Quick Excerpts, from a Library of 492 Titles

Generated 2022-07-28 13:25:42

Excerpt #1, from A history of Canada, 1763 to 1812, by Sir Charles Prestwood Lucas

…Montreal when Ethan Allen was taken prisoner in 1775. Brant seems to have been present in these actions. [98] See the letter of Ebenezer Sullivan abstracted in the 1890 Report on Canadian Archives, State Papers, p. 78. [99] Ibid. p. 74. [100] Annual Register for 1777, p. 2. [101] See Carleton’s letter to Germain of September 28, 1776, quoting Germain’s of June 21, 1776. Shortt and Doughty, pp. 459-60. [102] The letter is quoted in extenso at pp. 129-32 of the sixth volume of Kingsford’s History of Canada. [103] History of England in the Eighteenth Century, vol. iii, 1882 ed., chap. xii, p. 447. [104] Clinton was named to act instead of Sir William Howe, in the event of his succeeding Howe in command of the army; this contingency happened, and he, and not Howe, acted as commissioner. Under the Act any three of the five commissioners were empowered to treat with the Americans. [105] Howe was a pronounced Whig. Burgoyne was more or less neutral until his later years, when he threw in his lot with Fox and his friends. Clinton belonged to a Whig family, but seems to have been a supporter of the Ministry; Cornwallis had voted with Lord Camden…

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Excerpt #2, from The Book of Hallowe’en, by Ruth Edna Kelley

…some of them distinctly on the side of Ben Bulbin. They had rather round heads and dark thick-set bodies, and in stature were about two and one-half feet. The Leprechauns are different, being full of mischief, though they, too, are small. I followed a Leprechaun from the town of Wicklow out to the Carraig Sidhe, “Rock of the Fairies,” a distance of half a mile or more, where he disappeared. He had a very merry face, and beckoned to me with his finger. A third class are the Little People, who, unlike the Gnomes and Leprechauns, are quite good-looking; and they are very small. The Good People are tall, beautiful beings, as tall as ourselves…. They direct the magnetic currents of the earth. The Gods are really the Tuatha De Danann, and they are much taller than our race.’" WENTZ: Fairy-faith in Celtic Countries. The sight of apparitions on Hallowe’en is believed to be fatal to the beholder. “One night my lady’s soul walked along the wall like a cat. Long Tom Bowman beheld her and that day week fell he into the well and was drowned.” PYLE: Priest and the Piper. One version of the Jack-o’-lantern story comes from Ireland. A…

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Excerpt #3, from Tales of the Samurai, by Asataro Miyamori

…the strangers to proceed on foot. In great wrath Shigenari protested against such unwarranted discourtesy. “What mean you by such conduct?” he cried. “Judging from our reception I conclude it is the intention of Iyeyasu to disregard the Imperial mandate to make peace. Well, then, it is useless to go further. We will return at once to the castle and report to our lord the shameful treatment we have received!” So saying he turned his horse and was about to go back, when Lord Echigo’s men seeing, they had gone too far, apologised profusely and begged him to pass on to fulfil his mission. At length the envoys came to the entrance of the building where they were to meet the great Ex-Shogun. Here they dismounted and carrying their swords were about to enter when two ushers intercepted them, crying:— “Your weapons must be left without!” In no wise discomposed Shigenari said sternly:— “It is a rule with a samurai never to leave his sword behind when he goes into an enemy’s camp, on any pretext whatever.” This being an indisputable fact, the ushers could say no more, but led them armed as they were to the spacious apartment which had been prepared for the ceremony. A large number of daimios already occupied…

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

…Green Chapel; there passes none by that place, however proud in arms, that he does not ‘ding him to death with dint of his hand.’ He is a man immoderate and ‘no mercy uses,’ for be it churl or chaplain that by the chapel rides, monk or mass-priest, or any man else, it is as pleasant to him to kill them as to go alive himself. Wherefore I tell thee truly, ‘come ye there, ye be killed, though ye had twenty lives to spend. He has dwelt there long of yore, and on field much sorrow has wrought. Against his sore dints ye may not defend you’ (ll. 2069-2117). Therefore, good Sir Gawayne, let the man alone, and for God’s sake go by some other path, and then I shall hie me home again. I swear to you by [Footnote 1: He only in part keeps to his covenant, as he holds back the love-lace.] God and all His saints that I will never say that ever ye attempted to flee from any man." Gawayne thanks his guide for his well-meant kindness, but declares that to the Green Chapel he will go, though the owner thereof be “a stern knave,” for God can devise means to save his servants. “Mary!” quoth the other, "since it pleases thee to lose thy life I will not hinder thee. Have thy helmet on thy head, thy spear in thy hand, and ride down this path by yon rock-side, till thou be brought to the…

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Excerpt #5, from Sailing Alone Around the World, by Joshua Slocum

…squalid as contact with unscrupulous traders could make them. A large percentage of the business there was traffic in “fire-water.” If there was a law against selling the poisonous stuff to the natives, it was not enforced. Fine specimens of the Patagonian race, looking smart in the morning when they came into town, had repented before night of ever having seen a white man, so beastly drunk were they, to say nothing about the peltry of which they had been robbed. The port at that time was free, but a customhouse was in course of construction, and when it is finished, port and tariff dues are to be collected. A soldier police guarded the place, and a sort of vigilante force besides took down its guns now and then; but as a general thing, to my mind, whenever an execution was made they killed the wrong man. Just previous to my arrival the governor, himself of a jovial turn of mind, had sent a party of young bloods to foray a Fuegian settlement and wipe out what they could of it on account of the recent massacre of a schooner’s crew somewhere else. Altogether the place was quite newsy and supported two papers–dailies, I think. The port captain, a Chilean naval officer, advised me to ship hands to fight Indians in the strait farther west, and spoke of my stopping until a gunboat should be going through, which would give me a tow. After canvassing the place, however, I found only one man willing to embark, and he on…

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Excerpt #6, from Tess of the d’Urbervilles: A Pure Woman, by Thomas Hardy

…quivered to the same melody; also at the half-empty kettle whining an accompaniment. The conversation at the table mixed in with his phantasmal orchestra till he thought: “What a fluty voice one of those milkmaids has! I suppose it is the new one.” Clare looked round upon her, seated with the others. She was not looking towards him. Indeed, owing to his long silence, his presence in the room was almost forgotten. “I don’t know about ghosts,” she was saying; “but I do know that our souls can be made to go outside our bodies when we are alive.” The dairyman turned to her with his mouth full, his eyes charged with serious inquiry, and his great knife and fork (breakfasts were breakfasts here) planted erect on the table, like the beginning of a gallows. “What—really now? And is it so, maidy?” he said. “A very easy way to feel ’em go,” continued Tess, “is to lie on the grass at night and look straight up at some big bright star; and, by fixing your mind upon it, you will soon find that you are hundreds and hundreds o’ miles away from your body, which you don’t seem to want at all.” The dairyman removed his hard gaze from Tess, and fixed it on his wife. “Now that’s a rum thing, Christianer—hey? To think o’ the miles I’ve…

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

…belonged to clubs which, while modestly named after the days of the week, were devoted wholly to the diffusion of the most exalted mental culture. Moreover, they both were on terms of intimacy with Mr. Henry James. On the other hand, it was her desire that the dinner should be perfect materially, because among her guests was to be Miss Grace Winthrop’s uncle, Mr. Hutchinson Port. It was sorely against Mrs. Smith’s will that Mr. Hutchinson Port was included in her list, for he had the reputation of being the most objectionable diner-out in Philadelphia. His conversation at table invariably consisted solely of disparaging remarks, delivered in an undertone to his immediate neighbors, upon the character and quality of the food. However, in the present case, as Miss Grace Winthrop’s uncle, he was inevitable. And, such was Mrs. Smith’s genius, she believed that she had mastered the situation. Her list–excepting, of course, Mr. Hutchinson Port, and he could not reasonably be objected to by his own relatives–was all that she could desire. The nine other guests, she was satisfied, were such as could be exhibited creditably even to ladies belonging to Boston clubs and personally acquainted with Mr. Henry James. As to the dinner itself, Mr. Rittenhouse Smith, who never spoke inconsiderately in matters of this grave nature, had agreed with her that–barring, of course, some Providentially interposed calamity such as scorching the…

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Excerpt #8, from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum

…longer green, but pure white. The ribbon around Toto’s neck had also lost its green color and was as white as Dorothy’s dress. The Emerald City was soon left far behind. As they advanced the ground became rougher and hillier, for there were no farms nor houses in this country of the West, and the ground was untilled. In the afternoon the sun shone hot in their faces, for there were no trees to offer them shade; so that before night Dorothy and Toto and the Lion were tired, and lay down upon the grass and fell asleep, with the Woodman and the Scarecrow keeping watch. Now the Wicked Witch of the West had but one eye, yet that was as powerful as a telescope, and could see everywhere. So, as she sat in the door of her castle, she happened to look around and saw Dorothy lying asleep, with her friends all about her. They were a long distance off, but the Wicked Witch was angry to find them in her country; so she blew upon a silver whistle that hung around her neck. At once there came running to her from all directions a pack of great wolves. They had long legs and fierce eyes and sharp teeth. “Go to those people,” said the Witch, “and tear them to pieces.” “Are you not going to make them your slaves?” asked the leader of the wolves. “No,” she answered, "one is of tin, and one of straw; one is a girl…

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Excerpt #9, from Fifteen Thousand Useful Phrases, by Grenville Kleiser

…idle jesting idolatrous fervor idyllic nonsense ignoble domination ignominious retreat ill-concealed impatience illiberal superstition illimitable progression illiterate denizens illogical interruption illuminating insight illusive touch illustrative anecdote illustrious era imaginative warmth imbittered controversy immaterial connection immature dissent immeasurable scorn immediate abjuration [abjuration = renounce under oath] immemorial bulwark…

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Excerpt #10, from The Subterranean World, by G. Hartwig

…Magnetic Mountain in Russia—The Eisenerz Mountain in Styria—Dannemora— Elba—The United States—The Pilot Knob—The Cerro del Mercado. As an instrument of civilisation iron is the most valuable and the most indispensable of all mineral substances. Even coal is of inferior importance to the welfare of mankind, for iron may be obtained without its aid, while coal could not possibly be extracted from the bowels of the earth without the assistance of iron. Hard and malleable, tenacious and ductile, endowed with the singular property of welding, which is found in no other metal except platinum, and acquiring new qualities by its conversion into steel, it accommodates itself to all our wants and even to our caprices, so that no other metal has such various and extensive uses. It clothes our war ships with a case of impenetrable armour, and sets the finest watch in motion; it provides the sempstress with her needle, and guides the mariner over the ocean; it furnishes the husbandman with his ploughshare, and the soldier with his sword; it concentrates in the steam-engine the sinews of a thousand horses, and mocks on the railroad the fleetness of the swiftest courser. It is, in one word, the embodiment of power, the chief agent of all social progress. ‘Were the use of iron lost among us,’ says the illustrious Locke, ‘we should, in a few ages, be unavoidably reduced to the wants and ignorance…

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Excerpt #11, from Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions, by Edwin Abbott Abbott

…wanting, it is true, some promulgators of paradoxes who maintain that there is no necessary connection between geometrical and moral Irregularity. “The Irregular”, they say, “is from his birth scouted by his own parents, derided by his brothers and sisters, neglected by the domestics, scorned and suspected by society, and excluded from all posts of responsibility, trust, and useful activity. His every movement is jealously watched by the police till he comes of age and presents himself for inspection; then he is either destroyed, if he is found to exceed the fixed margin of deviation, or else immured in a Government Office as a clerk of the seventh class; prevented from marriage; forced to drudge at an uninteresting occupation for a miserable stipend; obliged to live and board at the office, and to take even his vacation under close supervision; what wonder that human nature, even in the best and purest, is embittered and perverted by such surroundings!” All this very plausible reasoning does not convince me, as it has not convinced the wisest of our Statesmen, that our ancestors erred in laying it down as an axiom of policy that the toleration of Irregularity is incompatible with the safety of the State. Doubtless, the life of an Irregular is hard; but the interests of the Greater Number require that it shall be hard. If a man with a triangular front…

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Excerpt #12, from Psmith, Journalist, by P. G. Wodehouse

…gloomy turn, say to yourselves, ‘All is well. Psmith is keeping a watchful eye upon our interests.’" “All the same, I should like to see this W. Windsor,” said Mr. Asher. Psmith shook his head. “I shouldn’t,” he said. “I speak in your best interests. Comrade Windsor is a man of the fiercest passions. He cannot brook interference. Were you to question the wisdom of his plans, there is no knowing what might not happen. He would be the first to regret any violent action, when once he had cooled off, but would that be any consolation to his victim? I think not. Of course, if you wish it, I could arrange a meeting–” Mr. Asher said no, he thought it didn’t matter. “I guess I can wait,” he said. “That,” said Psmith approvingly, “is the right spirit. Wait. That is the watch-word. And now,” he added, rising, “I wonder if a bit of lunch somewhere might not be a good thing? We have had an interesting but fatiguing little chat. Our tissues require restoring. If you gentlemen would care to join me–” Ten minutes later the company was seated in complete harmony round a table at the Knickerbocker. Psmith, with the dignified bonhomie…

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