Quick Excerpts, from a Library of 492 Titles

Generated 2022-07-28 13:26:14

Excerpt #1, from Privateering and Piracy in the Colonial Period, by J. Franklin Jameson

…KIQUOTAN[2] Aprill 28th 1700 between 3 and 4 a Clock in the afternoon. [Footnote 2: Hampton.] Capt. John Aldred, Commander of his Maj’tes Ship Essex Prize,[3] hath just now given me an Account that there are 3 or 4 Ships or vessels in Lynhaven-bay,[4] who are supposed to be pyrates. I doe therefore in his Maj’tes Name command you that upon Sight hereof you give Notice to the Commanders of the Ships and vessels in York River that they take care of their Ships and vessels, and that you do Imediately Order the Militia in your parts to be ready, and you must fortwith dispatch an Express to the Colo. and Chief Officers of the Militia of Gloster, whom I also hereby Command in his Maj’tes Name to have their Militia ready, and they are forthwith to dispatch an Express to the Colo. or chief officers of Middlesex, whom I doe also in his Maj’tes Name Command to have their Militia ready, and they are to give Notice to the Commanders of ships and vessells in Rappahannock, that they may take care of their ships and vessels, and the officers of Middlesex are imediatly to send an Express to the Colo. and Chief officers of Lancaster, whom I do also in his Maj’tes Name command to have their Militia ready, and if any Ship or vessel be…

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Excerpt #2, from History of the war in the Peninsula and in the south of France from the year

…sap, which they overturned, and killed the sappers, but were finally repulsed by the reserve, and the approach was immediately pushed forward to the place of arms. Thus, on the seventh night of open trenches, the besiegers were lodged in the covered way, before a shot had been fired from either breaching or counter-batteries; a remarkable instance of activity and boldness, and a signal proof that the defence was ill-conducted. The night of the 27th, the works were enlarged as much as the fire of the place which was untouched would permit; but the Spaniards seeing the besiegers’ batteries ready to open, made a general sally through the eastern gates, against the false attack at Fort Orleans; and through the southern gates against the works in the plain. General Habert drove them back with slaughter from the former point, but at the latter they beat the French from the covered way, and arriving at the second parallel, burnt the gabions and did much damage ere the reserves could repulse them. The night of the 28th, the batteries were armed with forty-five pieces, of which seventeen were placed on the right bank, to take the Spanish works at the main attack in reverse and to break the bridge. At day-break all these guns opened, and with success, against the demi-bastion, on the left bank of the river; but the fire from the…

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Excerpt #3, from The Sign of the Four, by Arthur Conan Doyle

…no mere haphazard burglary. The prompt and energetic action of the officers of the law shows the great advantage of the presence on such occasions of a single vigorous and masterful mind. We cannot but think that it supplies an argument to those who would wish to see our detectives more decentralised, and so brought into closer and more effective touch with the cases which it is their duty to investigate.” “Isn’t it gorgeous!” said Holmes, grinning over his coffee-cup. “What do you think of it?” “I think that we have had a close shave ourselves of being arrested for the crime.” “So do I. I wouldn’t answer for our safety now, if he should happen to have another of his attacks of energy.” At this moment there was a loud ring at the bell, and I could hear Mrs. Hudson, our landlady, raising her voice in a wail of expostulation and dismay. “By heaven, Holmes,” I said, half rising, “I believe that they are really after us.” “No, it’s not quite so bad as that. It is the unofficial force,—the Baker Street irregulars.” As he spoke, there came a swift pattering of naked feet upon the stairs, a clatter of high voices, and in rushed a dozen dirty and…

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Excerpt #4, from The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde

…smile…. People say sometimes that beauty is only superficial. That may be so, but at least it is not so superficial as thought is. To me, beauty is the wonder of wonders. It is only shallow people who do not judge by appearances. The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible…. Yes, Mr. Gray, the gods have been good to you. But what the gods give they quickly take away. You have only a few years in which to live really, perfectly, and fully. When your youth goes, your beauty will go with it, and then you will suddenly discover that there are no triumphs left for you, or have to content yourself with those mean triumphs that the memory of your past will make more bitter than defeats. Every month as it wanes brings you nearer to something dreadful. Time is jealous of you, and wars against your lilies and your roses. You will become sallow, and hollow-cheeked, and dull-eyed. You will suffer horribly…. Ah! realize your youth while you have it. Don’t squander the gold of your days, listening to the tedious, trying to improve the hopeless failure, or giving away your life to the ignorant, the common, and the vulgar. These are the sickly aims, the false ideals, of our age. Live! Live the wonderful life that is in you! Let nothing be lost upon you. Be always searching for new sensations. Be afraid of nothing…. A new Hedonism—that is what our century wants. You might be its visible symbol. With your personality there is nothing…

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Excerpt #5, from Macbeth, by William Shakespeare

…Ghost rises again. To all, and him, we thirst, And all to all. LORDS. Our duties, and the pledge. MACBETH. Avaunt! and quit my sight! let the earth hide thee! Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold; Thou hast no speculation in those eyes Which thou dost glare with! LADY MACBETH. Think of this, good peers, But as a thing of custom: ’tis no other, Only it spoils the pleasure of the time. MACBETH. What man dare, I dare: Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear, The arm’d rhinoceros, or th’ Hyrcan tiger; Take any shape but that, and my firm nerves Shall never tremble: or be alive again, And dare me to the desert with thy sword;…

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Excerpt #6, from Helps to Latin Translation at Sight, by Edmund Luce

…Atque inter geminas pingantur cornua frontes: Sic etenim comptum mittere oportet opus. TIBULLUS, III. i. 9-14. C. Qui tecum cupis esse meos ubicumque libellos Et comites longae quaeris habere viae, Hos eme, quos artat brevibus membrana tabellis: Scrinia da magnis, me manus una capit. 4 Ne tamen ignores ubi sim venalis et erres Urbe vagus tota, me duce certus eris: Libertum docti Lucensis quaere Secundum Limina post Pacis Palladiumque forum. 8 MARTIAL, I. ii. Cf. HOR. Epist. I. xx.; CATULL. xxii, 4-8; STATIUS, Silvae, IV. ix. ARETHUSA. ‘As an eagle pursuing A dove to its ruin Down the streams of the cloudy wind.’–SHELLEY. A. Lassa revertebar (memini) Stymphalide silva; 585…

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Excerpt #7, from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll

…its eyes were getting extremely small for a baby: altogether Alice did not like the look of the thing at all. “But perhaps it was only sobbing,” she thought, and looked into its eyes again, to see if there were any tears. No, there were no tears. “If you’re going to turn into a pig, my dear,” said Alice, seriously, “I’ll have nothing more to do with you. Mind now!” The poor little thing sobbed again (or grunted, it was impossible to say which), and they went on for some while in silence. Alice was just beginning to think to herself, “Now, what am I to do with this creature when I get it home?” when it grunted again, so violently, that she looked down into its face in some alarm. This time there could be no mistake about it: it was neither more nor less than a pig, and she felt that it would be quite absurd for her to carry it further. So she set the little creature down, and felt quite relieved to see it trot away quietly into the wood. “If it had grown up,” she said to herself, “it would have made a dreadfully ugly child: but it makes rather a handsome pig, I think.” And she began thinking over other children she knew, who might do very well as pigs, and was just saying to herself, “if one only knew the right way to change them—” when she was a little startled by seeing the Cheshire Cat sitting on a bough of…

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Excerpt #8, from Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott

…while Scrabble, the pet rat, promenaded the beams overhead, accompanied by his oldest son, a fine young fellow, who was evidently very proud of his whiskers. Quite absorbed in her work, Jo scribbled away till the last page was filled, when she signed her name with a flourish and threw down her pen, exclaiming… “There, I’ve done my best! If this won’t suit I shall have to wait till I can do better.” Lying back on the sofa, she read the manuscript carefully through, making dashes here and there, and putting in many exclamation points, which looked like little balloons. Then she tied it up with a smart red ribbon, and sat a minute looking at it with a sober, wistful expression, which plainly showed how earnest her work had been. Jo’s desk up here was an old tin kitchen which hung against the wall. In it she kept her papers, and a few books, safely shut away from Scrabble, who, being likewise of a literary turn, was fond of making a circulating library of such books as were left in his way by eating the leaves. From this tin receptacle Jo produced another manuscript, and putting both in her pocket, crept quietly downstairs, leaving her friends to nibble on her pens and taste her ink. She put on her hat and jacket as noiselessly as possible, and going to the back entry window, got out upon the roof of a low porch, swung…

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Excerpt #9, from The History of the 33rd Divisional Artillery, in the War, 1914 to 1918.

…left group, commanded by Lieut.-Colonel Groves (O.C. 103rd Brigade) whose own batteries less A/103 made up the rest of the group. “A,” “B” and D/162 lay on the northern, southern and western edges of Maple Copse (due east of Zillebeke) while C/162 was in action just south of Fosse Wood; the positions of the 156th Brigade have already been noted. [Illustration: Scale 1:20,000.] It will be remembered that throughout July and August, 1917, a succession of big attacks was carried out by the British troops in the Ypres Sector, with the object of driving the enemy back from the semi-circle of low-lying hills which overlooked our trenches in the Salient. The proposed coastal operations of the foregoing chapter had, indeed, been planned in connection with the Ypres offensive, and with the breaking off of the former the batteries were sent down to take part in further undertakings against the Passchendaele-Gheluvelt ridge. The ill-omened autumn offensive against the Passchendaele ridge was, in fact, about to begin, and the first battle of the series was fixed for September 20th. For this, the limits of the zone covered by the Divisional Artillery were Clapham Junction on the north and Dumbarton Lakes on the south, the 162nd taking the left portion of the zone, that…

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Excerpt #10, from Rocks and Their Origins, by Grenville A. J. Cole

…to wind or rain, that the finest materials are carried far away, and the undecomposable quartz remains predominant. The alluvium in the upper reaches of streams is thus far more sandy than the mixed material supplied at the outset from the surrounding rocks. The more rapid flow of the water on the steeper upland slopes naturally removes the mud into the lowland. When the detritus, still somewhat mixed, reaches a sea-shore, wave-action is rapidly effective. Before the continual wash and pounding of the water, any residual clay, and the finely comminuted portion of the quartz, are carried down the coastal slope. The colour of the sea after storms is sufficient evidence of the work that it performs. Beaches, then, arrive at a great similarity of type. The inviting yellow sands, formed of comparatively coarse material, occur alike off shores formed of chalk, slate, granite, or boulder-clay. [Illustration: Fig. 5. Sand Developing from Sandstone, in semi-arid climate. Near Laingsburg, Cape of Good Hope.] From the beginning of sedimentation, sands have thus tended to accumulate, and to become cemented into sandstones. These rocks, in turn uplifted and exposed, have yielded other sandstones. Since coarse sand does not travel far from the region where it is washed out of the parent rock, a thick mass of sandstone extending over many square miles…

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Excerpt #11, from The Book of the Dead, by Sir E. A. Wallis Budge

…which the gods had given him and began to reign over the dead. He was absolute king of this realm, just as Ra the Sun-god was absolute king of the sky. This region of the dead, or Dead-land, is called “Tat,” or “Tuat,” but where the Egyptians thought it was situated is not quite clear. The original home of the cult of Osiris was in the Delta, in a city which in historic times was called Tetu by the Egyptians and Busiris by the Greeks, and it is reasonable to assume that the Tuat, over which Osiris ruled, was situated near this place. Wherever it was it was not underground, and it was not originally in the sky or even on its confines; but it was located on the borders of the visible world, in the Outer Darkness. The Tuat was not a place of happiness, judging from the description of it in the PER-T EM HRU, or Book of the Dead. When Ani the scribe arrived there he said, “What is this to which I have come? There is neither water nor air here, its depth is unfathomable, it is as dark as the darkest night, and men wander about here helplessly. A man cannot live here and be satisfied, and he cannot gratify the cravings of affection” (Chapter CLXXV). In the Tuat there was neither tree nor plant, for it was the “land where nothing grew”; and in primitive times it was a region of destruction and death, a place where the dead rotted and decayed, a place of abomination, and horror and terror, and annihilation. But…

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Excerpt #12, from Diego Collado’s Grammar of the Japanese Language, by Diego Collado

…Tokyo, 1973. Laures, Johannes, S.J., Kirishitan Bunko, Tokyo, 1957. Lebrija, Antonio (Antonius Nebrissensis), Introductiones Latinae, Salamanca, 1481. Moran, Joseph F., A Commentary on the Arte Breve da Lingoa Iapoa of João Rodriguez, S.J.: With Particular Reference to Pronunciation, Unpublished doctoral thesis, Oxford, 1971. Ōtomo Shin’ichi [Japanese], Muromachi-jidai no kokugo-onsei no kenkyū [Japanese], Tokyo, 1963. Ōtsuka Mitsunobu [Japanese], ed., Koryaado Ra-Su-Nichi jiten [Japanese], Tokyo, 1966. (Japanese edition of Collado’s Dictionarium.) Ōtsuka Mitsunobu [Japanese], ed., Koryaado zangeroku [Japanese], Tokyo, 1957. (Japanese edition of Collado’s Confesion.) {186} Ōtsuka Takanobu [Japanese], tr., Koiyaado-chō Nihongo bunten [Japanese], Tokyo, 1934. (Revised as Koryaado Nihon bunten [Japanese], Tokyo, 1957. Translation of Collado’s Ars Grammaticae.) Rodriguez, João, S.J., Arte Breve da Lingoa Iapoa, Macao, 1620. (Cf. Laures #35.) Rodriguez, João, S.J., Arte da Lingoa de Iapam, Nagasaki, 1604-1608. (Translated by Doi Tadao as Rodorigesu Nihon daibunten, 1955. Cf. Laures #28.)…

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