"Compass" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... have, in the compass of a year, been found drunk in the land, assembled in one place, they would make a greater army than ever Bonaparte commanded. And yet, unless patriot hearts and hands interpose, myriads more, from generation to generation, ...
— Select Temperance Tracts • American Tract Society
... aspect, "it's a one that you can't make head nor tail of nohow; one as'll read a'rnost as well back'ard as for'ard, an' yet has got a smack o' somethin' mysterious in it, w'ich shows, so to speak, to what pint o' the compass your ...
— Shifting Winds - A Tough Yarn • R.M. Ballantyne
... anybody being hit. Hark! there's another gun; that came from the enemy, but the shot missed us. I wonder we don't begin to fire—we soon shall, though, no doubt about that. I wish that I had brought down the boat's compass with us, to know how we were steering; we are keeping, however, on the same tack as before—I can tell that by the heel ...
— The Missing Ship - The Log of the "Ouzel" Galley • W. H. G. Kingston
... took out his compass and got a bearing on the point where he had last seen the antelope. Noting the course he started down the mountain side, sliding and leaping in his haste. Crossing over the pass was more difficult, for a broad glacial stream was rushing ...
— The Pony Rider Boys in Alaska - The Gold Diggers of Taku Pass • Frank Gee Patchin
... sink into oblivion, were it only for the rare scholarship, peculiarly rare in the female sex, which they displayed, in an age comparatively unenlightened. [21] Female education in that day embraced a wider compass of erudition, in reference to the ancient languages, than is common at present; a circumstance attributable, probably, to the poverty of modern literature at that time, and the new and general appetite excited by the revival of classical learning in Italy. I am not aware, however, ...
— The History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella The Catholic, V2 • William H. Prescott
... his "Canon Triangulorum" (1620) was the first table of logarithmic sines and tangents drawn up on Briggs's system; amongst other of his inventions was the surveying chain, a quadrant, Gunter's scale, and he was the first to observe the variations of the compass (1581-1626). ...
— The Nuttall Encyclopaedia - Being a Concise and Comprehensive Dictionary of General Knowledge • Edited by Rev. James Wood
... not The Hellene's craft, no, nor the spite of heaven, To all his captains gives this edict forth: When as the sun doth cease to light the world, And darkness holds the precincts of the sky, They should dispose the fleet in three close ranks, To guard the outlets and the water-ways; Others should compass Ajax' isle around: Seeing that if the Hellenes 'scaped grim death By finding for their ships some privy exit, It was ordained that all should lose their heads. So spake he, led by a mad mind astray, Nor knew what should be by the will of heaven. They, like well-ordered vassals, ...
— Sketches and Studies in Italy and Greece, Complete - Series I, II, and III • John Symonds
... Lords are not easy to bring about, but their realization is not at all an impossibility. By the repeated rejection of proposed measures the Lords may influence public sentiment or bring about otherwise a change of circumstances and thus compass the defeat of the original intent of the Commons, and this is the more possible since a minimum period of two years is required to elapse before a non-fiscal measure can be (p. 114) carried over the Lords' veto. But the continuity of political alignments and of legislative policy is normally ...
— The Governments of Europe • Frederic Austin Ogg
... Nostromo hoisted the sail, flew back to the tiller, pulled at the sheet like mad. The short flare of a match (they had been kept dry in a tight tin box, though the man himself was completely wet), disclosed to the toiling Decoud the eagerness of his face, bent low over the box of the compass, and the attentive stare of his eyes. He knew now where he was, and he hoped to run the sinking lighter ashore in the shallow cove where the high, cliff-like end of the Great Isabel is divided in two equal parts by a deep ...
— Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard • Joseph Conrad
... watch, expecting to sight Manihiki; but when the dawn flashed out of the sky in the East, where the island should have been, there was neither Manihiki nor any other land at all. They had no chart nor compass; north and south and east and west stretched the wastes of the Pacific for hundreds of leagues. Only here and there in the ocean, and all unseen to them, like little groups of mushrooms on a limitless prairie, ...
— The Book of Missionary Heroes • Basil Mathews
... Tourville had by some means discovered the secret of his previous marriage, and that consequently all hope of obtaining the hand of Eugenie, whom he loved with all the passion of his fiery nature, would be gone unless De Tourville could be prevented from communicating with his daughter, resolved to compass the old man's instant destruction. The chevalier persuaded himself that, as he should manage it, death would be attributed to the affection of the heart, from which M. de Tourville had so long suffered. He procured the distilled laurel-water—how ...
— The Experiences of a Barrister, and Confessions of an Attorney • Samuel Warren
... Chupadera, the Calabazon, the Sopimpa, the Mulata, the Pollita Americana, Merenguito, Lunarcitos, Al Mediodia, and 'a las Bellas Cubanas.' The clarionet takes the lead in the band of black musicians, and the gueiro and tambours serve to mark the peculiar chopping compass which is the leading feature of the creole dance. The gueiro proper is an instrument made from the hard fruit whence it derives its name. The gueiro of society is, however, manufactured out of tin, and shaped like a broad tube rounded ...
— The Pearl of the Antilles, or An Artist in Cuba • Walter Goodman
... out. It is also very mischievous and inquisitive. It will pick up almost anything from the ground: a large black glazed hat was carried nearly a mile, as were a pair of heavy bolas. On another occasion a small Kater's compass in a red morocco case was carried off, and never recovered. These birds are, moreover, quarrelsome and very passionate, tearing up the grass with their bills in their rage. They are noisy, too, uttering ...
— The Western World - Picturesque Sketches of Nature and Natural History in North - and South America • W.H.G. Kingston
... thousand miles our ship had been in a remorseless solitude. No voice had come to us; no spark of intelligence from the universe touched us, save from the stars and the sun, but at the hour of the night, and the point of the compass, our navigator had foretold, we should hear the deep-throated horn on Reyes point—it came to us out of the gloomy abyss—and science had not failed. Across the trackless waste we had been guided aright, and there ...
— The Story of the Philippines and Our New Possessions, • Murat Halstead
... things done for them than the Imports. To-day I've got to go to Mudie's to change a book, then I've to get a scarf-pin mended for Crow, and buy a pair of flannel drawers for Wallop, and go and offer two shillings for a five-shilling mariner's compass at the stores for Doubleday. I shall have to get my grub when ...
— My Friend Smith - A Story of School and City Life • Talbot Baines Reed
... into the main cabin, and looked at the tell-tale compass, which swung over the table, and saw that the schooner was heading south-west, which would be the course for ...
— John Frewen, South Sea Whaler - 1904 • Louis Becke
... Lady Blakeney?" he added, "that there is no personal animosity in my heart towards you or your husband? Have I not told you that I do not wish to compass ...
— The Elusive Pimpernel • Baroness Emmuska Orczy
... direction-finding and position-finding. Direction-finding is effected by means of two coils set at right angles in the aircraft, by means of which the bearing of a transmitting ground station with reference to the aircraft's compass can be taken. When two or more bearings on different ground stations, whose position is known, have been obtained, a "cut" or "fix" of the aircraft is obtained. The position-finding system consists of two or more ground stations fitted with ...
— Aviation in Peace and War • Sir Frederick Hugh Sykes
... or others. Like Columbus, Franklin, or La Place, he may employ his intellect in useful discoveries; or, like Hume, Voltaire, and Paine, to curse the world. In either case he may lead astray, and should never be trusted implicitly. As the bark on the ocean without compass or chart, that rides out the storm or sinks to the bottom, he may guide us in safety, or ruin ...
— Popular Education - For the use of Parents and Teachers, and for Young Persons of Both Sexes • Ira Mayhew
... imperfect life seems capable of yielding of itself. Our moments of peace are, I think, always associated with some form of beauty, of this spark of harmony within corresponding with some infinite source without. Like a mariner's compass, we are restless until we find repose in this one direction. In moments of beauty (for beauty is, strictly speaking, a state of mind rather than an attribute of certain objects, although certain things have the ...
— The Practice and Science Of Drawing • Harold Speed
... then by a momentary gust of wind, hot as the blasting breath of a furnace, which passed over us and was gone almost before we had time to realise its presence. These fitful and transient gusts of wind came from all quarters of the compass. I had never before experienced weather of at all a similar character, nor had Simpson, the quarter-master, and we were equally puzzled as to what to expect. The heavens were black as ink, and the clouds, rendered visible by the unearthly bluish-green ...
— Under the Meteor Flag - Log of a Midshipman during the French Revolutionary War • Harry Collingwood
... approach it, and engages to connect extensive good with a proper attention to its claims. The observance, under various phases, is described in Scripture as an undisputed and indisputable reality. There, its nature and the manner of performing it are defined; its character as a duty, the compass of its matter, and the obligation entailed by engaging in it are exhibited; the provision made for the continuance of it, its adaptations, sovereign appointment, sanction, and character as a privilege, and ...
— The Ordinance of Covenanting • John Cunningham
... judgments' (Psa 119:120). But of eternal ruin, of that, they ought not to be afraid of with slavish fear. 'Wherefore should I fear,' said the prophet, 'in the days of evil, when the iniquity of my heels shall compass me about?' (Psa 49:5). And again, 'Ye have done all this wickedness, yet turn not aside from following the Lord;—for the Lord will not forsake his people, for his great name's sake' ...
— The Works of John Bunyan • John Bunyan
... highwaymen. [Footnote: Ciphers were in common use, and governments employed decipherers. Great skill had been attained in opening letters and closing them again so that they might not appear to have been tampered with. "This institution, if well directed, has the property of serving as a compass to those who hold the reins of government," writes, with a fine jumbling of metaphors, one who has been a clerk in the post-office. Sorel, i. 77. The Facsimiles of MSS. in European Archives relating to America, now in process ...
— The Eve of the French Revolution • Edward J. Lowell
... of the third night, when God in mercy ceased the storm of a sudden, and there was a great calm, which made us exceeding joyful; but when those beasts, for they were scarce men, that manned the vessel, began to rummage the bark, they could not find their compass anywhere, for the loss of which they began again such horrible lamentations as were as dismal to ...
— Memoirs of Lady Fanshawe • Lady Fanshawe
... stamped and written over, we were off on what proved to be our six months' experience in the "Middle Kingdom or Central Empire," as the natives call it, for to Chinamen there is a fifth point to the compass—the center, which is China. Not far on the road we heard the clatter of hoofs behind us. A Kalmuck was dashing toward us with a portentous look on his features. We dismounted in apprehension. He stopped short some twenty feet away, leaped to the ground, and, crawling up on hands and knees, ...
— Across Asia on a Bicycle • Thomas Gaskell Allen and William Lewis Sachtleben
... "Arise, ye more than dead!" Then cold and hot and moist and dry In order to their stations leap, And Music's power obey. 10 From harmony, from heavenly harmony This universal frame began; From harmony to harmony Through all the compass of the notes it ran, The diapason closing ...
— Selections from Five English Poets • Various
... "In turning over the pages of this volume, one is struck by his breadth, his versatility, his compass, as evidenced in theme, sentiment, ...
— Five Months at Anzac • Joseph Lievesley Beeston
... have received, to the exercise of their intellectual faculties, that they owe this astonishing superiority and their deliverance," When tranquillity was a little restored, we began to look upon the raft for the charts, the compass and the anchor, which we presumed had been placed there, from what had been said to us at the time we quitted the frigate. These highly necessary articles had not been put upon our machine. The want of a compass in particular, greatly alarmed us, and we uttered cries of ...
— Narrative of a Voyage to Senegal in 1816 • J. B. Henry Savigny and Alexander Correard
... matches in a water-tight box, compass, and sheath-knife, of course. The elephant guns and ammunition were stored away for future reference, but the 30-30s were to be slung in holsters at their saddles for the present. Each wore a bandolier ...
— The Rogue Elephant - The Boys' Big Game Series • Elliott Whitney
... of the compass, Federates are arriving: fervid children of the South, 'who glory in their Mirabeau;' considerate North-blooded Mountaineers of Jura; sharp Bretons, with their Gaelic suddenness; Normans not to be overreached in bargain: all ...
— The French Revolution • Thomas Carlyle
... whites are merchants with some four mails in the month, shopkeepers with some ten or twenty customers a day, and gossip is the common resource of all. The town hums to the day's news, and the bars are crowded with amateur politicians. Some are office-seekers, and earwig king and consul, and compass the fall of officials, with an eye to salary. Some are humorists, delighted with the pleasure of faction for itself. "I never saw so good a place as this Apia," said one of these; "you can be in a new conspiracy every day!" Many, on the other hand, are sincerely concerned ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 17 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson
... grandmother! I know how Olive loves you. Mr. Ransom, you are very deep." She had drawn him well into the room, out of earshot of the group in the doorway, and he felt that if she should be able to compass her wish she would organise a little entertainment for herself, in the outer drawing-room, in opposition to Miss Tarrant's address. "Please come and sit down here a moment; we shall be quite undisturbed. I have something ...
— The Bostonians, Vol. II (of II) • Henry James
... Grief, with compass bearings and binoculars, identified the volcano that marked Redscar, ran past Owen Bay, and lost the last of the breeze at the entrance to Likikili Bay. With the two whaleboats out and towing, and with Carl-sen heaving the lead, the Kittiwake sluggishly entered ...
— A Son Of The Sun • Jack London
... the actual delivery of the goods, is that of packing the pieces or bags in small compass by means of a hydraulic press. The goods are placed on the lower moving table upon a suitable wrapping of some kind of jute cloth; when the requisite quantity has been placed thereon, the top and side ...
— The Jute Industry: From Seed to Finished Cloth • T. Woodhouse and P. Kilgour
... girl, and WILL love her more—I have an opportunity of winning favour, of doing service, which shall bind him to me; yes, he shall have the girl, if I have art to compass the matter. I must ...
— The Purcell Papers - Volume II. (of III.) • Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
... the wheel and stood beside the steersman, glancing first at the compass, and then aloft at the white swelling canvas. The barque was close-hauled and the course ...
— Rodman The Boatsteerer And Other Stories - 1898 • Louis Becke
... end of the passage as to behave in a manner that was far from polite. During the last night which was very mild and warm, I went out of the close cabin on to the deck, and placed myself not far from the compass- box, where I soon began to sleep, wrapt in my mantle. One of the sailors came, and giving me a kick with his foot, told me to leave the place. I thanked him quietly for the delicate way in which he expressed himself, ...
— A Woman's Journey Round the World • Ida Pfeiffer
... have accomplished. As Egyptians, they built the Pyramids, and reared enormous monoliths, which remain as perfect now as they were when first completed, thirty centuries ago. As Ph[oe]nicians, they constructed ships, perfected navigation, and explored, without compass or chart, every known sea. As Greeks, they modeled architectural embellishments, and cut sculptures in marble, and wrote poems and history, which have been ever since the admiration of the world. As Romans, ...
— King Alfred of England - Makers of History • Jacob Abbott
... a sewing-needle by rubbing it on a fairly strong magnet and float it on the water, it will make an extremely sensitive compass; and if you place two needles on the water at the same time, you will see them slowly approach each other until they float side by side, that is, if they do not strike together so heavily as ...
— My Book of Indoor Games • Clarence Squareman
... scarcely needed for undertaking a translation of Sankara Acharya's celebrated Synopsis of Vedantism entitled "Atmanatma Vivekah." This little treatise, within a small compass, fully sets forth the scope and purpose of the Vedanta philosophy. It has been a matter of no little wonder, considering the authorship of this pamphlet and its own intrinsic merits, that a translation of it has not already been executed by some ...
— Five Years Of Theosophy • Various
... west; and, indeed, an intellect less obtuse than that of Tipperary Tom might have been puzzled upon the point. It has been already mentioned, that the Solimoes is so tortuous as to turn to every point of the compass in its slow course. The mere fact that the moon was shining at the time could be of little use to Tipperary Tom, whose astronomy had never extended beyond the knowledge that there was ...
— Our Young Folks—Vol. I, No. II, February 1865 - An Illustrated Magazine for Boys and Girls • Various
... he had stood up, it seemed to Charlotte, looked directly at her. She was always sure that he did. But if he did, it was with unseeing eyes. His brain did not compass the image of her sitting there, leaning against the tree, a creature of incarnate terror and insane fury. He seemed to keep his eyes fixed upon her for a full second. Charlotte's nerves and muscles were tense with the restrained impulse to spring. Then he slowly shuffled away. ...
— The Debtor - A Novel • Mary E. Wilkins Freeman
... said I, "nothing remains but to ascertain whether it contains a dead body or not;" but on raising the end of it, I perceived by its lightness, that it was empty. To investigate the cause of its being left in this solitary spot was, however, not within the compass of my philosophy, so I gave that up. On looking at it more closely, I noticed a plate, marked with the name and age of the person for whom it was intended, and on bringing my eyes near the letters, I was able, between fingering ...
— The Station; The Party Fight And Funeral; The Lough Derg Pilgrim • William Carleton
... treaty or a compact, but the people of the United States constitute a Nation, having one flag, one history, "one country, one constitution, one destiny." Whoever seeks to divide this Nation into two sections—into a North and a South, or into four sections, according to the cardinal points of the compass, or into thirty or forty independent sovereignties—is opposed to the Nation, and the Nation's friends should ...
— The Life, Public Services and Select Speeches of Rutherford B. Hayes • James Quay Howard
... made actually and wonderfully useful in the compass. Who discovered the compass nobody knows. It was probably invented by the Chinese and brought to Europe through the Arabs. Anyhow, some genius found out that a small needle brought in contact with the so-called lodestone, ...
— Editorials from the Hearst Newspapers • Arthur Brisbane
... when as at Poitiers they had been on the French side, and had not wished her evil and had not greatly troubled her. Wherefore we may easily imagine how intense was the repulsion with which the clerks of Rouen now inspired her. She knew that they sought to compass her death. But she feared them not; confidently she awaited from her saints and angels the fulfilment of their promise, their coming for her deliverance. She knew not when nor how her deliverance should come; but that come it would she never once doubted. To doubt it would indeed have been ...
— The Life of Joan of Arc, Vol. 1 and 2 (of 2) • Anatole France
... events in each reign were depicted on the borders. The fable of Tampu-tocco was shown on the first cloth, and also the fables touching the creations of Viracocha, which formed the foundation for the whole history. On the fourth cloth there was a map of Peru, the compass lines for the positions of towns ...
— History of the Incas • Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa
... and in other branches of the art of carpentering, the builder has his rule, lathe, compass, line, and a most ...
— Philebus • Plato
... finally in a duo which admirably displayed the compass and timbre of her very peculiar voice, and the floral hurricane that assailed her attested ...
— Infelice • Augusta Jane Evans Wilson
... out. Well, there's the protractor, and there's the coconut ice. Have a bit? Ah, well, I notice that grown-up—that people older than me don't seem to care for sweeties before their dinner. I wonder why. And there's a magnetic compass I picked up on George the Fourth Bridge. There's a kind of pleasure in finding the north, don't you think? And—fancy this being here! I thought I'd lost it long ago. It's a wee garnet I found on the beach at Elie. I was set up all the afternoon with finding a precious ...
— The Judge • Rebecca West
... he is fighting. As to the rank and file, they can know nothing more of the matter than the arms they carry. They hardly know what troops are upon their own right or left the length of a regiment away. If it is a cloudy day they are ignorant even of the points of the compass. It may be said, generally, that a soldier's knowledge of what is going on about him is coterminous with his official relation to it and his personal connection with it; what is going on in front of him he does not know at all ...
— The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce • Ambrose Bierce
... young miss. The older woman recognizes the motive behind the question, "What is this pattern?" "Is this easy to piece?" The older woman knows the young miss has marrying in her head and goes to great lengths to explain. "Now this is Compass and Nine Patch and it's easiest of any to put together. This is Grandmother's Flower Garden—it's a lot of little bitsy pieces, you see, and a heap of different colors and it's most powerful tejous to put together. This is Double Wedding Ring, this Irish Chain"—she names ...
— Blue Ridge Country • Jean Thomas
... questions, such as the inspiration, authenticity, authority, and age of the Scriptures. The author has tried to handle it fairly, founding his statements on such evidence as seemed convincing, and condensing them into a moderate compass. If the reader wishes to know the evidence, he may find it in the writer's Introductions to the Old and New Testaments, where the separate books of Scripture are discussed; and in the late treatises of other critics. While his expositions are capable ...
— The Canon of the Bible • Samuel Davidson
... throw overboard, for when the canvas boat was placed on the Capellus deck it was found to contain only a pair of oars and two crutches. What the German sailors hoped to do had they escaped detection was a matter for conjecture, for without a compass, food, and water, and in a frail cockle-shell with every indication of bad weather approaching, certain death stared them in ...
— The Submarine Hunters - A Story of the Naval Patrol Work in the Great War • Percy F. Westerman
... had spent four days upon the trail, which sometimes ran plain before them, marked by dints of wheels among the wiry grass, and sometimes died away, leaving them at a loss in a wilderness of sand and short poplar scrub, through which Blake steered by compass. Now it was late in the afternoon and the men were tired of battling with the wind which buffeted their sunburned faces with sharp sand. They were crossing one of the high steppes of the middle prairie towards the belt ...
— Blake's Burden • Harold Bindloss
... critics and playgoers who are so obsessed by my strained legendary reputation that they approach my plays in a condition which is really one of derangement, and are quite unable to conceive a play of mine as anything but a trap baited with paradoxes, and designed to compass their ethical perversion and intellectual confusion. If it were possible, I should put forward all my plays anonymously, or hire some less disturbing person, as Bacon is said to have hired Shakespear, to father my plays ...
— Fanny's First Play • George Bernard Shaw
... Mause, clearing her voice with a preliminary cough, "I will take up my testimony against you ance and again.— Philistines ye are, and Edomites—leopards are ye, and foxes—evening wolves, that gnaw not the bones till the morrow—wicked dogs, that compass about the chosen—thrusting kine, and pushing bulls of Bashan—piercing serpents ye are, and allied baith in name and nature with the great Red Dragon; Revelations, twalfth ...
— Old Mortality, Complete, Illustrated • Sir Walter Scott
... fire, instead of instructing and refreshing light. I would therefore have this guarded against,—the insatiable desire and greediness of our minds after the knowledge of secret mysteries. We may set bounds here, and not overstretch or strain our understandings, to compass his infinite Being, as it is in itself. Let us rather take him up as he is revealed in the scriptures, and so meditate on him as manifested in his word and works, his grace, mercy, power, wisdom, &c. and read his name with delight in those ...
— The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning • Hugh Binning
... the rocks will be undertaken by contractors in the employ of the Hungarian government, as the official invitation for tenders brought no offers from any quarter. The construction of the dams, however, and the cutting of several channels to compass the most difficult rocks and rapids, will be carried out by an association of Pesth and other firms. The cost, estimated altogether at nine million florins, will be borne by the Hungarian exchequer, to which will fall the tolls to be levied on all vessels passing through the Gates until ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 810, July 11, 1891 • Various
... stands upon a platform below, his head and shoulders in the pilot-house. The upper tier of bars is separated from the second by an open space of an inch, through which the pilot may look out at every point of the compass. The pilot-house, as you see, is a foursquare mass of iron, provided with no means of deflecting a ball. I expected trouble from it, and I was not disappointed. Until my accident happened, as we approached the enemy I stood in the pilot-house ...
— The Monitor and the Merrimac - Both sides of the story • J. L. Worden et al.
... to the east and north as they followed labyrinthic channels that led around big and little keys in that part of the ten times Ten Thousand Islands. The work became confusing, the waterways they followed led them toward every point in the compass. Sometimes a narrowing stream made them think they had struck a creek which flowed from the mainland, but always it opened into some small bay filled with little keys. Late in the afternoon they found a point of land high enough for a camp, where they spent ...
— Dick in the Everglades • A. W. Dimock
... light. We have seen under the persevering and enlightened enterprise of another State the waters of our Western lakes mingle with those of the ocean. If undertakings like these have been accomplished in the compass of a few years by the authority of single members of our Confederation, can we, the representative authorities of the whole Union, fall behind our fellow servants in the exercise of the trust committed to us for the benefit of our common sovereign by the accomplishment of works important to the ...
— Complete State of the Union Addresses from 1790 to the Present • Various
... that no actual burn would be inflicted if they could but keep turning and shifting so as continually to present some fresh portion of their flesh to the flames. Hence they danced and whirled in front of the fire, tossing ceaselessly this way and that within the compass of their chains, wearied to death, their protruding tongues cracked and blackened with thirst, but unable for one instant to rest from their ...
— Sir Nigel • Arthur Conan Doyle
... reaching some unknown goal. Thus I forged up the street, noting the small traffic of the milk-shop, and wondering at the incongruous medley of penny pipes, black tobacco, sweets, newspapers, and comic songs which here and there jostled one another in the short compass of a single window. I think it was a cold shudder that suddenly passed through me that first told me that I had found what I wanted. I looked up from the pavement and stopped before a dusty shop, above which the lettering had faded, where the red bricks of two hundred years ...
— The Great God Pan • Arthur Machen
... count it higher pleasure to behold The stately compass of the lofty Skie, And in the midst thereof (like burning Gold) The flaming Chariot of the worlds great eye, The watry clouds, that in the aire up rold, With sundry kinds of painted colour flye; ...
— The Compleat Angler - Facsimile of the First Edition • Izaak Walton
... quickly to and fro in the scanty place that three strides might compass; they turn about and cross and brush each other, bent forward, hands pocketed—tramp, tramp. These human beings whom the blast cuts even among their straw are like a crowd of the wretched wrecks of cities who await, under the lowering sky of winter, the opening of some charitable institution. ...
— Under Fire - The Story of a Squad • Henri Barbusse
... handed her his much-prized pocket compass—an instrument regarded with awe by the Indians, and esteemed as one of the instruments of ...
— Historic Girls • E. S. Brooks
... down to the smallest compass, is this: What is the precise, real signification of the sacrificial and other connected terms employed by Peter, those phrases which now, by the intense associations of a long time, convey so strong a Calvinistic sense to most readers? Peter says, "Ye know that ye were redeemed with ...
— The Destiny of the Soul - A Critical History of the Doctrine of a Future Life • William Rounseville Alger
... and I must add, that the coast is no ways to be dreaded from the middle of October to the beginning of May, nor is there then any danger from the winds, though in the remaining part of the year there are frequent and violent tornadoes, heavy rains, and hard gales, in all directions of the compass. But as to those who keep at any considerable distance from the coast, there is no other method to be taken by them for finding this harbour than that of making it by its latitude; for there are ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 11 • Robert Kerr
... to me that the story is done, if there must be told one or two more things, seeing that Gerda had come home, and all was well. I have no words to tell of the wedding that was before Bertric must needs go back to Hakon, for none but a lady could compass that. But I will say that it was a goodly gathering thereat, for word went quickly round, and the good people came in to grace it from far and wide. Bertric gave away the bride, as the friend of Hakon, who was her guardian; and after the wedding in the old Norse way, Phelim ...
— A Sea Queen's Sailing • Charles Whistler
... northward, eastward, will be won. But a palsy seems to have settled on the lines of blue. They are motionless, while their adversaries are hurrying men from some secret place, where they seem to be inexhaustible. The whole battle is now within the compass of a mile. But where can these hordes come from? Surely, General McDowell has never been mad enough to leave them disengaged along the fords! No; they do not come from that direction. They come at the very center of the rebel rear. Can ...
— The Iron Game - A Tale of the War • Henry Francis Keenan
... diplomatic ceremonies, at the head of his guard, which had been but recently reformed in the capital, fell like a thunderbolt upon Charleroi and Bluecher's quarters, his columns arriving from all points of the compass, with rare punctuality, on the 14th of June, in the plains of Beaumont and upon the banks of the Sambre. (Napoleon did not ...
— The Art of War • Baron Henri de Jomini
... oak-wood, here on Melford Manor! Elmswell? The Lord Abbot, in surprise, inquires privily of Richard his Forester; Richard answers that my Lord of Ely has already had his carpentarii in Elmset, and marked out for his own use all the best trees in the compass of it. Abbot Samson thereupon answers the monk: "Elmswell? Yes surely, be it as my Lord Bishop wishes." The successful monk, on the morrow morning, hastens home to Ely; but, on the morrow morning, 'directly after mass,' Abbot Samson too was busy! The successful monk, arriving at Ely, is rated ...
— Past and Present - Thomas Carlyle's Collected Works, Vol. XIII. • Thomas Carlyle
... causes His sun to shine on the evil and the good, and His rain to fall on the just and on the unjust, and is good to the unthankful and to the evil, to find much favour in the eyes of a generation which will compass sea and land to ...
— Sanitary and Social Lectures and Essays • Charles Kingsley
... temperature—loss of protopathic sensibility; surrounded by an area in which there is loss of sensation to light touch, inability to recognise minor differences of temperature (72-104 F.), and to appreciate as separate impressions the contact of the two points of a compass—loss of epicritic sensibility (Head and Sherren) ...
— Manual of Surgery - Volume First: General Surgery. Sixth Edition. • Alexis Thomson and Alexander Miles
... while hope inspires, Stretch o'er the infinite her wing sublime, A narrow compass limits her desires, When wreck'd our fortunes in the gulf of time. In the deep heart of man care builds her nest, O'er secret woes she broodeth there, Sleepless she rocks herself and scareth joy and rest; Still is she wont some new disguise to wear, She may as house and court, ...
— Faust Part 1 • Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
... prince. Theseus, to gratify his friend and guest, Who made our Arcite's freedom his request, Restored to liberty the captive knight, But on these hard conditions I recite: That if hereafter Arcite should be found Within the compass of Athenian ground, By day or night, or on whate'er pretence, His head should pay the forfeit of the offence. To this Pirithous for his friend agreed, And on his ...
— Palamon and Arcite • John Dryden
... "I have a compass," he said. "Perhaps I'll get to your ranch even if your pony outruns me. Only trouble, I can't lug both tools ...
— Bloom of Cactus • Robert Ames Bennet
... within its small compass the most concentrated technical disposition known in the art of mechanical construction, especially so in the spaces reserved for the steering gear of the boat and for the manipulation of ...
— The Journal of Submarine Commander von Forstner • Georg-Guenther von Forstner
... Had, first durst plough the ocean". But thou at home, without or tide or gale, Can'st in thy map securely sail: Seeing those painted countries, and so guess By those fine shades their substances: And, from thy compass taking small advice, Buy'st travel at the lowest price. Nor are thine ears so deaf but thou canst hear, Far more with wonder than with fear, Fame tell of states, of countries, courts, and kings, And believe there be such things: When of these truths thy happier knowledge lies More in thine ears ...
— The Hesperides & Noble Numbers: Vol. 1 and 2 • Robert Herrick
... to-day I have laboured under severe affliction of mind. I am as one tempest driven, without pilot, chart, or compass. ...
— The Story of My Life - Being Reminiscences of Sixty Years' Public Service in Canada • Egerton Ryerson
... Indians should furnish facts for would take place in the most sumptuous drawing rooms of all the 'Wreaths' and 'Flora's Chaplets' of the bookshops" and believing that to be true, I shall therefore tell you not only how my Indian friends managed to keep their bearings while travelling without a compass, but how, without the aid of writing, they continued to leave various messages for their companions. When I asked Oo-koo-hoo how he would signal, in case he went ashore to trail game—when the other canoes were out of sight behind him—and he should want someone to follow him ...
— The Drama of the Forests - Romance and Adventure • Arthur Heming
... we return to this particular question, we will go on to deal with another which to a certain extent overlaps it, but is narrower in its compass, and seems, for that very reason, to many minds of greater practical moment. I mean the question of interest, or the income which comes to its recipients without any necessary effort on their own ...
— A Critical Examination of Socialism • William Hurrell Mallock
... How often, within the compass of our own minds, do we not find thoughts and images that spring from sources that we cannot trace! Have we not more than once been called upon to perform some act of life, important to ourselves, or perchance to others; or been in some incidental circle of friends, or of persons who were ...
— The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine, May 1844 - Volume 23, Number 5 • Various
... ran before the wind, when an accumulation of clouds upon the southern horizon indicated that we should have a change. I had no compass in the boat, but had steered by the sun during the day, and by the stars during the night. I now considered myself well to the southward, and determined upon running eastward, that I might gain the African shore; but the gale was too strong ...
— The Pacha of Many Tales • Captain Frederick Marryat
... incur the expense of the trip to London, and that I intended to reimburse him when I saw Mr. Dix. For I knew that his wallet was not over full, since he had left the half of his savings with his mother. Much to my secret delight, he agreed to this as within the compass of a gentleman's acceptance. Had he not, I had the full intention of leaving him to post it alone, and of offering myself to the ...
— The Crossing • Winston Churchill
... guests are received, and even lodged; women rarely enter it, except at times when strangers are unlikely to be present. Some of these apartments are very spacious and supported by pillars; one wall is usually built transversely to the compass direction of the Ka'ba (sacred shrine of Mecca). It serves to facilitate the performance of prayer by those who may happen to be in the ...
— All About Coffee • William H. Ukers
... this function, I found work had stopped; no more South Seas in my belly. Well, Henry had cleared a great deal of our bush on a contract, and it ought to be measured. I set myself to the task with a tape-line; it seemed a dreary business; then I borrowed a prismatic compass, and tackled the task afresh. I have no books; I had not touched an instrument nor given a thought to the business since the year of grace 1871; you can imagine with what interest I sat down yesterday afternoon to reduce my observations; five triangles ...
— Vailima Letters • Robert Louis Stevenson
... all the world (whatever they are), and all the histories of all the peoples, and all the names of all the rivers and mountains, and all the productions, manners, and customs of all the countries, and all their boundaries and bearings on the two and thirty points of the compass. Ah, rather overdone, M'Choakumchild. If he had only learnt a little less, how infinitely better he might ...
— Hard Times • Charles Dickens*
... been selecting and retaining as guides whatever Saharians he could find acquainted with that part of the desert he intended to traverse. The Arabs are gifted with remarkable dexterity in steering without compass, recognising a footstep imperceptible to the common eye, scenting the water at a distance, and finding their way by marks which would escape the most observant European. A Saharian once affirmed to Colonel Daumas: 'I am not considered remarkably sharp-sighted, ...
— Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 452 - Volume 18, New Series, August 28, 1852 • Various
... Elgin had most at heart was to improve the moral and social condition of the Negroes, and to fit them, by education, for the freedom which had been thrust upon them; but, with characteristic tact and sagacity, he preferred to compass this end through the agency of the planters themselves. By encouraging the application of mechanical contrivances to agriculture, he sought to make it the interest not only of the peasants to acquire, but of the planters to give them, the education necessary for using machinery; while he lost ...
— Letters and Journals of James, Eighth Earl of Elgin • James, Eighth Earl of Elgin
... something easy," he returned. "I've been going it blind for an hour, trying to hit the Soda Creek Trail, or any old trail that would show me where I am. It's no use. Too dark. A man couldn't find his way over country that he knew to-night if he had a lantern and a compass." ...
— North of Fifty-Three • Bertrand W. Sinclair
... end bobbing up and down in the water, men fighting all the time as to who should be captain and who should have the state-rooms, and throwing each other over the side because they could not agree about the points of compass, but the great vessel never gelling afloat with its freight of nations and their rulers;—and now, Sir, there is and has been for this long time a fleet of "heretic" lighters sailing out of Boston Bay, and they have been saying, and they say now, ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 4, No. 23, September, 1859 • Various
... necessary that this diabolical traffic, which has attained international proportions, should be dealt with in a manner adequate to compass its suppression. No punishment is too severe to inflict upon the procurers in ...
— Fighting the Traffic in Young Girls - War on the White Slave Trade • Various
... rather lead me to infer that the extreme complexity of the administrative problems presented by modern industrial civilization is beyond the compass of the capitalistic mind. If this be so, American society, as at present organized, with capitalists for the dominant class, can concentrate no further, and, as nothing in the universe is at rest, if ...
— The Theory of Social Revolutions • Brooks Adams
... the compass, about the close of the fifteenth century, the great era of naval adventures commenced. Indeed the Tyrian fleet in the service of Solomon had made what was then esteemed long voyages, and a famous Carthaginian captain had sailed round Africa: the Portuguese also were great adventurers ...
— An Historical Account Of The Rise And Progress Of The Colonies Of South Carolina And Georgia, Volume 1 • Alexander Hewatt
... imaginary gun, up at the roof of the hut, and said "Bang" very loud, and a chorus of approving laughter from the negroes showed that he was understood. Then one of them pointed towards the various points of the compass, and looked interrogatively at Frank. The sun was streaming in through the doorway, and he was thus able to judge of the direction in which the camp must lie. He made a sweep with his hand towards the northwest, signifying that ...
— By Sheer Pluck - A Tale of the Ashanti War • G. A. Henty
... convince cynical and incredulous New York. It was too eager to find excuses for successful and admired men like Dumont, too ready to laugh at and despise underdogs like Fanshaw. Herron never admitted it to himself, but in fact it was he who put it into Fanshaw's resourceless mind to compass the revenge of publicity ...
— The Cost • David Graham Phillips
... before I proceed to speak of the future, I cannot do better than collect within a small compass the reasons which best explain the present. In this retrospective chapter I shall be succinct; for I shall take care to remind the reader very summarily of what he already knows; and I shall only select the most prominent of those facts which I ...
— American Institutions and Their Influence • Alexis de Tocqueville et al
... the man. The rule was thus confined within the compass of a brief sentence by a distinguished French naturalist, and if there be examples which form exceptions to that rule, Charles Lamb is certainly not one of them. Markedly individual himself he reveals that ...
— Charles Lamb • Walter Jerrold
... climbing plants that obstructed their passage. Sometimes, also, when the sun was totally obscured and the necessary windings in their course would hive rendered them uncertain whether they were following the right direction, these useful tomahawks enabled them to consult the Indian compass. ...
— The Pilgrims of New England - A Tale Of The Early American Settlers • Mrs. J. B. Webb
... their way down the precipitous side of the hill to its western foot, struck off, under the lead of the hunter, in a line through the forest, preserving their points of compass, when none of their general landmarks were visible, by noting the peculiar weather-beaten appearance of the mosses on the north sides of the trees, and the usual inclination of the tips of the hemlocks from west to east. And for the next hour and a ...
— Gaut Gurley • D. P. Thompson
... hum of approval greeted her from this well-bred audience as she sat down and swept her fingers with a flourish over the keys. Then, without further prelude, she sang a little French song in a pleasing, musical voice, without much compass, but well trained; before the applause ended she broke into a Spanish ballad, tender and passionate, which gained her still greater success; and thus accepted and approved amidst continual cries of "Brava!" and "Encore!" she was ...
— The Thin Red Line; and Blue Blood • Arthur Griffiths
... waited, it seemed to the princess right strange that the pigeons, every one as it came to the rear, and fetched a compass to gather force for the reattack, should make the head of her attendant on the red horse the goal around which it turned; so that about them was an unintermittent flapping and flashing of wings, and a curving, sweeping torrent of the side-poised wheeling bodies of birds. ...
— The Princess and the Curdie • George MacDonald
... it! What mine own thews and sinews may compass, I'll undertake right joyfully, but I'll never ask Gideon to risk his edge or his backbone in such rude labors as yon. Every man to his trade, and these are the sappers and miners with ...
— Standish of Standish - A story of the Pilgrims • Jane G. Austin
... a sowing, and a growth far beyond in preciousness all "the precious things put forth by the sun" in the more genial time of the year. But days began to become longer, nevertheless, as the weeks went on; and daylight was pushing those happy mornings and evenings into lesser and lesser compass; and snow quite disappeared from the fields, and buds began to swell on the trees and take colour, and airs grew more gentle in temperature; though I am bound to say there is a sharpness sometimes in the nature of a Shampuashuh spring, that quite outdoes all the greater rigours of ...
— Nobody • Susan Warner
... of packing. It contained in its small compass an extraordinary number of things—changes of under flannels, extra socks, an abdominal belt, and, in an inclosure, towel, soap, toothbrush, nailbrush and tooth powder. I am not certain, but I believe there was also a pack ...
— Kings, Queens And Pawns - An American Woman at the Front • Mary Roberts Rinehart
... rows of ten. The black portion was printed from line-engraved plates but the colored portions were, apparently, printed by lithography. Consequently, three operations were necessary before the stamps were completed and, as may readily be understood, a three color process in such a small compass made exact register a matter of difficulty. Thus on many stamps portions of the Empire are found much out of place, sometimes wandering into the sea and sometimes encroaching in an altogether too familiar manner on their neighbours. The new stamps came in for much criticism, of which the following ...
— The Stamps of Canada • Bertram Poole
... no time to be lost, and the only chance of escape remained with the boat, Newton commenced his arrangements. The mast and sails were found, and the latter bent;—a keg was filled with water,—a compass taken out of the binnacle,—a few pieces of beef, and some bread collected in a bag, and thrown in. He also procured some bottles of wine and cider from the cabin: these he stowed away carefully in the little locker, which ...
— Newton Forster - The Merchant Service • Captain Frederick Marryat
... want to see, and it's yours. Florida? Bermuda? Mediterranean? With the compass I've made and adjusted to the new magnetic variations, and with the maps out of Van's set of books, I reckon we're good for anything, including a ...
— Darkness and Dawn • George Allan England
... part of the work had been a matter of plans and maps, of compass and level, of observing the ground—incidentally dodging the bullets of the German snipers who caught glimpses of his crawling form—by day, and of intricate and exact figuring and calculating by night, in the grimy cellar of another ruined ...
— Between the Lines • Boyd Cable
... want ye to give me a notion of how you're gwine to work," he said, as the youth brought his compass and set it up on its tripod at the foot of the tree. "For, otherwise, how am I to be sure of my corner, when you ...
— The Young Surveyor; - or Jack on the Prairies • J. T. Trowbridge
... mother's quick senses. There is not much of it, and the scrawl seems hasty. We might have had more for three and fourpence. But I am not the one to grumble about bad measure—as the boy said about old Busby. Now, Maria, listen, but say nothing; if feminine capacity may compass it. Why, bless my heart, every word of it is French!" The rector threw down his spectacles, and gazed at his wife reproachfully. But ...
— Springhaven - A Tale of the Great War • R. D. Blackmore
... he took an affectionate leave of Mr Love, who was really much affected at parting with him, discussed valedictory pots of porter in the big room, over which many wishes were expressed that he might be enabled to compass the length and breadth of old Ruffle's feet, uttered a last cutting joke at Mr Kissing as he met that gentleman hurrying through the passages with an enormous ledger in his hands, and then took his place in the comfortable ...
— The Small House at Allington • Anthony Trollope
... adelie and ringed penguins, also several humpback and finner whales. An ice-blink to the westward indicated the presence of pack in that direction. After rounding the pack we steered S. 40 E., and at noon on the 10th had reached lat. 58 28 S., long. 20 28 W. Observations showed the compass variation to be 1 less than the chart recorded. I kept the 'Endurance' on the course till midnight, when we entered loose open ice about ninety miles south-east of our noon position. This ice proved to fringe the pack, and progress became slow. There was a long ...
— South! • Sir Ernest Shackleton
... to them, Jack Darcy was more than puzzled, set at sea in a bewildering way, without chart or compass. Had Fred ceased to care for Sylvie? Had she never loved him? Or was some other feeling holding him back,—a kind of family complication, a sense of duty to the others so high that he would not offer them a divided regard, any sooner than her? He believed mothers had a peculiar ...
— Hope Mills - or Between Friend and Sweetheart • Amanda M. Douglas
... crisp stars through the interlocking branches. He found the pole star. But as he had been unable to guess the direction his captor had taken in leaving the camp, the points of the compass mattered little in this ...
— The Rainy Day Railroad War • Holman Day
... ideal, the very sound of the bird is brought before one's mind after a score of years, by the whole passage, and particularly in the reiterated "Why, why, why." If there is more consummate simplicity of art anywhere contained in as small a compass of words, I confess I do not know where it is to be found. ...
— Platform Monologues • T. G. Tucker
... as the vallies God hath blessed with the fatness of the earth, and the merchandise of the sea; the mountains and hills are looking to you, and ye to them: join yourselves in an inseparable union, and compass the vineyard of Christ; be to her a wall of defence, lest the wild beasts of the wood waste it, and the wild beasts of ...
— The Covenants And The Covenanters - Covenants, Sermons, and Documents of the Covenanted Reformation • Various
... of his saddle, and they started off along a slightly beaten road straight toward the southeast. Wellesly asked Haney if he were sure they were going in the right direction, and Haney assured him that it was all right and chaffed him a little that he so easily lost the points of the compass. In the distance, a mile or so ahead of them, they saw a man on horseback leading another horse which carried a pack. When Wellesly again said that he did not understand how he could be so entirely at sea, Haney suggested that they overtake this traveler ...
— With Hoops of Steel • Florence Finch Kelly
... produce to explore, As floating by, or rolling on the shore: Those living jellies which the flesh inflame, Fierce as a nettle, and from that its name; Some in huge masses, some that you may bring In the small compass of a lady's ring; Figured by hand divine—there's not a gem Wrought by man's art to be compared to them; Soft, brilliant, tender, through the wave they glow, And make the moonbeam brighter where they flow. Involved in sea-wrack, here you find a race Which science, doubting, knows not ...
— The Borough • George Crabbe
... be met with in the three kingdoms, having that rare combination of qualities by which he gets on with all manner of men, and singularly attracts young fellows. He will not only do his duty, but be beloved for doing it, which is what few people can compass. ...
— The Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley Volume 2 • Leonard Huxley
... faint resistance was overcome, and again the room hushed itself, every hearer spellbound. It was a voice well worthy of cultivation, excellent in compass, with rare sweet power. Again the rapturous applause, and again the demand for more. Another! she should not refuse them. Only one more and they would be content. And a third time she sang; a third time was borne upwards ...
— Thyrza • George Gissing
... not a pretty handy sort of a fellow to have around," George remarked with a grin as he took the compass from around his neck and handed it to Sam. "I haven't written ...
— The Go Ahead Boys and the Treasure Cave • Ross Kay
... the Legs or lower, and not only looked grand but awful likewise. The man thus equip'd, and attended by 2 or 3 more men and Women with their faces and bodys besmear'd with soot, and a Club in their hands, would about sunset take a Compass of near a mile running here and there, and wherever they came the People would fly from them as tho' they had been so many hobgoblins, not one daring to come in their way. I know not the reason for their Performing this ceremony, which they call Heiva, ...
— Captain Cook's Journal During the First Voyage Round the World • James Cook
... over their maps, and in the recording of their compass bearings, for half an hour they forgot their messenger, until a shout called their attention. He was waving his hands, wildly beckoning. Yonder, alone in the plains, bewildered, hopeless, wandering, was ...
— The Magnificent Adventure - Being the Story of the World's Greatest Exploration and - the Romance of a Very Gallant Gentleman • Emerson Hough
... three days, and then it as suddenly fell calm. I had observed by the compass that we had been running to the eastward, and I supposed that we were not very far from the Western Isles. As I surveyed the bodies of my companions, it occurred to me that they ought to fetch a high price in Italy as specimens of art, and I resolved to dispose of them as the work of men. ...
— The Pacha of Many Tales • Frederick Marryat
... and Sidney's romance was not yet forgotten; his book was still alive, if one may say so, when the novel assumed its definite shape, style and compass with Defoe, Richardson and Fielding. Addison notices its presence in the fair Leonora's library, among "the some few which the lady had bought for her own use."[229] It continued then to be fashionable, and a ...
— The English Novel in the Time of Shakespeare • J. J. Jusserand
... if I were allowed, or had been hitherto allowed, by your impious flatterers. It is a small matter, if you look to its exterior, but, unless I mistake, it is a summary of the Christian life put together in small compass, if you apprehend its meaning. I, in my poverty, have no other present to make you, nor do you need anything else than to be enriched by a spiritual gift. I commend myself to your Paternity and Blessedness, whom may the Lord ...
— Concerning Christian Liberty - With Letter Of Martin Luther To Pope Leo X. • Martin Luther |
