Short passages for reading, drawn from history, legend, poetry and fiction.
From the Imperial War Museums Collection, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
A heartfelt plea for humility at the height of Britain’s Empire.
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© Georgi.petrov66, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.
A kind of Aesop’s Fable in verse, about mutual respect among those with different talents.
© Simonchihanga, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 4.0.
Allan Quartermain goes in search of a lost tourist and a legendary hoard of diamonds.
© Yuvral, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.
Elfric, the tenth-century English abbot, suggests a practical way of thinking about the Presentation of Christ in the Temple.
© State of Israel, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.
The story of the once magnificent Temple in Jerusalem, the city God chose for Israel’s capital.
By D. M. Duggan Thacker, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
The invention of the steamboat was a formidable challenge not just of engineering, but of politics and finance.