Quick Excerpts, from a Library of 492 Titles

Generated 2022-07-28 13:25:56

Excerpt #1, from The Handy Cyclopedia of Things Worth Knowing, by Joseph Triemens

…privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States. 2. A person charged in any State with treason, felony, or other crime, who shall flee from justice, and be found in another State, shall, on demand of the executive authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered up to be removed to the State having jurisdiction of the crime. 3. No person held to service or labor in one State under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any laws or regulations therein, be discharged from such service or labor; but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due. SECTION III. 1. New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; but no new State shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any other State, nor any State be formed by the junction of two or more States or parts of States, without the consent of the legislatures of the States concerned, as well as of Congress. 2. The Congress shall have power to dispose of, and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property belonging to the United States; and nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to prejudice any claim of the United States, or of…

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Excerpt #2, from The Poetics of Aristotle, by Aristotle

…Eucleides, the elder, declared that it would be an easy matter to be a poet if you might lengthen syllables at will. He caricatured the practice in the very form of his diction, as in the verse: ’{Epsilon pi iota chi alpha rho eta nu / epsilon iota delta omicron nu / Mu alpha rho alpha theta omega nu alpha delta epsilon / Beta alpha delta iota zeta omicron nu tau alpha}, or, {omicron upsilon kappa / alpha nu / gamma / epsilon rho alpha mu epsilon nu omicron sigma / tau omicron nu / epsilon kappa epsilon iota nu omicron upsilon /epsilon lambda lambda epsilon beta omicron rho omicron nu}. To employ such license at all obtrusively is, no doubt, grotesque; but in any mode of poetic diction there must be moderation. Even metaphors, strange (or rare) words, or any similar forms of speech, would produce the like effect if used without propriety and with the express purpose of being ludicrous. How great a difference is made by the appropriate use of lengthening, may be seen in Epic poetry by the insertion of ordinary forms in the verse. So, again, if we take a strange (or rare) word, a metaphor, or any similar mode of expression, and replace it by the current or proper term, the truth of our observation will be manifest. For example Aeschylus and Euripides each composed the same iambic line. But the alteration of a single word by Euripides, who employed the rarer term instead of the ordinary one, makes one verse appear beautiful and the other trivial. Aeschylus in his…

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Excerpt #3, from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Arthur Conan Doyle

…again.” “And your father? Did you tell him?” “Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had happened, and that I should hear of Hosmer again. As he said, what interest could anyone have in bringing me to the doors of the church, and then leaving me? Now, if he had borrowed my money, or if he had married me and got my money settled on him, there might be some reason, but Hosmer was very independent about money and never would look at a shilling of mine. And yet, what could have happened? And why could he not write? Oh, it drives me half-mad to think of it, and I can’t sleep a wink at night.” She pulled a little handkerchief out of her muff and began to sob heavily into it. “I shall glance into the case for you,” said Holmes, rising, “and I have no doubt that we shall reach some definite result. Let the weight of the matter rest upon me now, and do not let your mind dwell upon it further. Above all, try to let Mr. Hosmer Angel vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life.” “Then you don’t think I’ll see him again?” “I fear not.” “Then what has happened to him?” “You will leave that question in my hands. I should like an accurate…

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Excerpt #4, from Champions of the Fleet, by Edward Fraser

…the mercy on us as He has had, for we made five ships strike to the ship has I am in. We had 125 killed and wounded, and 1500 in the English fleet killed and wounded, and the enemy 12,000; so I shall leave you to judge how your country fight for the religion you enjoy, the laws you possess, and on the other hand how Bounaparte has trampt them causes down in the places he has had concern with, for nothing but torment is going forward. So never think it is disgrace to having brothers in service; but I have had pretty well on it, and when you write to our mother, give my love to my sister Betty and my poor mother, and send me word about her and you shall have your loving brother’s thanks. So must conclude with hoping this will bring you peace and love and unity. Then you and me and our dear mother will meet together to enjoy the fruits of the island as I have been fighting for. My dear, I shall just give you a description of Lord Nelson. He is a man about five feet seven, very slender, of an affable temper; but a rare man for his country, and has been in 123 actions and skrimmages, and got wounded with a small ball, but it was mortal. It was his last words, that it was his lot for me to go, but I am going to heaven, but never haul down your colours to France, for your men will stick to…

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Excerpt #5, from Phrases for Public Speakers and Paragraphs for Study, by Grenville Kleiser

…I am perfectly indifferent concerning I am persuaded that I am quite certain that I am sanguine that those who I am speaking to-night for myself. I am sure, at least, that I am sure you will allow me I am sure you will do me the justice I am told that the reason I am well aware that I am willing to admit that I appeal to you on behalf of I ask how you are going to I ask myself I ask, then, as concerns the I ask your attention to this point. I assume that the argument for I assume, then, that I beg not to be interrupted here I beg respectfully to differ from I beg to assure you…

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Excerpt #6, from An Ideal Husband, by Oscar Wilde

…MASON. Lord Goring. [Enter LORD GORING. Thirty-four, but always says he is younger. A well-bred, expressionless face. He is clever, but would not like to be thought so. A flawless dandy, he would be annoyed if he were considered romantic. He plays with life, and is on perfectly good terms with the world. He is fond of being misunderstood. It gives him a post of vantage.] SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. Good evening, my dear Arthur! Mrs. Cheveley, allow me to introduce to you Lord Goring, the idlest man in London. MRS. CHEVELEY. I have met Lord Goring before. LORD GORING. [Bowing.] I did not think you would remember me, Mrs. Cheveley. MRS. CHEVELEY. My memory is under admirable control. And are you still a bachelor? LORD GORING. I . . . believe so. MRS. CHEVELEY. How very romantic! LORD GORING. Oh! I am not at all romantic. I am not old enough. I leave romance to my seniors. SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. Lord Goring is the result of Boodle’s Club, Mrs. Cheveley. MRS. CHEVELEY. He reflects every credit on the institution….

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Excerpt #7, from Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott

…scandalized to see the bride come running to welcome and lead her in, to find the bridegroom fastening up a garland that had fallen down, and to catch a glimpse of the paternal minister marching upstairs with a grave countenance and a wine bottle under each arm. “Upon my word, here’s a state of things!” cried the old lady, taking the seat of honor prepared for her, and settling the folds of her lavender moire with a great rustle. “You oughtn’t to be seen till the last minute, child.” “I’m not a show, Aunty, and no one is coming to stare at me, to criticize my dress, or count the cost of my luncheon. I’m too happy to care what anyone says or thinks, and I’m going to have my little wedding just as I like it. John, dear, here’s your hammer.” And away went Meg to help ‘that man’ in his highly improper employment. Mr. Brooke didn’t even say, “Thank you,” but as he stooped for the unromantic tool, he kissed his little bride behind the folding door, with a look that made Aunt March whisk out her pocket handkerchief with a sudden dew in her sharp old eyes. A crash, a cry, and a laugh from Laurie, accompanied by the indecorous exclamation, “Jupiter Ammon! Jo’s upset the cake again!” caused a momentary flurry, which was hardly over when a flock of cousins arrived, and ‘the party came in’, as Beth used to say when a child….

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Excerpt #8, from Tess of the d’Urbervilles: A Pure Woman, by Thomas Hardy

…It was not till the evening, after family prayers, that Angel found opportunity of broaching to his father one or two subjects near his heart. He had strung himself up to the purpose while kneeling behind his brothers on the carpet, studying the little nails in the heels of their walking boots. When the service was over they went out of the room with their mother, and Mr Clare and himself were left alone. The young man first discussed with the elder his plans for the attainment of his position as a farmer on an extensive scale—either in England or in the Colonies. His father then told him that, as he had not been put to the expense of sending Angel up to Cambridge, he had felt it his duty to set by a sum of money every year towards the purchase or lease of land for him some day, that he might not feel himself unduly slighted. “As far as worldly wealth goes,” continued his father, “you will no doubt stand far superior to your brothers in a few years.” This considerateness on old Mr Clare’s part led Angel onward to the other and dearer subject. He observed to his father that he was then six-and-twenty, and that when he should start in the farming business he would require eyes in the back of his head to see to all matters—some one would be necessary to superintend the domestic labours of his establishment whilst he was afield. Would it not be well,…

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Excerpt #9, from Studying the short story, by J. Berg Esenwein

…was too much of a gambler not to accept Fate. With him life was at best an uncertain game, and he recognized the usual percentage in favor of the dealer. [Sidenote: First group of characters.] [Sidenote: First group of characters.] [Sidenote: Climax of first crisis.] [Sidenote: End of Introduction and groundwork.] 6. A body of armed men accompanied the deported wickedness of Poker Flat to the outskirts of the settlement. Besides Mr. Oakhurst, who was known to be a coolly desperate man, and for whose intimidation the armed escort was intended, the expatriated party consisted of a young woman familiarly known as “The Duchess”; another, who had gained the infelicitous title of “Mother Shipton”; and “Uncle Billy,” a suspected sluice-robber and confirmed drunkard. The cavalcade provoked no comments from the spectators, nor was any word uttered by the escort. Only, when the gulch which marked the uttermost limit of Poker Flat was reached, the leader spoke briefly and to the point. The exiles were forbidden to return at the peril of their lives. [Sidenote: THIRD STAGE OF FIRST PLOT INCIDENT.] [Sidenote: Is “their” well used?] [Sidenote: Paragraph of character delineation.]…

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Excerpt #10, from English Literature, by William J. Long

…us. In this famous Covenant we see the national, the ecclesiastical, and the personal dream of Puritanism, side by side, in all their grandeur and simplicity. Years passed, years of bitter struggle and heartache, before the impossibility of uniting the various Protestant sects was generally recognized. The ideal of a national church died hard, and to its death is due all the religious unrest of the period. Only as we remember the national ideal, and the struggle which it caused, can we understand the amazing life and work of Bunyan, or appreciate the heroic spirit of the American colonists who left home for a wilderness in order to give the new ideal of a free church in a free state its practical demonstration. LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS. In literature also the Puritan Age was one of confusion, due to the breaking up of old ideals. Mediaeval standards of chivalry, the impossible loves and romances of which Spenser furnished the types, perished no less surely than the ideal of a national church; and in the absence of any fixed standard of literary criticism there was nothing to prevent the exaggeration of the “metaphysical” poets, who are the literary parallels to religious sects like the Anabaptists. Poetry took new and startling forms in Donne and Herbert, and prose became as somber as Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholy. The spiritual gloom which sooner or later…

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Excerpt #11, from Gulliver’s Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World, by Jonathan Swift

…palace, and put out bills in the usual form, containing an exact description of my person and parts. He hired a large room between three and four hundred feet wide. He provided a table sixty feet in diameter, upon which I was to act my part, and pallisadoed it round three feet from the edge, and as many high, to prevent my falling over. I was shown ten times a day, to the wonder and satisfaction of all people. I could now speak the language tolerably well, and perfectly understood every word, that was spoken to me. Besides, I had learnt their alphabet, and could make a shift to explain a sentence here and there; for Glumdalclitch had been my instructor while we were at home, and at leisure hours during our journey. She carried a little book in her pocket, not much larger than a Sanson’s Atlas; it was a common treatise for the use of young girls, giving a short account of their religion: out of this she taught me my letters, and interpreted the words. CHAPTER III. The author sent for to court. The queen buys him of his master the farmer, and presents him to the king. He disputes with his majesty’s great scholars. An apartment at court provided for the author. He is in high favour with the queen. He stands up for the honour of his own country. His quarrels with the queen’s dwarf. The frequent labours I underwent every day, made, in a few weeks, a…

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Excerpt #12, from Old Mines of Southern California, by Harold W. Fairbanks and William H. Storms

…have the constituents arranged in the bands independent of any direction. At one spot a distinct, well-defined mass of mica schist, 15 feet across, is imbedded in a granitic rock. At one side this gneissoid structure extends through the inclosing rock and abuts sharply against the mica schist. The banding shows no constant direction; in the cañon it is northeast. The bands sometimes become wavy. As the cañon opens out to the desert, hills appear on either side formed of volcanic tuffs. They dip northeast 30°. Underneath is a sandstone wholly unconsolidated and dipping in the same direction 40°. This contains no lava pebbles. The fragments of the tuff are quite varied in character and generally quite angular. They are imbedded in a volcanic mud, free from granitic detritus. In some of the strata appear thin beds of lava, seeming to represent a flow. These tufa hills extend northwesterly along the base of the granite mountains for 10 miles or more. It is not known how far they go in a southerly direction. In places they form mountains of considerable size high up on the side of the range. The range of mountains between this point and Carrizo Creek appears also to have some volcanic beds on its southern slope. The open desert at the foot of the mountains has an elevation of 1,200 feet. It slopes gently for miles in an easterly direction and consists largely of loose sand….

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