Short passages for reading, drawn from history, legend, poetry and fiction.
© Hertzsprung, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 3.0.
Sir John Seeley urged us to cherish our close ties to India and other nations beyond Europe.
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© Bikashrd, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.
A maths prodigy from Madras became so wrapped up in his sums that he forgot to pass his examinations.
Via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
Adam Smith argued that the Bengal Famine of 1769 would have been much less of a tragedy under a free trade policy.
© Abhijit Kar Gupta, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.
The Governor of Bengal accused the East India Company of turning a crisis into a humanitarian catastrophe.
From the Imperial War Museums, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
George Santayana had the chance to observe our national character at the height of Empire.
© Manojz Kumar, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.
Anglo-Saxon abbot Elfric tentatively likened the new-born Jesus to an egg.