Quick Excerpts, from a Library of 492 Titles

Generated 2022-07-28 13:24:41

Excerpt #1, from Science and the modern world: Lowell Lectures 1925, by Alfred North Whitehead

…the observed state of large multitudes of analogous entities, with high powers of endurance. For the environment automatically develops with the species, and the species with the environment. The first question to ask is, whether there is any direct evidence for such a mechanism for the evolution of enduring organisms. In surveying nature, we must remember that there are not only basic organisms whose ingredients are merely aspects of eternal objects. There are also organisms of organisms. Suppose for the moment and for the sake of simplicity, we assume, without any evidence, that electrons and hydrogen nuclei are such basic organisms. Then the atoms, and the molecules, are organisms of a higher type, which also represent a compact definite organic unity. But when we come to the larger aggregations of matter, the organic unity fades into the background. It appears to be but faint and elementary. It is there; but the pattern is vague and indecisive. It is a mere aggregation of effects. When we come to living beings, the definiteness of pattern is recovered, and the organic character again rises into prominence. Accordingly, the characteristic laws of inorganic matter are mainly the statistical averages resulting from confused aggregates. So far are they from throwing light on the ultimate nature of things, that they blur and obliterate the individual characters of the individual organisms. If we wish to throw light upon the facts…

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Excerpt #2, from The Principles of Biology, Volume 1 (of 2), by Herbert Spencer

…their early lives in the water, acquire more completely the structures fitting them to live on land, to which they then migrate. Lastly, we have closely-allied creatures, like the Surinam toad and the terrestrial salamander, which, though they belong by their structures to the class Amphibia, are not amphibious in their habits–creatures the larvæ of which do not pass their early lives in the water, and yet go through these same metamorphoses! Must we then think, like Von Baer, that the distribution of kindred organisms through different media presents an insurmountable difficulty? On the contrary, with facts like these before us, the evolution-hypothesis supplies possible interpretations of many phenomena that are else unaccountable. After seeing the ways in which such changes of media are in some cases gradually imposed by physical conditions, and in other cases voluntarily commenced and slowly increased in the search after food; we shall begin to understand how, in the course of evolution, there have arisen strange obscurations of one type by the externals of another type. When we see land-birds occasionally feeding by the water-side, and then learn that one of them, the water-ouzel, an “anomalous member of the strictly terrestrial thrush family, wholly subsists by diving–grasping the stones with its feet and using its wings under water”–we are enabled to comprehend how, under pressure of population, aquatic habits may be acquired by creatures organized for…

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Excerpt #3, from Arcadian Adventures with the Idle Rich, by Stephen Leacock

…Dr. McTeague, quite suddenly it appears; how he could reconcile his theory of transcendental immaterialism with a scheme of rigid moral determinism. Dr. McTeague stared for a moment, his mouth, so the class assert, painfully open. The student repeated the question, and poor McTeague fell forward over his desk, paralysed." “Is he dead?” gasped Mr. Furlong. “No,” said the president. “But we expect his death at any moment. Dr. Slyder, I may say, is with him now and is doing all he can.” “In any case, I suppose, he could hardly recover enough to continue his college duties,” said the young rector. “Out of the question,” said the president. “I should not like to state that of itself mere paralysis need incapacitate a professor. Dr. Thrum, our professor of the theory of music, is, as you know, paralysed in his ears, and Mr. Slant, our professor of optics, is paralysed in his right eye. But this is a case of paralysis of the brain. I fear it is incompatible with professorial work.” “Then, I suppose,” said Mr. Furlong senior, “we shall have to think of the question of a successor.” They had both been thinking of it for at least three minutes. “We must,” said the president. "For the moment I feel too stunned by the sad news to act. I have merely telegraphed to two or three leading…

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Excerpt #4, from Mr. Punch’s History of the Great War, by Charles L. Graves

…Anyhow, the Sultan, lured on by the Imperial William o’ the Wisp, is already capable of envying even his predecessor: Abdul! I would that I had shared your plight, Or Europe seen my heels, Before the hour when Allah bound me tight To WILLIAM’S chariot-wheels! Germany, always generous with other people’s property, has begun to hint to Italy possibilities of compensation in the shape of certain portions of Austro-Hungarian territory. She has also declared that she is “fighting for the independence of the small nations,” including, of course, Belgium. In further evidence of her humanity she has taken to spraying our soldiers in the West with flaming petrol and squirting boiling pitch over our Russian allies. It is positively a desecration of the word devil to apply it to the Germans whether on land, on or under water, or in the air. We have begun to “push” on the Western front, and Neuve Chapelle has been captured, after a fierce battle and at terrible cost. Air raids are becoming common in East Anglia and U-boats unpleasantly active in the North Sea. Let us take off our hats to the mine-sweepers and trawlers, the new and splendid auxiliaries of the Royal Navy. Grimsby is indeed a “name to resound for ages” for what its fishermen have done and are doing in the war against mine and submarine:…

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Excerpt #5, 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….

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Excerpt #6, from Round the Red Lamp: Being Facts and Fancies of Medical Life, by Arthur Conan Doyle

…a man of wide reading, with catholic tastes and an extraordinary memory. His manner, too, was so pleasing and suave that one came, after a time, to overlook his repellent appearance. For a jaded and wearied man he was no unpleasant companion, and Smith found himself, after a time, looking forward to his visits, and even returning them. Clever as he undoubtedly was, however, the medical student seemed to detect a dash of insanity in the man. He broke out at times into a high, inflated style of talk which was in contrast with the simplicity of his life. “It is a wonderful thing,” he cried, “to feel that one can command powers of good and of evil–a ministering angel or a demon of vengeance.” And again, of Monkhouse Lee, he said,–“Lee is a good fellow, an honest fellow, but he is without strength or ambition. He would not make a fit partner for a man with a great enterprise. He would not make a fit partner for me.” At such hints and innuendoes stolid Smith, puffing solemnly at his pipe, would simply raise his eyebrows and shake his head, with little interjections of medical wisdom as to earlier hours and fresher air. One habit Bellingham had developed of late which Smith knew to be a frequent herald of a weakening mind. He appeared to be forever talking to himself. At late hours of the night, when there could be no visitor…

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Excerpt #7, from Much Ado about Nothing, by William Shakespeare

…For thee I’ll lock up all the gates of love, And on my eyelids shall conjecture hang, To turn all beauty into thoughts of harm, And never shall it more be gracious. LEONATO. Hath no man’s dagger here a point for me? [Hero swoons.] BEATRICE. Why, how now, cousin! wherefore sink you down? DON JOHN. Come, let us go. These things, come thus to light, Smother her spirits up. [Exeunt Don Pedro, Don John and Claudio.] BENEDICK. How doth the lady? BEATRICE. Dead, I think! Help, uncle! Hero! why, Hero! Uncle! Signior Benedick! Friar! LEONATO. O Fate! take not away thy heavy hand: Death is the fairest cover for her shame…

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Excerpt #8, from My Man Jeeves, by P. G. Wodehouse

…to see you on business, and wouldn’t give his name. I didn’t like the look of him from the first. It’s this fellow Sturgis. It must be.” “No!” “I feel it. I’m sure of it.” “Had he a hat?” “Of course he had a hat.” “Fool! I mean mine. Was he carrying a hat?” “By Jove, he was carrying a parcel. George, old scout, you must get a move on. You must light out if you want to spend the rest of your life out of prison. Slugging a Serene Highness is lèse-majesté. It’s worse than hitting a policeman. You haven’t got a moment to waste.” “But I haven’t any money. Reggie, old man, lend me a tenner or something. I must get over the frontier into Italy at once. I’ll wire my uncle to meet me in——” “Look out,” I cried; “there’s someone coming!” He dived out of sight just as Voules came up the companion-way, carrying a letter on a tray. “What’s the matter!” I said. “What do you want?” “I beg your pardon, sir. I thought I heard Mr. Lattaker’s voice. A letter has arrived for him.” “He isn’t here.”…

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Excerpt #9, from English Fairy Tales, by Joseph Jacobs

…“What are you a-doing of?”, says she. “I’m going to make some gruel for the young master,” says the cook, “for he’s dying for love of the lady.” “Let me make it,” says Cap o’ Rushes. Well, the cook wouldn’t at first, but at last she said yes, and Cap o’ Rushes made the gruel. And when she had made it she slipped the ring into it on the sly before the cook took it upstairs. The young man he drank it and then he saw the ring at the bottom. “Send for the cook,” says he. So up she comes. “Who made this gruel here?” says he. “I did,” says the cook, for she was frightened. And he looked at her, “No, you didn’t,” says he. “Say who did it, and you shan’t be harmed.” “Well, then, ‘twas Cap o’ Rushes,” says she. “Send Cap o’ Rushes here,” says he. So Cap o’ Rushes came. “Did you make my gruel?” says he. “Yes, I did,” says she. “Where did you get this ring?” says he. “From him that gave it me,” says she….

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Excerpt #10, from The Voyage of the “Deutschland”, by Paul König

…cat: ‘/home/marc/Dropbox/Marc/books/Unsorted/pgbooks-for-excerpts/The Voyage of the Deutschland by Paul König-pg45922.txt’: No such file or directory

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Excerpt #11, from The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, by Laurence Sterne

…think this a viler man than the other.] “Shall not conscience rise up and sting him on such occasions?——No; thank God there is no occasion, I pay every man his own;—I have no fornication to answer to my conscience;—no faithless vows or promises to make up;—I have debauched no man’s wife or child; thank God, I am not as other men, adulterers, unjust, or even as this libertine, who stands before me. “A third is crafty and designing in his nature. View his whole life;—’tis nothing but a cunning contexture “of dark arts and unequitable subterfuges, basely to defeat the true intent of all laws,——plain dealing and the safe enjoyment of our several properties.——You will see such a one working out a frame of little designs upon the ignorance and perplexities of the poor and needy man;—shall raise a fortune upon the inexperience of a youth, or the unsuspecting temper of his friend, who would have trusted him with his life. “When old age comes on, and repentance calls him to look back upon this black account, and state it over again with his conscience—CONSCIENCE looks into the STATUTES AT LARGE;—finds no express law broken by what he has done;—perceives no penalty or forfeiture of goods and chattels incurred;—sees no scourge waving over his head, or prison opening his…

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Excerpt #12, from Nonsense Books, by Edward Lear

…That lively old person of Blythe. [Illustration] There was a young person of Ayr, Whose head was remarkably square: On the top, in fine weather, she wore a gold feather; Which dazzled the people of Ayr. [Illustration] There was an old person of Rimini, Who said, “Gracious! Goodness! O Gimini!” When they said, “Please be still!” she ran down a hill, And was never more heard of at Rimini. [Illustration] There is a young lady, whose nose, Continually prospers and grows; When it grew out of sight, she exclaimed in a fright, “Oh! Farewell to the end of my nose!” [Illustration] There was an old person of Ealing, Who was wholly devoid of good feeling; He drove a small gig, with three Owls and a Pig, Which distressed all the people of Ealing….

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