The Copybook

Short passages for reading, drawn from history, legend, poetry and fiction.

505

© Herdiephoto, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0 generic.

A Eulogy for Sir Lancelot by Sir Thomas Malory

Sir Ector, who has searched fruitlessly for his brother for seven years, finds him at last, lying in state in the Joyous Gard.

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506

By Guillaume-Alphonse Harang Cabasson (1814-1884), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

‘The Empire is Peace!’ by Guy de Maupassant

Guy de Maupassant reflects on the way that a statesman’s place in history has so often been defined not by deeds or character but by his one-liners.

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507

By Winslow Homer (1836-1910), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

The Wind and the Sun by Clay Lane

The Wind and the Sun compete to see which of them can make an unsuspecting traveller shed his cloak.

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508

© Bradley Wurth, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

Losing Steam by John Stuart Mill

Those in Power may imagine that a docile and compliant public makes Government run more smoothly, but a society of that kind just won’t move forward.

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509

By James Pollard (1792–1867), via the Tate Gallery and Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

Tom Pinch Goes Up to London by Charles Dickens

Tom Pinch, who has seen at last what kind of man his apprentice-master Seth Pecksniff is, leaves Salisbury to seek a new life in London.

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510

Justus Sustermans (1597–1681), via the Wellcome Trust and Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

Social Intolerance by John Stuart Mill

Even where freedom of speech and conscience are not curtailed by law, there is another kind of censorship that is just as destructive to progress.

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© Nicholas Armitage / Clay Lane, 2025

April 29 NS

April 16 OS

A Literary Mystery : In 1798, ‘Plays on the Passions’ appeared in London bookstores, but no one seemed to know who had written them.
Smile : Choose adjectives of praise for these nouns, at about the 7/10 level.
The Making of Mark : St Mark wrote his Gospel as a summary of the preaching of St Peter.
Zheng He and the Rise of Malacca : Malacca became a refuge from the overbearing empires of the Far East, thanks to a celebrated Chinese admiral.
Confusables : Compose sentences to bring out the similarities and differences between these words.
Jill and I : Include yourself in these sentences about Jill.
Saddled : Use these words in sentences, and see if you can use one of them as a verb.
Russia’s Heroic Stand : In 1941, with much of the West subdued, Adolf Hitler bent the full force of his hatred on Moscow.
Approachable : Replace the verb ‘can’ with these alternatives, and explain how the meaning of the sentence has changed.
The First Easter : In a translation from the Authorized Version of the Bible, published in 1611, St Mark recounts the discovery of Christ’s empty tomb.
A Collect for Easter Day : A short prayer from the Book of Common Prayer, for the day of Christ’s resurrection.
The Gambler : Which well-known expression is Dr Johnson talking about here?
If I Had But Two Little Wings : Samuel Taylor Coleridge holds on to those precious moments when loneliness is a problem for tomorrow.
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