Quick Excerpts, from a Library of 492 Titles

Generated 2022-07-28 13:25:58

Excerpt #1, from A Journey to the Centre of the Earth, by Jules Verne

…then we watched a falcon soaring in the grey and misty air, taking his flight towards warmer and sunnier regions. I could not help feeling a sense of melancholy come over me. I sighed for my own Native Land, and wished to be back with Gretchen. We were compelled to cross several little fjords, and at last came to a real gulf. The tide was at its height, and we were able to go over at once, and reach the hamlet of Alftanes, about a mile farther. That evening, after fording the Alfa and the Heta, two rivers rich in trout and pike, we were compelled to pass the night in a deserted house, worthy of being haunted by all the fays of Scandinavian mythology. The King of Cold had taken up his residence there, and made us feel his presence all night. The following day was remarkable by its lack of any particular incidents. Always the same damp and swampy soil; the same dreary uniformity; the same sad and monotonous aspect of scenery. In the evening, having accomplished the half of our projected journey, we slept at the Annexia of Krosolbt. For a whole mile we had under our feet nothing but lava. This disposition of the soil is called hraun: the crumbled lava on the surface was in some instances like ship cables stretched out horizontally, in others coiled up in heaps; an immense field of lava…

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Excerpt #2, from Legends of the Gods, by Sir E. A. Wallis Budge

…[FN#38] Thus the king must have invoked the help of Khensu on the occasion of the visit of the first envoy. Then the priests of Khensu Nefer-hetep carried the statue of this god to the place where was the statue of Khensu surnamed “Pa-ari-sekher,” i.e., the “Worker of destinies,” who was able to repel the attacks of evil spirits and to drive them out. When the statues of the two gods were facing each other, Rameses II. entreated Khensu Nefer-hetep to “turn his face towards,” i.e., to look favourably upon Khensu. Pa-ari- sekher, and to let him go to Bekhten to drive the devil out of the Princess of Bekhten. The text affords no explanation of the fact that Khensu Nefer-hetep was regarded as a greater god than Khensu Pa-ari- sekher, or why his permission had to be obtained before the latter could leave the country. It is probable that the demands made upon Khensu Nefer-hetep by the Egyptians who lived in Thebes and its neighbourhood were so numerous that it was impossible to let his statue go into outlying districts or foreign lands, and that a deputy-god was appointed to perform miracles outside Thebes. This arrangement would benefit the people, and would, moreover, bring much money to the priests. The appointment of a deputy-god is not so strange as it may seem, and modern African peoples are familiar with the expedient. About one hundred years ago the priests of the god Bobowissi of…

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Excerpt #3, from The Wonders of Life: A Popular Study of Biological Philosophy, by Ernst Haeckel

…the possibility of tracing the vital function of reproduction–which had usually been regarded as a quite special “wonder of life”–to purely physical conditions. The division of the growing individual into several young ones must necessarily take place when the natural limit of growth has been passed, and when the chemical composition of the growing body and the cohesion of its molecules allow no further enlargement by the assumption of new matter. In order to illustrate the limit of this transgressive growth by a simple physical example, Ostwald imagines a ball placed in a small flat basin, built up high on one side. The ball is in a state of equilibrium in the basin; when it is lightly pushed aside it always returns to its original position. But when the push goes beyond a certain point, and the ball is thrust over the side of the basin, the balance is lost; the ball does not return, but falls to the ground. The crystal behaves just in the same way in a supersaturated solution when it exercises its power of forming new crystals; and it is just the same with the bacterium growing in a nutritive fluid when it passes the limit of its volume of growth, and divides into two individuals. As we can find no morphological and little physiological difference between the living and non-living, we must look upon metabolism as the chief characteristic of organic life. This process causes the…

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Excerpt #4, from Curiosities of the Sky, by Garrett Putman Serviss

…It is probable that the tracks of the sun and the others stars are also irregular, and possibly spiral, although, as far as can be at present determined, they appear to be practically straight. Every star, wherever it may be situated, is attracted by its fellow-stars from many sides at once, and although the force is minimized by distance, yet in the course of many ages its effects must become manifest. Looked at from another side, is there not something immensely stimulating and pleasing to the imagination in the idea of so stupendous a journey, which makes all of us the greatest of travelers? In the course of a long life a man is transported through space thirty thousand million miles; Halley’s Comet does not travel one-quarter as far in making one of its immense circuits. And there are adventures on this voyage of which we are just beginning to learn to take account. Space is full of strange things, and the earth must encounter some of them as it advances through the unknown. Many singular speculations have been indulged in by astronomers concerning the possible effects upon the earth of the varying state of the space that it traverses. Even the alternation of hot and glacial periods has sometimes been ascribed to this source. When tropical life flourished around the poles, as the remains in the rocks assure us, the needed high…

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Excerpt #5, from A Military Dictionary and Gazetteer, by Thomas Wilhelm

…of Robert, duke of Normandy, August 20, 1119. =Brenta.= A river which rises in Tyrol and flows, after a course of 90 miles, into the Adriatic Sea, at Porto di Brondolo. On the banks of this river the French twice defeated the Austrians in 1796. =Brentford.= A county town of Middlesex, England. Here Edmund Ironside defeated the Danes, May, 1016. It was taken by Charles I., after a sharp fight, November 12, 1642. =Brescelia=, or =Bregelia= (anc. Brixellum). A town on the right bank of the Po, in North Italy. Here the emperor Otho put himself to death in 69. On May 20, 1427, an army under Duke Philip Maria Visconti, of Milan, was here defeated by an army sent against him by the republic of Venice, under Francis Carmagnola. =Brescia.= A town in Northern Italy (the ancient Brixia), became important under the Lombards, and suffered by the wars of the Italian republics, being attached to Venice. It was taken by the French under Gaston de Foix in 1512, when it is said 40,000 of the inhabitants were massacred. It surrendered to the Austrian general Haynau, March 30, 1849, on severe terms; annexed to Sardinia in 1859. =Breslau.= Capital of the province of Silesia, Prussia; it was burnt by the Mongols in 1241, and conquered by Frederick II. of Prussia in January, 1741. A fierce battle took place here between the Austrians and…

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Excerpt #6, from The Iliad of Homer (1873), by Homer

…between the rampart and the sea was enclosed.” Από does not govern πυργου, but is compounded with εεργε. Footnote 272: (return) Cf. Buttm. Lexil. p. 292, sqq. who has, however, been long since anticipated by Paschal. de Coron. i. 4. Footnote 273: (return) Schol. Έρρων, επί φθορ παοαγενόμενος. See Alberti on Hesych, s. v. t. i. p. 1445. So, also, Apollon. p. 364: Έπΐ φθορᾴ πορενόμενος. Thus he said: and the Sire 274 pitied him weeping, and granted to him that the army should be safe, and not perish. And forthwith he sent an eagle, the most perfect 275 of birds, holding a fawn in his talons, the offspring of a swift deer: and near the very beauteous altar of Jove he cast down the fawn, where the Greeks were sacrificing to Panomphæan 276 Jove. When, therefore, they saw that the bird had come from Jove, they rushed the more against the Trojans, and were mindful of battle. Then none of the Greeks, numerous as they were, could have boasted that he had driven his swift steeds before Diomede, and urged them beyond the ditch, and fought against [the enemy]; for far the first he slew a helmeted Trojan hero, Agelaus, son of Phradmon. He, indeed, was turning his horses for flight; but as he was turning, Diomede fixed his spear in his back, between his shoulders, and drove it through his breast. He…

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Excerpt #7, from Roget’s Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases, by Peter Mark Roget

…resumption, resumption; sanativeness^. recurrence &c (repetition) 104; rechauffe [Fr.], rifacimento [It]. cure, recure^, sanation^; healing &c v.; redintegration^; rectification; instauration^. repair, reparation, remanufacture; recruiting &c v.; cicatrization; disinfection; tinkering. reaction; redemption &c (deliverance) 672; restitution &c 790; relief &c 834. tinker, cobbler; vis medicatrix &c (remedy) 662 [Obs.]. curableness. V. return to the original state; recover, rally, revive; come come to, come round, come to oneself; pull through, weather the storm, be oneself again; get well, get round, get the better of, get over, get about; rise from one’s ashes, rise from the grave; survive &c (outlive) 110; resume, reappear; come to, come to life again; live again, rise again. heal, skin over, cicatrize; right itself. restore, put back, place in statu quo [Lat.]; reinstate, replace, reseat, rehabilitate, reestablish, reestate^, reinstall. reconstruct, rebuild, reorganize, reconstitute; reconvert; renew, renovate; regenerate; rejuvenate….

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Excerpt #8, from The Woman in White, by Wilkie Collins

…“Curious,” said Miss Halcombe; “I suppose it must be a begging-letter. There,” she added, handing the letter back to the lad, “take it to the house, and give it to one of the servants. And now, Mr. Hartright, if you have no objection, let us walk this way.” She led me across the lawn, along the same path by which I had followed her on the day after my arrival at Limmeridge. At the little summer-house, in which Laura Fairlie and I had first seen each other, she stopped, and broke the silence which she had steadily maintained while we were walking together. “What I have to say to you I can say here.” With those words she entered the summer-house, took one of the chairs at the little round table inside, and signed to me to take the other. I suspected what was coming when she spoke to me in the breakfast-room; I felt certain of it now. “Mr. Hartright,” she said, "I am going to begin by making a frank avowal to you. I am going to say–without phrase-making, which I detest, or paying compliments, which I heartily despise–that I have come, in the course of your residence with us, to feel a strong friendly regard for you. I was predisposed in your favour when you first told me of your conduct towards that unhappy woman whom you met under such remarkable circumstances. Your management of the affair…

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Excerpt #9, from Mr. Punch’s Golf Stories, by J. A. Hammerton

…Mister Glenwistle fell into a sort of dream upon the seventh green and ’ad to be rarsed by Chawley. It may ’ave been Eskimo that ’e spoke to the boy when ’e’d touched ’im jently on the arm, but it sounded wuss–much wuss. ’Owever, we comes back at one to the club-’ouse, red umbereller and all, like Robbinson Crewso, and they goes into lunch. Whilst they’re still laying into the grub like winking, I and Chawley Martin, ’aving eaten our own frugil meal, sit down near the ’club-’ouse and begin to polish up their clubs. We fell a-talking about the great science of golf, getting quite ’eated in a little while, and at last Chawley, to illerstrate ’is own mistakin theery, gets upon ’is ’ind legs. ’E takes Mister Glenwistle’s best driver from ’is bag and shows me what ’e calls “a full swing, wif every ounce of weight and rist and mussel crammed into it.” I was afeard ’ow it would be. The length of the club mastered ’im. ’E ’it the onoffending turf a crewel blow, and there was a narsty crack. ’E sits down beside me wif a garsp, and we looks at Mister Glenwistle’s pet driver wif the ’ead ’arf off. “What’s to be done, ’Enery?” ’e ses, after a sort of sickly pawse. Fer my part I’d been thinking ’ard, me brain being better than most. “There’s three courses open to you, Chawley, me lad,” I ses quietly….

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Excerpt #10, from The Story of King Arthur and his Knights, by Howard Pyle

…stood as fast as the iron in which it was planted. And after that first assay he tried three times more, but still he was altogether unable to move the blade in the iron. Then, after that he had thus four times made assay, he ceased his endeavor and came down from that place. And he was filled with great anger and indignation that he had not succeeded in his endeavor. [Sidenote: Sundry others make assay and fail.] And after King Lot there came his brother-in-law, King Urien of Gore, and he also made assay in the same wise as King Lot had done. But neither did he succeed any better than that other king. And after King Urien there came King Fion of Scotland, and after King Fion there came King Mark of Cornwall, and after King Mark there came King Ryence of North Wales, and after King Ryence there came King Leodegrance of Cameliard, and after him came all those other kings and dukes before numerated, and not one of all these was able to move the blade. And some of these high and mighty lords were filled with anger and indignation that they had not succeeded, and others were ashamed that they had failed in that undertaking before the eyes of all those who looked upon them. But whether they were angry or whether they were ashamed it in no wise helped their case. Now when all the kings and dukes had thus failed in that adventure, the…

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Excerpt #11, from Word Portraits of Famous Writers, by Mabel E. Wotton

…and puts Professor Bain out of court–at least out of court with those who use fair induction about the men and women whom they meet and know.”–About 1851. [Sidenote: James Payn’s Literary Recollections.] “I seem to see the dear little old lady now, looking like a venerable fairy, with bright sparkling eyes, a clear, incisive voice, and a laugh that carried you away with it. I never saw a woman with such an enjoyment of–I was about to say a joke, but the word is too coarse for her–of a pleasantry. She was the warmest of friends, and with all her love of fun never alluded to their weaknesses…. I well remember our first interview. I expected to find the authoress of Our Village in a most picturesque residence, overgrown with honeysuckle and roses, and set in an old-fashioned garden. Her little cottage at Swallowfield, near Reading, did not answer this picture at all. It was a cottage, but not a pretty one, placed where three roads met, with only a piece of green before it. But if the dwelling disappointed me, the owner did not. I was ushered upstairs (for at that time, crippled by rheumatism, she was unable to leave her room) into a small apartment, lined with books from floor to ceiling, and fragrant with flowers; its tenant rose from her arm-chair with difficulty, but with a sunny smile and a charming manner bade me welcome. My father had been an old friend…

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Excerpt #12, from Postal Riders and Raiders, by W. H. Gantz

…times_. Now let us see what revenue the federal postal fund actually received from this one mother in her efforts to place her boy in a good, safe school. First the mother herself wrote forty-five letters. On these the Postoffice Department collected 90 cents. Second, her “twine file” shows that, all told, she had received from the twenty-two schools written to, a total of 163 letters. On these the government collected $3.26. Third, the catalogues sent her were of various sizes. Their carriage charge, at third-class rates, I think would range from two to six cents or more. Putting the average at only three cents, which in my judgment is low, the government collected for their carriage 66 cents. Fourth, thirteen of the schools, either not knowing her boy had been matriculated or thinking she might have other boys “comin’ on” to preparatory school age, sent her their catalogues for the following year–another 39 cents. Add those four items and you will readily ascertain that the government received $5.21 in revenue from the efforts of Thomas’ mother to select a school for him–a school that would give him military training and discipline, as well as academic instruction in selected studies….

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