The Beetle

by Richard Marsh

What a sublime thought to think that in the hollow of your own hand lies the life and death of nations,—and it was almost in mine.

'Can you tell me what were the exact tenets of the worshippers of Isis?' 'Neither I nor any man,—with scientific certainty. As you know, she had a brother; the cult of Osiris and Isis was one and the same. What, precisely, were its dogmas, or its practices, or anything about it, none, now, can tell. The Papyri, hieroglyphics, and so on, which remain are very far from being exhaustive, and our knowledge of those which do remain, is still less so.'

'What all the world knows,—that history will be made by him.'

'There are kinds of history in the making of which one would not desire to be associated.

'Take my advice, don't appreciate any man too highly. In the book of every man's life there is a page which he would wish to keep turned down.'