The Copybook
Short passages for reading, drawn from history, legend, poetry and fiction.
Short passages for reading, drawn from history, legend, poetry and fiction.
Joseph thinks that little Benjamin may provide the leverage he needs to force Jacob to come to Egypt.
The sons of Jacob have been to Egypt to buy corn during a famine, little knowing the lordly official in charge of the granaries there was the brother they sold into slavery years before. On returning home, they have discovered the money they thought they had paid to Joseph still in the sacks, and are bemused and frightened.
Jacob takes his whole family to join Joseph in Egypt, but God promises him that one day they will return to Canaan.
A famine in Canaan has brought Joseph’s brothers to Egypt to buy corn, but they do not recognise the brother they sold into slavery, now the lordly Overseer of Pharaoh’s granaries. As a practical joke, Joseph has sold them some corn but has also planted a silver cup on little Benjamin, and arrested him as a thief.
A literary man tries to trick Samuel Johnson into an honest opinion, which was neither necessary nor very rewarding.
James Macpherson published two poems, ‘Fingal’ in 1762 and ‘Temora’ a year later, which he said were translations of Irish oral tradition. He attributed them to Ossian, the legendary 3rd century Irish bard, who told of the ‘endless battles and unhappy loves’ of his father Fingal and son Oscar. Dr Johnson was, like most modern scholars, unconvinced.
Monsieur St Aubert falls seriously ill on a walking tour with his daughter Emily, and before the end asks an unexpected favour.
Monsieur St Aubert’s wife has recently been carried off by a sudden illness. Now he too has fallen sick, a long way from home, and lies on his deathbed. At his side is his affectionate young daughter Emily, and in the little time remaining he extracts a solemn promise.
A nation with its own laws and a strong sense of shared cultural identity makes good economic sense.
Adam Smith argues that preferring to live in a sovereign nation, with a strong sense of shared cultural identity and well-drafted, homemade laws, is not a matter of prejudice. It is a matter of sound economic reasoning, for every country of the world.
Andre-Louis Moreau lives for vengeance on the master swordsman who killed his friend.
André-Louis Moreau, a lawyer by training, is broke and a wanted man in Paris. Passing by the fencing school of M. Bertrand des Amis, André reads a notice inviting applications for the post of fencing instructor. Unfortunately, as he is compelled to acknowledge, he can’t fence.