Quick Excerpts, from a Library of 492 Titles

Generated 2022-07-28 13:26:46

Excerpt #1, from The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, by Laurence Sterne

…character throughout:——I mean the males,—the females had no character at all,—except, indeed, my great aunt DINAH, who, about sixty years ago, was married and got with child by the coachman, for which my father, according to his hypothesis of christian names, would often say, She might thank her godfathers and godmothers. It will seem strange,——and I would as soon think of dropping a riddle in the reader’s way, which is not my interest to do, as set him upon guessing how it could come to pass, that an event of this kind, so many years after it had happened, should be reserved for the interruption of the peace and unity, which otherwise so cordially subsisted, between my father and my uncle Toby. One would have thought, that the whole force of the misfortune should have spent and wasted itself in the family at first,—as is generally the case.—But nothing ever wrought with our family after the ordinary way. Possibly at the very time this happened, it might have something else to afflict it; and as afflictions are sent down for our good, and that as this had never done the SHANDY FAMILY any good at all, it might lie waiting till apt times and circumstances should give it an opportunity to discharge its office.——Observe, I determine nothing upon this.——My way is ever to point out to the curious, different tracts of investigation, to come at the first springs of the events I tell;—not with a pedantic…

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Excerpt #2, from The Fifth Ace, by Isabel Ostrander

…called my bluff, and her cards are high. Litigation would be a wearisome business and we couldn’t buck her crowd down there. She’d have the executor, Baggott, appointed as trustee of the old gambler’s estate, and he would be wax in her hands. We can only watch her, and try to prevent her doing anything foolishly quixotic." The next day Willa paid her first visit to a famous modiste in Mrs. Halstead’s company, and returned exhausted but impressed. The latent feminine instinct for adornment had taken possession of her and through the long evening she dreamed in a hazy rapture. The motive which had so far actuated her on her course was temporarily laid aside and in its stead came vague scenes of the future, when she should have learned how to carry those marvelous creations with the trained ease and elegance of Angelica, and was wholly transformed from the plain, awkward creature of the Limasito days. Perhaps, when Kearn Thode came to New York– A sudden sound, subdued but unmistakably familiar, roused her from her reverie. What could it mean? She sprang from her chair and stood listening intently. The family were supposed to have gone to a dinner-party, yet from somewhere above had come a chorus of male laughter, and down the stairs to her opened door echoed the rattle and clink of poker chips….

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Excerpt #3, from Phrases and Names, Their Origins and Meanings, by Trench H. Johnson

…America are the Democrats, whose political aims are above cliques or parties; therefore they refuse to be influenced by a “Caucus.” =Mulatto.= From the Spanish mulato, a mixed breed, through mulo, a mule, the offspring of a white and a Negro. =Mumm.= A strong German beer named after Christian Mumme, who first brewed it. =Mummer.= Slang for an actor. This old English term, derived from the German mumme, a mask, was applied to the performers in a Christmas masque or buffoonery. =Mummock.= An Americanism for handle, disarrange, or play with–e.g. “Don’t mummock things about.” The word is really obsolete provincial English for “maul.” =Munich.= From the German monchen, monks. On the spot where the city stands some monks built a warehouse for the salt which they obtained in the neighbourhood. In the twelfth century Henry the Lion made this Villa Minichen, as it was then called, into a mint, and a town grew up around it. =Munster Road.= From Munster House, the residence of Melesina Schulenberg, created Duchess of Munster by George II. =Munster Square.= In honour of the eldest son of William IV., created Earl of Munster….

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Excerpt #4, from Sixty Years in Southern California, 1853

…Johnston. Mrs. Johnston at once built a neat residence on the tract and called it Fair Oaks, after the plantation in Virginia on which she had been born; and from this circumstance the name of the now well-known Fair Oaks Avenue in Pasadena is derived. At the time of her purchase Mrs. Johnston had hoped to reside there permanently; but the tragic fate of her son in the Ada Hancock disaster, following the untimely death of her husband at Shiloh, and the apparent uselessness of the land, led her to sell to Judge B. S. Eaton what to-day would be worth far more than thousands of acres in many parts of the Southern States. A curious coincidence in the relations of General Sumner, who superseded General Johnston, to the hero of Shiloh is that, later in the War, Sumner led a corps of Union troops at Fair Oaks, Virginia! Don Ygnácio Coronel, father of António Franco Coronel, and the early school patron to whom I have referred, died in Los Angeles on December 19th, aged seventy years. He had come to California in 1834, and had long been eminent in political councils and social circles. I recall him as a man of strong intellect and sterling character, kind-hearted and popular. Another effort, without success, to use camels for transportation over the California and adjacent sands, was made in January, 1863, when a camel express was sent out from New San Pedro to Tucson….

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Excerpt #5, from Mr. Munchausen , by John Kendrick Bangs

…to bring the balloon down so near to the earth that our anchor rope dangled directly over the encampment, so that my valet and I, without wasting any of our gas, could climb down and secure all the magnificent treasures in rugs and silks and rare jewels these robbers of the desert had managed to get together in the course of their depredations. When these were placed in the car another breeze came up, and for the rest of the time we drifted idly about in the heavens waiting for a convenient place to land. In this manner we were blown hither and yon for three months over land and sea, and finally we were wrecked upon a tall tree in India, whence we escaped by means of a convenient elephant that happened to come our way, upon which we rode triumphantly into Calcutta. The treasures we had secured from the Arabs, unfortunately, we had to leave behind us in the tree, where I suppose they still are. I hope some day to go back and find them." Here Mr. Munchausen paused for a moment to catch his breath. Then he added with a sigh. “Of course, I went back to France immediately, but by the time I reached Paris the war was over, and the Emperor was in exile. I was too late to save him–though I think if he had lived some sixty or seventy years longer I should have managed to restore his throne, and Imperial splendour to him.” The Twins gazed into the fire in silence for a minute or two. Then one…

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Excerpt #6, from The Grenadier Guards in the Great War of 1914 to 1918, Vol. 3 of 3, by Ponsonby

…“The term bomb is officially confined to projectiles fired from trench mortars or dropped from aeroplanes. Projectiles thrown by hand are ‘grenades.’”The G.O.C. Guards Division is in error in supposing that the Grenadier Guards are the only Regiment in which the word grenadier forms part of the title of the Regiment. “It would appear that the term Grenadiers is merely an unofficial abbreviation of Grenadier Guards, and does not appear in any official documents in relation to that Regiment.”The Grenade fired proper is the badge of many Regiments, and it would seem that a claim to the sole use of the title ‘Grenadier’ has as little foundation as one to be the only wearers of the Grenade badge. “It would seem that Modern Warfare has necessitated a partial return to the Grenadier Companies of former days which it is believed existed without any prejudice to the rights of the Grenadier Guards.” Lord Cavan, however, could not let the matter rest there, and again wrote to the Adjutant-General on December 22, meeting the arguments put forward by him. He said: "I beg respectfully to reply to the remarks of the A.G….

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Excerpt #7, 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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Excerpt #8, from The Story of Sir Francis Drake, by Letitia MacColl Elton

…which we found there abounding with great store of dainty roots and fruits. There was also great plenty of poultry and other fowls, no less strange than delicate.” CHAPTER IV FORT DIEGO After the return to the ship Captain Rance departed. But Drake had a new plan in his head; he meant to attack Cartagena, the capital of the Spanish Main. Sailing into the harbour in the evening, they found that the townsfolk had been warned that Frenchmen and Englishmen were about. Drake took possession of a large ship that was outward bound. But the townsfolk, hearing of it, took the alarm, rang out their bells, fired their cannon, and got all their soldiers out. Next morning Drake took two more ships near the harbour, one of which was bound to Cartagena with a letter of warning against “Captain Drake.” Drake sent his Spanish prisoners on shore, and so ended his first attempt upon Cartagena. He saw that the coasts were aware of his presence. Yet he did not want to go away till he had discovered the Maroons; for his faithful negro, Diego, had told him that they were friendly to him as the enemy of Spain. This search might take time, and must be done in the smaller boats, which were swifter and could explore the rivers. He had…

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Excerpt #9, from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas: An Underwater Tour of the World, by Verne

…from the hunter’s standpoint. Several times I saw Captain Nemo stop and take aim with his rifle; then, after sighting down its barrel for a few seconds, he would straighten up and resume his walk. Finally, at around four o’clock, this marvelous excursion came to an end. A wall of superb rocks stood before us, imposing in its sheer mass: a pile of gigantic stone blocks, an enormous granite cliffside pitted with dark caves but not offering a single gradient we could climb up. This was the underpinning of Crespo Island. This was land. The captain stopped suddenly. A gesture from him brought us to a halt, and however much I wanted to clear this wall, I had to stop. Here ended the domains of Captain Nemo. He had no desire to pass beyond them. Farther on lay a part of the globe he would no longer tread underfoot. Our return journey began. Captain Nemo resumed the lead in our little band, always heading forward without hesitation. I noted that we didn’t follow the same path in returning to the Nautilus. This new route, very steep and hence very arduous, quickly took us close to the surface of the sea. But this return to the upper strata wasn’t so sudden that decompression took place too quickly, which could have led to serious organic disorders and given us those internal injuries so fatal to divers. With great promptness, the light reappeared and grew…

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Excerpt #10, from The Idiot, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

…suffered more than any of them, am walking on foot to the house of a woman of rather questionable reputation! A man, look you, who has thirteen bullets on his breast!… You don’t believe it? Well, I can assure you it was entirely on my account that Pirogoff telegraphed to Paris, and left Sebastopol at the greatest risk during the siege. Nelaton, the Tuileries surgeon, demanded a safe conduct, in the name of science, into the besieged city in order to attend my wounds. The government knows all about it. ‘That’s the Ivolgin with thirteen bullets in him!’ That’s how they speak of me…. Do you see that house, prince? One of my old friends lives on the first floor, with his large family. In this and five other houses, three overlooking Nevsky, two in the Morskaya, are all that remain of my personal friends. Nina Alexandrovna gave them up long ago, but I keep in touch with them still… I may say I find refreshment in this little coterie, in thus meeting my old acquaintances and subordinates, who worship me still, in spite of all. General Sokolovitch (by the way, I have not called on him lately, or seen Anna Fedorovna)… You know, my dear prince, when a person does not receive company himself, he gives up going to other people’s houses involuntarily. And yet… well… you look as if you didn’t believe me…. Well now, why should I not present the son of my old friend and companion to this delightful family—General Ivolgin and…

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Excerpt #11, from The Extraordinary Adventures of Arsène Lupin, Gentleman

…recreation, and, being an enthusiastic fisherman, he threatens to capture all the fish in our river.” Ganimard! Ah, here is the assistance desired by Baron Cahorn! Who could baffle the schemes of Arsène Lupin better than Ganimard, the patient and astute detective? He was the man for the place. The baron did not hesitate. The town of Caudebec was only six kilometers from the castle, a short distance to a man whose step was accelerated by the hope of safety. After several fruitless attempts to ascertain the detective’s address, the baron visited the office of the ‘Reveil,’ situated on the quai. There he found the writer of the article who, approaching the window, exclaimed: “Ganimard? Why, you are sure to see him somewhere on the quai with his fishing-pole. I met him there and chanced to read his name engraved on his rod. Ah, there he is now, under the trees.” “That little man, wearing a straw hat?” “Exactly. He is a gruff fellow, with little to say.” Five minutes later, the baron approached the celebrated Ganimard, introduced himself, and sought to commence a conversation, but that was a failure. Then he broached the real object of his interview, and briefly stated his case. The other listened, motionless, with his…

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Excerpt #12, from Science and the modern world: Lowell Lectures 1925, by Alfred North Whitehead

…by criticism in reference to ideals. It is the foundation of the metaphysical position which I am maintaining that the understanding of actuality requires a reference to ideality. The two realms are intrinsically inherent in the total metaphysical situation. The truth that some proposition respecting an actual occasion is untrue may express the vital truth as to the aesthetic achievement. It expresses the ‘great refusal’ which is its primary characteristic. An event is decisive in proportion to the importance (for it) of its untrue propositions: their relevance to the event cannot be dissociated from what the event is in itself by way of achievement. These transcendent entities have been termed ‘universals.’ I prefer to use the term ‘eternal objects,’ in order to disengage myself from presuppositions which cling to the former term owing to its prolonged philosophical history. Eternal objects are thus, in their nature, abstract. By ‘abstract’ I mean that what an eternal object is in itself—that is to say, its essence—is comprehensible without reference to some one particular occasion of experience. To be abstract is to transcend particular concrete occasions of actual happening. But to transcend an actual occasion does not mean being disconnected from it. On the contrary, I hold that each eternal object has its own proper connection with each such occasion, which I term its mode of ingression into that…

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