The Copybook

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

37

By Gilbert Stuart (1755–1828), via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

Servants of the People Edward Livingston

A US Congressman tells the House why they mustn’t censor the press.

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38

© Sandeep Nanu, Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 4.0.

How the Cobra Got His Spectacles John George Wood

John Wood shares the wonder of the Indian cobra’s hood, in science and in myth.

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39

By Oda Krohg (1860-1935), via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

Naughty Eppie George Eliot

Silas Marner has to harden his heart and teach little Eppie a lesson she will remember.

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40

© Iain MacFadzean, Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 4.0.

A European Fraud Fyodor Dostoevsky

Dostoevsky had to break it to Moscow’s students that ordinary Russians found their brand of politics patronising.

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41

After Thomas Miles Richardson (1784-1848), via the British Museum. © The Trustees of the British Museum, shared under licence CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.

There’s Nae Good Luck in Durham Gaol John Howard

On his visits to Durham Gaol, prison reformer John Howard found conditions that were all too familiar.

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42

By Clara Taggart MacChesney (1860-1928), via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

The Abuse of Literacy William Hazlitt

Reading and writing should have taught the people more than name-calling and how to manipulate opinion.

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