The Copybook

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

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1015

© noa hen, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

Moses and the Twelve Spies by Clay Lane

Spies are sent out to scout the Promised Land, but their report shows that Israel is not yet ready to inherit it.

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1016

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

The Kiss of the Eternal by Clay Lane

Moses is allowed to look upon the Promised Land for the first and last time.

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1017

© Adergham2017, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.

Stone Tablets and a Golden Calf

Even as Moses is in the presence of God receiving the Ten Commandments, the people down below are already breaking the first of them.

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1018

From the Kaufmann Haggadah (14th century), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

Moses and the Burning Bush by Clay Lane

A reluctant Moses is sent back to Egypt on a delicate diplomatic mission.

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1019

By John Martin (1789-1854), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

Hailstones and Coals of Fire

Moses asks Pharaoh to let the Israelites go, but every wonder God performs only makes Pharaoh more obstructive.

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1020

By Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1836-1912), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

‘I Will See Thy Face Again No More’ by Clay Lane

Pharaoh dismisses Moses’s embassy for the last time, and Moses prepares the Israelites for a hasty departure.

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Clay Lane The Copybook
About Clay Lane nicholas@claylane.uk

© Nicholas Armitage / Clay Lane, 2025

May 19 NS

May 6 OS

Blind Guide : William Wirt recalls an overpowering sermon from a blind man in a little wooden chapel.
It’s All in the Delivery : Aeschines paid tribute to the oratory of his greatest rival — whether he meant to or not.
The Road to Ruin : George Berkeley warned that industry, not financial speculation, was the guarantee of a nation’s wealth.
Signs of Command : Suggest publicly-displayed commands, and say how many of them are sentences.
My Native Notes : Scotsman James Boswell always spoke good English when in England, but he was careful to leave a little Scots in.
Hidden Message : Reveal the hidden message in a letter, and write a coded letter of your own.
The Great and the Good : Daniel Defoe wondered whether goodness was not preferable to greatness.
Statements, Questions and Commands : Choose a word from our list, and then use it in any one of the three basic types of sentence — if possible.
Sentegrams : These sentences, taken from English literature, have been jumbled up like an anagram; see if you can piece them back together.
Good Sense : Rewrite these sentences so that the word ‘unless’ is not used.
The Coronation of Anne Boleyn : The weight of the crown that Anne Boleyn wore proved too heavy to bear.
Abstract : Use these words in sentences as a Noun, Verb or Adjective.
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