Short passages for reading, drawn from history, legend, poetry and fiction.
© Hoshidoshi, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain image.
The wise old philosopher had learnt that popular entertainments rot the soul.
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© Hugh Chappell, Geograph. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.
Suetonius Paulinus, Governor of Britain, hoped to enhance his reputation.
© Derek Voller, Geograph. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.
Richard Crashaw offers the hope of eternity for wedded love.
By Underworld74, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Attribution only.
Orpheus would lose his beloved wife Eurydice to death not once, but twice.
© Dwight Sipler, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.
(That’s cat-tails, obviously.) And who ever said cats were unpredictable?
From Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
The extraordinary productivity and social mobility of the Victorian era is to the credit not of the governing class, but of the working man.