Quick Excerpts, from a Library of 492 Titles

Generated 2022-07-28 13:26:06

Excerpt #1, from Masters of the vortex, by E. E. Smith

…should get himself killed? Somebody would have to do something . . . but who? And what? Could—or could not—another Vortex Blaster be found? Or trained? And next morning, early, he Lensed a thought. “Kinnison? Phil Strong. I’ve got a high-priority problem that will take a lot of work and a lot more weight than I carry. Are you free to listen for a few minutes?” “I’m free. Go ahead.” Chapter 3 ▂▂▂▂▂▂CLOUD LOSES AN ARM TELLURIAN PHARMACEUTICALS, INC., was Civilization’s oldest and most conservative drug house. “Hide-bound” was the term most frequently used, not only by its younger employees, but also by its more progressive competitors. But, corporatively, Tellurian Pharmaceuticals, Inc., did not care. Its board of directors was limited by an iron-clad, if unwritten, law to men of seventy years more; and against the inertia of that ruling body the impetuosity of the younger generation was exactly as efficacious as the dashing of ocean waves against an adamantine cliff—and in very much the same fashion. Ocean waves do in time cut into even the hardest rock; and, every century or two, TPI did take forward step—after a hundred years of…

More: Read or Listen on IA →

Excerpt #2, from A Sub and a Submarine: The Story of H.M. Submarine R19 in the Great War

…Swedish side a faint light flickered for a few seconds and then disappeared. A quarter of an hour passed, but Stockdale gave no orders to proceed. Not that he hesitated to face the danger; he was merely waiting an opportunity. Suddenly the horizon away to the south’ard was swept by the rays of a search-light. Another and yet another beam followed suit, until the sky in that direction was a blaze of light. Then the rays vanished and a mast-head signalling-lamp began its flickering tale. “‘QKG–TOXZ–PJ’–code, thought so,” muttered the Lieutenant-Commander, as he read the unintelligible message. “Mast-head signal astern, sir,” reported Fordyce. The Hon. Derek swung round in an instant and levelled his binoculars at a pin-prick of yellow light. “Good!” he ejaculated. “That’s what I was waiting for.” CHAPTER XI Caught in the Net Presently the powerful night-glasses revealed the misty outlines of a large two-funnelled craft slowly making her way in a southerly direction, the while signalling steadily, pausing only to receive an answering message from one of the German patrols….

More: Read or Listen on IA →

Excerpt #3, from Essays of a Biologist, by Julian Huxley

…intensity and lasting value, which as a matter of record it often does.[43] Put broadly and roughly, there are, then, three main accounts possible, or at any rate actually found in occidental civilization to-day, of the phenomena generally known as religious. The first is that of the out-and-out sceptic–that they are all illusions, imaginations of the childhood of the race. This is an extreme view which I do not feel called upon to discuss. The second is the view of almost every existing religious denomination in Europe–that God is a personal being. And the third is one, only just beginning to take shape, which I have endeavoured, with every consciousness of inadequacy, to outline–the account made possible by a radically scientific view of the universe. Those who adopt the third attitude believe that the second is a purely symbolic and not very accurate presentation of certain fundamental facts, of which they are attempting to give what seems to them an account which is closer to reality. Before the scientific work of the last three or four centuries, it was impossible to attempt what we may call a realistic account of this nature, so that symbols were perforce adopted. In Christian theology man formulated a coherent scheme, which, however, was purely symbolic, to account for the facts we have just been considering. The chief feature in any such scheme must be the…

More: Read or Listen on IA →

Excerpt #4, from The Black Arrow: A Tale of the Two Roses, by Robert Louis Stevenson

…Presently the skiff put out from the vessel’s side, and the two men, keeping her head well to the wind, pulled lustily for shore. Lawless turned to a loiterer. “How call ye her?” he asked, pointing to the little vessel. “They call her the Good Hope, of Dartmouth,” replied the loiterer. “Her captain, Arblaster by name. He pulleth the bow oar in yon skiff.” This was all that Lawless wanted. Hurriedly thanking the man, he moved round the shore to a certain sandy creek, for which the skiff was heading. There he took up his position, and as soon as they were within earshot, opened fire on the sailors of the Good Hope. “What! Gossip Arblaster!” he cried. “Why, ye be well met; nay, gossip, ye be right well met, upon the rood! And is that the Good Hope? Ay, I would know her among ten thousand!–a sweet shear, a sweet boat! But marry come up, my gossip, will ye drink? I have come into mine estate which doubtless ye remember to have heard on. I am now rich; I have left to sail upon the sea; I do sail now, for the most part, upon spiced ale. Come, fellow; thy hand upon ’t! Come, drink with an old shipfellow!” Skipper Arblaster, a long-faced, elderly, weather-beaten man, with a knife hanging about his neck by a plaited cord, and for all the world like any modern seaman in his gait and bearing, had hung back in obvious amazement and distrust. But the name of an estate, and a certain air of…

More: Read or Listen on IA →

Excerpt #5, from Recollections and impressions of James A. McNeill Whistler, by Arthur Jerome Eddy

…exhibition. “To have seen him, O, my wise Atlas, was my privilege and my misery,–for he stood under one of my own ‘harmonies,’ already with difficulty gasping its gentle breath, himself an amazing ‘arrangement’ in strong mustard-and-cress, with bird’s-eye belcher of Reckitt’s blue, and then and there destroyed absolutely, unintentionally, and once for all, my year’s work!” * * * * * The analogy between the musical scale and the color scale has been many times noted. Helmholtz[37] draws the following analogy: F ♯ End of the red. G Red. G ♯ Red. A Red. A ♯ Orange-red. B Orange. c Yellow. c ♯ Green. d Greenish-blue. d ♯ Cyanogen-blue. e Indigo-blue….

More: Read or Listen on IA →

Excerpt #6, from Mirrors of Moscow, by Louise Stevens Bryant

…soon have such sinister work to do. The last time I met Peters he was living in Tashkent which is the capital of the Province of Turkestan. He had even more sweeping powers than an ordinary governor, since he was the most important revolutionary official in a community not yet settled down to normal life. I also met the new Madame Peters. The English wife divorced him at the time of the terror. The second Madame Peters was a very pretty, redheaded Russian who had been a teacher and who still worked at her profession. They lived in a single room, shared a dining room with twenty others and were poorly dressed. When we discussed this point, Peters bitterly denounced several Soviet officials who, he said, were “living soft.” “A revolutionist cannot expect to force privations on other people if he is not willing to be an example of self-sacrifice,” he declared. He had become known almost as a conservative among the Left-Communists because he had refused to close the Mohammedan bazaars, saying these people were not ready for Communism. His public trials were attended by large crowds and proved of great educational value in a very unenlightened community. I found him much older. He seemed to have lived thirty years in three….

More: Read or Listen on IA →

Excerpt #7, from Cliff Castles and Cave Dwellings of Europe, by S. Baring

…the villagers were wont to gather to elect their magistrates without interference from the Bastard of Albret. Within is a bench cut in the rock, and the roof is encrusted with stalactite formations like cauliflowers. Immediately above the village is a much larger cavern 72 feet high and 36 feet deep. It is vaulted like a dome, and tendrils of ivy and vine hang down draping the entrance. Violets grow in purple masses at the opening, and maiden-hair fern luxuriates within. At the extreme end, high up, to be reached only by a ladder of forty rungs, is another opening into a cave that runs far into the bowels of the Causse, to where the water falls in a cascade that now flows forth beneath the outer cave and supplies the village with drinking water and a place for washing linen. Hard by the great entrance is another cave situated high up, and called the Citadel, much smaller, access to which is obtained by a narrow track in the face of the rock, with notches cut in the limestone to receive the beams and struts that supported a wooden gallery which once provided easy access to the cave. I did not myself climb up and investigate the citadel, not having a steady head on the edge of a precipice, and what information I give was received from the curé, who seemed very much amused at my shirking the scramble, and thought that the Englishman of to-day must be very different from the Englishman of the fourteenth century who crawled about these cliffs…

More: Read or Listen on IA →

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

…perfect order. “It’s a tough break that we couldn’t get that fix on Coxine’s position. I was counting on it. But at least we found Tom. That’s plenty to be thankful for.” “How is he, sir?” asked Roger. “He’ll be all right,” replied the Solar Guard captain, his face showing the strain of the past weeks. “We gave him pure oxygen and he came to long enough to tell us what happened aboard the Avenger. Get me teleceiver contact with Space Academy as soon as possible. I’ve got to send a report to Commander Walters.” “Right, sir.” “You’ve done a good job, Manning. Your work here on the radar bridge did as much toward saving Tom’s life as anything.” “Thank you, sir. After what Tom did on the Avenger, though, I don’t feel like I’ve done very much. It took real courage to go aboard that ship with Coxine.” Strong smiled wearily. “Well, the boy is safe now and we have a good idea what part of the belt Coxine is operating in. With a little luck and a thorough fleet patrol, we might be able to get him before he can do any more harm.” Strong went below to the cadet’s quarters where Astro was sitting quietly, watching Tom. The cadet was sound asleep. When Strong entered,…

More: Read or Listen on IA →

Excerpt #9, from Autobiography of a Yogi, by Paramahansa Yogananda

…some good-humored gibes, he handed me six passes and a roll of ten-rupee bills. “I hardly think your theoretical trip needs such practical props,” he remarked, “but here they are.” That afternoon I exhibited my booty to Sri Yukteswar. Though he smiled at my enthusiasm, his words were noncommittal: “I would like to go; we shall see.” He made no comment when I asked his little hermitage disciple, Kanai, to accompany us. I also invited three other friends–Rajendra Nath Mitra, Jotin Auddy, and one other boy. Our date of departure was set for the following Monday. On Saturday and Sunday I stayed in Calcutta, where marriage rites for a cousin were being celebrated at my family home. I arrived in Serampore with my luggage early Monday morning. Rajendra met me at the hermitage door. “Master is out, walking. He has refused to go.” I was equally grieved and obdurate. “I will not give Father a third chance to ridicule my chimerical plans for Kashmir. Come; the rest of us will go anyhow.” Rajendra agreed; I left the ashram to find a servant. Kanai, I knew, would not take the trip without Master, and someone was needed to look after the luggage. I bethought myself of Behari, previously…

More: Read or Listen on IA →

Excerpt #10, from The School for Scandal, by Richard Brinsley Sheridan

…me–but the Tenderness you express’d for me, when I am sure you could not think I was a witness to it, has penetrated so to my Heart that had I left the Place without the Shame of this discovery–my future life should have spoken the sincerity of my Gratitude–as for that smooth-tongued Hypocrite–who would have seduced the wife of his too credulous Friend while he pretended honourable addresses to his ward–I behold him now in a light so truly despicable that I shall never again Respect myself for having Listened to him. [Exit.] SURFACE. Notwithstanding all this Sir Peter–Heaven knows—- SIR PETER. That you are a Villain!–and so I leave you to your conscience– SURFACE. You are too Rash Sir Peter–you SHALL hear me–The man who shuts out conviction by refusing to—- [Exeunt, SURFACE following and speaking.] END OF THE FOURTH ACT V SCENE I.–The Library Enter SURFACE and SERVANT SURFACE. Mr. Stanley! and why should you think I would see him?–you must know he came to ask something!…

More: Read or Listen on IA →

Excerpt #11, from The Importance of Being Earnest: A Trivial Comedy for Serious People, by Oscar Wilde

…CECILY. A Marechal Niel? [Picks up scissors.] ALGERNON. No, I’d sooner have a pink rose. …CECILY. Why? [Cuts a flower.] ALGERNON. Because you are like a pink rose, Cousin Cecily. …CECILY. I don’t think it can be right for you to talk to me like that. Miss Prism never says such things to me. ALGERNON. Then Miss Prism is a short-sighted old lady. [Cecily puts the rose in his buttonhole.] You are the prettiest girl I ever saw. …CECILY. Miss Prism says that all good looks are a snare. ALGERNON. They are a snare that every sensible man would like to be caught in. …CECILY. Oh, I don’t think I would care to catch a sensible man. I shouldn’t know what to talk to him about….

More: Read or Listen on IA →

Excerpt #12, from Emma, by Jane Austen

…private life.” “I merely asked, whether you had known much of Miss Fairfax and her party at Weymouth.” “And now that I understand your question, I must pronounce it to be a very unfair one. It is always the lady’s right to decide on the degree of acquaintance. Miss Fairfax must already have given her account.—I shall not commit myself by claiming more than she may chuse to allow.” “Upon my word! you answer as discreetly as she could do herself. But her account of every thing leaves so much to be guessed, she is so very reserved, so very unwilling to give the least information about any body, that I really think you may say what you like of your acquaintance with her.” “May I, indeed?—Then I will speak the truth, and nothing suits me so well. I met her frequently at Weymouth. I had known the Campbells a little in town; and at Weymouth we were very much in the same set. Colonel Campbell is a very agreeable man, and Mrs. Campbell a friendly, warm-hearted woman. I like them all.” “You know Miss Fairfax’s situation in life, I conclude; what she is destined to be?” “Yes—(rather hesitatingly)—I believe I do.” “You get upon delicate subjects, Emma,” said Mrs. Weston smiling;…

More: Read or Listen on IA →

A production of Friendlyskies.net