Quick Excerpts, from a Library of 492 Titles

Generated 2022-07-28 13:26:07

Excerpt #1, from The Mark of Zorro, by Johnston McCulley

…“These turbulent times!” he said to a gentleman of his acquaintance who stood near. They tore Felipe’s robe from his back and started to lash him to the post. But the fray had been a man of great strength in his day, and some of it remained to him in his advanced years; and it came to him now what ignominy he was to suffer. Suddenly he whirled the soldiers aside and stooped to grasp the whip from the ground. “You have removed my robe!” he cried. “I am man now, not fray! One side, dogs!” He lashed out with the whip. He cut a soldier across the face. He struck at two natives who sprang toward him. And then the throng was upon him, beating him down, kicking and striking at him, disregarding even the soldiers’ orders. Don Diego Vega felt moved to action. He could not see his friend treated in this manner despite his docile disposition. He rushed into the midst of the throng, calling upon the natives to clear the way. But he felt a hand grasp his arm, and turned to look into the eyes of the magistrado. “These are no actions for a caballero,” the judge said in a low tone. "The man has been sentenced properly. When you raise hand to give him…

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Excerpt #2, from Behind the Beyond, and Other Contributions to Human Knowledge, by Stephen Leacock

…Then they began pumping in gas. The sensation of this part of it I cannot, unfortunately, recall. It happened that just as they began to administer the gas, I fell asleep. I don’t quite know why. Perhaps I was overtired. Perhaps it was the simple home charm of the surroundings, the soft drowsy hum of the gas pump, the twittering of the dentists in the trees–did I say the trees? No; of course they weren’t in the trees–imagine dentists in the trees–ha! ha! Here, take off this gaspipe from my face till I laugh–really I just want to laugh–only to laugh—- Well,–that’s what it felt like. Meanwhile they were operating. [Illustration: I did go . . . I kept the appointment.] Of course I didn’t feel it. All I felt was that someone dealt me a powerful blow in the face with a sledgehammer. After that somebody took a pickax and cracked in my jaw with it. That was all. It was a mere nothing. I felt at the time that a man who objects to a few taps on the face with a pickax is overcritical. I didn’t happen to wake up till they had practically finished. So I really missed the whole thing. The assistants had gone, and the dentist was mixing up cement and humming airs from light opera just like old times. It made the world…

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Excerpt #3, from A history of Canada, 1763 to 1812, by Sir Charles Prestwood Lucas

…at a time, and only by ordinance of the Legislative Council; to give trial by jury in civil cases at the option of either of the parties; to take from the governor the power of committing to prison by his own warrant, and of suspending judges and members of the Legislative Council; while the last clause increased the numbers of the council. It was supported by Fox, who took the opportunity to denounce the Quebec Act ‘as a Bill founded upon a system of despotism’, and by Sheridan; but the majority in a very thin House rejected it, agreeing with Pitt that, in view of the contradictory petitions which came from Canada, it would be well to wait until Carleton went out and reported upon the feeling of the country. Petitions continued to come in. In June, 1787, Lord Dorchester wrote to Lord Sydney that with the increase of the English population the desire for an Assembly would increase, but that he himself was at a loss for a plan, and that a more pressing matter was a change in the tenure of land. In the following September Lord Sydney replied, in somewhat similar terms, that there was no present intention to alter the constitution, but that the King would be advised to make a change in the system of land tenure. [Sidenote: Adam Lymburner heard before the House of Commons.]…

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Excerpt #4, from Cliff Castles and Cave Dwellings of Europe, by S. Baring

…the villagers were wont to gather to elect their magistrates without interference from the Bastard of Albret. Within is a bench cut in the rock, and the roof is encrusted with stalactite formations like cauliflowers. Immediately above the village is a much larger cavern 72 feet high and 36 feet deep. It is vaulted like a dome, and tendrils of ivy and vine hang down draping the entrance. Violets grow in purple masses at the opening, and maiden-hair fern luxuriates within. At the extreme end, high up, to be reached only by a ladder of forty rungs, is another opening into a cave that runs far into the bowels of the Causse, to where the water falls in a cascade that now flows forth beneath the outer cave and supplies the village with drinking water and a place for washing linen. Hard by the great entrance is another cave situated high up, and called the Citadel, much smaller, access to which is obtained by a narrow track in the face of the rock, with notches cut in the limestone to receive the beams and struts that supported a wooden gallery which once provided easy access to the cave. I did not myself climb up and investigate the citadel, not having a steady head on the edge of a precipice, and what information I give was received from the curé, who seemed very much amused at my shirking the scramble, and thought that the Englishman of to-day must be very different from the Englishman of the fourteenth century who crawled about these cliffs…

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Excerpt #5, from French Idioms and Proverbs, by de V. Payen

…is nothing like making one’s self at home everywhere. Il a connu la gêne = He knows what want is. Gêner Est-ce que je vous gêne? = Am I in your way? Ne vous gênez pas! = Do not stand upon ceremony! Make yourself at home! Don’t mind me! Il ne se gêne guère = Doesn’t he make himself at home! Well, he is a cool customer! Il est plus gênant que gêné = His free and easy manners are unpleasant to others, but he does not mind that. Gens A gens de village, trompette de bois = Rough tools for rough work. Gésir _C’est là que gît le lièvre_ = That is the main point; There’s the rub. Gibier C’est un gibier de potence = He is a gallows-bird. Gloire “J’aime mieux, n’en déplaise à la gloire, Vivre au monde deux jours que mille ans dans l’histoire.”…

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Excerpt #6, from Roget’s Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases, by Peter Mark Roget

…upon; come across, come onto; meet with, meet up with, fall in with. recognize, realize; verify, make certain of, identify. Int. eureka!, aha!^, I’ve got it!, 481. Misjudgment – N. misjudgment, obliquity of judgment; miscalculation, miscomputation, misconception &c (error) 495; hasty conclusion. [causes of misjudgment. 1] prejudgment, prejudication^, prejudice; foregone conclusion; prenotion^, prevention, preconception, predilection, prepossession, preapprehension^, presumption, assumption, presentiment; fixed idea, preconceived idea; id_ee fixe; mentis gratissimus error [Lat.]; fool’s paradise. [causes of misjudgment. 2] esprit de corps, party spirit, partisanship, clannishness, prestige. [causes of misjudgment. 3] bias, bigotry, warp, twist; hobby, fad, quirk, crotchet, partiality, infatuation, blind side, mote in the eye. [causes of misjudgment. 4] one-sided views, one-track mind, partial views, narrow views, confined views, superficial views, one- sided ideas, partial ideas, narrow ideas, confined ideas, superficial ideas, one-sided conceptions, partial conceptions, narrow conceptions, confined conceptions, superficial conceptions, one-sided notions, partial notions, narrow notions, confined notions, superficial notions;…

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Excerpt #7, from The Jest Book, by Mark Lemon

…particular case, a King’s Counsel observed, in a tone loud enough to reach the bench, “Good heavens! every judgment of this court is a mere toss-up.” “But heads seldom win,” observed a learned barrister, sitting behind him. DCCXCIII.–RELATIONS OF MANKIND. BY what curious links, and fantastical relations, are mankind connected together! At the distance of half the globe, a Hindoo gains his support by groping at the bottom of the sea for the morbid concretion of a shell-fish, to decorate the throat of a London alderman’s wife.–S.S. DCCXCIV.–VERY TRUE. SERJEANT MAYNARD, a famous lawyer in the days of the Stuarts, called law an “ars bablativa.” DCCXCV.–EPIGRAM. (Accounting for the apostacy of ministers.) THE Whigs, because they rat and change To Toryism, all must spurn; Yet in the fact there’s nothing strange, That Wigs should twist, or curl, or turn. DCCXCVI.–DRINKING ALONE. THE author of the “Parson’s Daughter,” when surprised one evening in his arm-chair, two or three hours after dinner, is reported to have…

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Excerpt #8, from The Chemistry of Plant Life, by Roscoe Wilfred Thatcher

…The use of the word “colloid” as a noun, or as the name for a substance which is in the colloidal condition, is of the same nature as the use of the words “gas,” “liquid,” and “solid,” in such statements as “ice is a solid,” “water is a liquid,” or “steam is a gas,” etc.; i.e., the noun represents a state or condition rather than an actual object or thing. Hence, the expression “enzymes are colloids,” means only that enzymes exist in the colloidal condition, and not that enzymes represent a definite type of substances having the group name “colloids.” THE COLLOIDAL CONDITION A DISPERSION PHENOMENON When one substance is distributed through the mass of another substance, the mixture is said to be a “two-phase system,” composed of the dispersed phase, or substance, and the dispersion medium, or continuous phase, through which the other substance is distributed. The following examples illustrate the possibilities of such two-phase systems: (1) Dispersion medium a gas. (a) Disperse phase a liquid–mist in the air. (b) Disperse phase a solid–smoke or dust in air. (2) Dispersion medium a liquid. (a) Disperse phase a gas–foams. (b) Disperse phase a liquid–emulsions. (c) Disperse phase a solid–suspensions….

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Excerpt #9, from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum

…“Oh, thank you–thank you!” cried the Scarecrow. “I’ll find a way to use them, never fear!” “But how about my courage?” asked the Lion, anxiously. “You have plenty of courage, I am sure,” answered Oz. “All you need is confidence in yourself. There is no living thing that is not afraid when it faces danger. True courage is in facing danger when you are afraid, and that kind of courage you have in plenty.” “Perhaps I have, but I’m scared just the same,” said the Lion. “I shall really be very unhappy unless you give me the sort of courage that makes one forget he is afraid.” “Very well; I will give you that sort of courage to-morrow,” replied Oz. “How about my heart?” asked the Tin Woodman. “Why, as for that,” answered Oz, “I think you are wrong to want a heart. It makes most people unhappy. If you only knew it, you are in luck not to have a heart.” “That must be a matter of opinion,” said the Tin Woodman. “For my part, I will bear all the unhappiness without a murmur, if you will give me the heart.” [Illustration] “Very well,” answered Oz, meekly. "Come to me to-morrow and you shall have a heart. I have played Wizard for so many years that I may as…

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Excerpt #10, from Rilla of Ingleside, by L. M. Montgomery

…it is incredible that the spring can come as usual. The spring does not fail because of the million agonies of others–but for mine–oh, can the universe go on?’ “‘Don’t feel bitter with yourself, dear,’ mother said gently. ‘It is a very natural thing to feel as if things couldn’t go on just the same when some great blow has changed the world for us. We all feel like that.’”Then that horrid old Cousin Sophia of Susan’s piped up. She was sitting there, knitting and croaking like an old ‘raven of bode and woe’ as Walter used to call her. “‘You ain’t as bad off as some, Miss Oliver,’ she said, ‘and you shouldn’t take it so hard. There’s some as has lost their husbands; that’s a hard blow; and there’s some as has lost their sons. You haven’t lost either husband or son.’”‘No,’ said Gertrude, more bitterly still. ‘It’s true I haven’t lost a husband–I have only lost the man who would have been my husband. I have lost no son–only the sons and daughters who might have been born to me–who will never be born to me now.’ "‘It isn’t ladylike to talk like that,’ said Cousin Sophia in a shocked tone; and then Gertrude laughed right out, so wildly that Cousin Sophia was really frightened. And when poor tortured Gertrude, unable to…

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Excerpt #11, from Literary Lapses, by Stephen Leacock

…his teeth, the enormous bandit rushed upon his intrepid opponent. De Vaux seemed scarce more than a stripling, but he stood his ground and faced his hitherto invincible assailant. ‘Mong Dieu,’ cried De Smythe, ‘he is lost!’" Question. On which of the parties to the above contest do you honestly feel inclined to put your money? Answer. On De Vaux. He’ll win. Hairy Hank will force him down to one knee and with a brutal cry of “Har! har!” will be about to dirk him, when De Vaux will make a sudden lunge (one he had learnt at home out of a book of lunges) and– Very good. You have answered correctly. Now, suppose you find, a little later in the book, that the killing of Hairy Hank has compelled De Vaux to flee from his native land to the East. Are you not fearful for his safety in the desert? Answer. Frankly, I am not. De Vaux is all right. His name is on the title page, and you can’t kill him. Question. Listen to this, then: "The sun of Ethiopia beat fiercely upon the desert as De Vaux, mounted upon his faithful elephant, pursued his lonely way. Seated in his lofty hoo-doo, his eye scoured the waste. Suddenly a solitary horseman appeared on the horizon, then another, and another, and then six. In a few moments a whole crowd of solitary…

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Excerpt #12, from Guide to Fortune Telling, by Dreams, by Anonymous

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