Quick Excerpts, from a Library of 492 Titles

Generated 2022-07-28 13:26:17

Excerpt #1, 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 #2, from A Sub and a Submarine: The Story of H.M. Submarine R19 in the Great War

…in the afternoon when he brought his cycle-car round. At eight the following morning he had to report for duty. “I believe Flirt knows there’s something in the air, Pater,” he remarked, as the dog obeyed the order to jump in with marked reluctance. Usually the prospect of a motor run made the terrier frantic with delight. Noel took a roundabout route. It was a beautiful afternoon, the roads were in perfect order, and the car ran faultlessly. In just over the hour the Sub arrived at his cousin’s quarters. “I’ll take care of her with pleasure,” replied Billy in answer to his cousin’s request. “But do you think she’ll stop?” “I think so,” replied Noel. “If I tell her she’ll obey. In any case she’d make her way back to Otherport, so you needn’t be anxious. I pity the man who tries to steal her.” “To be on the safe side, I’ll lock her up until to-morrow morning,” said Billy. “That’ll give you time to get clear. Sorry you can’t stop to dinner, old man.” Noel took an affectionate farewell of his pet. Flirt looked very downhearted as, with her tail between her legs, she followed the Captain to her new quarters, while the Sub, having bidden his cousin au revoir, hurried back to Otherport….

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Excerpt #3, from Moby Dick; Or, The Whale, by Herman Melville

…sit at the opposite gunwales, to the leaded chocks or grooves in the extreme pointed prow of the boat, where a wooden pin or skewer the size of a common quill, prevents it from slipping out. From the chocks it hangs in a slight festoon over the bows, and is then passed inside the boat again; and some ten or twenty fathoms (called box-line) being coiled upon the box in the bows, it continues its way to the gunwale still a little further aft, and is then attached to the short-warp—the rope which is immediately connected with the harpoon; but previous to that connexion, the short-warp goes through sundry mystifications too tedious to detail. Thus the whale-line folds the whole boat in its complicated coils, twisting and writhing around it in almost every direction. All the oarsmen are involved in its perilous contortions; so that to the timid eye of the landsman, they seem as Indian jugglers, with the deadliest snakes sportively festooning their limbs. Nor can any son of mortal woman, for the first time, seat himself amid those hempen intricacies, and while straining his utmost at the oar, bethink him that at any unknown instant the harpoon may be darted, and all these horrible contortions be put in play like ringed lightnings; he cannot be thus circumstanced without a shudder that makes the very marrow in his bones to quiver in him like a shaken jelly. Yet habit—strange thing! what…

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Excerpt #4, from The Jest Book, by Mark Lemon

…son of Neptune replied that it was “because the rigging cost more than the hull.” MCCVII.–NO SACRIFICE. A LINEN-DRAPER having advertised his stock to be sold under prime cost, a neighbor observed that, “It was impossible, as he had never paid a farthing for it himself.” MCCVIII.–SHARP BOY. A MOTHER admonishing her son (a lad about seven years of age), told him he should never defer till to-morrow what he could do to-day. The little urchin replied, “Then, mother, let’s eat the remainder of the plum-pudding to-night.” MCCIX.–EARLY BIRDS OF PREY. A MERCHANT having been attacked by some thieves at five in the afternoon, said: “Gentlemen, you open shop early to-day.” MCCX.–JUDGMENT. JAMES THE SECOND, when Duke of York, made a visit to Milton the poet, and asked him, amongst other things, if he did not think the loss of his sight a judgment upon him for what he had written against his father, Charles the First. Milton answered, “If your Highness think my loss of sight a judgment upon me, what do you think of your father’s losing his head?”…

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Excerpt #5, from Everybody’s Book of Luck, by Anonymous

…you will be passably lucky; but luck will not come your way at all if spades are in the majority. Should two suits tie for first place the Fates require you to make the pyramid over again. SEVENS AND THREES The following method of consulting one’s luck must have been attempted many millions of times, but it is not known so well now as it was a century ago. The first thing is to shuffle a full pack thoroughly. This, of course, must be done by the person whose luck is being tested. And then, it is necessary that he or she cuts with the left hand. After these preliminaries, someone takes the pack and deals the cards one at a time, face downwards, on to the table, placing them in a heap. The consultant who is seeking to find out what the Fates are determining should really be blindfolded, but this is unnecessary if the cards are new and cannot be recognized by any markings on the backs. The consultant has to choose any three cards as they are being slowly dealt. They can be three cards coming together, or widely separated, or just as he or she fancies. As each card is selected, it is set aside and, when the three are chosen, not before, they are turned face up and arranged in the order of selection. Each card from one to nine stands for its own value, but…

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Excerpt #6, from Comic History of the United States, by Bill Nye

…+———————-+ | BEWARE OF PAINT. | …+———————-+ Regarding the question as to who has the right to claim the priority of discovery of New York, I unite with one of the ablest historians now living in stating that I do not know. Here and there throughout the work of all great historians who are frank and honest, chapter after chapter of information like this will burst forth upon the eye of the surprised and delighted reader. Society at the time of the discovery of the blank-verse Indian of America was crude. Hudson’s arrival, of course, among older citizens soon called out those who desired his acquaintance, but he noticed that club life was not what it has since become, especially Indian club life. [Illustration: CLUB LIFE IN EARLY NEW YORK.] He found a nation whose regular job was war and whose religion was the ever-present prayer that they might eat the heart of their enemy plain. The Indian High School and Young Ladies’ Seminary captured by Columbus, as shown in the pictures of his arrival at home and his presentation to the royal pair one hundred and seventeen years before this, it is said, brought a royal flush to the face of King Ferdie, who had been well brought up….

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Excerpt #7, from Uncle Wiggily’s Adventures, by Howard Roger Garis

…“Let me look at your tongue,” said the rabbit, and when Grandfather Goosey Gander stuck it out, Uncle Wiggily said: “Why, you have the epizootic very bad. Very bad, indeed! But perhaps I can cure you. Let me see, I think you need some bread and butter, and a cup of catnip tea. I’ll make you some.” So Uncle Wiggily made a little fire of sticks, and then he found an empty tin tomato can, and he boiled some water in it over the fire, and made the catnip tea. Then he gave some to Grandfather Goosey Gander, together with some bread and butter. “Well, I feel a little better,” said the old gentleman duck-drake, when he had eaten, “but I am not well yet. It seems to me that if I could have some cherry pie I would feel better.” “Perhaps you would,” agreed Uncle Wiggily, “but, though I know how to make nice cherry pie, and though I made some for the hedgehog, I don’t see any cherry trees around here, so I can’t make you one. There are no cherry trees.” “Yes, there is one over there,” said the duck-drake, and he waved one foot toward it, while he quacked real faint and sorrowful-like. “Sure enough, that is a cherry tree,” said Uncle Wiggily, as he hopped over and looked at it. "And the cherries are ripe, too. Now, if I could only get some of them down I could make a cherry pie, and cure Grandfather…

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Excerpt #8, from War and Peace, by graf Leo Tolstoy

…remembered long afterwards. Nor did she cry when he was gone; but for several days she sat in her room dry-eyed, taking no interest in anything and only saying now and then, “Oh, why did he go away?” But a fortnight after his departure, to the surprise of those around her, she recovered from her mental sickness just as suddenly and became her old self again, but with a change in her moral physiognomy, as a child gets up after a long illness with a changed expression of face. CHAPTER XXV During that year after his son’s departure, Prince Nicholas Bolkónski’s health and temper became much worse. He grew still more irritable, and it was Princess Mary who generally bore the brunt of his frequent fits of unprovoked anger. He seemed carefully to seek out her tender spots so as to torture her mentally as harshly as possible. Princess Mary had two passions and consequently two joys—her nephew, little Nicholas, and religion—and these were the favorite subjects of the prince’s attacks and ridicule. Whatever was spoken of he would bring round to the superstitiousness of old maids, or the petting and spoiling of children. “You want to make him”—little Nicholas—“into an old maid like yourself! A pity! Prince Andrew wants a son and not an old maid,” he would say. Or, turning to Mademoiselle Bourienne, he would ask her in Princess Mary’s presence…

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Excerpt #9, from A Humorous History of England, by Charles Harrison

…Wat Tyler and Jack Straw at head. Præmunire Præmunire Act is passed To check the Papal Bulls at last. Chaucer Chaucer the Poet this same year Makes Pilgrimage to Becket’s bier. [Illustration: FORTES FORTUNA JUVAT. IRON JELLOIDS The Great Tonic] Age of This was the age, aye verily, Chivalry Of ryghte goode noble chivalry, When Knights went forth through storm and stress To rescue beauty in distress. [Illustration: IRON JELLOIDS The Great Tonic.] Or sallied out in valiant way A monster dragon for to slay, Or with lance or trusty blade Defend from harm the hapless maid. Henry IV. Henry Four, called ‘Bolingbroke’ 1399-1413 In Richard’s wheel puts many a spoke; Compels him to resign the throne Which thereupon he makes his own. Through John of Gaunt, Lancastrian famed,…

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Excerpt #10, from The Genetic Effects of Radiation, by Isaac Asimov and Theodosius Dobzhansky

…If radiation kills the mechanism of division in only some of these cells, it is possible that those that remain reasonably intact can divide and eventually replace or do the work of those that can no longer divide. In that case, the symptoms of radiation sickness are relatively mild in the first place and eventually disappear. Past a certain critical point, when too many cells are made incapable of division, this is no longer possible. The symptoms, which show up in the growing tissues particularly (as in the loss of hair, the misshaping or loss of fingernails, the reddening and hemorrhaging of skin, the ulceration of the mouth, and the lowering of the blood cell count), grow steadily more severe and death follows. Radiation and Mutation Where radiation is insufficient to render a cell incapable of division, it may still induce mutations, and it is in this fashion that skin cancer, leukemia, and other disorders may be brought about.[6] [Illustration: Studies at the California Institute of Technology furnish information on the nature of radiation effects on genes. The experiments produced fruit flies with three or four wings and double or partially doubled thoraxes by causing gene mutation through X-irradiation and chromosome rearrangements. A is a normal male Drosophila; _B is a four-winged male with a double thorax; and C and D…

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Excerpt #11, from The Merchant of Venice, by William Shakespeare

…neither. JESSICA. And what hope is that, I pray thee? LAUNCELET. Marry, you may partly hope that your father got you not, that you are not the Jew’s daughter. JESSICA. That were a kind of bastard hope indeed; so the sins of my mother should be visited upon me. LAUNCELET. Truly then I fear you are damn’d both by father and mother; thus when I shun Scylla your father, I fall into Charybdis your mother. Well, you are gone both ways. JESSICA. I shall be saved by my husband. He hath made me a Christian. LAUNCELET. Truly the more to blame he, we were Christians enow before, e’en as many as could well live one by another. This making of Christians will raise the price of hogs; if we grow all to be pork-eaters, we shall not shortly have a rasher on the coals for money. Enter Lorenzo….

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Excerpt #12, from You no longer count, by René Boylesve

…paper—-" “Do you believe in such a thing, yourself?” “I believe in the word as I believe in all words. It is a mistake to disdain the old-fashioned verbalism–rhetoric, eloquence. The majority of words are hollow–yes, but they are hollow like bells whose sonorousness may by itself shake the whole world. Those who use words are inspired by various things, and generally by sentiments that they cannot acknowledge; yet the word touches the finest chords in the soul of men whom one wants to win over. ‘Democracy’ has a tone—-” “Which will work good?–or evil?” "Alas! The popular instinct and an inevitable necessity urge men, in spite of words, to enslave themselves, and they will of their own accord submit to the tyranny of new leaders, new groups representing interests of which the crowd will know nothing. Almost all my pessimism is founded on the irresistible character of this law. Men must be commanded, and no one can be sure that those who command will not abuse their authority or the confidence which is freely granted to them. However, the official programme of democracy will be to devote all its effort to the well-being of poor humans who have not an average of fifty years to live in this world, who no longer believe in another world, and who in truth have some legitimate aspirations to live their few years for their own…

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