Quick Excerpts, from a Library of 492 Titles

Generated 2022-07-28 13:26:02

Excerpt #1, from Sailing Alone Around the World, by Joshua Slocum

…squalid as contact with unscrupulous traders could make them. A large percentage of the business there was traffic in “fire-water.” If there was a law against selling the poisonous stuff to the natives, it was not enforced. Fine specimens of the Patagonian race, looking smart in the morning when they came into town, had repented before night of ever having seen a white man, so beastly drunk were they, to say nothing about the peltry of which they had been robbed. The port at that time was free, but a customhouse was in course of construction, and when it is finished, port and tariff dues are to be collected. A soldier police guarded the place, and a sort of vigilante force besides took down its guns now and then; but as a general thing, to my mind, whenever an execution was made they killed the wrong man. Just previous to my arrival the governor, himself of a jovial turn of mind, had sent a party of young bloods to foray a Fuegian settlement and wipe out what they could of it on account of the recent massacre of a schooner’s crew somewhere else. Altogether the place was quite newsy and supported two papers–dailies, I think. The port captain, a Chilean naval officer, advised me to ship hands to fight Indians in the strait farther west, and spoke of my stopping until a gunboat should be going through, which would give me a tow. After canvassing the place, however, I found only one man willing to embark, and he on…

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Excerpt #2, from Legends of the City of Mexico, by Thomas A. Janvier

…LEGEND OF THE CALLE DE LA JOYA What this street was called, in very old times, Señor, no one knows: because the dreadful thing that gave to it the name of the Street of the Jewel happened a long, long while ago. It was before the Independence. It was while the Viceroys were here who were sent by the King of Spain. In those days there lived in this fine house at the corner of the Calle de Mesones and what since then has been called the Calle de la Joya–it is at the northwest corner, Señor, and a biscuit-bakery is on the lower floor–a very rich Spanish merchant: who was named Don Alonso Fernández de Bobadilla, and who was a tall and handsome man, and gentle-mannered, and at times given to fits of rage. He was married to a very rich and a very beautiful lady, who was named Doña Ysabel de la Garcide y Tovar; and she was the daughter of the Conde de Torreleal. This lady was of an ardent and a wilful nature, but Don Alonso loved her with a sincerity and humored her in all her whims and wants. When they went abroad together–always in a grand coach, with servants like flies around them–the whole City stood still and stared! Doña Ysabel was not worthy of her husband’s love: and so he was told one day, by whom there was no knowing, in a letter that was thrown…

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Excerpt #3, from The Principles of Biology, Volume 2 (of 2), by Herbert Spencer

…implies. Carrying with us this evidence, we shall recognize a like relation in Dicotyledons. While its outer layer remains tolerably transparent, an exogenous stem or branch continues to show, by the formation of chlorophyll, that it shares in the duties of the leaves; but in proportion as a bark which the light cannot penetrate is produced by the adherent flakes of dead skin, or by the actual deposit of a protective substance, the differentiation of duties becomes more decided. Cactuses and Euphorbias supply us with converse facts having the same implication. The succulent axes so strangely combined in these plants, maintain for a long time the translucency of their outer layers and their greenness; and they so efficiently perform the offices of leaves that leaves are not produced. In some cases, axes that are not succulent participate largely in the leaf-function, or entirely usurp it–still, however, by fulfilling the same essential conditions. Occasionally, as in Statice brassicæfolia, stems become fringed; and the fringes they bear assume, along with the thinness of leaves, their darker green and general aspect. In the genus Ruscus, the flattened axis simulates so closely the leaf-structure, that were it not for the flower borne on its mid-rib, or edge, its axial nature would hardly be suspected. And let us not omit to note that where axes usurp the characters of leaves, in their attitudes as well as in their…

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Excerpt #4, from Symbolic Logic, by Lewis Carroll

…14. No xy’ exist, &c. 15. Some xy exist, &c. 16. All y are x. 17. All x’ are y, and all y’ are x. 18. All x are y’, and all y are x’. 19. All x are y, and all y’ are x’. 20. All y are x’. Answers to § 4. AN4 1. No x’ are y’. 2. Some x’ are y’. 3. Some x are y’. 4. [No Concl. Fallacy of Like Eliminands not asserted to exist.] 5. Some x’ are y’. 6. [No Concl. Fallacy of Like Eliminands not asserted to exist.] 7. Some x are y’. 8. Some x’ are y’. 9. [No Concl. Fallacy of Unlike Eliminands with an Entity-Premiss.] 10. All x are y, and all y’ are x’. 11. [No Concl. Fallacy of Like Eliminands not asserted to exist.] 12. All y are x’. 13. No x’ are y….

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Excerpt #5, from The War of the Worlds, by H. G. Wells

…sudden whirl of black smoke driving across the road hid him for a moment. I ran to my neighbour’s door and rapped to satisfy myself of what I already knew, that his wife had gone to London with him and had locked up their house. I went in again, according to my promise, to get my servant’s box, lugged it out, clapped it beside her on the tail of the dog cart, and then caught the reins and jumped up into the driver’s seat beside my wife. In another moment we were clear of the smoke and noise, and spanking down the opposite slope of Maybury Hill towards Old Woking. In front was a quiet sunny landscape, a wheat field ahead on either side of the road, and the Maybury Inn with its swinging sign. I saw the doctor’s cart ahead of me. At the bottom of the hill I turned my head to look at the hillside I was leaving. Thick streamers of black smoke shot with threads of red fire were driving up into the still air, and throwing dark shadows upon the green treetops eastward. The smoke already extended far away to the east and west—to the Byfleet pine woods eastward, and to Woking on the west. The road was dotted with people running towards us. And very faint now, but very distinct through the hot, quiet air, one heard the whirr of a machine-gun that was presently stilled, and an intermittent cracking of rifles. Apparently the Martians were setting fire to everything within range of…

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Excerpt #6, from Tess of the d’Urbervilles: A Pure Woman, by Thomas Hardy

…or copy-holders, and the absentee-owner’s village, farmed with the land) this place, Flintcomb-Ash, was the third. But Tess set to work. Patience, that blending of moral courage with physical timidity, was now no longer a minor feature in Mrs Angel Clare; and it sustained her. The swede-field in which she and her companion were set hacking was a stretch of a hundred odd acres in one patch, on the highest ground of the farm, rising above stony lanchets or lynchets—the outcrop of siliceous veins in the chalk formation, composed of myriads of loose white flints in bulbous, cusped, and phallic shapes. The upper half of each turnip had been eaten off by the live-stock, and it was the business of the two women to grub up the lower or earthy half of the root with a hooked fork called a hacker, that it might be eaten also. Every leaf of the vegetable having already been consumed, the whole field was in colour a desolate drab; it was a complexion without features, as if a face, from chin to brow, should be only an expanse of skin. The sky wore, in another colour, the same likeness; a white vacuity of countenance with the lineaments gone. So these two upper and nether visages confronted each other all day long, the white face looking down on the brown face, and the brown face looking up at the white face, without anything standing between them but the two girls…

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Excerpt #7, from Mr. Munchausen , by John Kendrick Bangs

…a very bad morning. Can you not see that it is raining cats and dogs without?" “Sir,” said I with a bow, “I accept the spirit of your correction but not the letter. It is raining indeed, sir, as you suggest, but having passed through it myself on my way hither I can personally testify that it is raining rain, and not a single cat or canine has, to my knowledge, as yet fallen from the clouds to the parched earth, although I am informed that down upon the coast an elephant and three cows have fallen upon one of the summer hotels and irreparably damaged the roof.” Mr. Munchausen laughed. “It is curious, Ananias,” said he, “what sticklers for the truth you and I have become.” “It is indeed, Munchausen,” I returned. “The effects of this climate are working wonders upon us. And it is just as well. You and I are outclassed by these twentieth century prevaricators concerning whom late arrivals from the upper world tell such strange things. They tell me that lying has become a business and is no longer ranked among the Arts or Professions.” “Ah me!” sighed the Baron with a retrospective look in his eye, "lying isn’t what it used to be, Ananias, in your days and mine. I fear it…

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Excerpt #8, from On the Trail of the Space Pirates, by Carey Rockwell

…brief moment he felt sick and then heard the roar of the pirate captain from the control deck. “By the rings of Saturn,” roared Coxine, “that was the best shot I’ve ever seen! Well done, Kid! All right, boarding crews! Man your boats and stand by to blast off!” While Coxine vocally lashed the members of the murderous crew into action, Tom tried to figure out some way to get to the radar deck unseen. Being assigned to the jet boat with Coxine, instead of Wallace, had been a lucky break and Tom wished for a little more of the same. Lining up with his boarding crew, he received his paralo-ray pistol and rifle from Gaillard, deftly stealing a second pistol while the gunnery officer’s back was turned. After hurriedly hiding the stolen gun, he slipped stealthily topside to the radar bridge. Reaching the hatch, he was about to open it, when he heard footsteps. He turned and saw a man walking toward him. It was Simms! “Where in the blasted universe is the jet-boat deck?” snarled Tom. He dropped his rifle on the deck and bent over to pick it up, hiding his face. “You’re on the wrong deck,” said Simms. “Two decks below. Get moving!” The pirate lieutenant hardly gave the cadet a glance as he brushed past…

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Excerpt #9, from The School for Scandal, by Richard Brinsley Sheridan

…SIR PETER. Indeed! LADY TEAZLE. Aye–and when my cousin Sophy has called you a stiff peevish old batchelor and laugh’d at me for thinking of marrying one who might be my Father–I have always defended you–and said I didn’t think you so ugly by any means, and that you’d make a very good sort of a husband– SIR PETER. And you prophesied right–and we shall certainly now be the happiest couple—- LADY TEAZLE. And never differ again. SIR PETER. No never–tho’ at the same time indeed–my dear Lady Teazle–you must watch your Temper very narrowly–for in all our little Quarrels–my dear–if you recollect my Love you always began first– LADY TEAZLE. I beg your Pardon–my dear Sir Peter–indeed–you always gave the provocation. SIR PETER. Now–see, my Love take care–contradicting isn’t the way to keep Friends. LADY TEAZLE. Then don’t you begin it my Love! SIR PETER. There now–you are going on–you don’t perceive[,] my Life, that you are just doing the very thing my Love which you know always makes me angry. LADY TEAZLE. Nay–you know if you will be angry without any reason–my…

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Excerpt #10, from The Best British Short Stories of 1922, by Stacy Aumonier et al.

…towards the close of the second month. Then one evening she was distrait; one evening, critical; one night, cold; then she had a dinner and dance engagement at the Savoy. Then he knew that his time had come. He waited up for her. He had the gas fire lighted in the tiny sitting-room, and little sugary cakes and wine on the table; and the gas fire lighted in the bedroom to warm it for her, and the bed turned down, and her nightgown and slippers, so frail, warming before the fire. But he knew. In the early dawn her key clicked in the lock, and she came in, followed by a man. He was pale, sensual, moneyed, fashionable. Charlie got up stoutly; but he was already beaten. The Jew looked at him, and turned to Kitty. “I told you,” she said, stammering a little, “I told you how it was. By to-morrow … I told you….” “I’ll come again, to-morrow, then,” said the man very meaningly, “fetch you out—-” “At eight,” she nodded firmly. He kissed her on the mouth, while Charlie stood looking at them with eyes that seemed to stare themselves out of his head, turned and went out….

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Excerpt #11, from The Intrusion of Jimmy, by P. G. Wodehouse

…Molly gave his arm a squeeze. Her eyes were wet. “Father, dear,” she whispered, “I believe you’ve been doing it all for me. You’ve been slaving away for me ever since I was born, stinting yourself and saving money just so that I could have a good time later on.” “No, no!” “It’s true,” she said. She turned on him with a tremulous laugh. “I don’t believe you’ve had enough to eat for years. I believe you’re all skin and bone. Never mind. To-morrow, I’ll take you out and buy you the best dinner you’ve ever had, out of my own money. We’ll go to Sherry’s, and you shall start at the top of the menu, and go straight down it till you’ve had enough.” “That will make up for everything. And, now, don’t you think you ought to be going to bed? You’ll be losing all that color you got on the ship.” “Soon–not just yet. I haven’t seen you for such ages!” She pointed at the bull-terrier. “Look at Tommy, standing there and staring. He can’t believe I’ve really come back. Father, there was a man on the Lusitania with eyes exactly like Tommy’s–all brown and bright–and he used to stand and stare just like Tommy’s doing.” “If I had been there,” said her father wrathfully, "I’d have knocked…

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Excerpt #12, from The Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

…that such simple and self‐ evident ideas should be so slow to occur to our minds. It is impossible that there should be no servants in the world, but act so that your servant may be freer in spirit than if he were not a servant. And why cannot I be a servant to my servant and even let him see it, and that without any pride on my part or any mistrust on his? Why should not my servant be like my own kindred, so that I may take him into my family and rejoice in doing so? Even now this can be done, but it will lead to the grand unity of men in the future, when a man will not seek servants for himself, or desire to turn his fellow creatures into servants as he does now, but on the contrary, will long with his whole heart to be the servant of all, as the Gospel teaches. And can it be a dream, that in the end man will find his joy only in deeds of light and mercy, and not in cruel pleasures as now, in gluttony, fornication, ostentation, boasting and envious rivalry of one with the other? I firmly believe that it is not and that the time is at hand. People laugh and ask: “When will that time come and does it look like coming?” I believe that with Christ’s help we shall accomplish this great thing. And how many ideas there have been on earth in the history of man which were unthinkable ten years before they appeared! Yet when their destined hour had come, they came forth and spread over…

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