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Novel [Science-Fiction]

“No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth

century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by

intelligences greater than man’s and yet as mortal as his own; that as

men busied themselves about their various concerns they were

scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a

microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm and

multiply in a drop of water. With infinite complacency men went to and

fro over this globe about their little affairs, serene in their

assurance of their empire over matter…”

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“When at the first I took my pen in hand

Thus for to write, I did not understand

That I at all should make a little book

In such a mode; nay, I had undertook

To make another; which, when almost done,

Before I was aware, I this begun.

 And thus it was:  I, writing of the way

And race of saints, in this our gospel day,

Fell suddenly into an allegory

About their journey, and the way to glory,

In more than twenty things which I set down.

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  “FIRST CITIZEN. Before we proceed any further, hear me speak.

  ALL. Speak, speak.

  FIRST CITIZEN. YOU are all resolv’d rather to die than to famish?

  ALL. Resolv’d, resolv’d.

  FIRST CITIZEN. First, you know Caius Marcius is chief enemy to the

    people.

  ALL. We know’t, we know’t.

  FIRST CITIZEN. Let us kill him, and we’ll have corn at our own

    price. Is’t a verdict?

  ALL. No more talking on’t; let it be done. Away, away!

  SECOND CITIZEN. One word, good citizens.

  FIRST CITIZEN. We are accounted poor citizens, the patricians good.

    What authority surfeits on would relieve us; if they would yield

    us but the superfluity while it were wholesome, we might guess

    they relieved us humanely; but they think we are too dear…”

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“DUKE. Escalus!

 ESCALUS. My lord.

 DUKE. Of government the properties to unfold

    Would seem in me t’ affect speech and discourse,

    Since I am put to know that your own science

    Exceeds, in that, the lists of all advice

    My strength can give you; then no more remains

    But that to your sufficiency- as your worth is able-

    And let them work. The nature of our people,

    Our city’s institutions, and the terms

    For common justice, y’are as pregnant in

    As art and practice hath enriched any

    That we remember. There is our commission,

    From which we would not have you warp. Call hither,

    I say, bid come before us, Angelo.        

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“KING. Let fame, that all hunt after in their lives,

    Live regist’red upon our brazen tombs,

    And then grace us in the disgrace of death;

    When, spite of cormorant devouring Time,

    Th’ endeavour of this present breath may buy

    That honour which shall bate his scythe’s keen edge,

    And make us heirs of all eternity.

    Therefore, brave conquerors- for so you are

    That war against your own affections

    And the huge army of the world’s desires-

    Our late edict shall strongly stand in force:

    Navarre shall be the wonder of the world;

    Our court shall be a little Academe,

    Still and contemplative in living art…”

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“VALENTINE. Cease to persuade, my loving Proteus:

    Home-keeping youth have ever homely wits.

    Were’t not affection chains thy tender days

    To the sweet glances of thy honour’d love,

    I rather would entreat thy company

    To see the wonders of the world abroad,

    Than, living dully sluggardiz’d at home,

    Wear out thy youth with shapeless idleness.

    But since thou lov’st, love still, and thrive therein,

    Even as I would, when I to love begin.

  PROTEUS. Wilt thou be gone? Sweet Valentine, adieu!

    Think on thy Proteus, when thou haply seest

    Some rare noteworthy object in thy travel…”

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“SERAP. Portents and prodigies have grown so frequent,

      That they have lost their name. Our fruitful Nile

      Flowed ere the wonted season, with a torrent

      So unexpected, and so wondrous fierce,

      That the wild deluge overtook the haste

      Even of the hinds that watched it: Men and beasts

      Were borne above the tops of trees, that grew

      On the utmost margin of the water-mark.

      Then, with so swift an ebb that flood drove backward,

      It slipt from underneath the scaly herd:

      Here monstrous phocae: panted on the shore;

      Forsaken dolphins there with their broad tails,

      Lay lashing the departing waves: hard by them,

      Sea horses floundering in the slimy mud,

      Tossed up their heads, and dashed the ooze about them…”

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“YE who read are still among the living; but I who write shall have

long since gone my way into the region of shadows. For indeed

strange things shall happen, and secret things be known, and many

centuries shall pass away, ere these memorials be seen of men. And,

when seen, there will be some to disbelieve, and some to doubt, and

yet a few who will find much to ponder upon in the characters here

graven with a stylus of iron…”