July 2010
269 posts
The Project Gutenberg Project: He extended his hand; it seemed to meet something in mid-air, and he... →
projectgutenberg.tumblr.com
He extended his hand; it seemed to meet something in mid-air, and he drew it back with a sharp exclamation. “I wish you’d keep your fingers out of my eye,” said the aerial voice, in a tone of savage expostulation. “The fact is, I’m all here—head, hands, legs, and all the rest of it, but it happens I’m invisible. It’s a confounded nuisance, but I am. That’s no reason why I should be poked to pieces by every stupid bumpkin in Iping, is it?”
- H.G. Wells, The Invisible Man (1897)
All too often.
A philosopher has noted that at certain periods a great many stupid people have a good deal of stupid money. This condition, describable as plethora, is succeeded by another catalogued as panic.
- Edgar Saltus, The Perfume of Eros: A Fifth Avenue Incident (1905) [full text]