Short passages for reading, drawn from history, legend, poetry and fiction.
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© Lightburst, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.
Odysseus recalls meeting Tantalus and Sisyphus, for whom relief was everlastingly beyond their grasp.
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By Mary Beale (?-1699), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: ? Public domain.
Hours after running away to sea, Robinson Crusoe was sorry he ever left home.
By an anonymous artist, c. 1700-1753, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
A foreign tourist writes home with an account of a day in the life of a typical London gentleman.
By Wilhelm Camphausen (1818–1885), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
Such was the reputation of the Prussian army in the days of the Frederick the Great that even foreigners wanted to join.
By Rock Brothers and Payne (London), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
Richard Cobden wondered how the architects of the British Empire had the nerve to accuse Russia of imperialism.
Via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
American journalist and poet WC Bryant numbered Richard Cobden MP among the world’s statesmen, not our politicians.