Quick Excerpts, from a Library of 492 Titles

Generated 2022-07-28 13:26:28

Excerpt #1, from Appletons’ Popular Science Monthly, March 1899, by Various

…the military establishment.[3] All the rest is expenditure that should no more be intrusted to the Government–that is, subject to the application of political instead of business methods–than the expenditure of a household, or a farm, or a cotton mill, or an iron foundry. Even if it were a legitimate expenditure of the Government, it could not be collected nor expended without injustice. Tax laws have never been and never will be framed that will not permit some one to escape his share of the burdens of the community; and the heavier those burdens are, as they are constantly becoming to an alarming degree, the more desperate will be the effort to shirk them–the more lightly will they rest upon the dishonest and unworthy, and the more heavily upon the honest and worthy. Moreover, it has never been possible, and it never will be possible, to expend money by political methods without either waste or fraud, and most usually without both. Such a volume of legislation and taxation permits of the easy detection of the vital difference between the theory and practice of politics. According to the text-books and professors, politics is the science of government. In countries like the United States, where popular institutions prevail, the purpose of its study is the discovery and the application of the methods that shall enable all citizens, rich and poor, to share alike in the inestimable privilege…

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Excerpt #2, from The Prophet, by Kahlil Gibran

…of light? Only then shall you know that the erect and the fallen are but one man standing in twilight between the night of his pigmy-self and the day of his god-self, And that the corner-stone of the temple is not higher than the lowest stone in its foundation. ***** ***** Then a lawyer said, But what of our Laws, master? And he answered: You delight in laying down laws, Yet you delight more in breaking them. Like children playing by the ocean who build sand-towers with constancy and then destroy them with laughter. But while you build your sand-towers the ocean brings more sand to the shore, And when you destroy them the ocean laughs with you….

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Excerpt #3, from Home Life in Colonial Days, by Alice Morse Earle

…safe-keeping of fences. In 1659 the Dutch rulers of New Amsterdam (now New York) ordered that for “stripping fences of rails and posts” the offender should be whipped and branded, and for a second offence he could be punished by death. This seems cruelly severe, but that year there was a great scarcity of grain and other food, and if the fences were pulled down, cattle could get into fields and eat up the growing crops, and famine and death might result. Sometimes a common field was fenced in and planted with Indian corn. In this case the fence served to keep the cattle out, not in. This was always the case in Virginia. Hay-wards were, as the name indicates, men to keep watchful care over the growing hay. For instance, in Hadley, Massachusetts, in 1661, Goodman Montague was chosen hay-ward by the town. He was to have twelvepence for each cow or hog, two shillings for each horse, and twenty pence for each twenty sheep that he found loose in any field or meadow, and successfully turned out. The owner of the animal was to pay the fine. At a later date these hay-wards were called field-drivers. They are still appointed in many towns and cities, among them Boston. Hog-reeves were men appointed by the citizens to look after their hogs that roamed the roads and streets, to see that all those swine had rings in their noses, were properly marked, and did not do damage to…

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Excerpt #4, from A history of Canada, 1763 to 1812, by Sir Charles Prestwood Lucas

…perpetually disputed source, were a series of dissolving views; and under the Proprietors and Companies were a number of strong English citizens who, caring little for the theoretical basis of their position, cared very much for practical independence, and ordered their ways accordingly, becoming steadily and stubbornly more independent through perpetual friction and perpetual absence of systematic control. Thus it was that the North American colonies drank in, as their mother’s milk, the traditions and the habits of independence. They carried with them English citizenship, but the privileges of such citizenship rather than the responsibilities; and, in so far as the mother country was inclined to ignore the privileges, the colonies were glad to disclaim the responsibilities. [Sidenote: Absence of collective responsibility in the British North American colonies.] They were separate and distinct, not only from the mother country, but also from each other, and they could not in consequence from first to last be held collectively responsible. In the wars with Canada, New England and New York, though alike exposed to French invasion, and from time to time co-operating to repel the invaders or to organize counter-raids, yet acted throughout as entirely separate entities, in no way inclined to bear each other’s burdens…

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Excerpt #5, from The Principles of Biology, Volume 2 (of 2), by Herbert Spencer

…from any other part. But flowers so fixed as to open out sideways in tolerably-constant attitudes, have their petals differently related to insect-agency. A bee or butterfly coming to a laterally-growing flower, does not settle on it in one way as readily as in another; but almost of necessity settles with the axis of its body inclined upwards towards the stem of the plant. Hence the side-petals of a flower so fixed, habitually stand to the alighting insect in relations different from those in which the upper and lower petals stand; and the upper and lower petals differ from one another in their relations to it. If, then, there so arises an habitual attitude of the insect towards the petals, there is likely to be some arrangement of the petals that will be most convenient to the insect–will most facilitate its entrance into the flower. Thus we see in many cases, that a long undermost petal or lip, by enabling the insect to settle in such way as to bring its head opposite to the opening of the tube, aids its fertilizing agency. But whatever be the special modifications of the corolla which facilitate the actions of the particular insects concerned, all of them will conduce to bilateral symmetry; since they will be alike for the two sides but unlike for the top and bottom. And now we are prepared for understanding the exceptions. Flowers growing sideways can become thus adapted by survival of the fittest, only if they are of such sizes…

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Excerpt #6, from Norman Ten Hundred, by A. Stanley Blicq

…In the Field no man has actual possession of shirt, sock, or under-garments. These are all given in at each visitation to the baths and others issued in return. Your shirt thrown over to you by the C.Q.M.S. might be somewhat decrepit and holey or might have some resemblance to a new one. You might have two odd socks or (if you were among the bevy of schemers) two or three pairs would be in your possession–illegally. Parades were detestable. They had imagined that England was the training camp for these operations. In France they had expectation of fighting and resting, NOT marching up and down with occasional halts, while the Platoon Officer furtively asks his sergeant what order he must give next. The pivot round which all parades manoeuvre is always with the Regimental Sergeant-Major (the main function of all R.S.M.’s is to walk round with a big stick). He, an old Regular, despite the iron discipline so candidly hated, was withall a staunch supporter of fair play for the ranker, a tartar on parade, and feared more by the junior N.C.O.’s than the very inhabitor of lower regions. An N.C.O. (Non-Commissioned Officer) is an individual whose main talent lies in the ability to bawl out orders at men one yard distant in a voice having a hundred yards range. The possessors of some subtle…

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Excerpt #7, from The Prose Tales of Alexander Pushkin, by Aleksandr Sergeevich Pushkin

…“Interesting!” said Troekouroff: “she knows him already. He taught her music for three whole weeks, and thank God, took nothing for his lessons.” Then Kirila Petrovitch began to relate the story of the pretended French tutor. Maria Kirilovna felt as if she were sitting upon needles. Vereisky, listening with deep attention, found it all very strange, and changed the subject of conversation. On returning from the drive, he ordered his carriage to be brought, and in spite of the earnest requests of Kirila Petrovitch to stay for the night, he took his departure immediately after tea. Before setting out, however, he invited Kirila Petrovitch to pay him a visit and to bring Maria Kirilovna with him, and the proud Troekouroff promised to do so’; for taking into consideration his princely dignity, his two stars, and the three thousand serfs belonging to his estate, he regarded Prince Vereisky in some degree as his equal. CHAPTER XIV. Two days after this visit, Kirila Petrovitch set out with his daughter for the abode of Prince Vereisky. On approaching Arbatova, he could not sufficiently admire the clean and cheerful-looking huts of the peasants, and the stone manor-house built in the style of an English castle. In front of the house stretched a close green lawn, upon which…

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Excerpt #8, from Anthem, by Ayn Rand

…“We have given you a name in our thoughts, Liberty 5-3000.” “What is our name?” they asked. “The Golden One.” “Nor do we call you Equality 7-2521 when we think of you.” “What name have you given us?” They looked straight into our eyes and they held their head high and they answered: “The Unconquered.” For a long time we could not speak. Then we said: “Such thoughts as these are forbidden, Golden One.” “But you think such thoughts as these and you wish us to think them.” We looked into their eyes and we could not lie. “Yes,” we whispered, and they smiled, and then we said: “Our dearest one, do not obey us.” They stepped back, and their eyes were wide and still. “Speak these words again,” they whispered. “Which words?” we asked. But they did not answer, and we knew it. “Our dearest one,” we whispered. Never have men said this to women. The head of the Golden One bowed slowly, and they stood still before us, their arms at their sides, the palms of their hands…

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Excerpt #9, from Vision and Design, by Roger Fry

…results that would follow. One scarcely knows whether they would be worse if Bumble or the Academy were judge. We only know that under any such conditions none of the artists whose work has ultimately counted in the spiritual development of the race would have been allowed to practise the coveted profession. There is in truth, as Ruskin pointed out in his “Political Economy of Art,” a gross and wanton waste under the present system. We have thousands of artists who are only so by accident and by name, on the one hand, and certainly many–one cannot tell how many–who have the special gift but have never had the peculiar opportunities which are to-day necessary to allow it to expand and function. But there is, what in an odd way consoles us, a blind chance that the gift and the opportunity may coincide; that Shelley and Browning may have a competence, and Cézanne a farm-house he could retire to. Bureaucratic Socialism would, it seems, take away even this blind chance that mankind may benefit by its least appreciable, most elusive treasures, and would carefully organise the complete suppression of original creative power; would organise into a universal and all-embracing tyranny the already overweening and disastrous power of endowed official art. For we must face the fact that the average man has two qualities which would make the proper selection of the artist almost impossible. He has, first of…

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Excerpt #10, from The Last Stroke: A Detective Story, by Lawrence L. Lynch

…men, he averred. And at last, hesitating much, and full of fears, Peter was finally persuaded, yielding at last to Doran’s offer to let him sit in front “and drive one of the horses.” As they reached the lower end of the Indian Mound, the boy’s lips began to quiver and one arm went up before his face, while he extended the other toward the thickest of brushwood before described by Ferrars. “That’s where,” he whimpered. “It comed up out there.” “From among the bushes?” “Ye-us.” “Did it have any feet?” “Oh-oh! Only head and arms–ugh!” “Turn around, Doran,” said Ferrars sharply, and then in a lower tone to Hilda, “I shall go to the city to-night.” When Hilda reached her room, at the close of the school, she found this letter awaiting her, “left,” Mrs. Marcy said, “by her cousin”: “DEAR COUSIN,–Even if you had been disengaged, I could have told you nothing except that what I have learned to-day impels me to look a little more closely to the other end of my line. For there is another end.”Now that I shall have the two men on duty in the south end of the county, and with the doctor and Doran alert in G—-, not to…

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Excerpt #11, from Ten Thousand Dreams Interpreted; Or, What’s in a Dream, by Gustavus Hindman Miller

…will advance beyond present pursuits, but will retain former impressions of justice and knowledge, seeking these through every change. If the figure below be low, you will ignore your friends of former days in your future advancement. If it is on a plane or level with you, you will fail in your ambition to reach other spheres. If you seem to be going from it, you will force yourself to seek a change in spite of friendly ties or self-admonition. To dream you see a friend with a white cloth tied over his face, denotes that you will be injured by some person who will endeavor to keep up friendly relations with you. To dream that you are shaking hands with a person who has wronged you, and he is taking his departure and looks sad, foretells you will have differences with a close friend and alienation will perhaps follow. You are most assuredly nearing loss of some character. Frightened.[78] To dream that you are frightened at anything, denotes temporary and fleeting worries. [78] See Affrighted. Frogs. To dream of catching frogs, denotes carelessness in watching after your health, which may cause no little distress among…

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Excerpt #12, from Radio Active Substances, by Marie Curie

…transformation of the radium atom. If this were the case, we should be led to conclude that the quantities of energy generated during the formation and transformation of the atoms are considerable, and that they exceed all that is so far known. Chemical Effects produced by the New Radio-active Bodies. Colourations.—The radiations of strongly radio-active bodies are capable of causing certain chemical reactions. The rays emitted by radium products exercise colouring actions upon glass and porcelain. The colouration of glass, generally brown or violet, is very deep; it is produced in the body of the glass, and remains after removal of the radium. All glasses become coloured after a longer or a shorter interval of time, and the presence of lead is not essential. This fact may be compared to that recently observed of the colouration of the glass of vacuum tubes, after having been long in use for the production of Röntgen rays. M. Giesel has demonstrated that the crystallised halogen salts of the alkali metals become coloured under the influence of radium, as under the action of cathode rays. M. Giesel points out that similar colourations are obtained when the salts of the alkalis are exposed to sodium vapour. I investigated the colouration of a collection of glasses of known…

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