Quick Excerpts, from a Library of 492 Titles

Generated 2022-07-28 13:26:05

Excerpt #1, from A Lad of Grit: A Story of Adventure on Land and Sea in Restoration Times

…spell of fine weather would guarantee our safety. Having washed, changed my ragged garments, and eaten a hearty meal, I went below to the cockpit. Here, lighted by the dismal glimmer of a few ship’s lanterns, a ghastly sight met my eyes, while a hot, fetid stench filled the gloomy region like a cloud. Stretched upon rough wooden trestles, or huddled in rows upon the bare deck, were dozens of human beings, some moaning, others shrieking and cursing in their agony. Our surgeon was about to operate upon a little powder-monkey, a lad of about fifteen years of age, who had received a ball in the shoulder. Lying by the lad’s side was his father, whose leg had just been removed, the pitch with which the stump had been smeared still smoking. In spite of the pain caused by the rough-and-ready surgery, the father grasped his son’s hand, encouraging and comforting the boy, as the surgeon probed for the bullet. At length I found Captain Poynings. He, refusing the comfort of his own cabin, preferred to share with his gallant crew the horrors of the cockpit, and lay, with his head and shoulders swathed in bandages, on a rough mattress, as if he had been an ordinary mariner. Added to the dismal noises came the dull thud of the carpenters’ hammers and mallets as they drove plugs into the shot holes betwixt wind and…

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Excerpt #2, from The Naval War of 1812, by Theodore Roosevelt

…manned by Canadians, and James, anxious to put the blame on these rather than the British, says that they acted in the most cowardly way, whereas in reality they caused the Americans more trouble than Downie’s smaller sailing vessels did. His account of the armament of these vessels differs widely from the official reports. He gives the Linnet and Chubb a smaller number of men than the number of prisoners that were actually taken out of them, not including the dead. Even misstating Downie’s force in guns, underestimating the number of his men, and leaving out two of his gun-boats, did not content James; and to make the figures show a proper disproportion, he says (vol. vi, p. 504) that he shall exclude the Finch from the estimate, because she grounded, and half of the gun-boats, because he does not think they acted bravely. Even were these assertions true, it would be quite as logical for an American writer to put the Chesapeake’s crew down as only 200, and say he should exclude the other men from the estimate because they flinched; and to exclude all the guns that were disabled by shot, would be no worse than to exclude the Finch. James’ manipulation of the figures is a really curious piece of audacity. Naturally, subsequent British historians have followed him without inquiry. James’ account of this battle, alone, amply justifies…

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Excerpt #3, from The Satyricon — Complete, by Petronius Arbiter

…Stained by the lifeblood of the God of Wine; The walls around with chaff and spattered clay Were covered. Flanging from protruding nails Were slender stalks of the green rush; and then Suspended from the smoky beam, the stores Of this poor cottage. Service berries soft, Entwined in fragrant wreaths hung down, Dried savory and raisins by the bunch. An hostess here like she on Attic soil, Of Hecate’s pure worship worthy she! Whose fame Kallimachos so grandly sang ‘Twill live forever through the speaking years. CHAPTER THE ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-SIXTH. In the meantime, (having shelled the beans,) she took a mouthful of the meat and with the fork was replacing the pig’s cheek, which was coeval with herself, upon the meat-hook, when the rotten stool, which she was using to augment her height, broke down under the old lady’s weight and let her fall upon the hearth. The neck of the pot was broken, putting out the fire, which was just getting a good start, her elbow was burned by a flaming brand, and her whole face was covered by the ashes raised by her fall. I jumped up in dismay and, not without laughing, helped the…

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Excerpt #4, from The Astral Plane, by C. W. Leadbeater

…to the entity itself is by no means all the harm that may accrue from such a practice, for those who habitually attend séances during life are almost certain to develop a tendency to haunt them after death, and so themselves in turn run the risks into which they have so often brought their predecessors. Besides, it is well known that the vital energy necessary to produce physical manifestations is frequently drawn from the sitters as well as from the medium, and the eventual effect on the latter is invariably evil, as is evinced by the large number of such sensitives who have gone either morally or psychically to the bad–some becoming epileptic, some taking to drink, others falling under influences which induced them to stoop to fraud and trickery of all kinds. 4. The Shade. When the separation of the principles is complete, the Kâmaloka life of the person is over, and, as before stated, he passes into the devachanic condition. But just as when he dies to this plane he leaves his physical body behind him, so when he dies to the astral plane he leaves his Kâmarûpa behind him. If he has purged himself from all earthly desires during life, and directed all his energies into the channels of unselfish spiritual aspiration, his higher Ego will be able to draw back into itself the whole of the lower Manas which it…

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Excerpt #5, from Poems, by Emily Dickinson, Three Series, Complete, by Emily Dickinson

…And bowed and sang again. Doubtless, he thought it meet of him To say good-by to men. X. I died for beauty, but was scarce Adjusted in the tomb, When one who died for truth was lain In an adjoining room. He questioned softly why I failed? “For beauty,” I replied. “And I for truth, – the two are one; We brethren are,” he said. And so, as kinsmen met a night, We talked between the rooms, Until the moss had reached our lips, And covered up our names. XI. “TROUBLED ABOUT MANY THINGS.” How many times these low feet staggered, Only the soldered mouth can tell; Try! can you stir the awful rivet?…

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Excerpt #6, from Mr. Standfast, by John Buchan

…His ugly face was lit up with a serious delight. He told me he had taken this voyage before, so I got out Baddely and asked for advice. “I can’t spend too much time on holidaying,” I told him, “and I want to see all the beauty spots. But the best of them seem to be in the area that this fool British Government won’t let you into without a passport. I suppose I shall have to leave you at Oban.” “Too bad,” he said sympathetically. “Well, they tell me there’s some pretty sights round Oban.” And he thumbed the guide-book and began to read about Glencoe. I said that was not my purpose, and pitched him a yarn about Prince Charlie and how my mother’s great-grandfather had played some kind of part in that show. I told him I wanted to see the place where the Prince landed and where he left for France. “So far as I can make out that won’t take me into the passport country, but I’ll have to do a bit of footslogging. Well, I’m used to padding the hoof. I must get the captain to put me off in Morvern, and then I can foot it round the top of Lochiel and get back to Oban through Appin. How’s that for a holiday trek?” He gave the scheme his approval. “But if it was me, Mr Brand, I would have a shot at puzzling your gallant policemen. You and I don’t take much stock in Governments and their two-cent laws, and it would be a…

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Excerpt #7, from Julius Caesar, by William Shakespeare

…[Within.] Let me go in to see the generals, There is some grudge between ’em; ’tis not meet They be alone. LUCILIUS. [Within.] You shall not come to them. POET. [Within.] Nothing but death shall stay me. CASSIUS. How now! What’s the matter? POET. For shame, you generals! What do you mean? Love, and be friends, as two such men should be; For I have seen more years, I’m sure, than ye. CASSIUS. Ha, ha! How vilely doth this cynic rhyme! BRUTUS. Get you hence, sirrah. Saucy fellow, hence! CASSIUS. Bear with him, Brutus; ’tis his fashion. BRUTUS. I’ll know his humour when he knows his time….

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Excerpt #8, from Rilla of Ingleside, by L. M. Montgomery

…seaward of the lighthouse for dances. It was a delightful spot, roofed over with fir-boughs and hung with lanterns. Beyond was the sea in a radiance that glowed and shimmered, to the left the moonlit crests and hollows of the sand-dunes, to the right the rocky shore with its inky shadows and its crystalline coves. Rilla and her partner swung in among the dancers; she drew a long breath of delight; what witching music Ned Burr of the Upper Glen was coaxing from his fiddle–it was really like the magical pipes of the old tale which compelled all who heard them to dance. How cool and fresh the gulf breeze blew; how white and wonderful the moonlight was over everything! This was life–enchanting life. Rilla felt as if her feet and her soul both had wings. CHAPTER IV THE PIPER PIPES Rilla’s first party was a triumph–or so it seemed at first. She had so many partners that she had to split her dances. Her silver slippers seemed verily to dance of themselves and though they continued to pinch her toes and blister her heels that did not interfere with her enjoyment in the least. Ethel Reese gave her a bad ten minutes by beckoning her mysteriously out of the pavilion and whispering, with a Reese-like smirk, that her dress gaped behind and that there was a stain on the flounce. Rilla rushed miserably to the room in the…

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Excerpt #9, from The British Navy Book, by Cyril Field

…This invention may be said to have sealed the fate of the heavy breech-loading gun for some centuries, though the system remained in vogue for small pieces for another 200 years. A cast-iron or brass muzzle-loading gun could be made so much more easily, rapidly, and cheaply than a built-up wrought-iron breech-loader of the same calibre that with the growing demand for guns afloat there is little wonder that the former drove the more expensive weapon clean out of the field. It must be remembered, too, that the casting of bronze guns had already reached great perfection on the Continent. What is known as “Queen Elizabeth’s pocket pistol” at Dover is a standing witness to this. It is supposed to have been cast at Utrecht, and to have been presented to Henry VIII by the Emperor Charles V in 1544. It is 24 feet long, and is a very fine piece of workmanship. Its bore is 58 calibres long–that is to say, it is fifty-eight times as long as its diameter, a proportion not very unlike that upon which some of our most modern weapons are designed. [Illustration: Early Breech-loading Cannon The first was an Armada weapon. This type of gun remained in use afloat well into the eighteenth century] But to return to our early naval cannon. As I have already pointed out, the casting of bronze guns in Germany and Flanders had reached a great…

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Excerpt #10, 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 #11, from Astounding Stories, August, 1931, by Various

…occupied an entire side of the single room. “Regular young observatory you’ve got here, Van,” Bart commented when he had taken all this in in one sweeping glance of appraisal. “Yeah, and then some. Not another like it in the world.” Van was busying himself with the controls of his electrical equipment, and a powerful motor-generator started up with a click and a whirr as he closed a starting switch. Madison watched in silence as the swift-fingered scientist fussed with the complicated adjustments of the apparatus and then turned to the massive concrete pedestal on which his telescope was mounted. At his touch of a button the instrument swung over on its polar axis to a new position. The slit in the dome was opened to the afternoon sky, revealing the lunar disc in its daytime faintness. “You can see it just as well in daylight?” Bart asked as his friend peered through the eyepiece of the telescope and continued his adjustments. “Sure, the surface is just as bright as at night. Doesn’t seem so to your eye, but it’s different through the telescope. Here, take a look.” * * * * * Bart squinted through the eyepiece and saw a huge crater with a…

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Excerpt #12, from Rambles and Recollections of an Indian Official, by William Sleeman

…disgrace of this retreat was speedily avenged by the great victory of Dîg. 23. This old Norman-French formula. Oyez, Oyez, meaning ‘Hear!’ is still, or recently was, used at the Assizes in the High Court, Calcutta. The formula would not now be heard at Delhi, or elsewhere beyond the precincts of the High Court. CHAPTER 65 Marriage of a Jât Chief. ON the 19th[1] we came on to Balamgarh,[2] fifteen miles over a plain, better cultivated and more studded with trees than that which we had been coming over for many days before. The water was near the surface, more of the field were irrigated, and those which were not so looked better–[a] range of sandstone hills, ten miles off to the west, running north and south. Balamgarh is held in rent-free tenure by a young Jât chief, now about ten years of age. He resides in a mud fort in a handsome palace built in the European fashion. In an extensive orange garden, close outside the fort, he is building a very handsome tomb over the spot where his father’s elder brother was buried. The whole is formed of white and black marble, and the firm white sandstone of Rûpbâs, and so well conceived and executed as to make it evident that demand is the only thing wanted to cover India…

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