"Commence" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... Great River[141] into a labyrinth of tortuous channels, for twelve miles in breadth from shore to shore: this width gradually decreases as the stream flows on to Prescot, fifty miles below; a short distance beyond that town the rapids commence,[142] and thence to Montreal the navigation is interrupted for vessels of burden; boats, rafts, and small steamers, however, constantly descend these tumultuous waters, and not unfrequently are lost in the ...
— The Conquest of Canada (Vol. 1 of 2) • George Warburton
... every one, "that if I could once get my digestion all right, then the cough would stop of itself. The doctor said—Dr. Nixon, that is—that it was more than half the digestion any way. But just as soon as I eat anything—or if I over-eat a little—then that tickling in my throat begins, and then I commence coughing; and I'm back just where I was. It's the digestion. I oughtn't to have ...
— Henry James, Jr. • William Dean Howells
... o'clock in St. Petersburg), and remain for several minutes at their devotions, occasionally offering a candle to the Virgin or some saint. Now and then it must happen that a speculator for the rise and a speculator for the fall enter the chapel and commence their orisons at the same time. Probably they pray that they may not be ...
— Russia - As Seen and Described by Famous Writers • Various
... alike for the various notes; but names are given to the lines and spaces of the staff; and, alas! the names of these lines and spaces change continually with the change of key or pitch. For example: if we commence a scale with C, our do will be on the first added line below the staff, and its octave, do, on the third space counting from the lowest. If we commence a scale with G, our do will be on the second line from the bottom, and the octave on the first space above the staff; and so on for ...
— Lippincott's Magazine, Vol. 22, August, 1878 • Various
... submitted with great deference, and without the least hesitation, to the Vice Principal; who replied in such a manner as to induce me immediately to ascend the staircase, and commence a reconnaissance among the books placed above the gallery. The result of twenty minutes examination was, if not absolutely of the most gratifying kind, at least sufficient to induce me to offer twenty louis d'or for some thirty ...
— A Bibliographical, Antiquarian and Picturesque Tour in France and Germany, Volume Three • Thomas Frognall Dibdin
... represented that I could make it efficient with a good First Assistant; and the other Assistants were kept. But the establishment was in a queer state. The Royal Warrant under the Sign Manual was sent on August 11th. It was understood that my occupation of office would commence on October 1st, but repairs and alterations of buildings would make it impossible for me to reside at Greenwich before the end of the year. On Oct. 1st I went to the Observatory, and entered formally upon the ...
— Autobiography of Sir George Biddell Airy • George Biddell Airy
... Conde aspire? To constitute himself the head of the nobility against the Court? The nobles thought it harsh to be so treated. To commence another Fronde? To do that, it was necessary to have the parliaments under his thumb; and he had already been compelled to threaten the deputies of that of Aix with the bastinado. Did he look forward to an independent principality, as he later on desired to obtain from the Spaniards? Or ...
— Political Women (Vol. 1 of 2) • Sutherland Menzies
... you make an occasional mistake it won't matter. So, if your mother will give us the use of the sitting-room, I will commence instructions." ...
— Struggling Upward - or Luke Larkin's Luck • Horatio Alger
... entangled in brush and arrested by precipices, and finally, as the day is nearly spent, give up the search and leave the woods quite baffled, but resolved to return on the morrow. The next day we come back and commence operations in an opening in the woods well down on the side of the mountain where we gave up the search. Our box is soon swarming with the eager bees, and they go back toward the summit we have passed. We follow back and establish a new line, where the ground will ...
— The Writings of John Burroughs • John Burroughs
... Mississippi to the lowest number necessary to hold it, and to collect from his command not less than twenty-five thousand men. To this I will add five thousand from Missouri. With this force he is to commence operations against Mobile as soon as he can. It will be impossible for ...
— Memoirs of Three Civil War Generals, Complete • U. S. Grant, W. T. Sherman, P. H. Sheridan
... shouts, and yells that were, by this time, bursting from fifty mouths on every side of him. The guards still maintained their posts at the side of the captives, but it was with that sort of difficulty with which steeds are restrained at the starting-post, when expecting the signal to commence the trial of speed. They tossed their arms wildly in the air, leaping up and down more like exulting children than sober men, and continued to utter the ...
— The Prairie • J. Fenimore Cooper
... Birt, compared many of them to "inverted river-beds" from the fact that, as often as not, they become broader and deeper as they attain a higher level. The branches resemble rivers more frequently than the main channels; for they generally commence as very fine grooves, and, becoming broader and broader, join them at an acute angle. An attempt again has been made to compare the lunar clefts with those vast gorges, the marvellous results of aqueous action, called canyons, which attain their ...
— The Moon - A Full Description and Map of its Principal Physical Features • Thomas Gwyn Elger
... and after a few years at the Grammar School of Herlufholm, he returned to his parents, who were now stationed in their native town, Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland. Niels continued his studies there, and when old enough returned to Denmark to commence his medical work at the ...
— Denmark • M. Pearson Thomson
... be obliged to manoeuvre a little to get her torpedo into place, and thus there was just a chance that he might yet be able to intercept her. In a second he had whirled the wheel hard over and was off along the Peruvian's wake, telling the men to keep a bright look-out for the torpedo, and to commence firing in the ...
— Under the Chilian Flag - A Tale of War between Chili and Peru • Harry Collingwood
... outside in the yard. The teacher of the most interesting class I visited—a class in German literature—was a man of forty-five, of straight, soldierly bearing, a grey, martial moustache, and energetic eye. He told me, as we walked together in the hall, waiting for the exercise to commence, that he had been a soldier, and it so happened that among the ballads in the lesson for that day was one in honour of the Prussian troops at Rossbach. Over this the old soldier broke out into an animated lecture, which grew more and more ...
— The Last Leaf - Observations, during Seventy-Five Years, of Men and Events in America - and Europe • James Kendall Hosmer
... egalement que notre entendement a donne les plus grandes preuves de sa force, parce que les idees qu'il y considere sont du plus haut degre d'abstraction possible dans l'ordre positif. Toute education scientifique qui ne commence point par une telle etude peche donc necessairement ...
— Lay Sermons, Addresses and Reviews • Thomas Henry Huxley
... gardener, named John Robertson, a just but hard man, who lived at Parkhill, Polmont. The toil was severe and the food scanty. Often in the bitter cold of a Scottish winter the lads employed were required to commence work at four o'clock in the morning, and had to hammer their knuckles against the handles of their spades to try and bring some feeling into them. Here he remained ...
— Robert Moffat - The Missionary Hero of Kuruman • David J. Deane
... You might put on your hat, and be round at his office in five minutes. You are on the point of starting when the telephone catches your eye. You think you will ring him up to make sure he is in. You commence by ringing up some half-dozen times before anybody takes any notice of you whatever. You are burning with indignation at this neglect, and have left the instrument to sit down and pen a stinging letter of complaint to the Company when the ring-back re-calls you. You seize ...
— The Second Thoughts of An Idle Fellow • Jerome K. Jerome
... that the first portions of the acid are due to a combination of the carbon of the ferment with the oxygen of the sugar, and that it is by carrying off a portion of oxygen from the last that the ferment causes the fermentation to commence—the equilibrium between the principles of the sugar being disturbed, they combine afresh to form carbonic acid ...
— Critiques and Addresses • Thomas Henry Huxley
... kitharas, and chorus, and mentions its deliciously sweet effect. It was also used as a pitch-pipe, to give orators a guide in modulating their voices when addressing an assembly: thus Caius Gracchus always on such occasions had a slave behind him, whose duty it was to aid him to commence his orations in a proper pitch, and when his voice sank too low, or became too shrill, to call him to a better intonation by the sounds ...
— Music and Some Highly Musical People • James M. Trotter
... their vanity in the very manner in which they affected humility. She at once accepted Dumiger, though some months elapsed before it was possible for them to marry. At last, by dint of great exertion, they laid aside sufficient money to commence the world with. Dumiger had the small apartment, within whose narrow limits his mind expanded to the contemplation of the vast field of inquiry on which he presumed to enter, and he transported Marguerite to her new home; there to indulge in imaginations of love, boundless and ...
— International Weekly Miscellany, Vol. 1, No. 2, July 8, 1850 • Various
... the sweat of effort dripped from them; but they toiled upward, with tense faces and aching limbs. The cache could not be very far away, and they realized that if once they lay down they might never commence the ...
— The Gold Trail • Harold Bindloss
... family had not yet retired, it would not be safe to commence operations for some hours. The stale, commonplace method of tying the sheets and blankets together, and thus forming a rope by which he could descend to the ground, occurred to him; but he had not much confidence in the project. He lay quietly on the bed till he heard ...
— The Soldier Boy; or, Tom Somers in the Army - A Story of the Great Rebellion • Oliver Optic
... Cheenick," said Her Ladyship, "will you be so kind as to assist Miss Mary in the selection of suitable shades of silk for this piece of embroidery. You will accompany her to-morrow after luncheon, as she is anxious to commence." "It is to be hoped that we will meet with success as, judging from the appearance of the stores in this city, there is not much to select from," said Mary Douglas, "but, Miss Cheenick, only think, it will be our first attempt at shopping ...
— Lady Rosamond's Secret - A Romance of Fredericton • Rebecca Agatha Armour
... to describe in generic terms, and to throw back behind this balustrade, out of our way. The front of the balustrade presents us with a totally different condition of design, less rich, more graceful, and here shown in its simplest possible form. From the outside of this bar of marble we shall commence our progress in the study of existing Venetian architecture. The only question is, do we begin from the tenth ...
— The Stones of Venice, Volume II (of 3) • John Ruskin
... all his virtues, was not a man of delicate feeling; and after having made his morning salutations in the warden's drawing-room, he did not scruple to commence an attack on "pestilent" John Bold in the presence of Miss Harding, though he rightly guessed that that lady was not indifferent to ...
— The Warden • Anthony Trollope
... in Article 1, Section 8, is that 'to declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and to make rules concerning captures on land and water.' This certainly means nothing more than the power to commence and carry on hostilities against the foreign enemies of the nation. Another clause in the same section gives Congress the power 'to provide for calling forth the militia,' and to use them within the limits of the State. But this power is so restricted by the words which ...
— Twenty Years of Congress, Vol. 1 (of 2) • James Gillespie Blaine
... receiving their resignations. After again endeavouring in vain to form an administration through the means of Lord Granville and Lord Bath, the King was obliged to consent to the demands of his ministers-and here may be said to commence the leaden rule of the Pelhams, which continued to influence the councils of this country, more or less, for so many years. Pitt took the inferior, but lucrative office of paymaster; and from this time no material change took place till ...
— The Letters of Horace Walpole, Volume 1 • Horace Walpole
... of smoke rose and before the savages could commence their dancing and preliminary tortures, Ericus Dale threw back his head and ...
— A Virginia Scout • Hugh Pendexter
... position as to be readily accessible for the great number of wounded we expected. Meantime, after making all arrangements for the move and ascertaining that each man knew his job exactly, we sat about for a while. The bombardment was to commence at 5 p.m. Precisely at that hour the Bacchante opened fire, the howitzers and our field guns co-operating, the Turks making a hearty response. The din was frightful. To make a man sitting beside me hear what I was saying, I had to shout at the top of my voice. However, there were not many men ...
— Five Months at Anzac • Joseph Lievesley Beeston
... double row of desks, with a clear space down the middle between the rows. Each scholar was hurrying to his place at one of the desks, where, as he arrived, he stood. The master already stood in solemn posture at the nearer end of the room on a platform behind his desk, prepared to commence the extempore prayer, which was printed in a kind of blotted stereotype upon every one of their brains. Annie had hardly succeeded in reaching a vacant place among the girls when he began. The boys were as still ...
— Alec Forbes of Howglen • George MacDonald
... farm buildings to commence work about the time the carter has got his horses fed, groomed, and harnessed, and after the fogger and milker have completed their early duties. If it is a frosty morning and the ground firm, so as to ...
— Hodge and His Masters • Richard Jefferies
... that in his extreme clemency Gian Maria accorded them another half-hour's grace in which to resolve themselves upon their course. Should the end of that time still find them obstinate, the bombardment would commence. Such was the message that in another of his arrow-borne letters Gonzaga had suggested ...
— Love-at-Arms • Raphael Sabatini
... 1869, to Ranee Khet, a new station twenty miles north-west of Almora, to enter on mission work there. Some time previously it had been resolved to open a new mission in the Province, and I had been appointed to commence it. After much consideration Ranee Khet was deemed the most eligible place for the extension of our work. The name means "The Field of the Queen," and was probably given to it in honour of Kalee, as it has on its higher part a small temple sacred ...
— Life and Work in Benares and Kumaon, 1839-1877 • James Kennedy
... he became drowsy. Suddenly he was startled into a very wide-awake state. Through half-closed eyes he had seen Sogrange draw a sheet of paper from his pocket, a gold pencil from his chain, and commence to write. In the middle of a sentence, his eyes were abruptly lifted. He was looking at the Baroness. Peter, too, turned his head; he, also, looked at the Baroness. Without a doubt, she had been watching both of them. Sogrange's pencil continued its task, only he traced ...
— Peter Ruff and the Double Four • E. Phillips Oppenheim
... begin with any Number. When no time is specified, it will be understood that the subscriber desires to commence with the Number issued after ...
— Harper's Young People, August 10, 1880 - An Illustrated Weekly • Various
... lady's-maid at six, his companions are doubtless puzzled to understand. One of them, however, is Beechwood—a very considerably diluted edition of Jerry Bumps in "Turning the Tables"—who determines to revenge this early turn-out by a trick upon the inhospitable host, and goes off to develop it—to commence, ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 1, Complete • Various
... commence a douter tout de ben. Pourtant quand je me tate, et quand je me rappelle, Il me ...
— Tales and Novels, Vol. IV • Maria Edgeworth
... To commence with the strongest position of the attack on the Solomon authorship—necessarily the strongest, for it is directly in the field of verbal criticism—it is argued that because a large number of words are found in this book, found elsewhere ...
— Old Groans and New Songs - Being Meditations on the Book of Ecclesiastes • F. C. Jennings
... reply other than to commence divesting himself of his clothing. Barney followed his example, but not before he had crossed to the door that opened into the main corridor and shot the bolt upon the inside. When both men had removed their clothing Barney pointed to the ...
— The Mad King • Edgar Rice Burroughs
... in these respects, practice is necessary. Commence, for example, with the lowest pitch the voice can comfortably sound, and repeat whole paragraphs and pages upon that key with gentle force. Then repeat the paragraph with increased force, taking care not to raise the pitch. Then rise one note higher, and practice on that, then another, and ...
— McGuffey's Fifth Eclectic Reader • William Holmes McGuffey
... season, they recouped themselves the next. However, it was precisely this living from hand to mouth which exasperated Felicite. She would, by far, have preferred a big failure. They would then, perhaps, have been able to commence life over again, instead of obstinately persisting in their petty business, working themselves to death to gain the bare necessaries of life. During one third of a century they did not save ...
— The Fortune of the Rougons • Emile Zola
... said nothing to her father of her interview with Edward Cossey, and thus it came to pass that on the morning following the lawn tennis party, there was a very serious consultation between the faithful George and his master. It appeared to Ida, who was lying awake in her room, to commence somewhere about daybreak, and it certainly continued with short intervals for refreshment till eleven o'clock in the forenoon. First the Squire explained the whole question to George at great length, and with a most extraordinary multiplicity of detail, for he ...
— Colonel Quaritch, V.C. - A Tale of Country Life • H. Rider Haggard
... a time of suspense and excitement at court-balls; for the lady who was then selected by the king was, de facto, the queen of the festival. The minuet's enticing measure was calling upon its votaries to commence; but, until the king had made his ...
— Prince Eugene and His Times • L. Muhlbach
... limb, et was. Well, old Shep tek dat ellum stick wid one fork in each hand an' de big end straight up in de air an' he holt it tight an' started tuh walk around, wid me followin' right on his heels. An sho' nuff, perty soon ah seed dat branch commence tuh shake an' den et started tuh bend an' old Shep let et lead him across de field wid et bendin' lower all de time tell perty soon de big end uh dat ellum ...
— Slave Narratives: a Folk History of Slavery in the United States, From Interviews with Former Slaves - Virginia Narratives • Works Projects Administration
... underground artillery, a shake, a second shake, and in less than thirty seconds the Nagoya-Gifu plain, covering an area of 1,200 square miles, became a sea of waves, more than 40,000 houses fell, and thousands of people lost their lives. The sequence of events was approximately as follows: To commence at Tokio, the capital, which is some 200 miles from the scene of the disaster, on October 25th, very early in the morning, the inhabitants were alarmed by a long, easy swaying of the ground, and many sought refuge ...
— Complete Story of the San Francisco Horror • Richard Linthicum
... "we are fairly embarked on our journey, and we will commence operations at once. I have heard the cries of a great many birds which are strange to me today, and I expect that we shall have a good harvest. We may remain here for some time. The first thing ...
— By Sheer Pluck - A Tale of the Ashanti War • G. A. Henty
... dangerous. The crafty Northerners placed the lights for going over the bar as usual. The blockade-runners came cautiously on, and congratulating themselves at seeing no cruisers ran gaily into the port. The usual feasting and rejoicings were about to commence when a boat full of armed men came alongside, and astonished them by telling them that they were in the lion's mouth. This happened to four or five vessels before the news had reached the islands. It was ...
— Sketches From My Life - By The Late Admiral Hobart Pasha • Hobart Pasha
... of liberal subscriptions, according to the means of the donors: so that in a short time upwards of L2,000 was raised to commence with. ...
— The Loyalists of America and Their Times, Vol. 2 of 2 - From 1620-1816 • Edgerton Ryerson
... brought down by another orderly. "I thought so," he commented, as he read it hastily and passed it to the other signaler. "It's a message warning the right and left flanks that we can't hold the center any longer, and that they are to commence falling back to conform to our retirement at 3.20 ac emma, which ...
— Action Front • Boyd Cable (Ernest Andrew Ewart)
... their esoteric secrets and customs, is equally unknown. Nor is there any record to tell us whether all the Lodges in and about London were invited to join in the movement. Unfortunately the minutes of the Grand Lodge only commence on June 24, 1723, and our only history of the events is that found in The New Book of Constitutions, by Dr. James Anderson, in 1738. However, if not an actor in the scene, he was in a position to know ...
— The Builders - A Story and Study of Masonry • Joseph Fort Newton
... commence his labours as soon as the Earl thought right; and in the course of three days was fully established as the second private ...
— The King's Highway • G. P. R. James
... undergoing changes, which commence with the earliest dawn of existence and end only with death. The old and worn-out materials are constantly being removed to make room for the new. Growth and development, as well as the elimination of worn-out and useless matter, continually require ...
— The People's Common Sense Medical Adviser in Plain English • R. V. Pierce
... had set the mental machinery in motion, until the decision to go from home in search of an education, had been wrought out; and it was this rising purpose that kept him so patiently at his day's task of finishing up the fall work, that he might commence ...
— The Cabin on the Prairie • C. H. (Charles Henry) Pearson
... long flights of stairs that connected one flat with the other, he thought he would commence at the bottom flight and go to the top, stopping at each flat as he went and picking up anything he saw fit to eat. At the first landing, the cook had just been out to the ice-chest to get something for supper ...
— Billy Whiskers - The Autobiography of a Goat • Frances Trego Montgomery
... could see that the men forward were no longer crouching for shelter under the break of the fo'castle, but were holding on by the shrouds or stays, smoking their pipes, and laughing and joking together. Until the motion abated somewhat, it was clearly impossible to commence the work ...
— Held Fast For England - A Tale of the Siege of Gibraltar (1779-83) • G. A. Henty
... for them because they are too old to commence learning another profession, and they will not get employment under the County Council because they belong to the landlord class and have unflinchingly fought the battles ...
— The Reminiscences of an Irish Land Agent • S.M. Hussey
... were advancing to the attack and to support the Alabama brigade in our front, and which had given way and were stricken with fear, some of the boys of our regiment would laugh at them, and ask what they were running for, and would commence to say "Flicker! flicker! flicker!" like the bird called the yellowhammer, "Flicker! flicker! flicker!" As we advanced, on the edge of the battlefield, we saw a big fat colonel of the 23rd Tennessee regiment badly wounded, whose name, if I remember correctly, ...
— "Co. Aytch" - Maury Grays, First Tennessee Regiment - or, A Side Show of the Big Show • Sam R. Watkins
... To commence a judicial investigation against the participants of the conspiracy of June 28, who are on Serbian territory. Officials, delegated by the Imperial and Royal Government, will participate in ...
— The Story of the Great War, Volume I (of 8) - Introductions; Special Articles; Causes of War; Diplomatic and State Papers • Various
... Suzette," he cried; "I only jested. I meant this morning to search you out and beg you to come back. I would not lose you for France—for the world. Be not rash or retaliatory! become not the companion of this Frenchman who has divided us. We will commence again. I have tested your fidelity. You shall have all the liberty that you need, everything that I have; say to me, sweetheart, that ...
— Bohemian Days - Three American Tales • Geo. Alfred Townsend
... knew as she said the words that the boys were not hiding. They had fallen into the clutches of the oppressor—they had gone. She went slowly now into the deserted room. She was waiting for her breath to return, for her heart to beat easily, to commence her search. Yes: that was the only duty left to her in life—to find the boys and redeem her promise to her mother. She sat down on a chair, and wiped her heated forehead, and gradually made her plans. ...
— A Girl of the People • L. T. Meade
... in tool-sharpening: we can not do much carving with one chisel, so we shall now take up gouge No. 2 as being the least difficult. This being a rounded tool, we must turn the stone over and use the side we have determined to keep for gouges, etc. We commence rubbing it up and down the stone in the same manner as described for the chisel, but, in addition, we have now another motion. To bring all the parts of the edge into contact with the stone the gouge must be rolled from side to side as it ...
— Wood-Carving - Design and Workmanship • George Jack
... which is relatively the longest and narrowest of all mammalia. In the simple walk the neck is stretched out in a line with the back, which gives them an awkward appearance; this is greatly diminished when the animals commence their undulating canter. In the canter the hind-legs are lifted alternately with the fore, and are carried outside of and beyond them, by a kind of swinging movement; when excited to a swifter pace, the hind-legs are often kicked out, and the nostrils are then widely dilated. ...
— Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol. 3, July, 1851 • Various
... Channel Islands, Gibraltar, Malta, Cyprus, West Coast African Colonies, St. Helena, Cape Colonies, Mauritius, Seychelles, Perim, Aden, Ceylon, India, Burmah, Straits Settlements, Labuan, Australian Colonies, Hong Kong, and the Dominion of Canada. In the Western hemisphere commence the circle with Canada and United States, Fiji Islands, New Zealand, Falkland Islands, British Guiana, British Honduras, West India Islands, and Newfoundland. Do we not plainly see that Israel is possessing "the isles of the sea," "coasts of the earth," "waste and desolate places?" ...
— The Lost Ten Tribes, and 1882 • Joseph Wild
... old art expert. M. Levi was accompanied by his partner, a tall, heavily bearded man, who looked like a Russian, and by two other strangers, one an alert-eyed, clean-shaven person in a tweed suit, the other a younger man, evidently Scotch, who carried a little brown bag. These two would commence an inventory, ...
— The Sins of Severac Bablon • Sax Rohmer
... Gypsy, tinker, and postillion, yet, upon the whole, he seems to be quite as happy as the younger sons of most earls, to have as high feelings of honour; and when the reader loses sight of him, he has money in his pocket honestly acquired, to enable him to commence a journey quite as laudable as those which the younger sons of earls generally undertake. Surely all this is a manifestation of the kindness and providence of God: and yet he is not a religious person; ...
— George Borrow - The Man and His Books • Edward Thomas
... the next day, while the mayor rebuilds his roof, her Xavier departs anew for the Aurora Borealis, there to commence his life's work. M. Victor Lavalle tells us of that historic collision (en plane) on the flank of Hecla between Herrera, then a pillar of the Spanish school, and the man destined to confute his theories and lead him intellectually captive. Even through the years, the immense laugh of Lavalle ...
— Actions and Reactions • Rudyard Kipling
... magnet! the flesh over and over! Go, mon cher! if need be, give up all else, and commence to-day to inure yourself to pluck, reality, self-esteem, definiteness, elevatedness, Rest not, till you rivet and publish yourself of your ...
— Whitman - A Study • John Burroughs
... all organic forms, or, in other words, we have analyzed the present condition of animated nature, until we found that each species took its origin in a form similar to that under which all the others commence their existence. We have found the whole of the vast array of living forms, with which we are surrounded, constantly growing, increasing, decaying and disappearing; the animal constantly attracting, modifying, and applying to its sustenance ...
— Lectures and Essays • T.H. Huxley
... regularity; at every fiftieth page —as I fancied —stopping a moment, looking vacantly around him, and giving utterance to a long-drawn gurgling whistle of astonishment. He would then begin again at the next fifty; seeming to commence at number one each time, as though he could not count more than fifty, and it was only by such a large number of fifties being found together, that his astonishment at the multitude of pages was excited. ...
— Moby-Dick • Melville
... less noble. The land question he perceived was but one of many questions. The true source of the disorders of the commonwealth was the Senate itself. The administration of the empire was in the hands of men totally unfit to be trusted with it, and there he thought the reform must commence. He threw himself on the people, he was chosen tribune in 123, ten years exactly after Tiberius. He had studied the disposition of parties. He had seen his brother fall because the Equites and the senators, ...
— Great Men and Famous Women. Vol. 5 of 8 • Various
... this interval when I sat still and only looked on, to make these remarks, because I remember the best friends the king had were at this time of that opinion, that 'twas an unaccountable piece of indiscretion, to commence a quarrel with the Scots, a poor and obstinate people, for a ceremony and book of Church discipline, at a time when the king stood but upon indifferent terms with his ...
— Memoirs of a Cavalier • Daniel Defoe
... day being such a black one, we must all make the most of the few hours that come before it. At nine o'clock of that miserable morning the packing of our lads into the train will commence, but until then they are making merry, bless them! They are true Hungarians, you know! They will dance, and they will sing, they will listen to gipsy music and kiss the girls so long as there is breath in their body, so long as they are free ...
— A Bride of the Plains • Baroness Emmuska Orczy
... in the original a Kukla (dim. Kukolka), a word designating any sort of puppet or other figure representing either man or beast. In a Little-Russian variant[194] of one of those numerous stories, current in all lands, which commence with the escape of the heroine from an incestuous union, a priest insists on marrying his daughter. She goes to her mother's grave and weeps there. Her dead mother "comes out from her grave," and tells her what to do. The girl obtains from her father a rough ...
— Russian Fairy Tales - A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore • W. R. S. Ralston
... You make me tired wiz yer ghosts an' tings. Let's not have no beast foolin'—see? De job is commence: Allons!" ...
— The Strand Magazine, Volume V, Issue 30, June 1893 - An Illustrated Monthly • Various
... brow of a kopje. The guns limber up and jump the railway line—a pretty stiff little obstacle—the narrow gauge metals being on top of a narrow embankment. Then across a level field of veldt, and they commence to ascend a slight depression, which is just behind a shouldering billow of veldt. It is hard work for the artillery horses over this ground, but it is fine the way they tug and strain at their work. The officers urge the men to hurry forward. Already a gun is heard from the Boers. They have ...
— Impressions of a War Correspondent • George Lynch
... deciding on the durability of his poetry. PRIOR congratulates himself that he had not devoted all his days to rhymes. STOCKDALE imagines his fame is to commence at the very point (the tomb) where genius trembles its own ...
— Calamities and Quarrels of Authors • Isaac D'Israeli
... some thoughts of returning?" Trafford wondered; then said aloud, "Well, it shall be as you like. And when will you commence?" ...
— Culm Rock - The Story of a Year: What it Brought and What it Taught • Glance Gaylord
... you must have her at Dayton. She laughs rather vacantly, don't you think? but the sound of it has the proper wholesome ring. I will give her what attention I can while she is here, but in the meantime I must have a bride of my own and commence courting.' ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith
... of soft and gentle methods to recover Arius to the truth, and endeavored to gain him by sweetness and exhortations. Several were offended at his lenity, and Colluthus carried his resentment so far as to commence a schism; but this was soon at an end, and the author of it returned to the Catholic communion. But St. Alexander, finding Arius's party increase, and all his endeavors to reclaim him ineffectual, he summoned him to appear in an assembly of his clergy, where, being ...
— The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Principal Saints - January, February, March • Alban Butler
... I have now commented, having been delivered, the counsel summed up on the 17th of June, when the committee proceeded to fill up the blanks in the bill. Mr. Pitt moved that the operation of it be retrospective, and that it commence from the 10th instant. This was violently opposed by Lord Penrhyn, Mr. Gascoyne, and Mr. Brickdale, but was ...
— The History of the Rise, Progress and Accomplishment of the - Abolition of the African Slave-Trade, by the British Parliament (1839) • Thomas Clarkson
... iron-ore, which in most coal-countries lie from five to seven times alternately stratified over each other, and none of them are soluble in water. Add to this if a solution of them or a mixture of them in water could be supposed, the cause of that solution must cease before a precipitation could commence. ...
— The Botanic Garden - A Poem in Two Parts. Part 1: The Economy of Vegetation • Erasmus Darwin
... wagon to pieces and pack everything ashore—I guess that's our only show," said Frosty. We had just given up my idea of working the scow up along the bar to the bank. We couldn't budge her off the sand, and Pochette warned us that if we did the wind would immediately commence ...
— The Range Dwellers • B. M. Bower
... half of their boundary, but several segments, particularly along the meandering Drina River, remain in dispute; FYROM-Yugoslavia signed and ratified a boundary agreement, which adjusts the former republic boundaries, with demarcation to commence in 2002; ethnic Albanians in Kosovo dispute authority of agreement which cedes small tracts of Kosovo to FYROM; Croatia and Yugoslavia continue to discuss disputed Prevlaka Peninsula and control over the Gulf of Kotor despite imminent UN intention ...
— The 2002 CIA World Factbook • US Government
... plays should commence with a "Midsummer Night's Dream" and end with a "Tempest." In the interval the great sombre passions of our race are sounded and dismissed; but as he began with Titania, so he ends with Ariel. From the fairy forest to the enchanted island; ...
— Visions and Revisions - A Book of Literary Devotions • John Cowper Powys
... his knowing any thing about it. This course of deception is truly hateful in itself, and must be particularly so to her, for she is not a low, or an immoral woman; but one of those who, not having strength enough to complete the sacrifice they have had strength enough to commence, are betrayed into a ...
— Hyperion • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
... the heights enfilading the works of the enemy, and open a brisk cannonade upon them, while a detachment from it should march down to the bridge and attack in front at the same instant that the party descending the river should commence its ...
— Life And Times Of Washington, Volume 2 • John Frederick Schroeder and Benson John Lossing
... stranger took a book down from the shelf, and made Van Systens a sign to commence ...
— The Black Tulip • Alexandre Dumas (Pere)
... avail, for Dinny followed him, getting closer still, with the result that in the course of the next hour Jack was driven right round the fire; and he was just about to commence a second tour when the General came, with Dick, to relieve the watch, and ...
— Off to the Wilds - Being the Adventures of Two Brothers • George Manville Fenn
... it, or to destroy it. The story of it was this:—'My father,' said he, 'was at Hamburgh on business, and, whilst dining at a coffee-house, he observed a young man of a remarkable appearance enter, seat himself alone in a corner, and commence a solitary meal. His countenance bespoke the extreme of mental distress, and every now and then he turned his head quickly round, as if he heard something, then shudder, grow pale, and go on with his meal after an effort as before. My ...
— Specimens of the Table Talk of S.T.Coleridge • Coleridge
... of the Prince of Orange was said to be rapidly approaching the town, in order to commence ...
— The Purcell Papers - Volume III. (of III.) • Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
... to get acquainted. They never meet a rich young man, and they don't want a poor one. It seems to me that a girl who has to commence early to work for her living might just as well give up forever all hopes of a lover and of marrying," declared Nadine Holt, one of the prettiest girls in the immense book-bindery, to the group of companions who were gathered about her. "It's get up at daylight, swallow ...
— Pretty Madcap Dorothy - How She Won a Lover • Laura Jean Libbey
... he said, in a low v'ice to me, says he, 'd'ye see that openin' in the bushes?' 'I do,' says I. 'Well then,' says he, 'it's about ten yards off; be ready to commence firin' when it comes to that openin'.' 'I will,' says I. An', sure enough, when the brown critter came for'id at a walk an' stopped sudden wi' a look o' surprise as if it hadn't expected to see me, bang went my Winchester four times, like winkin', an' up went the deer four times ...
— Charlie to the Rescue • R.M. Ballantyne
... following statement: that if the study of classical poetry inspires you with a distaste for modern poetry, then there is something seriously wrong in the method of your development.) You may at this stage (and not before) commence an inquiry into questions of rhythm, verse-structure, and rhyme. There is, I believe, no good, concise, cheap handbook to English prosody; yet such a manual is greatly needed. The only one with ...
— LITERARY TASTE • ARNOLD BENNETT
... at Easter. Convenience dictated this speed—in other words, Paula resolved to commence the season as Mrs. Dalmaine and in a house of her own. Mr. Dalmaine had pointed out the advantage of using the Easter recess. As there was scarcely time to select and make ready an abode for permanence, it was decided to take a house in Kensington, which friends of ...
— Thyrza • George Gissing
... made it, yet the work must be left to nature. Any efforts to assist or hurry matters will only end in harm. The only cases where interference is justifiable is where her powers are exhausted or some malformation exists or malpresentation occurs. When labor is about to commence, the womb descends into the bottom of the belly and the motions and weight of the child will be felt much lower down than usual. If in a natural position the head will fall to the mouth of the womb and press upon it. This drives forward the membranes which retain the ...
— The Ladies Book of Useful Information - Compiled from many sources • Anonymous
... defeated by his tailor. After that event he interfered little in politics, and lived much in his library. I was the eldest of three sons, and sent at the age of sixteen to the old country, partly to complete my literary education, partly to commence my commercial training in a mercantile firm at Liverpool. My father died shortly after I was twenty-one; and being left well off, and having a taste for travel and adventure, I resigned, for a time, all pursuit of the almighty dollar, ...
— The Coming Race • Edward Bulwer Lytton
... life exceptional, When old things terminate and new commence, A solitary great man's worth the world. God takes the business in his own hand ...
— Making the Most of Life • J. R. Miller
... and permanent. But how often does it occur, that the condition and character of two individuals become completely changed, in a few short years. Suppose a young man to leave a farm, and take up his abode in a city, as a merchant, or to commence a course of study with a view to a liberal profession. The girl, who, as a child, won his affections, has not, as a young woman, improved in her tastes, and character, like himself. His choice of a companion, if now to be made, would fall ...
— The Young Maiden • A. B. (Artemas Bowers) Muzzey
... affairs,—in a word, the empty condition of our treasury. Why should my father occupy himself with business matters and I live in idleness? Once more, I repeat, I am convinced I have sufficient ability to make a position at the bar, and with my father's consent, and yours, grandmother, I propose to commence ...
— Fairy Fingers - A Novel • Anna Cora Mowatt Ritchie
... Epirus. He levied taxes and contributions, provided military stores of every kind, and entered into all the other arrangements required for such an enterprise. These preliminary operations required a considerable time, so that he was not ready to commence his march until the following year. When all was ready, he found that his force consisted of twenty-five thousand foot, two thousand horse, and a troop of twenty-four elephants. He had two sons, neither of whom, it would seem, was old enough to be intrusted with ...
— Pyrrhus - Makers of History • Jacob Abbott
... an' day out. Ed would be out all day loggin', An' I set at home and look at the snow Layin' over everythin'; It 'ud dazzle me blind, Till it warn't white any more, but black as ink. Then the quiet 'ud commence rushin' past my ears Till I most went mad listenin' to it. Many's the time I've dropped a pan on the floor Jest to hear it clatter. I was most frantic when dinner-time come An' Ed was back from the woods. I'd ha' give ...
— Men, Women and Ghosts • Amy Lowell
... three ladies are sitting at the tea-table dispensing tea, one of them will suddenly commence the trio from "Elijah"—"Lift thine eyes"—the other two joining in (singing without an accompaniment, of course) in the most delicious manner. Their voices are so alike in timbre and quality that it is almost impossible to distinguish ...
— The Sunny Side of Diplomatic Life, 1875-1912 • Lillie DeHegermann-Lindencrone
... in the neighbourhood of which we were to encamp for the night. The spot was very different to our camp of last night, for here we were surrounded with trees, and near by a flock of sheep, belonging to the ranch, were feeding. Before the heavier carts could arrive, and the work of tent-erecting commence, there was plenty of time for a cup of tea, with the aid of My Lady's useful basket; but all the water that could be obtained from the so-called "well" at the ranch was half mud, and, though this was used with great success, we could only secure two mouthfuls of tea from ...
— Argentina From A British Point Of View • Various
... work hard night and day, under Matthews. Then, too, Peter had a wife, whom his master prevented him from visiting; this was not among the least offences with which Pete charged his master. Fully bent on leaving, the following Sunday was fixed by him on which to commence his journey. ...
— The Underground Railroad • William Still
... churches and schools and public buildings. It was so inspiring to look at, that we each took one hundred and sixty acres adjoining the town, intending them as an addition to plat and sell to the on-rushers when the boom should commence. ...
— Old Rail Fence Corners - The A. B. C's. of Minnesota History • Various
... sleek, and a color as ruddy as if you were coming in from the fields some lovely spring morning, my fine rustic. That appearance will last barely a day or two, but I expect, by Jupiter, to have you sold by to-morrow evening, free to turn yellow and waste away under your new master. So I am going to commence by stripping you, and anointing you with this preparation of oil." The "horse-dealer" ...
— The Brass Bell - or, The Chariot of Death • Eugene Sue
... will vary, or if uncials be constantly used, the titles will not be smaller than the text. These variations become still greater in the following centuries. The ornaments which relieve the titles of each page commence about the eighth century" (i. ...
— Illuminated Manuscripts • John W. Bradley
... semaine. Je persiste dans ce projet, weather permitting; c'est-a-dire sauf le cas de tempete que l'on est bien force de prevoir avec une pareille saison. A bientot donc, s'il plait a Dieu. Je finis mieux que je ne commence, et je vous serre ...
— Memoirs of the Life and Correspondence of Henry Reeve, C.B., D.C.L. - In Two Volumes. VOL. II. • John Knox Laughton
... The trial will soon commence. The day has fairly broken. The Indians spring to their feet. About one-half of them draw the pickets of their horses, and lead them to the water. They adjust their bridles, pluck up their spears, snatch their bows, shoulder their ...
— The Scalp Hunters • Mayne Reid
... not in the least know how to parry the blows that were aimed at himself, and Cuff had begun the attack on the three preceding occasions without ever allowing his enemy to strike, Figs now determined that he would commence the engagement by a charge on his own part; and, accordingly, being a left-handed man, brought that arm into action, and hit out a couple of times with all his might—once at Mr. Cuff's left eye, and once on his beautiful ...
— Boys and girls from Thackeray • Kate Dickinson Sweetser
... return home. At present I am working for Salomon's concerts, and feel bound to take all possible trouble, for our rivals of the Professional Society have sent for my pupil Pleyel from Strassburg, to direct their concerts. So a bloody harmonious war will now commence between master and scholar. All the newspapers have begun to discuss the subject, but I think an alliance will soon ensue, my reputation here being so firmly established. Pleyel, on his arrival, displayed so much ...
— Haydn • J. Cuthbert Hadden
... said the Earl, after waiting in vain till his dependant should commence the conversation, "men talk of the ...
— Kenilworth • Sir Walter Scott
... "I commence by a piece of information. This morning while you descended the King's staircase on one side, ...
— Serge Panine • Georges Ohnet
... southerly winds blew almost daily. South of 17 degrees, the northerly breeze does not commence to blow before the end of August. It was warm, extremely warm, under the burning tropical sun. The heat bore down like a load upon head and shoulders and enveloped us like a blast from a roaring furnace. About noontide it was ordinarily 120 degrees Fahr. ...
— Khartoum Campaign, 1898 - or the Re-Conquest of the Soudan • Bennet Burleigh
... science can show that there is not now a power to organize experiences in a future state and to become what our faith anticipates we shall be. And this suggests to speculative curiosity the query, Shall we commence our future life, a psychical cell, as we commenced our present life, ...
— The Destiny of the Soul - A Critical History of the Doctrine of a Future Life • William Rounseville Alger
... romance after the manner of Scott is a mere passing fashion in literature,' you will say, and fulminate against the fatal way in which ideas are diluted and beaten thin; cry out against a style within the reach of any intellect, for any one can commence author at small expense in a way of literature, which you can nickname the ...
— A Distinguished Provincial at Paris • Honore de Balzac
... the purest object to my sense, The most refined essence heaven covers, Send I these lines, wherein I do commence The happy state of turtle-billing lovers. If they prove rough, unpolish'd, harsh, and rude, Haste made the waste: ...
— Every Man In His Humor - (The Anglicized Edition) • Ben Jonson
... mature, and are surrounded by mucilage. After this period the sporidia lose their nebulous granulations, whilst still preserving their nucleus; their outlines are distinct, and, amongst the true Ascobolei, commence acquiring a rosy colour, the first intimation of maturity. This colour manifests itself rapidly, accumulating exclusively upon the epispore, which becomes of a deep rose, then violet, and finally violet blue, so deep as sometimes to appear ...
— Fungi: Their Nature and Uses • Mordecai Cubitt Cooke
... us the favour to read "Homeward Bound" will at once perceive that the incidents of this book commence at the point where those of the work just mentioned ceased. We are fully aware of the disadvantage of dividing the interest of a tale in this manner; but in the present instance, the separation has been produced by ...
— Home as Found • James Fenimore Cooper
... language. Smithfield was surrounded with temporary chambers and pavilions, constructed for the accommodation of the King and the princes, the Queen and the maidens of her court; and when the solemnity was about to commence, sixty horses, richly accoutred, were led to the lists by squires, accompanied by heralds and minstrels; after which, sixty ladies followed on palfreys, each lady leading an armed knight by a chain of silver. The first day the games ...
— Memorials of Old London - Volume I • Various
... velocity. At this time his strength was almost gone and he was heart sore that he should fail in his self-imposed task; but felt that he was able to continue on as far as Cremona, about twenty-five miles below. The day grew more dreary and it seemed to him as if it would soon commence to snow. He continued working slowly and stubbornly along, when he was arrested by a cry behind him. Coming upright and wheeling around, he saw a young officer standing in a boat pulled by about twenty pontoneers. As ...
— The Story of Paul Boyton - Voyages on All the Great Rivers of the World • Paul Boyton
... on the pillow, she slept. Her mind, overtaxed, tried even in sleep to release itself of its burden. The wish to please, and the effort to do right, was too much for her sensitive frame. It was like the traveler unaccustomed to fatigue and change, forced to commence a journey, unassured of his way, and ...
— Aunt Phillis's Cabin - Or, Southern Life As It Is • Mary H. Eastman
... the late Sir Josiah Mason, in 1858, in connection with his Almshouses there, it being his then intention to find shelter for some three score of the aged and infantile "waifs and strays" of humanity. In 1860 he extended his design so far as to commence the present Orphanage, the foundation stone of which was laid by himself Sept. 19 in that year, the building being finished and first occupied in 1863. In addition to the expenditure of L60,000 on the buildings, the founder endowed the institution ...
— Showell's Dictionary of Birmingham - A History And Guide Arranged Alphabetically • Thomas T. Harman and Walter Showell
... required to carry out the true principle of education is more individual common sense and less State interference. The mischievous enactment that children should commence any process of instruction at the tender age of five should be at once struck off the statute-book. No doubt something would have to be done to remove young children of the poorest class, in large towns at least, from the influence of sordid homes for a certain period of the day. ...
— The Curse of Education • Harold E. Gorst
... definite facts to the contrary he considered it safe to assume that as soon as the business should become adjusted to the new standards, standardization of wages upward would be profitable for the business as a whole. He wanted to make the change voluntarily and to commence operating successfully on the new basis in ...
— Higher Education and Business Standards • Willard Eugene Hotchkiss
... the People, and around which he wished to gather the numerous working-people's associations which had been formed since the 24th of February, 1848, had already obtained a certain number of subscribers and adherents, the latter to the number of thirty-seven thousand. It was about to commence operations, when Proudhon's sentence forced him to choose between imprisonment and exile. He did not hesitate to abandon his project and return the money to the subscribers. He explained the motives which led him to this decision in an ...
— What is Property? - An Inquiry into the Principle of Right and of Government • P. J. Proudhon
... the life of a great character should commence with some early indication of his future excellence. This, being an apparent principle in nature, is probably just. That divine genius, of whatever description, which "nascetur, non fit;" is born with a man, and not possible ...
— The Life of the Right Honourable Horatio Lord Viscount Nelson, Vol. I (of 2) • James Harrison
... international: in 2005, Kazakhstan agreed with Russia, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan to commence demarcating their boundaries; delimitation with Kyrgyzstan is complete; creation of a seabed boundary with Turkmenistan in the Caspian Sea remains unresolved; equidistant seabed treaties have been ratified with Azerbaijan and Russia in the Caspian Sea, but ...
— The 2007 CIA World Factbook • United States
... Gave recoit les eaux de Heas, lieu devenu celebre et enrichi par la devotion Espagnole. A peine a-t-on passe le torrent, que le granit commence a paroitre. Le Gave roule ses eaux sur cette base qu'il entame difficilement: aussi son lit est-il plus large et la gorge moins profonde: le granit se montre enterre sous de grandes montagnes calcaires. Du cote de l'ouest il ...
— Theory of the Earth, Volume 2 (of 4) • James Hutton
... poetry may be said to commence with the lyrics attributed to James I., or with those of Henryson. There is clear proof, indeed, that long before this time the Scotch were much given to song-making and song-singing; but of these early popular lilts, almost nothing remains. Henryson's lyrics, however, ...
— The Modern Scottish Minstrel, Volume III - The Songs of Scotland of the Past Half Century • Various |
