Quick Excerpts, from a Library of 492 Titles

Generated 2022-07-28 13:26:53

Excerpt #1, from My Reminiscences, by Rabindranath Tagore

…accepted as one of the laws of the universe that it is for the Big to hurt and for the Small to be hurt. It has taken me a long time to learn the opposite truth that it is the Big who suffer and the Small who cause suffering. The quarry does not view virtue and vice from the standpoint of the hunter. That is why the alert bird, whose cry warns its fellows before the shot has sped, gets abused as vicious. We howled when we were beaten, which our chastisers did not consider good manners; it was in fact counted sedition against the servocracy. I cannot forget how, in order effectively to suppress such sedition, our heads used to be crammed into the huge water jars then in use; distasteful, doubtless, was this outcry to those who caused it; moreover, it was likely to have unpleasant consequences. I now sometimes wonder why such cruel treatment was meted out to us by the servants. I cannot admit that there was on the whole anything in our behaviour or demeanour to have put us beyond the pale of human kindness. The real reason must have been that the whole of our burden was thrown on the servants, and the whole burden is a thing difficult to bear even for those who are nearest and dearest. If children are only allowed to be children, to run and play about and satisfy their curiosity, it becomes quite simple. Insoluble problems are only created if you try to…

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Excerpt #2, from On War, by Carl von Clausewitz

…what troops, hardened by long practice in the field of danger, can do, when by a career of victory they have reached the noble principle of demanding from themselves their utmost efforts. In pure conception no one would believe it. On the other hand, it is well known that there are troops in the service of European Powers at the present moment who would easily be dispersed by a few cannon shots. But no empirical science, consequently also no theory of the Art of War, can always corroborate its truths by historical proof; it would also be, in some measure, difficult to support experience by single facts. If any means is once found efficacious in War, it is repeated; one nation copies another, the thing becomes the fashion, and in this manner it comes into use, supported by experience, and takes its place in theory, which contents itself with appealing to experience in general in order to show its origin, but not as a verification of its truth. But it is quite otherwise if experience is to be used in order to overthrow some means in use, to confirm what is doubtful, or introduce something new; then particular examples from history must be quoted as proofs. Now, if we consider closely the use of historical proofs, four points of view readily present themselves for the purpose….

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Excerpt #3, from On the Trail of the Space Pirates, by Carey Rockwell

…“The third,” replied the professor, “could be–” The professor was interrupted by Lieutenant Claude calling over the intercom. “Just received a report from the University of Venus, sir!” said the young officer. “There’s been no volcanic activity on Venus in the last ten years serious enough to create such a cloud.” Strong waited for the professor’s reaction, but the elderly man was already entering the air lock. Before Strong and Hawks could catch up to him, the air-lock hatch slammed closed. “Hey,” exclaimed Strong, “what does he think he’s doing?” “Don’t worry about it, Steve,” replied Hawks. “He probably forgot we were out here with him, he’s so concerned about this dirt. We’ll just have to wait until he’s out of the air lock.” The Solar Guard officer nodded, then looked around him at the thick black cloud that enveloped the ship. “Well,” he said, “one of the professor’s theories has been knocked out.” “Yes,” replied Hawks. “Which means this stuff is either the remains of a large asteroid or–” “The third possibility,” finished Strong, “which the professor never explained.” Suddenly the air-lock hatch opened again and the two spacemen stepped…

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Excerpt #4, from Astounding Stories of Super

…For four hours after sunrise Bell worked desperately. With the few and inadequate tools in the plane he took apart the oiling system of the motor. It was in duplicate, of course, like all modern air engines, and there were three magnetos, and double spark plugs. Bell drained the crankcase beneath a sun that grew more and more hot and blistering, catching the oil in a gasoline can that he was able to empty into the main tanks. He washed out innumerable small oil pipes with gasoline, and flushed out the crankcase itself, and had at the end of his working as many small scraps of metal as would half fill a thimble. He showed then to Paula. “And the stars in their courses fought against Sisera,” he quoted dryly. “Any one of these, caught in just the right place, would have let us down into the jungle last night.” She smiled up at him. “But they didn’t.” “No…. God loves the Irish,” said Bell. “What’s that thing?” Paula was fishing, sitting on a fallen tree in the cloud of smoke from a smudge fire Bell had built for her. She was wearing the oily flying suit he had found in the shed with the plane, and had torn strips from her discarded dress to make a fishing line. The hook was made out of the stiff wire handle of one of the extra gasoline tins. "Hook and…

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Excerpt #5, from The Grand Inquisitor, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

…made tolerable. And once convinced of it, he sees as clearly that to achieve that object, one must follow blindly the guidance of the wise spirit, the fearful spirit of death and destruction, hence accept a system of lies and deception and lead humanity consciously this time toward death and destruction, and moreover, be deceiving them all the while in order to prevent them from realizing where they are being led, and so force the miserable blind men to feel happy, at least while here on earth. And note this: a wholesale deception in the name of Him, in whose ideal the old man had so passionately, so fervently, believed during nearly his whole life! Is this no suffering? And were such a solitary exception found amidst, and at the head of, that army ‘that thirsts for power but for the sake of the mean pleasures of life,’ think you one such man would not suffice to bring on a tragedy? Moreover, one single man like my Inquisitor as a principal leader, would prove sufficient to discover the real guiding idea of the Romish system with all its armies of Jesuits, the greatest and chiefest conviction that the solitary type described in my poem has at no time ever disappeared from among the chief leaders of that movement. Who knows but that terrible old man, loving humanity so stubbornly and in such an original…

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Excerpt #6, from Thrilling Narratives of Mutiny, Murder and Piracy, by Anonymous

…men were preserved, and these with the four who had saved themselves in the jolly-boat, were the whole of the survivors of this fine ship’s company. A circumstance occurred in which that cool thoughtlessness of danger, which so often distinguishes our British tars, was displayed in such a striking manner, that it would be inexcusable to omit it. Daniel Monro, had, as we have already seen, gained the fore-top. He suddenly disappeared, and it was concluded that he had been washed away like many others. After being absent from the top about two hours, he, to the surprise of Dunlap, who was likewise on the fore-top, raised his head through the lubber-hole; Dunlap inquiring where he had been, he told him he had been cruising for a better birth; that after swimming about the wreck for a considerable time, he had returned to the fore-shrouds, and crawling in on the catharpins, had actually been sleeping there more than an hour, and appeared greatly refreshed. [Illustration] BURNING OF THE PRINCE, A FRENCH EAST INDIAMAN. On the 19th of February 1752, a French East Indiaman, called the Prince, sailed from Port L’Orient on a voyage outward bound. But soon afterwards, a sudden shift of wind drove her on a sand bank, where she…

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Excerpt #7, from Let’s Get Together, by Isaac Asimov

…will begin with an all-Science conference." “All-Science?” Breckenridge said, “We have listed every important scientist of every branch of natural science. They’ll all be at Cheyenne. There will be only one point on the agenda: How to advance robotics. The major specific sub-heading under that will be: How to develop a receiving device for the electromagnetic fields of the cerebral cortex that will be sufficiently delicate to distinguish between a protoplasmic human brain and a positronic humanoid brain.” Jeffreys said, “We had hoped you would be willing to be in charge of the conference.” “I was not consulted in this.” “Obviously time was short, sir. Do you agree to be in charge?” Lynn smiled briefly. It was a matter of responsibility again. The responsibility must be clearly that of Lynn of Robotics. He had the feeling it would be Breckenridge who would really be in charge. But what could he do? He said, “I agree.” * * * * * Breckenridge and Lynn returned together to Cheyenne, where that evening Laszlo listened with a sullen mistrust to Lynn’s description of coming…

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Excerpt #8, from Recollections and impressions of James A. McNeill Whistler, by Arthur Jerome Eddy

…forget. We have not the faintest idea what they really are. We would not insult Mr. Whistler by supposing he tried to draw a horse with the customary equine legs, and so failed as to produce these marvels. Perhaps Dr. Wilson knows of some animal limbed thus strangely. “It is because of such insults as these to common sense and common understanding, and from no ill-will we bear him, that we refuse seriously to criticise such work as Mr. Whistler has recently brought before the public. Whatever in it is good adds to his offence, for it shows the offence to be wilful, if not premeditated.”[16] Poor etchings,–condemned for their virtues, condemned for their faults,–there is no health in them. * * * * * And these and many similar things were written, only twenty years ago, of the greatest etchings the world has known since the days of Rembrandt. When one thinks of the obscurity of Rembrandt to the day of his death, and how little his work was known for long after, of the passing of Meryon without recognition, it must be conceded that Whistler is coming into his own amazingly fast….

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Excerpt #9, from The Lock and Key Library: Classic Mystery and Detective Stories: Modern English

…I tore open the cupboard in which he kept his linen–seized a handful of his handkerchiefs–gagged him with one of them, and secured his hands with the others. There was now no danger of his alarming the servants. After tying the last knot, I looked up. The door between the Englishman’s room and mine was open. My fair friend was standing on the threshold–watching him as he lay helpless on the bed; watching me as I tied the last knot. “What are you doing there?” I asked. “Why did you open the door?” She stepped up to me, and whispered her answer in my ear, with her eyes all the time upon the man on the bed: “I heard him scream.” “Well?” “I thought you had killed him.” I drew back from her in horror. The suspicion of me which her words implied was sufficiently detestable in itself. But her manner when she uttered the words was more revolting still. It so powerfully affected me that I started back from that beautiful creature as I might have recoiled from a reptile crawling over my flesh. Before I had recovered myself sufficiently to reply, my nerves were assailed by another shock. I suddenly heard my mistress’s voice calling to me from the stable yard….

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Excerpt #10, from Caesar and Cleopatra, by Bernard Shaw

…mountains at night to hear in the distance the stealthy footfall of the winds that chase your sands in forbidden play–our invisible children, O Sphinx, laughing in whispers. My way hither was the way of destiny; for I am he of whose genius you are the symbol: part brute, part woman, and part God–nothing of man in me at all. Have I read your riddle, Sphinx? THE GIRL (who has wakened, and peeped cautiously from her nest to see who is speaking). Old gentleman. CAESAR (starting violently, and clutching his sword). Immortal gods! THE GIRL. Old gentleman: don’t run away. CAESAR (stupefied). “Old gentleman: don’t run away!!!” This! To Julius Caesar! THE GIRL (urgently). Old gentleman. CAESAR. Sphinx: you presume on your centuries. I am younger than you, though your voice is but a girl’s voice as yet. THE GIRL. Climb up here, quickly; or the Romans will come and eat you. CAESAR (running forward past the Sphinx’s shoulder, and seeing her). A child at its breast! A divine child! THE GIRL. Come up quickly. You must get up at its side and creep round. CAESAR (amazed). Who are you?…

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Excerpt #11, from History of the World War: An Authentic Narrative of the World’s Greatest War

…In that operation, 152 square miles of territory and 72 villages were captured outright. For the reduction of the German defenses and for the creeping barrage preceding the American advance, more than 1,500,000 shells were fired by the artillery. Approximately 100,000 detail maps and 40,000 photographs prepared largely from aerial observations, were issued for the guidance of the artillery and the infantry. These maps and photographs detailed all the natural and artificial defenses of the entire salient. More than 5,000 miles of telephone wire was laid by American engineers immediately preceding the attack, and as the Americans advanced on the morning of the battle, September 12, 1918, 6,000 telephone instruments were connected with this wire. Ten thousand men were engaged in operating the hastily constructed telephone system; 3,000 carrier pigeons supplemented this work. During the battle American airplanes swept the skies clear of enemy air-craft and signaled instructions to the artillery, besides attacking the moving infantry, artillery and supply trains of the enemy. So sure were the Americans of their success that moving-picture operators took more than 10,000 feet of moving picture film showing the rout of the Germans. Four thousand eight hundred trucks carried food, men and munitions into the lines. Miles of American railroads, both of standard and narrow gauge, carrying American-made equipment, assisted in the…

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Excerpt #12, from An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, by David Hume

…other principles of association except these, may be difficult to prove to the satisfaction of the reader, or even to a man’s own satisfaction. All we can do, in such cases, is to run over several instances, and examine carefully the principle which binds the different thoughts to each other, never stopping till we render the principle as general as possible[5]. The more instances we examine, and the more care we employ, the more assurance shall we acquire, that the enumeration, which we form from the whole, is complete and entire. [2] Resemblance. [3] Contiguity. [4] Cause and effect. [5] For instance, Contrast or Contrariety is also a connexion among Ideas: but it may, perhaps, be considered as a mixture of Causation and Resemblance. Where two objects are contrary, the one destroys the other; that is, the cause of its annihilation, and the idea of the annihilation of an object, implies the idea of its former existence. SECTION IV. SCEPTICAL DOUBTS CONCERNING THE OPERATIONS OF THE UNDERSTANDING. PART I. 20. All the objects of human reason or enquiry may naturally be divided…

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