The Copybook

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

1273

© Marie-Lan Nguyen, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-CA 2.5.

A Pyrrhic Victory Plutarch

The ancient Greek King knew victory had cost his army more than it could afford to lose.

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1274

© Richard Croft, Geograph. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.

The Man Who Left No Footprints Clay Lane

A young monk was rewarded for taking his duties as guest-master seriously.

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1275

Photo by Jensens, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

The Rewards of Treachery Marcus Tullius Cicero

Cicero warns those who seek power through civic unrest that they will never be the beneficiaries of it.

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1276

© Martinvl, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.

How Britain Abolished Slavery Clay Lane

The Church, mother Nature and free markets had almost done for slavery at home when colonies in the New World brought it back.

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1277

From Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

The Obstinacy of Fowell Buxton Clay Lane

Fatherless teenage tearaway Fowell Buxton was not a promising boy, but the Gurney family changed all that.

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1278

From Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

The Battle of Jutland Clay Lane

Preventing the German fleet from breaking out into the Atlantic in 1916 should have felt like victory, but it felt like defeat.

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