The Copybook

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

505

By Winslow Homer (1836-1910), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

The Wind and the Sun by Clay Lane

The Wind and the Sun compete to see which of them can make an unsuspecting traveller shed his cloak.

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506

© Bradley Wurth, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

Losing Steam by John Stuart Mill

Those in Power may imagine that a docile and compliant public makes Government run more smoothly, but a society of that kind just won’t move forward.

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507

By James Pollard (1792–1867), via the Tate Gallery and Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

Tom Pinch Goes Up to London by Charles Dickens

Tom Pinch, who has seen at last what kind of man his apprentice-master Seth Pecksniff is, leaves Salisbury to seek a new life in London.

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508

Justus Sustermans (1597–1681), via the Wellcome Trust and Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

Social Intolerance by John Stuart Mill

Even where freedom of speech and conscience are not curtailed by law, there is another kind of censorship that is just as destructive to progress.

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509

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

Three Aspects of Liberty by John Stuart Mill

John Stuart Mill set out three kinds of liberty essential to a truly free society: freedom of conscience, of tastes, and of association.

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510

By Isaac Cruikshank (1764-1811), Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

The Decencies of Debate by John Stuart Mill

Abusive language, straw-man arguments and downright ‘fake news’ should have no place in civilised debate, but censoring them is far worse.

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

© Nicholas Armitage / Clay Lane, 2025

April 24 NS

April 11 OS

Christ is Risen! : Felicia Skene recalls the Easter celebrations on one emotionally-charged night in Athens
Approachable : Replace the verb ‘can’ with these alternatives, and explain how the meaning of the sentence has changed.
The First Easter : In a translation from the Authorized Version of the Bible, published in 1611, St Mark recounts the discovery of Christ’s empty tomb.
A Collect for Easter Day : A short prayer from the Book of Common Prayer, for the day of Christ’s resurrection.
The Gambler : Which well-known expression is Dr Johnson talking about here?
If I Had But Two Little Wings : Samuel Taylor Coleridge holds on to those precious moments when loneliness is a problem for tomorrow.
Red Eye : Reconstruct the speaker’s original words from these reports.
Responsible : Combine each group of ideas into a single sentence, in as many ways as you can.
Opposites : Suggest words that seem opposite in meaning to the words in this list.
Three of a Kind : For each of these things, think of three different varieties of it.
The Son of God Goes Forth to War : A hymn in praise of St Stephen, the first Christian martyr.
Peace Plan : Report this brief exchange between Anna and M. Pierre and Tolstoy’s War and Peace
Metaphors : Choose one of these words and use it metaphorically, not literally.
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