Quick Excerpts, from a Library of 492 Titles

Generated 2022-07-28 13:25:41

Excerpt #1, from A Humorous History of England, by Charles Harrison

…1621 For twenty years ‘twas going strong Then the first Censor came along. This journal cribbing from the Dutch Lacked the smart journalistic touch; And also photographic views, ’Sporting pars’ and ‘Stop-press News.’ [Illustration: The Great Struggle in Charles’ Time. King Trying to get Money from Taxpayer. Creditor Trying to get Money from King] [Illustration: IRON JELLOIDS The Great Tonic THAT QUIET MAN, KNOWN AS THE EARLY PURITAN.] Cotton Cotton first came from India’s shore 1630 In sixteen-thirty, less or more; Where for three thousand years it grew, Also in Egypt and Peru. Grim reading is the note confessing Gangs went out for Navy pressing, Forcing many a timid knave To spend his life on ocean wave. Ship Money Charles raises the ship money tax; 1636 He thought he only had to ‘ax’;…

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Excerpt #2, 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 #3, from Planet of Sand, by Murray Leinster

…He cut away a flap of metal from the swelling. He tossed it away with his space-gloved hands. His suit-flash illuminated the hollow within. There was a motor inside, and it was remarkably familiar, though not a motor such as men made for the purpose of turning things. There was a shaft. There were four slabs of something that looked like graphite, rounded to fit the shaft. That was all. No coils. No armature. No sign of magnets. Men used this same principle, but for a vastly different purpose. Men used the reactive thrust of allotropic graphite against an electric current in their space ships. The Bowdoin-Hall field made such a thrust incredibly efficient, and it was such graphite slabs that drove the Stallifer–though these were monsters weighing a quarter of a ton apiece, impossible for the skid to lift. Insulated cables led to the slabs in wholly familiar fashion. The four cables joined to two and vanished in the seemingly solid girders which formed all the giant grid. Almost without hope, Stan slashed through two cables with his torch. He dragged out the recharging cable of the skid. He clipped the two ends to the two cut cables. They sparked! Then he stared. The meter of the skid showed current flowing into its power bank. An amazing amount of current. In minutes, the power-storage needle stirred from its pin. In a quarter of an hour it showed half-charge. Then a creaking began all…

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Excerpt #4, from Across Asia on a Bicycle, by Thomas Gaskell Allen and William Lewis Sachtleben

…by three distinct river-systems emanating from Ararat’s immediate vicinity. No other region has seen or heard so much of the story of mankind. In its grim presence empires have come and gone; cities have risen and fallen; human life has soared up on the wings of hope, and dashed against the rocks of despair. To the eye Ararat presents a gently inclined slope of sand and ashes rising into a belt of green, another zone of black volcanic rocks streaked with snow-beds, and then a glittering crest of silver. From the burning desert at its base to the icy pinnacle above, it rises through a vertical distance of 13,000 feet. There are but few peaks in the world that rise so high (17,250 feet above sea-level) from so low a plain (2000 feet on the Russian, and 4000 feet on the Turkish, side), and which, therefore, present so grand a spectacle. Unlike many of the world’s mountains, it stands alone. Little Ararat (12,840 feet above sea-level), and the other still smaller heights that dot the plain, only serve as a standard by which to measure Ararat’s immensity and grandeur. Little Ararat is the meeting-point, or corner-stone, of three great empires. On its conical peak converge the dominions of the Czar, the Sultan, and the Shah. The Russian border-line runs from Little Ararat along the high ridge which separates it from Great Ararat, through the peak of the latter, and onward a short distance to the northwest, then…

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Excerpt #5, from The Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson Burnett

…things are sticking up everywhere and things are uncurling and green buds of leaves are showing. This afternoon I am sure Dickon will come." The long warm rain had done strange things to the herbaceous beds which bordered the walk by the lower wall. There were things sprouting and pushing out from the roots of clumps of plants and there were actually here and there glimpses of royal purple and yellow unfurling among the stems of crocuses. Six months before Mistress Mary would not have seen how the world was waking up, but now she missed nothing. When she had reached the place where the door hid itself under the ivy, she was startled by a curious loud sound. It was the caw–caw of a crow and it came from the top of the wall, and when she looked up, there sat a big glossy-plumaged blue-black bird, looking down at her very wisely indeed. She had never seen a crow so close before and he made her a little nervous, but the next moment he spread his wings and flapped away across the garden. She hoped he was not going to stay inside and she pushed the door open wondering if he would. When she got fairly into the garden she saw that he probably did intend to stay because he had alighted on a dwarf apple-tree, and under the apple-tree was lying a little reddish animal with a bushy tail, and both of them were watching the stooping body and rust-red head of Dickon, who was kneeling on the grass working hard….

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Excerpt #6, from The Boy’s Book of the Sea, by Eric Wood

…terror of the seas. He cut a picturesque figure when he went fighting. He would overhaul a ship, pound at her for all he was worth, and then, entering his longboat, row over and tackle her. All his men were extravagant in their tastes regarding dress, but Roberts was worse than all; he dressed in a rich crimson damask waistcoat and breeches, wore a large black hat with a crimson feather, a gold chain round his neck, with a diamond pendant, a silk band hanging from his shoulders to carry his pistols. Thus, sword in hand, he led his men to the fight, dashing, very often, through a very hail of shot, and, with shouts and curses, urging his men on as they tried to board. A stiff fight very often ensued, and then the pirates, having run the gauntlet of fire, scrambled up the side of the ship and, after a fierce hand-to-hand fight, had her beaten. [Illustration: “Sword in hand, Roberts led his men to the fight, dashing through a very hail of shot”] But, though he played this game many a time with much success, Nemesis was at hand. The Royal Fortune, as he called his last ship, had as consort the Ranger, and the two ships caused such depredation that the British cruiser Swallow scoured the seas to find them, eventually running them to earth in the River Gaboon. The Royal Fortune lay…

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Excerpt #7, from The King James Version of the Bible

…of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth. 49:7 Thus saith the LORD, the Redeemer of Israel, and his Holy One, to him whom man despiseth, to him whom the nation abhorreth, to a servant of rulers, Kings shall see and arise, princes also shall worship, because of the LORD that is faithful, and the Holy One of Israel, and he shall choose thee. 49:8 Thus saith the LORD, In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee: and I will preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages; 49:9 That thou mayest say to the prisoners, Go forth; to them that are in darkness, Shew yourselves. They shall feed in the ways, and their pastures shall be in all high places. 49:10 They shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor sun smite them: for he that hath mercy on them shall lead them, even by the springs of water shall he guide them. 49:11 And I will make all my mountains a way, and my highways shall be exalted. 49:12 Behold, these shall come from far: and, lo, these from the north and from the west; and these from the land of Sinim….

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

…“Pal, I’ve been waiting for this a long time!” “Yah,” the man answered, “me too!” Then he looked at Tom closely. “Say, I’ve never seen you around here before!” “I just got in on the supply ship last week. They kept me in the tower for a while,” Tom replied. “Oh, well,” said the man, “they ain’t keepin’ anybody there anymore!” “Come on you guys,” snarled a heavy-set man in the air lock above them. “We ain’t got all day!” Tom looked up, and without being told, he felt he was looking into the face of Bull Coxine. And when the other prisoner spoke, he was certain. “Yeah, Bull,” said the man. “Comin’, comin’!” He reached up and Bull grabbed his outstretched hand. When Bull pulled, the man literally leaped through the air into the air lock. “All right, space crawler,” roared Bull to Tom, “you’re next!” The big man stuck out his hand. Tom gulped. For one desperate second he thought of turning and running away. “Well?” growled Bull. “You coming or ain’t cha?” “You’re blasted right I’m coming,” said Tom. “This is one time the Solar Guard is taking it on the chin. And, crawler, am I happy to see it!” He grabbed Bull’s hand and was lifted as easily as if he had been a feather. Coxine dropped him on the deck and turned away without a word…

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Excerpt #9, from The Wonders of Life: A Popular Study of Biological Philosophy, by Ernst Haeckel

…imperfect and crude methods of present chemistry, an elaborate chemical process the nature of which is not analytically known to us? However, the worthlessness of this sceptical objection is obvious: we can never claim that a natural process is supernatural because we cannot artificially reproduce it. XVI THE EVOLUTION OF LIFE Inorganic and organic evolution–Biogenesis and cosmogenesis–Mechanical evolution–Mechanics of phylogenesis–Theory of selection–Theory of idioplasm–Phyletic vital force–Theory of germ-plasm–Progressive heredity–Comparative morphology–Germ-plasm and hereditary matter–Theory of mutation–Zoological and botanical transformism–Neo-Lamarckism and Neo-Darwinism–Mechanics of ontogenesis–Biogenetic law–Tectogenetic ontogeny–Experimental evolution–Monism and biogeny. I fully explained in my General Morphology (1866) the profound importance of the science of evolution in relation to our monistic philosophy. A popular synopsis of this is given in my History of Creation, and is briefly repeated in the thirteenth chapter of the Riddle. I must refer the reader to these works, especially the latter, and confine myself here to a consideration of some of the…

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Excerpt #10, from The Man with Two Left Feet, and Other Stories, by P. G. Wodehouse

…The statement that it meant everything to him insinuated itself so frequently into his conversation that it weighed on Elizabeth’s mind like a burden, and by degrees she found herself giving the play place of honour in her thoughts over and above her own little ventures. With this stupendous thing hanging in the balance, it seemed almost wicked of her to devote a moment to wondering whether the editor of an evening paper, who had half promised to give her the entrancing post of Adviser to the Lovelorn on his journal, would fulfil that half-promise. At an early stage in their friendship the young man had told her the plot of the piece; and if he had not unfortunately forgotten several important episodes and had to leap back to them across a gulf of one or two acts, and if he had referred to his characters by name instead of by such descriptions as ‘the fellow who’s in love with the girl–not what’s-his-name but the other chap’–she would no doubt have got that mental half-Nelson on it which is such a help towards the proper understanding of a four-act comedy. As it was, his precis had left her a little vague; but she said it was perfectly splendid, and he said did she really think so. And she said yes, she did, and they were both happy. Rehearsals seemed to prey on his spirits a good deal. He attended them with the pathetic regularity of the young dramatist, but they appeared…

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Excerpt #11, from Roughing It in the Bush, by Susanna Moodie

…them open, while the blinding tears which filled my eyes hindered me for some minutes from reading a word which they contained. Sixteen years have slowly passed away–it appears half a century–but never, never can home letters give me the intense joy those letters did. After seven years’ exile, the hope of return grows feeble, the means are still less in our power, and our friends give up all hope of our return; their letters grow fewer and colder, their expressions of attachment are less vivid; the heart has formed new ties, and the poor emigrant is nearly forgotten. Double those years, and it is as if the grave had closed over you, and the hearts that once knew and loved you know you no more. Tom, too, had a large packet of letters, which he read with great glee. After re-perusing them, he declared his intention of setting off on his return home the next day. We tried to persuade him to stay until the following spring, and make a fair trial of the country. Arguments were thrown away upon him; the next morning our eccentric friend was ready to start. “Good-bye!” quoth he, shaking me by the hand as if he meant to sever it from the wrist. “When next we meet it will be in New South Wales, and I hope by that time you will know how to make better bread.” And thus ended Tom Wilson’s emigration to Canada. He brought out three…

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Excerpt #12, from 13 Days: The Chronicle of an Escape from a German Prison, by John Alan Lyde Caunter

…commandant’s office sooner or later. The members of one party on being caught were actually complimented on their fine work by the Boches, who were full of joy naturally at having found the tunnel. For many months before we left Crefeld the Germans used to search the ground floor rooms and cellars daily. Not infrequently they would pay two or three visits to the cellars in one night. Their searching included tapping the walls, ceilings and floors for hollow places. Periodically a search for the earth excavated from these holes and hidden away, would lead to the Boches discovering many hundredweights of sand and rubble stowed away safely. Searches were sometimes made in our rooms for articles of contraband. Civilian clothes, and maps, compasses and various tools were the chief objects of interest to them. These searches on some occasions were extended to the persons of the prisoners, especially after an order forbidding the possession of real German money had been issued. Of course none of us liked being searched and we showed our searchers pretty clearly what we thought of the whole affair. I must say that the commandant did not order many searches and probably those that did occur were due to the orders of a superior. These searches were usually carried out by the under-officers and men of a different unit from that which guarded the camp, in order to…

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