Quick Excerpts, from a Library of 492 Titles

Generated 2022-07-28 13:26:09

Excerpt #1, from Buccaneers and Pirates of Our Coasts, by Frank Richard Stockton

…The permanent pirate colony never came to anything; no reënforcements were sent; Mansvelt died, and the Spaniards gathered together a sufficient force to retake the island of St. Catherine, and make prisoners of Simon and his men. This was a blow to Morgan, who had had great hopes of the fortified station he thought he had so firmly established, but after the project failed he set about forming another expedition. He was now recognized as buccaneer-in-chief of the West Indies, and he very soon gathered together twelve ships and seven hundred men. Everything was made ready to sail, and the only thing left to be done was to decide what particular place they should favor with a visit. There were some who advised an attack upon Havana, giving as a reason that in that city there were a great many nuns, monks, and priests, and if they could capture them, they might ask as ransom for them, a sum a great deal larger than they could expect to get from the pillage of an ordinary town. But Havana was considered to be too strong a place for a profitable venture, and after several suggestions had been made, at last a deserter from the Spanish army, who had joined them, came forward with a good idea. He told the pirates of a town in Cuba, to which he knew the way; it was named Port-au-Prince, and was situated so far inland that it had never been sacked. When the pirates heard that there existed an…

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Excerpt #2, from Man and Superman: A Comedy and a Philosophy, by Bernard Shaw

…Man. I loathe travelling; but I rather like Enry. He cares for nothing but tearing along in a leather coat and goggles, with two inches of dust all over him, at sixty miles an hour and the risk of his life and mine. Except, of course, when he is lying on his back in the mud under the machine trying to find out where it has given way. Well, if I don’t give him a thousand mile run at least once a fortnight I shall lose him. He will give me the sack and go to some American millionaire; and I shall have to put up with a nice respectful groom-gardener-amateur, who will touch his hat and know his place. I am Enry’s slave, just as Uncle James was his cook’s slave. STRAKER. [exasperated] Garn! I wish I had a car that would go as fast as you can talk, Mr Tanner. What I say is that you lose money by a motor car unless you keep it workin. Might as well ave a pram and a nussmaid to wheel you in it as that car and me if you don’t git the last inch out of us both. TANNER. [soothingly] All right, Henry, all right. We’ll go out for half an hour presently. STRAKER. [in disgust] Arf an ahr! [He returns to his machine; seats himself in it; and turns up a fresh page of his paper in search of more news]. OCTAVIUS. Oh, that reminds me. I have a note for you from Rhoda. [He…

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Excerpt #3, from The Republic, by Plato

…own. Then, I said, our guardians must lay the foundations of their fortress in music? Yes, he said; the lawlessness of which you speak too easily steals in. Yes, I replied, in the form of amusement; and at first sight it appears harmless. Why, yes, he said, and there is no harm; were it not that little by little this spirit of licence, finding a home, imperceptibly penetrates into manners and customs; whence, issuing with greater force, it invades contracts between man and man, and from contracts goes on to laws and constitutions, in utter recklessness, ending at last, Socrates, by an overthrow of all rights, private as well as public. Is that true? I said. That is my belief, he replied. Then, as I was saying, our youth should be trained from the first in a stricter system, for if amusements become lawless, and the youths themselves become lawless, they can never grow up into well-conducted and virtuous citizens. Very true, he said. And when they have made a good beginning in play, and by the help of music have gained the habit of good order, then this habit of order, in…

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Excerpt #4, from Text Book of Biology, Part 1: Vertebrata, by H. G. Wells

…indication of a sixth. With considerable modifications of form, the three leading constituents of the rabbit’s pelvic girdle occur in relatively identical positions. The greatly elongated ilium (il.) articulates with the single (compare Rabbit) sacral vertebra (s.v. in Figure 5). The ischium (is.) is relatively smaller than in the rabbit, and the pubis (pu.) is a ventral wedge of unossified cartilage. The shape of the pelvic girdle of the frog is a wide departure from that found among related forms. In connection with the leaping habit, the ilia are greatly elongated, and the pubes and ischia much reduced. Generally throughout the air-frequenting vertebrata, we find the same arrangement of these three bones, usually in the form of an inverted. Y– the ilium above, the ischium and pubis below, and the acetabulum at the junction of the three. Section 16. The uro-genital organs of the frog, and especially those of the male, correspond with embryonic stages of the rabbit. In this sex the testes (T., Sheet 13) lie in the body cavity, and are white bodies usually dappled with black pigment. Vasa efferentia (v.e.) run to the internal border of the anterior part of the kidney, which answers, therefore, to the rabbit’s epididymis. The hinder part of the kidney is the predominant renal organ. There is a common uro-genital duct, into which a seminal vesicle, which is especially large in early spring,…

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Excerpt #5, from Caesar and Cleopatra, by Bernard Shaw

…Thrust your knife into the dog’s throat, Apollodorus. (The chivalrous Apollodorus laughingly shakes his head; breaks ground away from the sentinel towards the palace; and lowers his point.) SENTINEL (struggling vainly). Curse on you! Let me go. Help ho! FTATATEETA (lifting him from the ground). Stab the little Roman reptile. Spit him on your sword. A couple of Roman soldiers, with a centurion, come running along the edge of the quay from the north end. They rescue their comrade, and throw off Ftatateeta, who is sent reeling away on the left hand of the sentinel. CENTURION (an unattractive man of fifty, short in his speech and manners, with a vine wood cudgel in his hand). How now? What is all this? FTATATEETA (to Apollodorus). Why did you not stab him? There was time! APOLLODORUS. Centurion: I am here by order of the Queen to—- CENTURION (interrupting him). The Queen! Yes, yes: (to the sentinel) pass him in. Pass all these bazaar people in to the Queen, with their goods. But mind you pass no one out that you have not passed in–not even the Queen herself. SENTINEL. This old woman is dangerous: she is as strong as three men….

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Excerpt #6, from Behind the Beyond, and Other Contributions to Human Knowledge, by Stephen Leacock

…things at once. The people who are not used to third acts are wondering what it is all about. The real playgoers know that this is atmosphere. Then presently—- “Tea?” says Mrs. Harding, “shall I ring?” “Pray do,” says Sir John. He seats himself with great weariness. The full melancholy of the third act is on him. The tea which has been made for three acts is brought in. They drink it and it begins to go to their heads. The “atmosphere” clears off just a little. “You have news, I know,” says Mrs. Harding, “you have seen him?” “I have seen him.” “And he is gone?” “Yes, he has sailed,” says Sir John. “He went on board last night, only a few hours after my return to London. I saw him off. Poor Jack. Gatherson has been most kind. They will take him into the embassy at Lima. There, please God, he can begin life again. The Peruvian Ambassador has promised to do all in his power.” Sir John sighs deeply and is silent. This to let the fact soak into the audience that Jack has gone to Peru. Any reasonable person would have known it. Where else could he go to? “He will do well in Peru,” says Mrs. Harding. She is imitating a woman being very brave….

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Excerpt #7, from My Man Jeeves, by P. G. Wodehouse

…“It—it sorts of leers at you, doesn’t it?” “You’ve noticed that, too?” said Corky. “I don’t see how one could help noticing.” “All I tried to do was to give the little brute a cheerful expression. But, as it worked out, he looks positively dissipated.” “Just what I was going to suggest, old man. He looks as if he were in the middle of a colossal spree, and enjoying every minute of it. Don’t you think so, Jeeves?” “He has a decidedly inebriated air, sir.” Corky was starting to say something when the door opened, and the uncle came in. For about three seconds all was joy, jollity, and goodwill. The old boy shook hands with me, slapped Corky on the back, said that he didn’t think he had ever seen such a fine day, and whacked his leg with his stick. Jeeves had projected himself into the background, and he didn’t notice him. “Well, Bruce, my boy; so the portrait is really finished, is it—really finished? Well, bring it out. Let’s have a look at it. This will be a wonderful surprise for your aunt. Where is it? Let’s——” And then he got it—suddenly, when he wasn’t set for the punch; and he rocked back on his heels….

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Excerpt #8, from Einstein and the universe: A popular exposition of the famous theory, by Nordmann

…velocities are much smaller than that of light) the resultant is very nearly equal to the sum of the two components, as the classical mechanics says. The classical mechanics was, we must remember, founded upon experience. We understand how, in those circumstances, Galileo and his successors, dealing only with relatively slowly moving bodies, reached a principle which seemed to be true for them, but is only a first approximation. For instance, the resultant of two velocities, each equal to a hundred kilometres a second (which is far higher than any velocities obtainable by Galileo and Newton), amounts to, not 200 kilometres, but 199·999978 kilometres. The difference is scarcely twenty-two millimetres in 200 kilometres! We can quite understand that the earlier experimenters could not detect differences even less minute than that. * * * * * Amongst the verifications of the new law of composition of velocities we may quote one, the outcome of an early experiment of the great Fizeau, which is very striking. Imagine a pipe full of some liquid, such as water, and a ray of light travelling along it. We know the speed of light in water: it is much lower than in air or in empty space. Suppose, further, that the water is not stationary, but flows through the pipe at a certain speed….

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Excerpt #9, from Argot and Slang, by Albert Barrère

…=DUBOIS=, Rêves de Vieillesse ou le Départ de Pipelet. PIPELETTE, f. (general), the wife of a concierge or doorkeeper. Termed also Madame Pipelet. See PIPELET. Vous n’connaissez pas ma concierge, La nommée Madam’ Benoiton, Une grand’ sèch’ longu’ comm’ un cierge Et sourd’ comm’ un bonnet d’coton. Si malheureus’ment j’m’attarde, C’est l’diable pour la réveiller. Pendant deux heur’s je mont’ la garde, D’vant la porte et j’ai beau crier: Ous-qu’est ma pip’, ous-qu’est ma pip’, ous-qu’est ma pip’lette? =A. BEN ET H. D’HERVILLE.= PIPER (familiar and popular), to smoke, or “to blow a cloud.” Il me semble qu’on a pipé ici.–=GAVARNI.= (Thieves’) Piper, to catch. Comprend-on après cela qu’un homme qui changeait si fréquemment de nom … ait été se loger … sous le nom de Mahossier qui lui avait servi à piper sa victime?–=CANLER.= Piper un pègre, to apprehend a thief, “to smug a prig.” The different…

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Excerpt #10, from Ivanhoe: A Romance, by Walter Scott

…If this yeoman can cleave that rod, I give him the bucklers—or rather, I yield to the devil that is in his jerkin, and not to any human skill; a man can but do his best, and I will not shoot where I am sure to miss. I might as well shoot at the edge of our parson’s whittle, or at a wheat straw, or at a sunbeam, as at a twinkling white streak which I can hardly see.” “Cowardly dog!” said Prince John.—“Sirrah Locksley, do thou shoot; but, if thou hittest such a mark, I will say thou art the first man ever did so. However it be, thou shalt not crow over us with a mere show of superior skill.” “I will do my best, as Hubert says,” answered Locksley; “no man can do more.” So saying, he again bent his bow, but on the present occasion looked with attention to his weapon, and changed the string, which he thought was no longer truly round, having been a little frayed by the two former shots. He then took his aim with some deliberation, and the multitude awaited the event in breathless silence. The archer vindicated their opinion of his skill: his arrow split the willow rod against which it was aimed. A jubilee of acclamations followed; and even Prince John, in admiration of Locksley’s skill, lost for an instant his dislike to his person. “These twenty nobles,” he said,…

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Excerpt #11, from A Military Dictionary and Gazetteer, by Thomas Wilhelm

…=Duffadar.= A rank in the East Indian Native Cavalry, corresponding with that of sergeant. =Duffadar, Kot.= A non-commissioned officer in the East Indian Native Cavalry, corresponding with a troop sergeant-major. =Duffadar Major.= A rank in the East Indian Native Cavalry, corresponding with that of regimental sergeant-major. =Duke.= From the Latin dux, a “leader,” a title that first came into use when Constantine separated the civil and military commands in the provinces. This title was successively borrowed by the Goths and Franks, and since the time of the Black Prince, who was created first duke in England (Duke of Cornwall) in 1335, it has been a title of the nobility, ranking next below the blood royal. =Dukigi-Bachi.= Second officer in the Turkish artillery, who commands the Topelas, or gunners and founders. =Duledge.= A peg of wood which joins the ends of the felloes, forming the circle of the wheel of a gun-carriage; and the joint is strengthened on the outside of the wheel by a strong plate of iron, called the duledge plate. =Dumdum.= The name of a town and of a valley in India, well known in the military history of the country; it is 8 miles to the northeast of Calcutta, having extensive accommodations for troops, and a…

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Excerpt #12, from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, by Adam Smith

…Though there are in Europe indeed, a few towns which, in same respects, deserve the name of free ports, there is no country which does so. Holland, perhaps, approaches the nearest to this character of any, though still very remote from it; and Holland, it is acknowledged, not only derives its whole wealth, but a great part of its necessary subsistence, from foreign trade.

There is another balance, indeed, which has already been explained, very different from the balance of trade, and which, according as it happens to be either favourable or unfavourable, necessarily occasions the prosperity or decay of every nation. This is the balance of the annual produce and consumption. If the exchangeable value of the annual produce, it has already been observed, exceeds that of the annual consumption, the capital of the society must annually increase in proportion to this excess. The society in this case lives within its revenue; and what is annually saved out of its revenue, is naturally added to its capital, and employed so as to increase still further the annual produce. If the exchangeable value of the annual produce, on the contrary, fall short of the annual consumption, the capital of the society must annually decay in proportion to this deficiency. The expense of the society, in this case, exceeds its revenue, and necessarily encroaches upon its capital. Its capital, therefore, must…

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