The Copybook

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

1087

© Сайт Новгородской епархии (website of the Eparchy of Velikiy Novgorod). Used with permission.

Filioque Clay Lane

It started as an honest mistake, became a diplomatic standoff, and brought down an Empire.

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1088

By Henry Treffry Dunn (1838-1899), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

The Start of a Beautiful Friendship Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Dr Watson is looking for rooms in London, and an old colleague suggests someone who might be able to help him.

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1089

By William Blake (1757-1827), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

Judicial Iniquity John Stuart Mill

John Stuart Mill reminds us that governments and the courts must never be allowed to criminalise matters of belief or opinion.

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1090

By William Beechey (1753-1839), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 3.0.

The Bashful Young Gentleman Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens sketches for us the shyly ingratiating youth who gets himself in a tangle in the presence of Beauty.

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1091

© Imperial War Museums, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

The Outbreak of the Second World War Clay Lane

The only truly global conflict in history began when German troops crossed into Poland in September 1939.

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1092

© Basher Eyre, Geograph. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.

Abraham Darby I Clay Lane

To the poor of England, the Worcestershire man gave affordable pots and pans, and to all the world he gave the industrial revolution.

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