Quick Excerpts, from a Library of 492 Titles

Generated 2022-07-28 13:26:41

Excerpt #1, from History of Egypt, Chaldea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria in the Light of Recent

…Babylonian history, but the signs and characters impressed upon them offer the greatest contrast to the Sumerian and early Babylonian characters with which we are familiar. Although they cannot be fully deciphered at present, it is probable that they are tablets of accounts, the signs upon them consisting of lists of figures and what are probably ideographs for things. Some of the ideographs, such as that for “tablet,” with which many of the texts begin, are very similar to the Sumerian or Babylonian signs for the same objects; but the majority are entirely different and have been formed and developed upon a system of their own. [Illustration: 230.jpg CLAY TABLET, FOUND AT SUSA, BEARING AN INSCRIPTION IN THE EARLY PROTO-ELAMITE CHARACTER.] The photograph is taken from M. de Morgan’s Délégation en Perse, Mem., t. vi, pi. 23. On these tablets, in fact, we have a new class of cuneiform writing in an early stage of its development, when the hieroglyphic or pictorial character of the ideographs was still prominent. [Illustration: 231.jpg CLAY TABLET, RECENTLY FOUND AT SUSA, BEARING AN INSCRIPTION IN THE EARLY PROTO-ELAMITE CHARACTER.] The photograph is reproduced from M. de Morgan’s Délégation en Perse, Mém., t. vi, pi. 22….

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Excerpt #2, from Principles of politeness, and of knowing the world, by Chesterfield

…side, and at the end of every sentence, asking him some such questions as the following: ‘Wasn’t I right in that?’—‘You know, I told you so?’—‘What’s your opinion?’ and the like; or perhaps they will be thrusting him, or jogging him with their elbow. For mercy’s sake, never give way to this; it will make your company dreaded. 7. LONG talkers are frequently apt to single out some unfortunate man present, generally the most silent one of the company, or probably him who sits next to him. To this man, in a kind of half-whisper they will run on for half an hour together. Nothing can be more ill-bred. But if one of these unmerciful talkers should attack you, if you wish to oblige him, I would recommend the hearing him with patience: Seem to do so at least, for you could not hurt him more than to leave him in the middle of his story, or discover any impatience in the course of it. 8. INCESSANT talkers are very disagreeable companions. Nothing can be more rude than to engross the conversation to yourself, or to take the words as it were, out of another man’s mouth. Every man in company has an equal claim to bear his part in the conversation, and to deprive him of it, is not only unjust, but a tacit declaration that he cannot speak so well upon the subject as yourself; you will therefore take it up: And, what can be more rude? I would as soon forgive a man that should stop my mouth when I was gaping, as take my words from me while I was…

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Excerpt #3, from From the Caves and Jungles of Hindostan, by H. P. Blavatsky

…had just brought the tiger was very silent too, watching over certain preparations, as if making ready for some solemnity. We soon learned that, in the eyes of a superstitious people, what was about to happen was a solemnity indeed. A bit of hair cut from the skin of a tiger that has been killed, neither by bullet, nor by knife, but by a “word,” is considered the best of all talismans against his tribe. “This is a very rare opportunity,” explained the Mahratti. “It is very seldom that one meets with a man who possesses the word. Yogis and Sadhus do not generally kill wild animals, thinking it sinful to destroy any living creature, be it even a cobra or a tiger, so they simply keep out of the way of noxious animals. There exists only one brotherhood in India whose members possess all secrets, and from whom nothing in nature is concealed. Here is the body of the tiger to testify that the animal was not killed with a weapon of any kind, but simply by the word of Gulab-Lal-Sing. I found it, very easily, in the bushes exactly under our vihara, at the foot of the rock over which the tiger had rolled, already dead. Tigers never make false steps. Gulab-Lal-Sing, you are a Raj-Yogi, and I salute you!” added the proud Brahman, kneeling before the Takur. “Do not use vain words, Krishna Rao!” interrupted Gulab-Sing. “Get up; do not play the part of a Shudra.”…

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

…far away amid the bare, desolate, wind-swept uplands and bleak, gaunt, long-backed ridges, shrouded for half the year in rolling grey mists from off the ocean, that range along the coasts of North-Western Ireland. Everywhere the men are hard at work, seated in groups round their peat fires, all actively engaged in pointing pikes and grinding axes, lashing scythe-blades to short poles, and putting a fresh edge to ugly crooked knives; crooning to themselves the while over their toil:— Oh, the Frinch are on the say, Says the Shan Van Voght— Oh, the Frinch are on the say, Says the Shan Van Voght— The Frinch are in the Bay, They’ll be here without delay, And the Orange will decay, Says the Shan Van Voght. Again we are on the coast; by Donegal Bay. It is the morning of Friday, the 12th of October, ’98, between seven and eight o’clock. Eager-faced, excited watchers line the crags of Bloody Foreland. From the wide, flat expanse of sea below comes up on the wind the dull, heavy, throbbing sound of a distant cannonade. It has been getting nearer since daybreak. It now comes nearer and nearer still; and by degrees, from the direction…

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Excerpt #5, from A Journey to the Centre of the Earth, by Jules Verne

…of forty leagues. But these forty leagues were of hard, impenetrable granite! All these dreary and miserable reflections passed through my mind, before I attempted to answer my uncle’s question. “Why, what is the matter?” he cried. “Cannot you say whether you have slept well or not?” “I have slept very well,” was my reply, “but every bone in my body aches. I suppose that will lead to nothing.” “Nothing at all, my boy. It is only the result of the fatigue of the last few days–that is all.” “You appear–if I may be allowed to say so–to be very jolly this morning,” I said. “Delighted, my dear boy, delighted. Was never happier in my life. We have at last reached the wished-for port.” “The end of our expedition?” cried I, in a tone of considerable surprise. “No; but to the confines of that sea which I began to fear would never end, but go round the whole world. We will now tranquilly resume our journey by land, and once again endeavor to dive into the centre of the earth.” “My dear uncle,” I began, in a hesitating kind of way, "allow me to ask…

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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 Boswell’s Life of Johnson, by James Boswell

…unhospitable, troublesome, and ungracious custom of giving vails to servants. JOHNSON. ‘Sir, you abolished vails, because you were too poor to be able to give them.’ Mrs. Thrale disputed with him on the merit of Prior. He attacked him powerfully; said he wrote of love like a man who had never felt it: his love verses were college verses; and he repeated the song ‘Alexis shunn’d his fellow swains,’ &c., in so ludicrous a manner, as to make us all wonder how any one could have been pleased with such fantastical stuff. Mrs. Thrale stood to her gun with great courage, in defence of amorous ditties, which Johnson despised, till he at last silenced her by saying, ‘My dear Lady, talk no more of this. Nonsense can be defended but by nonsense.’ Mrs. Thrale then praised Garrick’s talent for light gay poetry; and, as a specimen, repeated his song in Florizel and Perdita, and dwelt with peculiar pleasure on this line: ‘I’d smile with the simple, and feed with the poor.’ JOHNSON. ‘Nay, my dear Lady, this will never do. Poor David! Smile with the simple;–What folly is that? And who would feed with the poor that can help it? No, no; let me smile with the wise, and feed with the rich.’ I repeated this sally to Garrick, and wondered to find his sensibility as a writer not a little irritated by it. To sooth him, I…

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Excerpt #8, from The Principles of the Art of Conversation, by J. P. Mahaffy

…choosing your companion and seeking out the opportunity; but, on the contrary, two people of different sexes are often brought together and ordered (so to speak) to converse, for no other reason than the command of society. Thus a young man is introduced to a partner at a ball, or a man of soberer age is directed to take a lady down to dinner. Here, though the company is large, the conversation is really of the kind before us—a dialogue between two persons only, of different sexes, and often comparative strangers. There is no case more frequent where conversation is imperative, and where failures are common and conspicuous. It is bad enough to begin with truisms about the weather—an excusable exordium; it is far worse and more disgraceful to end with them, and positively many people get no further. And yet this failure is not from mere emptiness of mind. These very same people, young and old, could be brought into circumstances where almost any of them would be interesting—not a few of them eloquent. I have spent an evening shut up with a very unpromising commercial traveller in a remote country inn, and yet by trying honestly to find out what he knew and liked, succeeded in drawing from him a most interesting account of his experiences, first in tea-tasting, then in tea-selling to the Irish peasants in the remote glens of Donegal. What he told me was quite worthy to make an article in a good magazine. Yet a…

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Excerpt #9, from A Smaller Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, by William Smith

…libertini to attend to the religions rites connected with the worship of the Lares, which that emperor was said to have put up in places where two or more ways met; but there are good reasons for thinking that they were instituted in imitation of the Augustales at Rome, and for the same object, namely, to attend to the worship of Augustus. They formed a collegium and were appointed by the decuriones, or senate of the municipia. The six principal members of the college were called Seviri, a title which seems to have been imitated from the Seviri in the equestrian order at Rome. AUGUSTUS, a name bestowed upon Octavianus in B.C. 27, by the senate and the Roman people. It was a word used in connection with religion, and designated a person as sacred and worthy of worship; hence the Greek writers translate it by Σεβαστός. It was adopted by all succeeding emperors, as if descended, either by birth or adoption, from the first emperor of the Roman world. The name of Augusta was frequently bestowed upon females of the imperial family; but Augustus belonged exclusively to the reigning emperor till towards the end of the second century of the Christian aera, when M. Aurelius and L. Verus both received this surname. From this time we frequently find two or even a greater number of Augusti. From the time of Probus the title became perpetuus Augustus, and from Philippus or…

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Excerpt #10, from With Lawrence in Arabia, by Lowell Thomas

…Convent, a most impressive gray façade, one hundred and fifty feet high, surmounted by a gigantic urn, and decorated with heads of Medusa. Most of the steps cut into the mountains lead to sacrificial altars, where the people used to worship on the high places thousands of years ago. An even greater staircase winds up to the Mount of Sacrifice, an isolated peak that dominates the whole basin. On the summit are two obelisks and two altars. One altar is hollowed out for making fires, and the other is round and provided with a blood-pool for the slaughter of the victim offered to Dhu-shara and Allat, the chief god and goddess of ancient Petra. One of my Bedouin companions insisted upon taking off his raiment and bathing in the rain-water which had collected in the pool. The average Bedouin needs a little encouragement along these lines, and so we did not reprimand him for his sacrilegious act. Lawrence told me that it was supposed to be the most complete and perfect example in existence of an ancient Semitic high place. Near the altars are the two great monoliths, each about twenty-four feet high, which the people of Petra carved out of the solid rock and used in their phallic worship, one of the oldest forms of worship known to man. The names of these monoliths and the nature of the worship do not admit of description. The mountain-top commands a…

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Excerpt #11, from Tales from a Rolltop Desk, by Christopher Morley

…does ‘pullulate’ mean?” Lester’s valiant heart, Lester’s manly hands that had acted as a muff on a Riverside Drive bus, trembled and stiffened. “It ’pullulates and blooms in sultry rhyme,” she quoted gayly. “Now what do you make of that, as referring to Mr. Arundel’s heart? Sultry is right, too!” Lion-hearted Harvard, oak-bosomed Balliol, and all the mature essences of manhood were needed to keep Lester calm. How had she seen these secret strains? She must have been peeping into the chief’s private correspondence. He hesitated during six inches of spaghetti. “Search me!” he said. “Is it in Walter Mason?” “No, it’s his own stuff, I tell you. O beauteous rose! O shrub without a thorn!” she chanted, and her laughter popped like a champagne cork. The horrid truth burst upon him. The boss was courting the angel of the office with the very ammunition that Lester himself had furnished, and his vow of secrecy forbade him to disclose the truth. Oh, the paltry meanness of fate, the villainy of circumstance! It is impossible to describe the pangs it cost him to dissemble, cloak, disguise, and conceal the anguish he felt. But dissemble, cloak, disguise, and conceal he did, and though his heart glowed like an angry cigar stub, he reached home at last. There he sat down at his table, and amid the healthy snores of his…

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Excerpt #12, from Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, Complete, by Ulysses S. Grant

…Chattanooga was in our hands. If he should capture Chattanooga, Knoxville with its garrison would have fallen into his hands without a struggle. I have never been able to see the wisdom of this move. Then, too, after Sherman had arrived, and when Bragg knew that he was on the north side of the Tennessee River, he sent Buckner’s division to reinforce Longstreet. He also started another division a day later, but our attack having commenced before it reached Knoxville Bragg ordered it back. It had got so far, however, that it could not return to Chattanooga in time to be of service there. It is possible this latter blunder may have been made by Bragg having become confused as to what was going on on our side. Sherman had, as already stated, crossed to the north side of the Tennessee River at Brown’s Ferry, in full view of Bragg’s troops from Lookout Mountain, a few days before the attack. They then disappeared behind foot hills, and did not come to the view of the troops on Missionary Ridge until they met their assault. Bragg knew it was Sherman’s troops that had crossed, and, they being so long out of view, may have supposed that they had gone up the north bank of the Tennessee River to the relief of Knoxville and that Longstreet was therefore in danger. But the first great blunder, detaching Longstreet, cannot be accounted for in any way I know of. If he had captured Chattanooga, East Tennessee would have fallen without a struggle. It…

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