Peter Pan and Wendy – CHAPTER VIII The Mermaid’s Lagoon

“The most haunting time at which to see the mermaids is at the turn of the moon, when they utter strange wailing cries; but the lagoon is dangerous for mortals then, and until the evening of which we have now to tell, Wendy had never seen the lagoon by moonlight, less from fear, for of course Peter would have accompanied her, than because she had strict rules about every one being in bed by seven.”

Vernon Kellogg (foreword by Theodore Roosevelt) “Headquarters Nights: A Record of Conversations and Experiences at the Headquarters of the German Army in France and Belgium” Atlantic Monthly Press, Boston, 1917.

“WHEN YOUR ARMIES ARE MOVING SWIFTLY AND GLORIOUSLY FORWARD under the banners of sweetness and light, to carry the proper civilization to an improperly educated and improperly thinking world, it is easier to make declarations of what is going to happen, and why it is, than when your armies are struggling for life with their backs to the wall – of a French village they have shot and burned to ruin for a reason that does not seem so good a reason now.”

Page 89 of “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley, 1823.

“FRANKENSTEIN, YOUR SON, YOUR KINSMAN, your early, much-loved friend; he who would spend each vital drop of blood for your sakes – who has no thought nor sense of joy, except as it is mirrored also in your dear countenances – who would fill the air with blessings, and spend his life in serving you – he bids you weep – to shed countless tears; happy beyond his hopes, if thus inexorable fate be satisfied, and if the destruction pause before the peace of the grave have succeeded to your sad torments!”