Quick Excerpts, from a Library of 492 Titles

Generated 2022-07-28 13:26:02

Excerpt #1, from The Murder on the Links, by Agatha Christie

…away on a holiday. Finally there are Madame Renauld and her son, M. Jack Renauld. He, too, is away from home at present.” Poirot bowed his head. M. Hautet spoke: “Marchaud!” The sergent de ville__ appeared. “Bring in the woman Françoise.” The man saluted, and disappeared. In a moment or two, he returned, escorting the frightened Françoise. “You name is Françoise Arrichet?” “Yes, monsieur.” “You have been a long time in service at the Villa Geneviève?” “Eleven years with Madame la Vicomtesse. Then when she sold the Villa this spring, I consented to remain on with the English milor. Never did I imagine—” The magistrate cut her short. “Without doubt, without doubt. Now, Françoise, in this matter of the front door, whose business was it to fasten it at night?” “Mine, monsieur. Always I saw to it myself.” “And last night?” “I fastened it as usual.” “You are sure of that?”…

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Excerpt #2, from Overland through Asia; Pictures of Siberian, Chinese, and Tartar Life, by Knox

…(dollars) each, according to their quality. Leaders bring high prices on account of their superior docility and the labor of training them. Epidemics are frequent among dogs and carry off great numbers of them. Hydrophobia is a common occurrence. The Russian inhabitants of Kamchatka are mostly descended from Cossacks and exiles. There is a fair but not undue proportion of half breeds, the natural result of marriage between natives and immigrants. There are about four hundred Russians at Petropavlovsk, and the same number at each of two other points. The aboriginal population is about six thousand, including a few hundred dwellers on the Kurile Islands. No exiles have been sent to Kamchatka since 1830. One old man who had been forty years a colonist was living at Avatcha in 1866. He was at liberty to return to Europe, but preferred remaining. In 1771 occurred the first voyage from Kamchatka to a foreign port, and curiously enough, it was performed under the Polish flag. A number of exiles, headed by a Pole named Benyowski, seized a small vessel and put to sea. Touching at Japan and Loo Choo to obtain water and provisions, the party reached the Portuguese colony of Macao in safety. There were no nautical instruments or charts on the ship, and the successful result of the voyage was more accidental than otherwise….

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Excerpt #3, from Greenmantle, by John Buchan

…brought to their markets, assessing their usefulness for some task or other with no thought of a humanity common to purchased and purchaser. And yet—not quite. This woman’s eyes were weighing me, not for any special duty, but for my essential qualities. I felt that I was under the scrutiny of one who was a connoisseur in human nature. I see I have written that I knew nothing about women. But every man has in his bones a consciousness of sex. I was shy and perturbed, but horribly fascinated. This slim woman, poised exquisitely like some statue between the pillared lights, with her fair cloud of hair, her long delicate face, and her pale bright eyes, had the glamour of a wild dream. I hated her instinctively, hated her intensely, but I longed to arouse her interest. To be valued coldly by those eyes was an offence to my manhood, and I felt antagonism rising within me. I am a strong fellow, well set up, and rather above the average height, and my irritation stiffened me from heel to crown. I flung my head back and gave her cool glance for cool glance, pride against pride. Once, I remember, a doctor on board ship who dabbled in hypnotism told me that I was the most unsympathetic person he had ever struck. He said I was about as good a mesmeric subject as Table Mountain. Suddenly I began to realize that this woman was trying to cast some spell over me. The eyes grew large and luminous, and I was conscious for just an…

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Excerpt #4, from Discoveries Among the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon, by Austen Henry Layard

…encamp near it in summer to drink the cool water of this natural reservoir. Leaving the cavern and issuing from the ravine, we came to the edge of a wide crater, in the centre of which rose the remarkable cone of Koukab. All around were evidences of the remains of an extinct volcano, which had been active within a comparatively recent geological period, even perhaps within the time of history, or tradition, as the name of the mound amongst the Arabs denotes a jet of fire or flame, as well as a constellation. I ascended the cone, which is about 300 feet high, and composed entirely of loose lava, scoria, and ashes, thus resembling precisely the cone rising in the craters of Vesuvius and Ætna. It is steep and difficult of ascent, except on one side, where the summit is easily reached even by horses. Within, for it is hollow, it resembles an enormous funnel, broken away at one edge, as if a molten stream had burst through it. Anemonies and poppies, of the brightest scarlet hue, covered its sides; although the dry lava and loose ashes scarcely seemed to have collected sufficient soil to nourish their roots. It would be difficult to describe the richness and brilliancy of this mass of flowers, the cone from a distance having the appearance of a huge inverted cup of burnished copper, over which poured streams of blood. From the summit of Koukab I gazed upon a scene as varied as extensive….

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Excerpt #5, from Selected Prose of Oscar Wilde, by Oscar Wilde

…him; and he went up on to a mountain and sat down on a rock that was on the mountain, and his disciples stood round him, and the multitude knelt in the valley. And he bowed his head on his hands and wept, and said to his Soul, ‘Why is it that I am full of sorrow and fear, and that each of my disciples is an enemy that walks in the noonday?’ And his Soul answered him and said, ‘God filled thee with the perfect knowledge of Himself, and thou hast given this knowledge away to others. The pearl of great price thou hast divided, and the vesture without seam thou hast parted asunder. He who giveth away wisdom robbeth himself. He is as one who giveth his treasure to a robber. Is not God wiser than thou art? Who art thou to give away the secret that God hath told thee? I was rich once, and thou hast made me poor. Once I saw God, and now thou hast hidden Him from me.’ And he wept again, for he knew that his Soul spake truth to him, and that he had given to others the perfect knowledge of God, and that he was as one clinging to the skirts of God, and that his faith was leaving him by reason of the number of those who believed in him. And he said to himself, ‘I will talk no more about God. He who giveth away wisdom robbeth himself.’ And after the space of some hours his disciples came near him and bowed themselves to the ground and said, ’Master, talk to us about God, for…

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Excerpt #6, from Helps to Latin Translation at Sight, by Edmund Luce

…Gallorum captus spoliis et Caesaris auro. 820 Ius licet in iugulos nostros sibi fecerit ense Sulla potens Mariusque ferox et Cinna cruentus Caesareaeque domus series; cui tanta potestas Concessa est? Emere omnes, hic vendidit urbem. LUCAN, Pharsalia, iv. 799-804, 809-end. +Context.+ In 49 B.C. Curio was sent by Caesar to wrest the corn-province of Africa from the Pompeians. He won a signal success over Varus (allied with Juba) at Utica, but allowed himself to be surprised on the plain of the Bagradas, and, when all was lost, died sword in hand. [Linenotes: 800. +tribunicia arce+ = from the citadel of the tribune, i.e. the inviolability of the office and the right of veto. As tribune Curio played an all-important part in the crisis of 50 B.C. 801. +prodita iura senatus+, i.e. of the right of the senators to appoint governors of the provinces. –Haskins. 802. +gener atque socer:+ by the early death of Julia (54 B.C.)–a beloved wife and daughter–the personal relation between Pompeius and Caesar was broken up. 812. +senium+ (senex) = decay (of lapse of time)….

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Excerpt #7, from The Republic of Plato, by Plato

…him to death. No question, he said. [Sidenote: The prison is the world of sight, the light of the fire is the sun.] This entire allegory, I said, you may now append, dear 517B Glaucon, to the previous argument; the prison-house is the world of sight, the light of the fire is the sun, and you will not misapprehend me if you interpret the journey upwards to be the ascent of the soul into the intellectual world according to my poor belief, which, at your desire, I have expressed–whether rightly or wrongly God knows. But, whether true or false, my opinion is that in the world of knowledge the idea of good appears last of all, and is seen 517C only with an effort; and, when seen, is also inferred to be the universal author of all things beautiful and right, parent of light and of the lord of light in this visible world, and the immediate source of reason and truth in the intellectual; and that this is the power upon which he who would act rationally either in public or private life must have his eye fixed. I agree, he said, as far as I am able to understand you. Moreover, I said, you must not wonder that those who attain to this beatific vision are unwilling to descend to human affairs; for their souls are ever hastening into the 517D upper world where they desire to dwell;…

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Excerpt #8, from My Reminiscences, by Rabindranath Tagore

…beams, passing though the trees, have fallen on the verandah floor; I am singing in the Behaga mode: O Companion in the darkest passage of life…. My father with bowed head and clasped hands is intently listening. I can recall this evening scene even now. I have told of my father’s amusement on hearing from Srikantha Babu of my maiden attempt at a devotional poem. I am reminded how, later, I had my recompense. On the occasion of one of our Magh festivals several of the hymns were of my composition. One of them was “The eye sees thee not, who art the pupil of every eye….” My father was then bed-ridden at Chinsurah. He sent for me and my brother Jyoti. He asked my brother to accompany me on the harmonium and got me to sing all my hymns one after the other,–some of them I had to sing twice over. When I had finished he said: “If the king of the country had known the language and could appreciate its literature, he would doubtless have rewarded the poet. Since that is not so, I suppose I must do it.” With which he handed me a cheque. My father had brought with him some volumes of the Peter Parley series from which to teach me. He selected the life of Benjamin Franklin to begin with. He thought it would read like a story book and be both entertaining and instructive. But he found out his mistake soon after we…

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Excerpt #9, from Japan: From the Japanese Government History, by Kan’ichi Asakawa

…hundred thousand. Nevertheless, the government was careful to avoid a return to the excesses of former days. The building of new temples was forbidden, the lands assigned for the support of those already in existence were rigidly defined, and the people were encouraged to study Chinese literature, so that the corruption which disfigured the Buddhist priesthood in earlier ages was, in great part, corrected. Even more important than the revival of Buddhist influence was the bearing of the Catholic extermination upon the almost total exclusion of foreign trade from the shores of Japan. The entry of all foreign ships, except those of China and Holland, into Japanese ports was peremptorily forbidden. Neither the Chinese nor the Dutch entertained any idea of religious propagandism, their sole purpose being commercial. The Dutch, indeed, having shown a disposition to assist Japan in every way, enjoyed great credit with the Edo government, as will be more fully set forth in the next chapter. At first no restrictions were imposed on the commercial transactions of the Chinese and the Dutch, but subsequently a limit was set to the amount of trade and to the number of ships engaged, and the prices at which imported articles must be offered for sale were also determined officially. These restrictions were suggested by the fact that the trade involved a heavy drain of the precious metals. Indeed, the quantity of gold and silver exported from Japan during the…

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Excerpt #10, from The Observations of Professor Maturin, by Clyde Furst

…then that he began the practice, which he would have scorned earlier, of carrying in his pockets cheerful and humorous quotations as means for enlivening depressed patients. Thus, slowly but steadily, through some conspicuous successes and many sure ones, his reputation became more and more established, until, at about forty-five, he was accepted by all as unquestionably the chief physician of the town. “His frankness, however, by no means decreased as his fame advanced, but people increasingly understood his eccentricities as they increasingly honored his intellect and revered his character. He never hesitated to say, for example, that his successes were due more to experience and common sense than to any scientific knowledge. This was, perhaps, a limitation of his location so far from the centres of scholarship, but he would have followed reason rather than authority anywhere. When the chief apothecary caught cold and died from a consumption that the old doctor had long pronounced cured, he lamented that this mistaken judgment had brought him more reputation than any real cure he had ever accomplished, and he would sometimes regretfully compare the tremendous exertions that had gone unrecognized in his earliest practice with the late unreasoning praise of almost everything he did–‘So hard it is,’ he would say, ‘to establish unpopular truth or check popular error.’…

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Excerpt #11, from The Sea

…ARKADINA. Good-bye, all! We shall meet again next summer if we live. [The maid servant, JACOB, and the cook kiss her hand] Don’t forget me. [She gives the cook a rouble] There is a rouble for all three of you. THE COOK. Thank you, mistress; a pleasant journey to you. JACOB. God bless you, mistress. SHAMRAEFF. Send us a line to cheer us up. [TO TRIGORIN] Good-bye, sir. ARKADINA. Where is Constantine? Tell him I am starting. I must say good-bye to him. [To JACOB] I gave the cook a rouble for all three of you. All go out through the door on the right. The stage remains empty. Sounds of farewell are heard. The maid comes running back to fetch the basket of plums which has been forgotten. TRIGORIN comes back. TRIGORIN. I had forgotten my cane. I think I left it on the terrace. [He goes toward the door on the right and meets NINA, who comes in at that moment] Is that you? We are off. NINA. I knew we should meet again. [With emotion] I have come to an irrevocable decision, the die is cast: I am going on the stage. I am deserting my father and abandoning everything. I am beginning life anew. I am going, as you are, to Moscow. We shall meet there. TRIGORIN. [Glancing about him] Go to the Hotel Slavianski Bazar. Let me know as soon as you get there. I shall be at the Grosholski House in…

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Excerpt #12, from Clairvoyance and Occult Powers, by William Walker Atkinson

…that the ornament itself was an antique when the Egyptian had acquired it. In another case, I had the psychometrist describe in detail the animal life, and the physical phenomena, of the age in which a fossil had existed when alive–many thousands of years ago. In the proper place in this book, I will explain just how it is possible to penetrate the secrets of the past by psychometric vision–that is to say, the psychic laws making the same possible. Some of the most remarkable of recorded instances of this form of psychometry known to the Western world are those related in the works of a geologist named Denton, who some fifty years ago conducted a series of investigations into the phenomena of psychometry. His recorded experiments fill several volumes. Being a geologist, he was able to select the best subjects for the experiments, and also to verify and decide upon the accuracy of the reports given by the psychometrists. His wife, herself, was a gifted psychometrist, and it has been said of her, by good authority, that “she is able, by putting a piece of matter (whatever be its nature) to her head, to see, either with her eyes closed or open, all that the piece of matter, figuratively speaking, ever saw, heard, or experienced.” The following examples will give a good idea of the Denton experiments, which are typical of this class of psychometry. Dr. Denton gave the psychometrist a small fragment broken from a large…

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