The Copybook
Short passages for reading, drawn from history, legend, poetry and fiction.
Short passages for reading, drawn from history, legend, poetry and fiction.
George Canning urged Britain not to bring Continental Europe’s topsy-turvy politics home by getting too closely involved.
George Canning MP was grateful for the British Constitution’s balance between monarchy and democracy. He saw no such balance on the European Continent, still reeling from Napoleon’s grab for power, and during a speech in Liverpool in 1820 warned against letting our neighbours’ confusion spread here.
Mr Easy believes he has missed out on fatherhood, and having nothing else to do, turns to political campaigning.
Mr Nicodemus Easy is a Hampshire gentleman destined to be the father of the hero of Captain Marryat’s novel. As the tale opens, however, Mr Easy has resigned himself to being childless, and has determined to make the best of it.
Gideon is chosen by God to save Israel from the Midianites, but doubts his fitness for the task.
Gideon is numbered among Israel’s ‘Judges’, charismatic leaders of the ancient tribes of Israel after they escaped from slavery in Egypt and settled in the land of Canaan, sometime before the 11th century BC. Their task was to free Israel from the ever-present temptation to adopt the religions of the indigenous peoples.
Jephthah’s sentries at the crossings of Jordan devise a fool-proof way to tell friend from foe.
The Judges were rulers of Israel in the years after the twelve tribes first settled in Canaan – impossible to date securely, but the 13th century BC is conventional. They fought to hold off invasion by neighbouring kingdoms, such as Midian, Moab and Ammon, but their task was not made any easier by rivalries and suspicions within their own nation.
Gideon prepares to drive the Midianites out of Israel, but first he has to make it a fair fight.
Gideon has been visited by an angel of God, who has commissioned him to liberate Israel from seven years of cruel oppression by the Kingdom of Midian. Gideon has sparked a revolt, but with a decisive battle before him, he remains far from convinced that he is the right man for the task.
While spying out the enemy’s camp, Gideon hears something which fills him with renewed confidence.
Gideon has been chosen by God to rid Israel of the invading Midianites, and has successfully fulfilled his commission. All that remains is for his unlikely army of just three hundred hand-picked men to capture the Midianites’ top generals, but he does not get much co-operation from his fellow Israelites.