Extracts from Literature
Posts in The Copybook tagged ‘Extracts from Literature’
Stamford Raffles, Lieutenant-Governor of Java, urged London to bypass our European partners and trade directly with Japan.
On February 13, 1814, Stamford Raffles (1781-1826) in Java wrote to Lord Minto, former Governor-General of India, urging London to pursue a more vigorous trade policy with Japan. Previous trade links had employed Dutch agents, but Raffles believed that Britain would do better by trading directly rather than through European partners.
A. A. Milne warns that marketing cricket to people who don’t like the game must not spoil it for those who do.
Even in the days of Jack Hobbs and Wilfred Rhodes people were talking about the need to ‘brighten up’ the game of cricket, much as they do today. Writing shortly after the end of the Great War, ardent cricket fan A. A. Milne (of Winnie-the-Pooh fame) just wanted his beloved game back.
From the grateful solitude of his library in the Dordogne, Michel de Montaigne reflects on the companionship of his cat.
In 1571, aged 38, busy lawyer and courtier Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) retired to the library of his residence in the Dordogne and began writing essays on a wide range of subjects. His solitude was dear to him and his wife Françoise and daughter Léonore let him have it; but he did not spend it entirely alone.
A good knowledge of history is essential if we are to understand words such as liberty and democracy.
In his introduction to a series of studies on world history, John Buchan (1875-1940) recalled that the great historian Lord Acton had uncovered as many as two hundred definitions of ‘liberty.’ A study of history, said Buchan, is the only way to untangle these various definitions — as it is for other catchwords of our own day such as ‘democracy’ and ‘populism.’
Harald Hardrada made sure that his fate was never out of his own hands.
For a time, exiled Norwegian prince Harald Hardrada captained the Varangian Guard, Scandinavians in the service of the Roman Emperor. In 1038, he helped General Giorgios Maniakis win back Sicily from the Arabs, yet it annoyed Giorgios that Harald’s men always picked the best places to camp, and the matter nearly came to blows.
Ethel Smyth encouraged writers to try to find their own words before deciding to borrow someone else’s.
In her book of essays ‘Streaks of Life’, composer Dame Ethel Smyth (rhymes with Forsyth) was unusually severe on the Quotation Freak, the writer who borrows phrases from more famous authors simply to save himself the trouble of turning his own.