Quick Excerpts, from a Library of 492 Titles

Generated 2022-07-28 13:26:26

Excerpt #1, from Direct Conversion of Energy, by William R. Corliss

…Space Technology_, 83: 53 (July 26, 1965). Thin-film Solar Cells Boost Output Ratio, P. J. Klass, Aviation Week & Space Technology, 83: 67 (November 29, 1965). Books Direct Conversion of Heat to Electricity, Joseph Kaye and John A. Welsh, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York 10016, 1960, 387 pp., $11.50. Recommended for advanced students. Selected Papers on New Techniques for Energy Conversion, Sumner N. Levine, (Ed.), Dover Publications, Inc., New York 10014, 1961, 444 pp., $3.00. A reprinting of many classical papers on direct conversion. Energy Conversion for Space Power, Nathan W. Snyder, (Ed.), Academic Press, Inc., New York 10003, 1961, 779 pp., $8.50. A collection of American Rocket Society papers. Man and Energy, Alfred Rene Ubbelohde, George Braziller, New York 10016, 1955, 247 pp., $5.00 (hardback); $1.25 (paperback), from Penguin Books, Inc., Baltimore, Maryland 21211. A popular treatment of energy and power. Motion Pictures The following films are produced by Educational Services, Inc., and are available from Modern Learning Aids, A Division of Modern Talking…

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Excerpt #2, from Guide to Fortune Telling, by Dreams, by Anonymous

…For a married woman to dream of being dressed in a silk gown, shows her husband is fond of some one who will nearly ruin him. If a maiden dreams of it, she will speedily see her lover. Silver.–To dream of this valuable metal shows that false friends are about you, and will attempt your ruin; in love, it denotes falsehood in your sweetheart. To receive or pick up pieces of silver money, if they are small, denotes want and a prison; if they are quarters, they indicate the receipt of a small sum of money, and the acquisition of some new friends; but if they are half-dollars or dollars, they denote misery, a prison and failure in your undertakings, disappointment in your love, and loss of law-suits, attacks from thieves and bankruptcy in trade. If a woman with child dreams of silver, it shows she will have a girl, but the child will grow poor. Singing.–To dream you are singing shows that you will hear shortly some very melancholy news; to the lover, your sweetheart is bad tempered and unfaithful; to the tradesman, losses by sharpers. To dream that you only hear singing and merry making shows that you will have some agreeable news from a person long absent; if you are in a prison, it foretells you will speedily regain your liberty. Tombs.–To dream of being amongst the tombs denotes a speedy marriage, great success in business, and the gaining of a lawsuit; also the birth…

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Excerpt #3, from The Republic of Plato, by Plato

…good-bye to this sort of physician, he resumes his ordinary habits, and either gets well and lives and does his business, or, if his constitution fails, he dies and has no more trouble. Yes, he said, and a man in his condition of life ought to use the art of medicine thus far only. 407A Has he not, I said, an occupation; and what profit would there be in his life if he were deprived of his occupation? Quite true, he said. But with the rich man this is otherwise; of him we do not say that he has any specially appointed work which he must perform, if he would live. He is generally supposed to have nothing to do. Then you never heard of the saying of Phocylides, that as soon as a man has a livelihood he should practise virtue? Nay, he said, I think that he had better begin somewhat sooner. [Sidenote: The slow cure equally an impediment to the mechanical arts, to the practice of virtue] Let us not have a dispute with him about this, I said; but rather ask ourselves: Is the practice of virtue obligatory on 407B the rich man, or can he live without it? And if obligatory on him, then let us raise a further question, whether this dieting of disorders, which is an impediment to the application of the mind in carpentering and the…

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Excerpt #4, from The Iliad, by Homer

…Accords their vow, succeeds their enterprise. Now, like two lions panting for the prey, With dreadful thoughts they trace the dreary way, Through the black horrors of the ensanguined plain, Through dust, through blood, o’er arms, and hills of slain. Nor less bold Hector, and the sons of Troy, On high designs the wakeful hours employ; The assembled peers their lofty chief enclosed; Who thus the counsels of his breast proposed: “What glorious man, for high attempts prepared, Dares greatly venture for a rich reward? Of yonder fleet a bold discovery make, What watch they keep, and what resolves they take? If now subdued they meditate their flight, And, spent with toil, neglect the watch of night? His be the chariot that shall please him most, Of all the plunder of the vanquish’d host; His the fair steeds that all the rest excel, And his the glory to have served so well.” A youth there was among the tribes of Troy, Dolon his name, Eumedes’ only boy,…

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Excerpt #5, from The Handy Cyclopedia of Things Worth Knowing, by Joseph Triemens

…Main Landing Wheels–In an alighting gear, the wheels that take the chief shock in landing. Ornithopter–A dynamic flying machine of the heavier-than-air type, in which sustension is provided by the effect of reciprocating wing surfaces. Pylon–A tower to mark the course in aerial racing contests. Ribs–Supports for the fabric, made of ash or spruce and bent to the correct curves. Rudder–One or more steering planes are invariably fitted to practical machines to control the direction of flight. Superposed Planes–Arrangement of one plane over the other, as in the Wright, Voisin and Farman machines. Supplementary Planes (or surfaces)–Additional surfaces which are used for stabilization. Stabilizer–Any surface for automatically maintaining lateral or longitudinal balance. Struts–Fixtures used in biplane construction to maintain an equal distance between two planes. Skids–Long skates on which the machine can land in safety. Span–The distance from tip to tip of the main planes in a transverse direction to that of flight….

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Excerpt #6, from The Bacchae of Euripides, by Euripides

…That the Spirit of God, whate’er it be, The Law that abides and changes not, ages long, The Eternal and Nature-born–these things be strong? What else is Wisdom? What of man’s endeavour Or God’s high grace so lovely and so great? To stand from fear set free, to breathe and wait; To hold a hand uplifted over Hate; And shall not Loveliness be loved for ever? LEADER. Happy he, on the weary sea Who hath fled the tempest and won the haven. Happy whoso hath risen, free, Above his striving. For strangely graven Is the orb of life, that one and another In gold and power may outpass his brother. And men in their millions float and flow And seethe with a million hopes as leaven; And they win their Will, or they miss their Will, And the hopes are dead or are pined for still; But whoe’er can know, As the long days go,…

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Excerpt #7, from A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive, by John Stuart Mill

…probability that they are connected is not measured by the total number of instances in which they have been found together, but by the excess of that number above the number due to the absolutely frequency of A. If, for example, A exists always, and therefore co-exists with every thing, no number of instances of its co-existence with B would prove a connection; as in our example of the fixed stars. If A be a fact of such common occurrence that it may be presumed to be present in half of all the cases that occur, and therefore in half the cases in which B occurs, it is only the proportional excess above half that is to be reckoned as evidence toward proving a connection between A and B. In addition to the question, What is the number of coincidences which, on an average of a great multitude of trials, may be expected to arise from chance alone? there is also another question, namely, Of what extent of deviation from that average is the occurrence credible, from chance alone, in some number of instances smaller than that required for striking a fair average? It is not only to be considered what is the general result of the chances in the long run, but also what are the extreme limits of variation from the general result, which may occasionally be expected as the result of some smaller number of instances. The consideration of the latter question, and any consideration of the…

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Excerpt #8, from Walden, and On The Duty Of Civil Disobedience, by Henry David Thoreau

…not want the world to be changed; but he answered with a chuckle of surprise in his Canadian accent, not knowing that the question had ever been entertained before, “No, I like it well enough.” It would have suggested many things to a philosopher to have dealings with him. To a stranger he appeared to know nothing of things in general; yet I sometimes saw in him a man whom I had not seen before, and I did not know whether he was as wise as Shakespeare or as simply ignorant as a child, whether to suspect him of a fine poetic consciousness or of stupidity. A townsman told me that when he met him sauntering through the village in his small close-fitting cap, and whistling to himself, he reminded him of a prince in disguise. His only books were an almanac and an arithmetic, in which last he was considerably expert. The former was a sort of cyclopædia to him, which he supposed to contain an abstract of human knowledge, as indeed it does to a considerable extent. I loved to sound him on the various reforms of the day, and he never failed to look at them in the most simple and practical light. He had never heard of such things before. Could he do without factories? I asked. He had worn the home-made Vermont gray, he said, and that was good. Could he dispense with tea and coffee? Did this country afford any beverage beside water? He had soaked hemlock leaves in water and drank it, and thought that was…

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Excerpt #9, from Desert Dust, by Edwin L. Sabin

…scalding dust. It was a mixed train, of Gentile mules and the more numerous Mormon oxen; therefore not strictly a “bull” train, but by pace designated as such. And in the vernacular I was a “mule-whacker” or even “mule-skinner” rather than a “bull-whacker,” if there is any appreciable difference in rôle. There is none, I think, to the animals. Trudging manfully at the left fore wheel behind Mr. Jenks’ four span of mules, trailing my eighteen-foot tapering lash and occasionally well-nigh cutting off my own ear when I tried to throw it, I played the teamster–although sooth to say there was little of play in the job, on that road, at that time of the day. The sun was more vexatious, being an hour lower, when we bravely entered Benton’s boiling main street. We made brief halt for the finishing up of business; and cleaving a lane through the pedestrians and vehicles and animals there congregated, the challenges of the street gamblers having assailed us in vain, we proceeded–our Mormons gazing straight ahead, scornful of the devil’s enticements, our few Gentiles responding in kind to the quips and waves and salutations. Thus we eventually left Benton; in about an hour’s march or some three miles out we formed corral for camp on the farther side of the road from the railroad tracks which we had been skirting….

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Excerpt #10, from A Sub and a Submarine: The Story of H.M. Submarine R19 in the Great War

…the rusty iron knocker. CHAPTER XXII When the Light Failed After considerable delay the door was opened ajar by a diminutive, white-haired old man, who demanded in a quavering voice the names and business of the callers. “We wish to see M. Vladimir Klostivitch on private affairs,” replied the Sub. “It is useless to give one’s names, for we are unknown to your master. You can inform him that we are comrades from England.” “I am Vladimir Klostivitch,” announced the old man. “Be pleased to enter.” “I am sorry to have made a mistake,” said Fordyce apologetically. “It is nothing,” rejoined Klostivitch. “Can I offer you tea? Excuse the fact that I am alone in the house. Please be seated.” The room into which Fordyce and his companion were shown was a large low-ceilinged place, devoid of a fire-place. It was well heated, warmth being obtained by means of a large closed-in stove in the centre of the room, over which was a bed-box, similar to those extensively used by the muzhiks in the smaller towns and villages of central Russia. The furniture consisted of a massive table, two arm-chairs and a few smaller ones, a plain sideboard, and a tall…

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Excerpt #11, from Round the Red Lamp: Being Facts and Fancies of Medical Life, by Arthur Conan Doyle

…The old man chuckled. “I’ve got brother Jarge’s girl to look after me now. She’ll see I don’t break barracks or do what I hadn’t ought to. Why, darn my skin, I knew something was amiss!”With what?" “Why, with them soldiers. You saw them pass, doctor–eh? They’d forgot their stocks. Not one on ’em had his stock on.” He croaked and chuckled for a long time over his discovery. “It wouldn’t ha’ done for the Dook!” he muttered. “No, by Jimini! the Dook would ha’ had a word there.” The doctor smiled. “Well, you are doing very well,” said he. “I’ll look in once a week or so, and see how you are.” As Norah followed him to the door, he beckoned her outside. “He is very weak,” he whispered. “If you find him failing you must send for me.” “What ails him, doctor?” “Ninety years ails him. His arteries are pipes of lime. His heart is shrunken and flabby. The man is worn out.” Norah stood watching the brisk figure of the young doctor, and pondering over these new responsibilities which had come upon her. When she turned a tall, brown-faced artilleryman, with the three gold…

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Excerpt #12, from The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne

…woman has encountered, and lived through, an experience of peculiar severity. If she be all tenderness, she will die. If she survive, the tenderness will either be crushed out of her, or—and the outward semblance is the same—crushed so deeply into her heart that it can never show itself more. The latter is perhaps the truest theory. She who has once been woman, and ceased to be so, might at any moment become a woman again if there were only the magic touch to effect the transfiguration. We shall see whether Hester Prynne were ever afterwards so touched, and so transfigured. Much of the marble coldness of Hester’s impression was to be attributed to the circumstance, that her life had turned, in a great measure, from passion and feeling, to thought. Standing alone in the world,—alone, as to any dependence on society, and with little Pearl to be guided and protected,—alone, and hopeless of retrieving her position, even had she not scorned to consider it desirable,—she cast away the fragments of a broken chain. The world’s law was no law for her mind. It was an age in which the human intellect, newly emancipated, had taken a more active and a wider range than for many centuries before. Men of the sword had overthrown nobles and kings. Men bolder than these had overthrown and rearranged—not actually, but within the sphere of theory, which was their most real abode—the…

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