Posts filed under “Books”
No State shall pass any Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts
To protect everyone’s contracts seems like an act of fairness of equal treatment, until one considers that contracts made between rich and poor, between employer and employee, landlord and tenant, creditor and debtor, generally favor the more powerful of the two parties. Thus to protect these contracts is to put the great power of the […]
An alternative constitution
The Privates Committee drew up a bill of rights for the convention, including the statement that “an enormous proportion of property vested in a few individuals is dangerous to the rights, and destructive of the common happiness, of mankind; and therefore every free state hath a right by its laws to discourage the possession of […]
Moving in
she suffered from the personality of the house, the punishment of those who collect their lives together. Unconsciously at first, she went about disturbing nothing, then she became aware that her soft and careful movements were the outcome of an unreasoning fear—if she disarranged anything, Robin might become confused—might lose the scent of home. From […]
Why don’t we write papers like this anymore?
this aqueous vapour is a blanket more necessary to the vegetable life of England than clothing is to man. Remove for a single summer-night the aqueous vapour from the air which overspreads this country, and you would assuredly destroy every plant capable of being destroyed by a freezing temperature. The warmth of our fields and […]
In support of museums
It is easy to forget that natural history museums are dynamic entities preserving not only the spectacular dinosaur skeletons adorning the magnificent display halls, but also preserving and cataloguing the dramatic story of how plants evolved. From The Emerald Planet by David Beerling
Confessions
“Some people,” he said, “take off headfirst into any body of water and six glasses later someone in Haarlem gets typhoid from drinking their misery. God, take my hand and get me up out of this great argument—the more you go against your nature, the more you will know of it—hear me, Heaven! I’ve done […]
The new retirement plan is the old retirement plan
Like all the new young his sole provision for old age is hope of an early death. From Nightwood by Djuna Barnes