Quick Excerpts, from a Library of 492 Titles

Generated 2022-07-28 13:26:00

Excerpt #1, from The Sign of the Four, by Arthur Conan Doyle

…away together.” That was enough to decide me. If my own servant could not believe my innocence, how could I hope to make it good before twelve foolish tradesmen in a jury-box? Lal Chowdar and I disposed of the body that night, and within a few days the London papers were full of the mysterious disappearance of Captain Morstan. You will see from what I say that I can hardly be blamed in the matter. My fault lies in the fact that we concealed not only the body, but also the treasure, and that I have clung to Morstan’s share as well as to my own. I wish you, therefore, to make restitution. Put your ears down to my mouth. The treasure is hidden in—’ “At this instant a horrible change came over his expression; his eyes stared wildly, his jaw dropped, and he yelled, in a voice which I can never forget, ‘Keep him out! For Christ’s sake keep him out!’ We both stared round at the window behind us upon which his gaze was fixed. A face was looking in at us out of the darkness. We could see the whitening of the nose where it was pressed against the glass. It was a bearded, hairy face, with wild cruel eyes and an expression of concentrated malevolence. My brother and I rushed towards the window, but the man was gone. When we returned to my father his head had dropped and his pulse had ceased to beat. “We searched the garden that night, but found no sign of the intruder,…

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Excerpt #2, from Burgess Unabridged: A new dictionary of words you have always needed, by Burgess

…gollohix they make with the milk-cans and switch-engines won’t last but three or four hours. Why try to describe the gollohix? It’s the piano in the next flat at midnight; it’s the turkey-trotting overhead; it’s the phonograph across the hall. (See Jujasm.) Why do they put in your neighbor’s coal so late in the evening, when you have tonsilitis? The coal-man loves a gollohix, as a chauffeur loves a cut-out motor, as a city child loves firecrackers on the 3rd of July. A musical comedy makes a good gollohix when you sit in the front row next to the drum, but a crying baby at four o’clock in the morning makes the best of all. (See Kidloid.) Wait a minute–I forgot the man who practices the trombone or the cornet, just across the airshaft–that’s a gollohix to dream about! A New Year’s Eve in gay New York, Fire engines at a fire, A parrot that doth squawk and squawk Are gollohixes dire. If gollohixes all could be Escaped, I’d thank my stars, But Gollohix the Great is he Who snores in sleeping-cars!…

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Excerpt #3, from History of biology, by L. C. Miall

…Such likeness was called affinity,[1] though no attempt was made to explain in what sense the term was to be understood. As late as the year 1835 one of the first botanists in Europe (Elias Fries) could say no more about affinity between species than that it was quoddam supernaturale, a supernatural property. A tolerable outline of a classification of animals was attained much earlier than a tolerable classification of plants. The characters available for the classification of plants are, to begin with, less obvious than those which the zoologist can employ. Moreover, the botanists were restricted to a narrower view of their subject. Zoologists, though they were expected to bestow the best part of their time upon vertebrates, were encouraged to study all animals more or less. Botanists, on the other hand, were practically obliged to concentrate their attention upon the classification of the flowering plants. The physician, herb-collector, and gardener cared nothing about any plants except such as bear flowers and fruit; but of these they expected full descriptions, and were clamorous for a system which would enable even a tyro to make out every species with certainty and ease. The task set before the botanist was comparable in respect of difficulty with the construction of a detailed and completely satisfactory classification of birds, which zoology has never yet been…

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Excerpt #4, from Myths of the Norsemen: From the Eddas and Sagas, by H. A. Guerber

…in winter, it became customary, in all the Northern countries, to dispense justice in those seasons, the people declaring that it was only when the light shone clearly in the heavens that right could become apparent to all, and that it would be utterly impossible to render an equitable verdict during the dark winter season. Forseti is seldom mentioned except in connection with Balder. He apparently had no share in the closing battle in which all the other gods played such prominent parts. CHAPTER XIII: HEIMDALL The Watchman of the Gods In the course of a walk along the sea-shore Odin once beheld nine beautiful giantesses, the wave maidens, Gialp, Greip, Egia, Augeia, Ulfrun, Aurgiafa, Sindur, Atla, and Iarnsaxa, sound asleep on the white sand. The god of the sky was so charmed with these beautiful creatures that, as the Eddas relate, he wedded all nine of them, and they combined, at the same moment, to bring forth a son, who received the name of Heimdall. “Born was I of mothers nine, Son I am of sisters nine.” Sæmund’s Edda (Thorpe’s tr.). The nine mothers proceeded to nourish their babe on the strength of the…

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Excerpt #5, from The Tempest, by William Shakespeare

…Like poison given to work a great time after, 105 Now ’gins to bite the spirits. I do beseech you, That are of suppler joints, follow them swiftly, And hinder them from what this ecstasy May now provoke them to. Adr. Follow, I pray you. [Exeunt. Notes: III, 3. 2: ache] ake F2 F3 F4. akes F1. 3: forth-rights] F2 F3 F4. fourth rights F1. 8: flatterer] F1. flatterers F2 F3 F4. 17: Prospero above] Malone. Prosper on the top Ff. See note (XIV). 20: were] F1 F2 F3. are F4. 26: ’tis true] to ’t Steevens conj. did lie] lied Hanmer. 29: islanders] F2 F3 F4. islands F1. 32: gentle-kind] Theobald. gentle, kind Ff. gentle kind Rowe. 36: muse] F1 F2 F3. muse, F4. muse; Capell. 48: of five for one] Ff. on five for one Theobald. of one for five Malone, (Thirlby conj.) See note (XV). 49-51: I will … past] Mason conjectured that these lines formed a rhyming couplet….

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Excerpt #6, from Shakespeare’s Sonnets, by William Shakespeare

…My bonds in thee are all determinate. For how do I hold thee but by thy granting? And for that riches where is my deserving? The cause of this fair gift in me is wanting, And so my patent back again is swerving. Thyself thou gav’st, thy own worth then not knowing, Or me to whom thou gav’st it, else mistaking; So thy great gift, upon misprision growing, Comes home again, on better judgement making. Thus have I had thee, as a dream doth flatter, In sleep a king, but waking no such matter. LXXXVIII When thou shalt be dispos’d to set me light, And place my merit in the eye of scorn, Upon thy side, against myself I’ll fight, And prove thee virtuous, though thou art forsworn. With mine own weakness, being best acquainted, Upon thy part I can set down a story Of faults conceal’d, wherein I am attainted; That thou in losing me shalt win much glory: And I by this will be a gainer too;…

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Excerpt #7, from Utilitarianism, by John Stuart Mill

…(especially a person other than oneself) from great and unmerited evil, and when the withholding can only be effected by denial. But in order that the exception may not extend itself beyond the need, and may have the least possible effect in weakening reliance on veracity, it ought to be recognized, and, if possible, its limits defined; and if the principle of utility is good for anything, it must be good for weighing these conflicting utilities against one another, and marking out the region within which one or the other preponderates. Again, defenders of utility often find themselves called upon to reply to such objections as this–that there is not time, previous to action, for calculating and weighing the effects of any line of conduct on the general happiness. This is exactly as if any one were to say that it is impossible to guide our conduct by Christianity, because there is not time, on every occasion on which anything has to be done, to read through the Old and New Testaments. The answer to the objection is, that there has been ample time, namely, the whole past duration of the human species. During all that time mankind have been learning by experience the tendencies of actions; on which experience all the prudence, as well as all the morality of life, is dependent. People talk as if the commencement of this course of experience had hitherto been put off, and as if, at the moment when some man feels tempted to meddle with the…

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Excerpt #8, from The Call of the Wild, by Jack London

…The team of ten dogs was unhitched, and Buck, with his own harness, was put into the sled. He had caught the contagion of the excitement, and he felt that in some way he must do a great thing for John Thornton. Murmurs of admiration at his splendid appearance went up. He was in perfect condition, without an ounce of superfluous flesh, and the one hundred and fifty pounds that he weighed were so many pounds of grit and virility. His furry coat shone with the sheen of silk. Down the neck and across the shoulders, his mane, in repose as it was, half bristled and seemed to lift with every movement, as though excess of vigor made each particular hair alive and active. The great breast and heavy fore legs were no more than in proportion with the rest of the body, where the muscles showed in tight rolls underneath the skin. Men felt these muscles and proclaimed them hard as iron, and the odds went down to two to one. “Gad, sir! Gad, sir!” stuttered a member of the latest dynasty, a king of the Skookum Benches. “I offer you eight hundred for him, sir, before the test, sir; eight hundred just as he stands.” Thornton shook his head and stepped to Buck’s side. “You must stand off from him,” Matthewson protested. “Free play and plenty of room.” The crowd fell silent; only could be heard the voices of the gamblers…

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Excerpt #9, from Autobiography of a Yogi, by Paramahansa Yogananda

…“Wisdom from the hermitage, I suppose! But I see you have left Benares.” Ananta’s eyes gleamed with satisfaction; he yet hoped to secure my pinions in the family nest. “My sojourn in Benares was not in vain! I found there everything my heart had been longing for! You may be sure it was not your pundit or his son!” Ananta joined me in reminiscent laughter; he had had to admit that the Benares “clairvoyant” he selected was a shortsighted one. “What are your plans, my wandering brother?” “Jitendra persuaded me to Agra. We shall view the beauties of the Taj Mahal {FN11-2} here,” I explained. “Then we are going to my newly-found guru, who has a hermitage in Serampore.” Ananta hospitably arranged for our comfort. Several times during the evening I noticed his eyes fixed on me reflectively. “I know that look!” I thought. “A plot is brewing!” The denouement took place during our early breakfast. “So you feel quite independent of Father’s wealth.” Ananta’s gaze was innocent as he resumed the barbs of yesterday’s conversation. “I am conscious of my dependence on God.” "Words are cheap! Life has shielded you thus far! What a plight if you were forced to look to the Invisible Hand for your food and…

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Excerpt #10, from Mental Radio, by Upton Sinclair

…1. Agent’s drawing, a script B; Percipient’s drawing, a figure very like a script 3, practically the B without its vertical line. 2. Agt., a script S; Per., a script J. As made, each has two balloon-like parts joined at the small ends, certain details of course different. 3. Agt., a hexagon; Per., two lines forming an acute angle, like two sides of the hexagon, also a capital E with a line drawn down at an acute angle to the left from the upper extremity of the vertical line. 4. Agt., script M made with a peculiar twist in its first line; Per., almost precisely that first line with its twist. 5. Agt., a thin, long, quadrilateral, like a shingle; Per., (1st drawing) what would be almost exactly the same quadrilateral, narrow and long, but its shorter sides are wanting, and (2nd drawing) a closely similar quadrilateral, with another and longer one attached to its side at a sharp angle. 6. Agt., an interrogation point; Per., a figure hard to describe, a round dot with curves springing from it like concentric 3’s, and two parallel lines shooting to the left. The points which attract notice are the dot, like that of the original, and the curves similar to that of the interrogation point. 7. Agt., script E; Per., same minus the “curls.”…

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Excerpt #11, from Kidnapped, by Robert Louis Stevenson

…The blood came to my face. “If you lock me out,” I said, “it’ll be the last you’ll see of me in friendship.” He turned very pale, and sucked his mouth in. “This is no the way,” he said, looking wickedly at a corner of the floor–“this is no the way to win my favour, David.” “Sir,” says I, “with a proper reverence for your age and our common blood, I do not value your favour at a boddle’s purchase. I was brought up to have a good conceit of myself; and if you were all the uncle, and all the family, I had in the world ten times over, I wouldn’t buy your liking at such prices.” Uncle Ebenezer went and looked out of the window for awhile. I could see him all trembling and twitching, like a man with palsy. But when he turned round, he had a smile upon his face. “Well, well,” said he, “we must bear and forbear. I’ll no go; that’s all that’s to be said of it.” “Uncle Ebenezer,” I said, “I can make nothing out of this. You use me like a thief; you hate to have me in this house; you let me see it, every word and every minute: it’s not possible that you can like me; and as for me, I’ve spoken to you as I never thought to speak to any man. Why do you seek to keep me, then? Let me gang back–let me gang back to the friends I have, and that like me!”…

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Excerpt #12, from Norman Ten Hundred, by A. Stanley Blicq

…at which the advance is timed to begin) was practised over an old stretch of trenches and wiring; infantry partaking in the manoeuvre. Throughout the Norman camp a stir of suppressed excitement and slightly apprehensive anticipation was apparent during the three days’ training, in conjunction with the remainder of the 86th Brigade, for the big stunt. They rapidly grasped, after a hitch during the first day, what was required of them, attaining on the completion of the rehearsals a strong confidence in their powers to carry through their schedule. They became conscious of an eagerness to try their mettle, to do something “off their own bat.” At the end of each day the Ten Hundred swung in a long swaying column behind their band along the pavé roads homewards. Company after company sending up defiant echoes with the marching rallies peculiar to the Normans, they splashed noisily through the almost interconnected line of puddles. Upright, fine, free fellows: the very cream of Guernsey’s manhood. At night they were well content, after a late dinner, to crouch around the glowing brazier and talk, while Biffer surreptiously was wont to fry the bacon he had commandeered. His arch enemy–N.C.O.’s–invariably endeavoured to trap him. “Ere, you, where’d you get that bacon?” “Bacon?” Biffer looked up with baby-like innocence. "’Ad it sent–ain’t…

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