Quick Excerpts, from a Library of 492 Titles

Generated 2022-07-28 13:25:33

Excerpt #1, from Astrology: How to Make and Read Your Own Horoscope, by Sepharial

…or arousing the envy and malice of a considerable number of individuals. Nevertheless, there are only two aspects in this horoscope which seem to point to any sort of trouble from such causes. The points are those of Neptune, which afflicts both the Moon and Venus, and of Mars which afflicts Uranus in the Midheaven and the Sun in the 2nd House. By referring these two points to the Ecliptic we find they correspond to the Sun’s position on or about the 24th of May, and the 26th of January, and I shall leave the reader to look up his Almanac and find the individuals (illustrious they must needs be to find chronicle in Whittaker) who were capable of filling the requirements of the case. As to friends, Mr. Chamberlain should lack nothing. With the Moon in sextile to the Sun and Jupiter, the ruler of the 11th House, in the same benefic relations with the Moon, he would always be able to count upon a strong adherence, and the only adverse indication in this matter is that Mars, part ruler of the 11th House, holds the 12th House in square aspect to Uranus in the Midheaven. This would be interpreted to mean that some of his friends will be disposed to become his enemies, and to militate, although ineffectually, against his credit and position. Why ineffectually? Because Mercury, the ruler of the Ascendant and prime significator of Mr. Chamberlain, is angular and well aspected, while Mars is weak and afflicted by Uranus which is in elevation above it….

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Excerpt #2, from King’s Cutters and Smugglers 1700

…ahead to reconnoitre, and reported that a sloop-of-war lay opposite to the quay, so that her guns could be pointed against the doors of the Custom House; but afterwards it was found that, owing to the ebb-tide, the guns of the sloop could not be made to bear on that spot. The band, numbering about thirty, therefore rode down to spot, and while Perin and one other man looked after their horses, the rest proceeded to the Custom House, forced open the door with hatchets and other implements, rescued the tea, fastening packages of the latter on to their horses, with the exception only of 5 lbs. The next morning they passed through Fordingbridge in Hampshire, where hundreds of the inhabitants stood and watched the cavalcade. Now among the latter was a man named Daniel Chater, a shoemaker by trade. He was known to Diamond, one of the gang then passing, for they had both worked together once at harvest time. Recognising each other, Diamond extended his arm, shook hands, and threw him a bag of tea, for the booty had been divided up so that each man carried five bags of 27 lbs. [Illustration: A Representation of ye Smugglers breaking open ye KING’S Custom House at Poole.] After the Poole officers discovered what had happened to their Custom House, there was not unnaturally a tremendous fuss, and eventually the…

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Excerpt #3, from Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions, by Edwin Abbott Abbott

…wanting, it is true, some promulgators of paradoxes who maintain that there is no necessary connection between geometrical and moral Irregularity. “The Irregular”, they say, “is from his birth scouted by his own parents, derided by his brothers and sisters, neglected by the domestics, scorned and suspected by society, and excluded from all posts of responsibility, trust, and useful activity. His every movement is jealously watched by the police till he comes of age and presents himself for inspection; then he is either destroyed, if he is found to exceed the fixed margin of deviation, or else immured in a Government Office as a clerk of the seventh class; prevented from marriage; forced to drudge at an uninteresting occupation for a miserable stipend; obliged to live and board at the office, and to take even his vacation under close supervision; what wonder that human nature, even in the best and purest, is embittered and perverted by such surroundings!” All this very plausible reasoning does not convince me, as it has not convinced the wisest of our Statesmen, that our ancestors erred in laying it down as an axiom of policy that the toleration of Irregularity is incompatible with the safety of the State. Doubtless, the life of an Irregular is hard; but the interests of the Greater Number require that it shall be hard. If a man with a triangular front…

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Excerpt #4, from The Myths and Fables of To Day, by Samuel Adams Drake

…garret. Failing in this attempt, the sisters then took the child, stuck pins into its veins, and tried to smother it between two feather beds. When the infant was thought to be quite dead, the body was thrown into a brook, under a nearby bridge which spanned it. Life, however, was not quite extinct, so that the child’s cries were heard by a passing traveller, who rescued it, but it soon after bled to death from the wounds inflicted upon it. Half crazed by this dastardly act, the forlorn mother then and there called down the curse of God upon the inhuman sisters and their sons to all future generations. This is substantially the legend. Now for the sequel. It is said to be a fact that all the sons of the daughters of that family, and no others, have ever since been afflicted with a strange and incurable malady, the principal feature being a tendency to profuse bleeding from the most trifling cuts or wounds. After some days have elapsed, a mere scratch will begin to bleed copiously and so continue until the sufferer has lost so much blood that in some cases it is said he has bled to death. From this circumstance the persons so afflicted are known by the name of “bleeders.” Mr. Felt asserts that the family in which this singular hemorrhage first appeared brought it with them from England; which, if true, would…

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Excerpt #5, from The Great Boer War, by Arthur Conan Doyle

…fluttered with joy. Men, women, and children, rich and poor, clubman and cabman, joined in the universal delight. The thought of our garrison, of their privations, of our impotence to relieve them, of the impending humiliation to them and to us, had lain dark for many months across our spirits. It had weighed upon us, until the subject, though ever present in our thoughts, was too painful for general talk. And now, in an instant, the shadow was lifted. The outburst of rejoicing was not a triumph over the gallant Boers. But it was our own escape from humiliation, the knowledge that the blood of our sons had not been shed in vain, above all the conviction that the darkest hour had now passed and that the light of peace was dimly breaking far away–that was why London rang with joy bells that March morning, and why those bells echoed back from every town and hamlet, in tropical sun and in Arctic snow, over which the flag of Britain waved. CHAPTER 18. THE SIEGE AND RELIEF OF KIMBERLEY. It has already been narrated how, upon the arrival of the army corps from England, the greater part was drafted to Natal, while some went to the western side, and started under Lord Methuen upon the perilous enterprise of the relief of Kimberley. It has also been shown how, after three expensive victories, Lord Methuen’s force met with a paralysing reverse, and was compelled to remain inactive within twenty miles of the…

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Excerpt #6, from The Anabasis of Alexander, by Arrian

…especially as he had already advanced further than their country. For this reason they were caught more easily off their guard. Many of them, however, escaped into the mountains, which in their land are very lofty and craggy, thinking that Alexander would not penetrate to these at any rate. But when he was approaching them even here, they sent envoys to surrender both the people and their land to him. He pardoned them, and appointed Autophradates, whom he had also recently placed over the Tapurians, viceroy over them. Returning to the camp, from which he had started to invade the country of the Mardians, he found that the Grecian mercenaries of Darius had arrived, accompanied by the envoys from the Lacedaemonians who were on an embassy to king Darius. The names of these men were, Callicratidas, Pausippus, Monimus, Onomas, and Dropides, a man from Athens. These were arrested and kept under guard; but he released the envoys from the Sinopeans,[478] because these people had no share in the commonwealth of the Greeks; and as they were in subjection to the Persians, they did not seem to be doing anything unreasonable in going on an embassy to their own king. He also released the rest of the Greeks who were serving for pay with the Persians before the peace and alliance which had been made by the Greeks with the Macedonians. He likewise released Heraclides, the ambassador from the Chalcedonians[479] to Darius. The rest he ordered to serve in his…

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Excerpt #7, from The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, by Daniel Defoe

…out of my bed, my heart was not only comforted, but I was guided and encouraged to pray earnestly to God for deliverance: when I had done praying I took up my Bible, and opening it to read, the first words that presented to me were, “Wait on the Lord, and be of good cheer, and He shall strengthen thy heart; wait, I say, on the Lord.” It is impossible to express the comfort this gave me. In answer, I thankfully laid down the book, and was no more sad, at least on that occasion. In the middle of these cogitations, apprehensions, and reflections, it came into my thoughts one day that all this might be a mere chimera of my own, and that this foot might be the print of my own foot, when I came on shore from my boat: this cheered me up a little, too, and I began to persuade myself it was all a delusion; that it was nothing else but my own foot; and why might I not come that way from the boat, as well as I was going that way to the boat? Again, I considered also that I could by no means tell for certain where I had trod, and where I had not; and that if, at last, this was only the print of my own foot, I had played the part of those fools who try to make stories of spectres and apparitions, and then are frightened at them more than anybody. Now I began to take courage, and to peep abroad again, for I had not stirred out of my castle for three days and nights, so that I began to…

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Excerpt #8, from The Moon: considered as a planet, a world, and a satellite., by James Carpenter et al.

…mass been at various times determined, and it has been found, as the latest and best accepted value, that the mass of the moon is one-eightieth that of the earth. From the known diameter of the earth we ascertain that its volume is 259,360 millions of cubic miles: and from the various experiments that have been made to determine the mean density of the earth, it has been found that that mean density is about 5½ times that of water; that is to say, the earth weighs 5½ times heavier than would a sphere of water of equal size. Now a cubic foot of water weighs 62·3211 pounds, and from this we can find by simple multiplication what is the weight of a cubic mile of water, and, similarly, what would be the weight of 259,360 cubic miles of water, and the last result multiplied by 5½ will give the weight of the earth in tons: The calculation, although extremely simple, involves a confusing heap of figures; but the result, which is all that concerns us, is, that the weight of the earth is 5842 trillions of tons: and since, as we have above stated, the mass of the earth is 80 times that of the moon, it follows that the weight of the moon is 73 trillions of tons. The cubical contents of a body compared with its weight gives us its density. In the moon we have 5276 millions of cubic miles of matter, the total weight of which is 73 trillions of tons. Now, 5276 millions of…

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Excerpt #9, from Legends of the Gods, by Sir E. A. Wallis Budge

…sti,[FN#107] at the town of Shas-hertet, and he perceived the most able of their enemies in the country of Uaua,[FN#108] and they were uttering treason against Horus their Lord. [FN#107] Northern Nubia; the name means “Land of the Bow.” [FN#108] A portion of Northern Nubia. And Heru-Behut changed his form into that of the Winged Disk, [and took his place] above the bow of the Boat of Ra. And he made the goddess Nekhebit[FN#109] and the goddess Uatchit[FN#110] to be with him in the form of serpents, so that they might make the Sebau fiends to quake in [all] their limbs (or, bodies). Their boldness (i.e., that of the fiends) subsided through the fear of him, they made no resistance whatsoever, and they died straightway. [FN#109] The goddess of the South. [FN#110] The goddess of the North. Then the gods who were in the following of the Boat of Heru-khuti said, “Great, great is that which he hath done among them by means of the two Serpent Goddesses,[FN#111] for he hath overthrown the enemy by means of their fear of him.” [FN#111] i.e., Nekhebit and Uatchit. And Ra Heru-khuti said, "The great one of the two Serpent Goddesses of Heru-Behutet shall be called ‘Ur-Uatchti’[FN#112] from this day…

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

…in your life. Presently Izzy gave tongue. The management expects him to be humorous on these occasions, so he did his best. ‘Num-bahs, seven, eleven, and twenty-one will kindly rejoin their sorrowing friends.’ This gave us a little more elbow-room, and the band started again. A few minutes later, Izzy once more: ‘Num-bahs thirteen, sixteen, and seventeen–good-bye.’ Off we went again. ‘Num-bah twelve, we hate to part with you, but–back to your table!’ A plump girl in a red hat, who had been dancing with a kind smile, as if she were doing it to amuse the children, left the floor. ‘Num-bahs six, fifteen, and twenty, thumbs down!’ And pretty soon the only couples left were Charlie and me, Mrs Charlie and the fellow I’d introduced her to, and a bald-headed man and a girl in a white hat. He was one of your stick-at-it performers. He had been dancing all the evening. I had noticed him from the balcony. He looked like a hard-boiled egg from up there. He was a trier all right, that fellow, and had things been otherwise, so to speak, I’d have been glad to see him win. But it was not to be. Ah, no!…

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Excerpt #11, from The Wyvern mystery, by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

…begin with, and anything you can get together will be a lift to me. If you write under cover to J. Dylke at the old place in Westminster, it will be sure to reach me. I don’t know whether all this is intelligible. You may guess how distracted I am and miserable. But there is no use in describing. I ought to beg your pardon a thousand times for asking you to take all the trouble involved in this request. But, dear Harry, you will ask yourself who else on earth has the poor devil to look to in an emergency but his brother? I know my good Harry will remember how urgent the case is. Any advice you can spare me in my solitary trouble will be most welcome. I think I have said everything–at least all I can think of in this miserable hurry–I feel so helpless. But you are a clever fellow, and always were–so much cleverer than I, and know how to manage things. God bless you, dear Harry, I know you won’t forget how pressed I am. You were always prompt in my behalf, and I never so needed a friend like you–for delay here might lead to the worst annoyances. “Ever, dear Harry, your affectionate brother, “Charles Fairfield. “Carwell Grange.” It was a relief to his mind when these letters were off it, and something like the rude outline of a plan formed….

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Excerpt #12, from Superstition in Medicine, by Hugo Magnus

…Saturn, hearing. Jupiter, the brain. Mars, the blood. Venus, taste and smell. Mercury, tongue and gullet. However, the influence which sun, moon, and the planets exercised upon the human body gradually became more intricate. It was no longer satisfactory to enumerate relations between the bodies of heaven and the human organs of such a general nature as given by the above table of Hermes. All parts and functions of the body were to be brought into the closest relations with the planets. Thus, for instance, the celebrated humanist, Marsilius Ficinus, the friend of the Medici (1433 to 1499), depicts most minutely in a book “On Life,” which was much read in its time, the relations between the body and the planets. This was also done by Heinrich von Rantzau, in his “Tractus Astrologicus,” which in its time was very celebrated. There we read regarding these conditions as follows: SATURN governs the spleen, the bladder, the bones, the teeth, and, in part, the circulating juices of the body; causes the color of the skin of man to be dark yellowish; impedes or promotes growth; causes the eyes to be small, and prevents the growth of the beard….

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