Amer

“ All these enemies attacked Amer while he was busy about his work, and often he found when he was doing his utmost to break the chains of some poor slave, he would receive a blow from an unseen hand, and it was only by crying to his King fur help that he was able to overcome. ”

“ And lo, thou art here to-day in the midst of these thy great ones.
And I one man alone. Yet if thou stand in- debted,
Take thy due of the lion's blood and all that are with thee.
Now is their time to strike. Let none hold back to spare me."
But Fadel the Agheyli spoke, and thus aloud he addressed him,
" Welcome to thee, O prince, O thou the right arm of Amer."
And he rose up and embraced him and made him sit at his right hand.
And Abu Zeyd made known the hiding-place of the grey mare.
And the Arabs pressed around, and the poets sang of his praises. ”

“ His ankle was so sprained that he could not lift himself up, and Amer made a movement as if to go to his aid. But Self plucked him by the sleeve, saying,
"It is almost a pity that you should take the trouble to help him, he is old enough to take care of himself, and should have known better than to have tripped. You have your own business to attend to; besides while you are in Achshaph I want you to see all that is to be seen and to enjoy yourself. ”

“ Then his fellow-workers would quite unconsciously be used of the enemy to tempt him.
For these friends sometimes surprised him. Although called by their King to do this work some of them seemed to look upon it rather lightly. They did not apparently feel bound to do it with all their might, neither did they seem to understand Amer's zeal and earnestness.
"We cannot all work like you," they would say to him, "it would be foolish on our part if we did. We should soon break up and not be able to work at all. We really think you tire yourself out with your efforts, and they are often in vain." ”

“ Nay, but send with me one who shall charge himself with my affairs." And he sent with her Abul Komsan. And Abul Komsan went with Ghanimeh. And they had not journeyed seven days when they met with the tribe of En Naaman. And Abul Komsan went unto Naaman and said to him: "Saith my lord Abu Zeyd to thee, let Amer espouse thy daughter, for behold, the mare thou didst require of him my lord hath obtained her for thee." But when Naaman heard that, he said, " Take the mare and return to thy Lord and say he will not listen to thy words, neither will he follow thy counsel." ”

“ Amery and his little friends and their antagonists as they crawl about their game on the floor of the world.
But if I can see Mr. Amery, not as a black devotee of blood-lust but as an innocent perennial juvenile, then I am bound if I can to see the same thing in France. Those people over there who are opening new boxes of African soldiers and setting them down in Germany, and who are so secret and busy with their submarines, are probably just such innocents as Mr. Amery—just as solemnly fifteen. They have not yet learnt to see the world in terms of life. ”

“ Amery has remained fifteen through and through, large parts of me have gone on growing older. This older section of me can see men as something more than lead soldiers, and realise war in terms of spilled human life and utter waste and as a stupid massacre of boys and young men. Even that war-game we used to play in our barn left the floor in a weary-looking muddle, and was a bore to put away. But the highest expression of Mr. Amery’s being is, I perceive, to play soldiers and battleships with mankind. ”

“ John Robinson, the Pilgrims' minister, who was to have come to America the next spring but who died before his eyes could be gladdened by the sight, was educated at Emanuel. To our disgrace be it said, his dust to-day moulders in the soil of Holland, without so much as a plain slab to tell of his resting-place; and only as the guide in the church informs one, in reply to a request to be pointed to the spot, is the resting-place of the great departed ever seen. ”

“ The residence of the Plymouth settlers in the Netherlands, and the later conquest of the Dutch colonies, had brought the Americans into contact with the singularly wise and free institutions of the Dutch. ”

“ A formidable foreign rival held a valuable commercial settlement between the northern and southern colonies, for the Dutch possessed in New Amsterdam the very best harbour along the coast. By the reign of Charles II. the hatred of the Dutch had become a passion amongst Englishmen, and it had not only been fostered by the Cromwellian war, but by trade-jealousy both in the East and in the West. In America the rising colonies of New England, in particular, looked with greedy eyes upon the splendid waterway of the River Hudson, which was the finest route for Indian trade. ”

“ We have very pretty Dutch gardens, so called, in America, but their chief claim to being Dutch is that they are set with bulbs, and have Delft or other earthen pots or boxes for formal plants or shrubs. ”

“ The whole series embraces successive events by which the North American continent was wrested by Englishmen from Spanish, Dutch, and French domination. Considering all that followed from the peaceful capitulation of New Amsterdam in 1664, it was one of the most far-reaching events in American history. ”

“ At this time, there were a few steamers going up and down the Mississippi and the boys came home by one of them. It was a wonderful trip for these boys, Abraham was at this time, a remarkably strong young man. He grew to be six feet four inches tall, and could lift far more than any ordinary man, and could strike a heavier blow with a maul and sink an ax deeper into the wood than almost any other man. He got eight dollars a month and his board as pay for his hard trip to New Orleans. ”

“ So far, one may be tempted to say, no very unusual faith was required. Many a poor girl has followed a weakly brother or a dissipated father to Australia or the wild west of America; many a lad has gone to the deadly west coast of Africa with no such prospects as Abraham. For Abraham had the double prospect which makes migration desirable. Assure the colonist that he will find land and have strong sons to till and hold and leave it to, and you give him all the motive he requires. These were the promises made to Abraham—a land and a seed. ”

“ The corn and vegetables they planted came up, and Abraham had a little time to read again.
He had a new book, now, that a neighbor had let him take. It was the story of a boy who had, also, in his little boy days, an axe like Abraham's; but he had used it to cut down his father's cherry tree. When he had grown to be a man, though, he was our Great American. Abraham took this book, the Life of George Washington, to bed with him and read it when the snow was sifting in through [200] the cabin roof and over his quilt. He read the book many times.
"What are you going to be when you grow up?" ”

“ These settlers were looking for economic opportunities more favorable than could be found in the older sections of the country and, regardless of their diverse national origins—German, English, Irish, Dutch, Scotch, Scandinavian, French and Italian—they were already Americans in their general outlook, habits and ambitions. ”

“ It became a colonizing power in three parts of the world. ♦Colonies of the Netherlands.♦ In the course of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the Seven Provinces extended their dominion over many points on the continent of India and over the neighbouring island of Ceylon, over the great equatorial islands of Java, Sumatra, and the Moluccas, over many points in Guinea and southern Africa, and over part of Guiana in South America. ♦New Netherland passes to England. 1664.♦ But the great North American settlement of New Netherland passed to England, and New Amsterdam became New York. ”

“ Franz and Emil are jolly little lads, quite after my own heart, for the mixture of German and American spirit in them produces a constant state of effervescence. ”

“ Arthur, President of the United States of America, have caused the said Treaty to be made public to the end that the same and every article and clause thereof may be observed and fulfilled with good faith by the United States and the citizens thereof. ”

“ The German intellect wants the French sprightliness, the fine practical understanding of the English, and the American adventure; but it has a certain probity, which never rests in a superficial performance, but asks steadily, To what end? A German public asks for a controlling sincerity. ”

“ Up to our own day American history has been in a large degree the history of the colonization of the Great West. The existence of an area of free land, its continuous recession, and the advance of American settlement westward, explain American development. ”

“ The first and most natural way of lighting the houses of the American colonists, both in the North and South, was by the pine-knots of the fat pitch-pine, which, of course, were found everywhere in the greatest plenty in the forests. ”

“ (We therefore the representatives of the United States of America in General Congress assembled, appealing to the supreme judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do in the name, and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states; ”

“ 'It's a complex fate, being an American,' he writes, early in 1872, 'and one of the responsibilities it entails is fighting against a superstitious valuation of Europe.' It was still as a tourist and a pilgrim only that he crossed the Atlantic again, with his sister and aunt (Miss Katharine Walsh) , in May 1872. ”

“ Quoth the Amir, ‘May God have no mercy on thy soul! Indeed, there was enough in these treasures, and covetise assuredly dishonoureth a man.’ Then he bade admit the troops; so they entered and loaded the camels with the treasures; after which they went forth the city and the Amir let shut the gate as before.
They fared on along the sea-shore a whole month, till they came in sight of a high mountain, overlooking the sea and full of caves, wherein dwelt a tribe of blacks, speaking an unknown tongue and clad in skins, with hooded cloaks of the same on their heads. ”

“ Abram beheld all the land toward the south, and saw the beauty thereof, and found it like as our Lord told him. But he had not been long in the land but that there fell great hunger therein, wherefore he left that country and went into Egypt and took with him Sara his wife. And as they went by the way Abram said to his wife: I fear and dread sore that when we come to this people, which be lawless, that they shall take thee for thy beauty and slay me, because they would use thee. Wherefore say thou art my sister, and I thy brother, and she agreed thereto. ”

“ And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying, As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and [17] thou shalt be a father of many nations. Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee. And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee. And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. ”

“ Favoured by a fine south wind, whose balmy freshness had awakened the young spring into early life and beauty, they shot like an arrow from a bow through the Narrows, and sailing along the heights of Staaten Island, came in sight of the illustrious city of New-Amsterdam, which, though at that period containing but a few hundred people, I shall venture to predict, in some future time, may actually number its tens of thousands. ”

“ Abram was very rich, and had a numerous family, was now unsettled, and in the midst of enemies; and yet, wherever he pitched his tent, he built an altar: wherever we go, let us not fail to take our religion along with us.
10. And there was a famine in the land: and Abram went down into Egypt, to sojourn there; for the famine was grievous in the land. 11. And it came to pass, when he was come near to enter into Egypt, that he said unto Sarai his wife. Behold now, I know that thou art a fair woman to look upon: 12. ”

“ Abram did not remain here, but journeyed to the south, and when a famine came, he entered Egypt. Afterwards he returned to the southern part of Canaan, and still later he returned "unto the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai. * * * And Lot also, who went with Abram, had flocks, and herds, and tents." On account of some discord between the herdsmen of the two parties, "Abram said unto Lot, Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herdsmen and thy herdsmen; for we are brethren." ”

“ Where the name of Slave and Sultán scarce is known,
And pity Sultán Máhmúd on his Throne.
Here with a Loaf of Bread beneath the Bough,
A Flask of Wine, a Book of Verse—and Thou
Beside me singing in the Wilderness—
And Wilderness is Paradise enow!
[Pg 8]
And in the lines of Omar:—
In a thousand places on the road I walk, thou placest snares.
Thou sayest: “I will catch thee if thou steppeth into them,”
In no smallest thing is the world independent of thee,
Thou orderest all things—and callest me rebellious! ”

“ Through this crowd, self-absorbed as usual—with them—not one of them—Eugene Aram slowly wound his uncompanioned way. What an incalculable field of dread and sombre contemplation is opened to every man who, with his heart disengaged from himself, and his eyes accustomed to the sharp observance of his tribe, walks through the streets of a great city! What a world of dark and troublous secrets in the breast of every one who hurries by you! ”