Short passages for reading, drawn from history, legend, poetry and fiction.
By Eugène Delacroix (1798–1863), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
Simonides always believed that a man with a trade was wealthier than a man with a full purse.
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John Raphael Smith (1752–1812) after George Morland (1763–1804), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
John Wesley wondered how those involved in the slave trade would feel if the tables were ever turned on them.
By Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827), via the British Museum and Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.
Sydney Smith warned ordinary Americans that encouraging the hawks in Washington would cost them more than blood.
By Jebulon, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
The Bishop of Myra’s ceaseless toil to put an end to the worship of Artemis made him some dangerous enemies.
© Aleksandr Zykov, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.
On the annual Remembrance Day of ancient Athens, Pericles rose to remind the people of the City that grief alone was not the best way to honour the fallen.
By W. Fordyce, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
For centuries our coal industry was plagued by regulations and taxes, but a tax imposed in 1667 seemed to have nothing to do with coal at all.