy. “You stay–” began McEachern. Jimmy got up and walked round to the door, which he opened. Spike shot out. He was not lacking in courage, but he disliked embarrassing interviews, and it struck him that Jimmy was the man to handle a situation of this kind. He felt that he himself would only be in the way. “Now, we can talk comfortably,” said Jimmy, going back to his chair. McEachern’s deep-set eyes gleamed, and his forehead grew red, but he mastered his feelings. “And now–” said he, then paused. “Yes?” asked Jimmy. “What are you doing here?”…

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Excerpt #12, from Investigation of Communist Activities in Seattle, Wash., Area, Hearings, Part 1

…Mr. VELDE. It is not the purpose or intention of this committee, and I can very well speak for all of the members of the committee, to get you into a position where you are in contempt of Congress. I concur with Mr. Moulder in his statement a few moments ago. I think that you do have a problem. I think that you are confused about the situation. Nevertheless, you do have, in my opinion, some information which would be valuable to this committee. At the same time you could clear your own conscience, so to speak, if you would give us the benefit of the information you have regarding your Communist Party connections. So I am going to ask, Mr. Chairman, that the witness be excused and be given a chance to consult with his attorney and think the proposition over, and possibly he may decide to return and give us the information which we believe he has. Mr. MOULDER. I think that is a splendid suggestion Mr. Velde has made. You will be excused until tomorrow morning. You think this over, and in the meantime, if you wish to talk to any of the investigators or counsel or any member of the committee, we would be happy to talk to you. Give it serious thought. You will be excused until 9 o’clock in the morning….

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