Quick Excerpts, from a Library of 492 Titles

Generated 2022-07-28 13:25:49

Excerpt #1, from The Wave: An Egyptian Aftermath, by Algernon Blackwood

…slight diversion, for the movement was already in his legs and in another moment must have set his feet upon that dreadful shuffling. As from a distance, he heard the formal talk and introductions, his father’s statement that he had won his round of golf with ‘the Dean,’ praise of the weather, and something or other about the strange stillness of the sea– but then, with a sudden, hollow crash against his very ear, the appalling words: ‘. . . broke his mashie into splinters, yes. And, by the by, the Dean knows the Aylmers. They were staying here earlier in the summer, he told me. Lettice, the girl,–Mary’s friend, you remember–is going to be married this week. . . .’ Tom clutched the back of the wicker-chair in front of him. The sun went out. An icy air passed Up his spine. The blood drained from his face. The tennis courts, and the group of white figures moving towards them, swung up into the sky. He gripped the chair till the rods of wicker pressed through the flesh into the bone. For a moment he felt that the sensation of actual sickness was more than he could master; his legs bent like paper beneath his weight. ‘You remember Lettice, Tom, don’t you?’ his father was saying somewhere in mid-air above him. ‘Yes, rather.’ Apparently he said these words; the air at any rate went through his teeth and lips, and the same minute, with a superhuman effort…

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Excerpt #2, from Ten Months in a German Raider: A prisoner of war aboard the Wolf, by Cameron

…the increasing swells, both guns and both torpedo tubes on the after deck were covered with coal. If a cruiser had happened along at that particular moment, the Wolf’s after battery would have been out of commission. However, these conditions did not continue long, as all hands worked feverishly at the job until all the coal was under decks. After the two vessels had parted, we took stock of damages and found that several frames or ribs in the side of Igotz Mendi were broken, that some plates on her side were badly stove in. These flattened or stove-in places varied in size from six feet to forty feet in length. Luckily all our damage was above water line, and the vessel leaked only when rolling heavily, or when a big sea was running. The Wolf was also damaged, having several frames broken and four plates cracked. She was leaking eleven tons of water per hour, while we averaged about one and one-half tons per hour. From this point the two vessels separated after arranging another and final rendezvous at latitude 61 degrees north and longitude 33 degrees west, a point some little distance southwest of Iceland. The weather from now commenced to get colder and we with our impoverished blood and scanty clothing commenced to feel the cold keenly. Then came another heartbreaking disappointment. Be it remembered that our daily prayer and hope was that we would meet a cruiser before…

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Excerpt #3, from Principles of politeness, and of knowing the world, by Chesterfield

…advance slower, and with a peculiar composure of voice and countenance, begin his compliments of condolence with, ‘I hope, Sir, you will do me the justice to be persuaded, that I am not insensible of your unhappiness, that I take part in your distress, and shall ever be affected where you are so.’ YOUR first address to, and indeed all your conversation with, your superiors, should be open, cheerful and respectful; with your equals warm and animated; with your inferiors, hearty, free and unreserved. THERE is a fashionable kind of small-talk, which however trifling it may be thought, has its use in mixed companies: Of course you should endeavour to acquire it. By small-talk, I mean a good deal to say on unimportant matters; for example, foods, the flavour and growth of wines, and the chit-chat of the day. Such conversation will serve to keep off serious subjects, that might sometimes create disputes. This chit-chat is chiefly to be learned by frequenting the company of the ladies. OBSERVATION. AS the art of pleasing is to be learnt only by frequenting the best companies, we must endeavor to pick it up in such companies by observation; for, it is not sense and knowledge alone that will acquire esteem; these certainly are the first and necessary foundations for…

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Excerpt #4, from Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens

…the severity of my bondage to that taskmaster could scarcely be afforded, than the degrading shifts to which I was constantly driven to find him employment. So mean is extremity, that I sometimes sent him to Hyde Park corner to see what o’clock it was. Dinner done and we sitting with our feet upon the fender, I said to Herbert, “My dear Herbert, I have something very particular to tell you.” “My dear Handel,” he returned, “I shall esteem and respect your confidence.” “It concerns myself, Herbert,” said I, “and one other person.” Herbert crossed his feet, looked at the fire with his head on one side, and having looked at it in vain for some time, looked at me because I didn’t go on. “Herbert,” said I, laying my hand upon his knee, “I love—I adore—Estella.” Instead of being transfixed, Herbert replied in an easy matter-of-course way, “Exactly. Well?” “Well, Herbert? Is that all you say? Well?” “What next, I mean?” said Herbert. “Of course I know that.” “How do you know it?” said I. “How do I know it, Handel? Why, from you.”…

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Excerpt #5, from The Great Boer War, by Arthur Conan Doyle

…Imperial Light Horse were for some reason slow to charge. Had they done so at once, many eye-witnesses agree that not a fugitive should have escaped. On the other hand, the officer in command may have feared that in doing so he might mask the fire of the British guns. One incident in the action caused some comment at the time. A small party of Imperial Light Horse, gallantly led by Captain Yockney of B Squadron, came to close quarters with a group of Boers. Five of the enemy having held up their hands Yockney passed them and pushed on against their comrades. On this the prisoners seized their rifles once more and fired upon their captors. A fierce fight ensued with only a few feet between the muzzles of the rifles. Three Boers were shot dead, five wounded, and eight taken. Of these eight three were shot next day by order of court-martial for having resumed their weapons after surrender, while two others were acquitted. The death of these men in cold blood is to be deplored, but it is difficult to see how any rules of civilised warfare can be maintained if a flagrant breach of them is not promptly and sternly punished. On receiving this severe blow De Wet promptly raised the investment and hastened to regain his favourite haunts. Considerable reinforcements had reached Barton upon the same day, including the Dublins, the Essex, Strathcona’s Horse, and the Elswick Battery, with some very welcome…

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Excerpt #6, from Latin Phrase Book, by Carl Meissner

…nobis)—tradition, history tells us. tradunt, dicunt, ferunt—they say; it is commonly said. accepimus[4]—we know; we have been told. historiae prodiderunt (without nobis)—history has handed down to us. apud rerum scriptores scriptum videmus, scriptum est—we read in history. duplex est memoria de aliqua re—a twofold tradition prevails on this subject. rerum veterum memoria—ancient history. memoria vetus (Or. 34. 120)—ancient history. veterum annales—ancient history. veterum annalium monumenta—ancient history. antiquitatis memoria—ancient history. recentioris aetatis memoria—modern history. memoria huius aetatis (horum temporum)—the history of our own times; contemporary history. nostra memoria (Cael. 18. 43)—the history of our own times; contemporary history. omnis memoria, omnis memoria aetatum, temporum, civitatum or omnium rerum, gentium, temporum, saeculorum memoria—universal history. memoriam annalium or temporum replicare—to consult history….

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Excerpt #7, from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, by William Shakespeare

…And I have found Demetrius like a jewel, Mine own, and not mine own. DEMETRIUS. Are you sure That we are awake? It seems to me That yet we sleep, we dream. Do not you think The Duke was here, and bid us follow him? HERMIA. Yea, and my father. HELENA. And Hippolyta. LYSANDER. And he did bid us follow to the temple. DEMETRIUS. Why, then, we are awake: let’s follow him, And by the way let us recount our dreams. [Exeunt.] BOTTOM. [Waking.] When my cue comes, call me, and I will answer. My next is ‘Most fair Pyramus.’ Heigh-ho! Peter Quince! Flute, the bellows-mender! Snout, the tinker! Starveling! God’s my life! Stol’n hence, and left me…

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Excerpt #8, from Cliff Castles and Cave Dwellings of Europe, by S. Baring

…it was found that the inhabitants of a certain district had vanished along with their cattle and goods, leaving behind empty houses and stables. It had been the same during the Thirty Years’ War, and again in the Seven Years’ War, when the invaders found not a living soul, and contented themselves with destroying the crops and burning the villages and farms. Even the Government officials had disappeared. Whither had they gone? Into the rock labyrinths of Adersbach and Wickelsdorf, each accessible only through a single gap closed by a door. The mountain of what the Germans call Quadersandstein is four miles long by two broad, and was at one time an elevated plateau, but is now torn into gullies, forming a tangled skein of ravines, wherein a visitor without a guide might easily lose himself. The existence of this labyrinth was unknown save to the peasants till the year 1824, when a forest fire revealed it, but for some time it remained unexplored. [Footnote: It had indeed been mentioned by Dr. Kausch in his Nachrichten über Böhmen, 1794; but he lamented its inaccessibility.] As Adersbach and Wickelsdorf lie on the frontier of Bohemia and Silesia, the existence of this region of cliffs and natural refuges had been kept secret by the natives, who looked upon it as a secure hiding- place for themselves and their chattels when the storm of war swept over the Riesen Gebirge. But the fatal fire of 1824 betrayed their…

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Excerpt #9, from Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen

…added, “which was my chief inducement to enter the ——shire. I knew it to be a most respectable, agreeable corps, and my friend Denny tempted me further by his account of their present quarters, and the very great attentions and excellent acquaintances Meryton had procured them. Society, I own, is necessary to me. I have been a disappointed man, and my spirits will not bear solitude. I must have employment and society. A military life is not what I was intended for, but circumstances have now made it eligible. The church ought to have been my profession—I was brought up for the church, and I should at this time have been in possession of a most valuable living, had it pleased the gentleman we were speaking of just now.” “Indeed!” “Yes—the late Mr. Darcy bequeathed me the next presentation of the best living in his gift. He was my godfather, and excessively attached to me. I cannot do justice to his kindness. He meant to provide for me amply, and thought he had done it; but when the living fell, it was given elsewhere.” “Good heavens!” cried Elizabeth; “but how could that be? How could his will be disregarded? Why did you not seek legal redress?”…

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Excerpt #10, from The King James Version of the Bible

…2:12 Then sat Solomon upon the throne of David his father; and his kingdom was established greatly. 2:13 And Adonijah the son of Haggith came to Bathsheba the mother of Solomon. And she said, Comest thou peaceably? And he said, Peaceably. 2:14 He said moreover, I have somewhat to say unto thee. And she said, Say on. 2:15 And he said, Thou knowest that the kingdom was mine, and that all Israel set their faces on me, that I should reign: howbeit the kingdom is turned about, and is become my brother’s: for it was his from the LORD. 2:16 And now I ask one petition of thee, deny me not. And she said unto him, Say on. 2:17 And he said, Speak, I pray thee, unto Solomon the king, (for he will not say thee nay,) that he give me Abishag the Shunammite to wife. 2:18 And Bathsheba said, Well; I will speak for thee unto the king. 2:19 Bathsheba therefore went unto king Solomon, to speak unto him for Adonijah. And the king rose up to meet her, and bowed himself unto her, and sat down on his throne, and caused a seat to be set for the king’s mother; and she sat on his right hand. 2:20 Then she said, I desire one small petition of thee; I pray thee,…

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Excerpt #11, from The Problems of Philosophy, by Bertrand Russell

…it is true, is emphatically not what we assert when we assert that two and two are four. And no fact about the constitution of our minds could make it true that two and two are four. Thus our a priori knowledge, if it is not erroneous, is not merely knowledge about the constitution of our minds, but is applicable to whatever the world may contain, both what is mental and what is non-mental. The fact seems to be that all our a priori knowledge is concerned with entities which do not, properly speaking, exist, either in the mental or in the physical world. These entities are such as can be named by parts of speech which are not substantives; they are such entities as qualities and relations. Suppose, for instance, that I am in my room. I exist, and my room exists; but does ‘in’ exist? Yet obviously the word ‘in’ has a meaning; it denotes a relation which holds between me and my room. This relation is something, although we cannot say that it exists in the same sense in which I and my room exist. The relation ‘in’ is something which we can think about and understand, for, if we could not understand it, we could not understand the sentence ‘I am in my room’. Many philosophers, following Kant, have maintained that relations are the work of the mind, that things in themselves have no relations, but that the mind brings them together in one act of thought and thus produces the relations which it judges them to have….

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Excerpt #12, from Aeroplanes and Dirigibles of War, by Frederick Arthur Ambrose Talbot

…The advantage of this delusion is obvious when a retreat is being made. It enables the enemy to withdraw his forces deliberately and in perfect order, and to assume another and stronger position comparatively at leisure. The difficulty of detecting the dummies is emphasised, inasmuch as now, whenever the sound of an aeroplane is heard, or a glimpse thereof is obtained, the men keep well down and out of sight. Not a sign of movement is observable. For all the airman may know to the contrary, the trenches may be completely empty, whereas, as a matter of fact, they are throbbing with alert infantry, anxious for a struggle with the enemy. This is one instance where the dirigible is superior to the aeroplane. The latter can only keep circling round and round over the suspicious position; the movement through the air interferes with close continuous observation. On the other hand, the dirigible can maintain a stationary position aloft for hours on end. Then the issue is resolved into a contest of patience, with the advantage to the airman. The soldiers in the trenches fret and fume under cover; confined concealment is irksome and is a supreme test of the nerves. Unless the soldiers are made of very stern stuff, physical endurance succumbs. Some rash act–apparently very trivial–may be committed; it suffices for the vigilant sentinel overhead. He detects the slender sign of life, forms his own…

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