The Copybook

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

421

© Sailko, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 3.0.

Vice and Virtue Alexander Pope

Vice is a fact of life, wrote Pope, and God can even bring good out of it; but vice is never a virtue and in tackling vice together we make our society stronger.

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422

By Vasily Polenov (1844–1927), from the Russian Museum via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

The Woman Taken in Adultery The Authorized Version

The Pharisees conspire to put Jesus in a seemingly impossible situation, by inviting him to take sides in the bitter politics of Jew and Roman.

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423

© Laura, Geograph. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.

An Extraordinary Man Benjamin Robert Haydon

Artist Benjamin Robert Haydon laments the passing of Lord Egremont, whose generosity and good judgment reached far beyond his support for struggling artists.

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424

Jean-Baptiste Oudry (1686-1755), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

The Wolf and the Lamb J.B. Rundell

A Wolf finds a series of reasons for making a meal of a little Lamb, but it turns out he did not really need them.

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425

© Sergei Andreichuk, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.

The Squeers Method Charles Dickens

Mr Squeers explains his educational philosophy to his new and bewildered assistant master at Dotheboys Hall in Yorkshire.

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426

Dominic Serres (1722–1793), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

One Man Army Edward Fraser

The fort at Budge Budge near Calcutta proved stubborn against the massed artillery of the East India Company, but a tipsy seaman took it all by himself.

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