Quick Excerpts, from a Library of 492 Titles

Generated 2022-07-28 13:25:57

Excerpt #1, from Antiquities of the Jews, by Flavius Josephus

…against Jericho, and one that affords, to such as are upon it, a prospect of the greatest part of the excellent land of Canaan,] he dismissed the senate; and as he was going to embrace Eleazar and Joshua, and was still discoursing with them, a cloud stood over him on the sudden, and he disappeared in a certain valley, although he wrote in the holy books that he died, which was done out of fear, lest they should venture to say that, because of his extraordinary virtue, he went to God. 49. Now Moses lived in all one hundred and twenty years; a third part of which time, abating one month, he was the people’s ruler; and he died on the last month of the year, which is called by the Macedonians Dystrus, but by us Adar, on the first day of the month. He was one that exceeded all men that ever were in understanding, and made the best use of what that understanding suggested to him. He had a very graceful way of speaking and addressing himself to the multitude; and as to his other qualifications, he had such a full command of his passions, as if he hardly had any such in his soul, and only knew them by their names, as rather perceiving them in other men than in himself. He was also such a general of an army as is seldom seen, as well as such a prophet as was never known, and this to such a degree, that whatsoever he pronounced, you would think you heard the voice of God himself. So the people…

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Excerpt #2, from Familiar Quotations, by John Bartlett

…[127-1] “Can walk” in White. [127-2] “Eastern hill” in Dyce, Singer, Staunton, and White. [127-3] “One auspicious and one dropping eye” in Dyce, Singer, and Staunton. [128-1] “Armed at all points” in Singer and White. [129-1] And may you better reck the rede, Than ever did the adviser. BURNS: Epistle to a Young Friend. [129-2] “Hooks” in Singer. [131-1] And makes night hideous.–POPE: The Dunciad, book iii. line 166. [131-2] “To lasting fires” in Singer. [131-3] “Porcupine” in Singer and Staunton. [131-4] “Rots itself” in Staunton. [133-1] A short saying oft contains much wisdom.–SOPHOCLES: Aletes, frag. 99. [135-1] See Chaucer, page 5. [136-1] “Who would these fardels” in White. [138-1] “Protests” in Dyce, Singer, and Staunton. [141-1] Extreme remedies are very appropriate for extreme…

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Excerpt #3, from The Prince, by Niccolò Machiavelli

…should guard himself as from a rock; and he should endeavour to show in his actions greatness, courage, gravity, and fortitude; and in his private dealings with his subjects let him show that his judgments are irrevocable, and maintain himself in such reputation that no one can hope either to deceive him or to get round him. That prince is highly esteemed who conveys this impression of himself, and he who is highly esteemed is not easily conspired against; for, provided it is well known that he is an excellent man and revered by his people, he can only be attacked with difficulty. For this reason a prince ought to have two fears, one from within, on account of his subjects, the other from without, on account of external powers. From the latter he is defended by being well armed and having good allies, and if he is well armed he will have good friends, and affairs will always remain quiet within when they are quiet without, unless they should have been already disturbed by conspiracy; and even should affairs outside be disturbed, if he has carried out his preparations and has lived as I have said, as long as he does not despair, he will resist every attack, as I said Nabis the Spartan did. But concerning his subjects, when affairs outside are disturbed he has only to fear that they will conspire secretly, from which a prince can easily secure himself by avoiding being hated and despised, and by…

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Excerpt #4, from The Best British Short Stories of 1922, by Stacy Aumonier et al.

…with scenes, the greater the occasion the greater the reward, and there’s no denying this is an occasion, is there? You’re making a big to-do about Tim Martlow and the reward would be according. I don’t know if you’ve noticed that if a girl makes a scene and she’s got the looks for it, she gets offers of marriage, like they do in the police-court when they’ve been wronged and the magistrate passes all the men’s letters on to the court missionary and the girl and the missionary go through them and choose the likeliest fellow out of the bunch?" “But my dear young lady—-” Fosdike began. She silenced him. “Oh, it’s all right. I don’t know that I want to get married.” “Then you ought to,” said Sir William virtuously. “There’s better things in life than getting married,” Dolly said. “I’ve weighed up marriage, and I don’t see what there is in it for a girl nowadays.” “In your case, I should have thought there was everything.” Dolly sniffed. “There isn’t liberty,” she said. “And we won the fight for liberty, didn’t we? No; if I made that scene it ’ud be to get my photograph in the papers where the film people could see it. I’ve the right face for the pictures, and my romantic history will do the rest.” “Good heavens, girl,” cried the scandalised Sir William, "have you no…

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Excerpt #5, from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll

…“When I’m a Duchess,” she said to herself, (not in a very hopeful tone though), “I won’t have any pepper in my kitchen at all. Soup does very well without—Maybe it’s always pepper that makes people hot-tempered,” she went on, very much pleased at having found out a new kind of rule, “and vinegar that makes them sour—and camomile that makes them bitter—and—and barley-sugar and such things that make children sweet-tempered. I only wish people knew that: then they wouldn’t be so stingy about it, you know—” She had quite forgotten the Duchess by this time, and was a little startled when she heard her voice close to her ear. “You’re thinking about something, my dear, and that makes you forget to talk. I can’t tell you just now what the moral of that is, but I shall remember it in a bit.” “Perhaps it hasn’t one,” Alice ventured to remark. “Tut, tut, child!” said the Duchess. “Everything’s got a moral, if only you can find it.” And she squeezed herself up closer to Alice’s side as she spoke. Alice did not much like keeping so close to her: first, because the Duchess was very ugly; and secondly, because she was exactly the right height to rest her chin upon Alice’s shoulder, and it was an uncomfortably sharp chin. However, she did not like to be rude, so she…

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Excerpt #6, from Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

…irritable…. Besides I don’t understand about that drunkard who died and that daughter, and how he could have given the daughter all the money… which…” “Which cost you such sacrifice, mother,” put in Avdotya Romanovna. “He was not himself yesterday,” Razumihin said thoughtfully, “if you only knew what he was up to in a restaurant yesterday, though there was sense in it too…. Hm! He did say something, as we were going home yesterday evening, about a dead man and a girl, but I didn’t understand a word…. But last night, I myself…” “The best thing, mother, will be for us to go to him ourselves and there I assure you we shall see at once what’s to be done. Besides, it’s getting late–good heavens, it’s past ten,” she cried looking at a splendid gold enamelled watch which hung round her neck on a thin Venetian chain, and looked entirely out of keeping with the rest of her dress. “A present from her fiancé,” thought Razumihin. “We must start, Dounia, we must start,” her mother cried in a flutter. “He will be thinking we are still angry after yesterday, from our coming so late. Merciful heavens!” While she said this she was hurriedly putting on her hat and mantle; Dounia, too, put on her things. Her gloves, as Razumihin noticed, were not merely shabby but had holes in them, and yet this evident poverty…

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Excerpt #7, from Tanks in the Great War, 1914 to 1918, by J. F. C. Fuller

…closely under the War Office it was also decided, at about this time, to dissolve the Tank Directorate, first created in May 1917, and to replace it by a new sub-branch of the Directorate of Staff Duties. This change took place on August 1, when a new branch known as S.D.7 was added to the Directorate of Staff Duties at the War Office to deal with the administration of tanks generally, and the 1919 tank programme in particular. At the same time the Tank Committee was abolished, its place being taken by the Tank Board, which was constituted as follows: Major-General the Right Honourable J. E. B. Seely, C.B., C.M.G., D.S.O., M.P., President (Deputy Minister of Munitions). Sir Eustace Tennyson D’Eyncourt, K.C.B., Vice-President (Director of Naval Construction). Admiral Sir Reginald Bacon, K.C.B., K.C.V.O., D.S.O. (Controller Munitions Inventions). Major-General Sir William Furse, K.C.B., D.S.O. (Master General of Ordnance, representing the Army Council). Major-General E. D. Swinton, C.B., D.S.O. Major-General H. J. Elles, C.B., D.S.O. (Commanding Tank Corps, France). Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Albert Stern, K.B.E., C.M.G. (Commissioner…

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Excerpt #8, from Astounding Stories of Super

…surroundings. That light that had so distressed him–though the effects were now beginning to pass off–was a pillar of smoke and flame, shooting out of the crater of a volcano about a mile away, across a valley. He was lying in the entrance to a cave, pegged out on his back, and bound by the tough creepers to the stakes driven into the ground. Up to the mouth of the cave grew huge tree-ferns, cattails, cycads, and such growths as existed in earlier ages in the warm, moist regions of the world. Beneath the level of the cave a heavy white fog completely shrouded the valley, extending up to within a short distance of the volcano opposite. But on the upper slopes of the volcano the sunlight played, making its crater a sheen of glassy lava, intolerably bright. Beyond the volcano Jim could see what looked like an expanse of ocean. * * * * * He groaned, and at the sound a creature came shambling forward, carrying what looked like a huge melon in either hand. Jim recognized the Drilgo, Cain. Chattering and mumbling, Cain placed one of the fruits to Jim’s mouth. It was a sort of bread-fruit, but he was too nauseated to eat, and rejected it with disgust. Cain offered him the second fruit….

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Excerpt #9, from English as she is spoke; or, a jest in sober earnest, by Carolino and Fonseca

…vigilant and courageous equipage, and the ammunitions don’t want me its. Never have you not done wreck? That it is arrived me twice. With a gardener. Shall I eat some plums soon? It is not the season yet; but here is some peaches what does ripen at the eye sight. It delay me to eat some wal nuts-kernels; take care not leave to pass the season. Be tranquil, I shall throw you any nuts during the shell is green yet. The artichoks grow its? I have a particular care of its, because I know you like the bottoms. It must to cup the trees. It should pull the bad grasses up. The books and of the reading. Do you like the reading good deal too many which seem me? That is to me a amusement. The field.…

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Excerpt #10, from The Principles of the Art of Conversation, by J. P. Mahaffy

…So it was said of Phæax, the contemporary of Alcibiades and Cleon, λαλεῑν ἄριστος, ἀδυνατὠτατος λἐγειν—a capital talker, but the worst of speakers. § 5. The analogy, therefore, being established, we may feel tolerably certain of the following results, which should be stated at the outset in order to allay any vain or excessive expectations: (1) no teaching of the art of conversation by specimens is possible. Even in rhetoric this is very difficult, and yet rhetoric is busied about weighty topics which must often recur in the same form. But in the case of conversation, except to point out some notable examples in great authors, any teaching by special cases is quite illusory. It would at once tempt the learner to force the train of the discourse into the vein he had practised, and to force conversation is in other words to spoil it. (2) As in logic and in rhetoric, we may be certain that all the general rules, when stated, will be perfectly obvious. The notion of any of these sciences being mysteries, whereby a secret or magic power is to be acquired, is only fit for the dark ages. The broad foundations of logic are nothing but truisms; the rules of rhetoric are founded on these truisms, combined with psychological observations neither subtle nor deep. So we may be certain that the laws of good conversation, being such as can be practised by all, are no witchery, but something simple and commonplace,…

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Excerpt #11, from The Art of Conversation: Twelve Golden Rules, by Josephine Turck Baker

…was fully informed on current topics of interest. It seemed almost impossible to realize that he was blind. He.–His case is extraordinary; but, of course, he was not an artist, as was poor Dick, before the “light went out.” I have just discovered another reason why you are so very interesting. It is because you always have some novel experience to recount. She.–Yes; but you know, we decided that people did not care, as a rule, to hear others talk. He.–Well, I shall retract my decision. I have concluded that we usually like to hear others talk, if they have something interesting to tell. She.–Yes; we are all children, in a sense. Tell us a story, and we will listen, provided the story-teller knows how to tell it. He.–Do you know what I have been thinking of while you were telling me this incident? She.–That we had gotten a long way from our original subject? He.–No; I was thinking of how much you had said in comparatively few words, and that in telling this incident, you had certainly conformed to Golden Rule Number I.: AVOID UNNECESSARY DETAILS. She.–And you have conformed to both the rules that we have learned. He.–Thank you. Let me see, Golden Rule Number I. is: "AVOID…

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Excerpt #12, from Buccaneers and Pirates of Our Coasts, by Frank Richard Stockton

…In the early part of these sketches we have alluded to a gentleman of France, who, having become deeply involved in debt, could see no way of putting himself in a condition to pay his creditors but to go into business of some kind. He had no mercantile education, he had not learned any profession, and it was therefore necessary for him to do something for which a previous preparation was not absolutely essential. After having carefully considered all the methods of making money which were open to him under the circumstances, he finally concluded to take up piracy and literature. Even at the present day it is considered by many persons that one of these branches of industry is a field of action especially adapted to those who have not had the opportunity of giving the time and study necessary in any other method of making a living. The French gentleman whose adventures we are about to relate was a very different man from John Esquemeling, who was a literary pirate and nothing more. Being of a clerkly disposition, the gentle John did not pretend to use the sabre or the pistol. His part in life was simply to watch his companions fight, burn, and steal, while his only weapon was his pen, with which he set down their exploits and thereby murdered their reputations. But Monsieur Raveneau de Lussan was both buccaneer and author, and when he had finished his piratical career he wrote a book in which he gave a…

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