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Theoretical   /θˌiərˈɛtɪkəl/   Listen
Theoretical

adjective
1.
Concerned primarily with theories or hypotheses rather than practical considerations.  Synonym: theoretic.
2.
Concerned with theories rather than their practical applications.



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"Theoretical" Quotes from Famous Books



... conclusions as to the effects of causes are necessarily based, implicitly, if not explicitly, upon the assumption "other things being equal." This method of reasoning, which some people appear to find so irritating in the economic sphere, and as they say so "theoretical" and "unreal," is one which they adopt readily enough in every other department of life. No one, for instance, objects to the statement that the sun, when it comes out, makes a room warmer, although it may very well happen, if a fire is dying at the same time, ...
— Supply and Demand • Hubert D. Henderson

... method of dealing with the actual criminal, the first thing to be done is to know what sort of a person you are dealing with. He must be carefully studied at first hand. At present too much attention is bestowed on theoretical discussions respecting the various kinds of crime and punishment, while hardly any account is taken of the persons who commit the crime and require the punishment. Yet this is the most important point of all; the other is trivial in comparison with ...
— Crime and Its Causes • William Douglas Morrison

... two together constitute the aggregate resistance which makes it necessary that the power for increasing a vessel's speed shall increase as the cube of the velocity. But whatever the rationale, the law itself is an admitted fact by all theoretical engineers, and is proven in practice by all steamships. In evidence of this, I will ...
— Ocean Steam Navigation and the Ocean Post • Thomas Rainey

... a beard beneath his chin. Whether from his recent captivity or from constitutional causes, there was an air of lassitude in his look to which the fatigues of his voyage not improbably contributed. Altogether, he gave one the idea of a visionary or theoretical enthusiast rather then of a great leader ...
— Perley's Reminiscences, Vol. 1-2 - of Sixty Years in the National Metropolis • Benjamin Perley Poore

... shock. It is a mistake to set these swift changes down to political levity; they were due rather to quickness of political intuition. It was the King's attempt at flight in the summer of 1791 that first created a republican party. It was that unhappy exploit, and no theoretical preferences, that awoke France to the necessity of choosing between the sacrifice of monarchy and the restoration ...
— Critical Miscellanies (Vol. 1 of 3) - Essay 1: Robespierre • John Morley

... of getting him so drunk that he would not interfere with her escape had the merit of simplicity, and also of endorsement by such excellent authority as melodrama and the novel. It had the defect of being entirely theoretical. Nan's innocence of the matter in hand had not taken into account the intermediate stages of drunkenness, nor did she realize the strength inherent in the association of ideas. As she leaned forward to fill ...
— The Gray Dawn • Stewart Edward White

... moment that he had learned this valuable lesson—and Roosevelt never needed to learn a lesson twice—he had his course in public life marked out before him. He believed ardently in getting things done. He was no theoretical reformer. He would never take the wrong road; but, if he could not go as far as he wanted to along the right road, he would go as far as he could, and bide his time for the rest. He would not compromise a hair's breadth on a principle; he would compromise cheerfully on a ...
— Theodore Roosevelt and His Times - A Chronicle of the Progressive Movement; Volume 47 in The - Chronicles Of America Series • Harold Howland

... the discipline for the defensive of both sides, trench raids were of far more service to the British than to the Germans; for the British staff found in them an invaluable method of preparation for the offensive. Not only had the artillery practice in supporting actual rather than theoretical attacks, but when the men went over the parapet it was in face of the enemy, who might turn on his machine guns if not silenced by accurate gunfire. They learned how to cooerdinate their efforts, whether individually or as units, both in the charge and in cleaning out the German dugouts. Their ...
— My Second Year of the War • Frederick Palmer

... the first, we shall be the shorter, because through God's great mercy, the gospel's pure way of justification by faith in Christ is richly and abundantly cleared up by many worthy authors, of late, both as concerning the theoretical and practical part. ...
— Christ The Way, The Truth, and The Life • John Brown (of Wamphray)

... treatment. In most modern stone-cut letters, however, the thin strokes would be made even wider than in this example, as in 14. Mr. Ross's adaptation shows excellently how far the classic letters do or do not fill out the theoretical square. ...
— Letters and Lettering - A Treatise With 200 Examples • Frank Chouteau Brown

... aloud on the first day of each yearly Assembly, that amendments or alterations upon it might be proposed; and in Scotland also the view was strongly held that the only standard unchangeable by the Church was Scripture. This theoretical view, however, was not to have much immediate practical result; especially as the Confession was now ratified by the Parliament. And this was done without change or qualification, though the preface ...
— John Knox • A. Taylor Innes

... actually be observed by any mortal. Yet, if I continued my round, I should actually observe it and know it by experience; and I should find that it had the same status as the parts now seen, and was continuous with them. My assertion that it exists, while certainly theoretical and perhaps false, is accordingly scientific in type. Science, when it has no more scope than this, is indistinguishable from common sense. The two become distinct only when the facts inferred cannot be easily verified or have not yet been merged with ...
— The Life of Reason • George Santayana

... He afterwards became a theoretical churchgoer. "Wordsworth defended earnestly the Church establishment. He even said he would shed his blood for it. Nor was he disconcerted by a laugh raised against him on account of his having confessed that he knew not when he had been ...
— Among My Books • James Russell Lowell

... citizens to bestow political advancement. Certain will be allowed to become pupils of Plato, who has been teaching his philosophy out at the groves of the Academy, or to join some of his rivals in theoretical wisdom. Into these fields, however, we ...
— A Day In Old Athens • William Stearns Davis

... professor of geometry and mathematics, and possessed of considerable theoretical knowledge of military architecture, Father Griffen had given most excellent advice to the successive governors of Martinique on the construction of works ...
— A Romance of the West Indies • Eugene Sue

... polite taste for the universally valid utterances of the primitive heart. The accompanying measurement according to the epic rules and models was not a qualification of the taste, but only a somewhat awkward theoretical dimension ...
— Parodies of Ballad Criticism (1711-1787) • William Wagstaffe

... first examine Faraday's discovery of the relations existing between light and magnetism. Though the discovery has not as yet borne fruit in any direct practical application, yet it has proved of immense value from a theoretical standpoint. In this investigation Faraday proved that light-vibrations are rotated by the action of a magnetic field. He employed the light of an ordinary Argand lamp, and polarized it by reflection from a glass surface. He caused this polarized light to pass through a ...
— Beacon Lights of History, Volume XIV • John Lord

... the Lay Reader. It was astonishing how almost instantaneously a man as purely theoretical as the Lay Reader was supposed to be, thought of a perfectly practical solution to the difficulty. "Why—why we might tie my big handkerchief across your eyes," he suggested. "Just till we get this mystery straightened ...
— Peace on Earth, Good-will to Dogs • Eleanor Hallowell Abbott

... which pursued them all through their lives. Their views found general favor, however, as might be expected from such an inchoate mass of men, revolutionaries to the core, and waiting only for effective leadership. A resolution was adopted requesting Marx and Engels to prepare "a complete theoretical and working programme" for the League. This they did. It took the form of the Communist Manifesto, published in the ...
— Socialism - A Summary and Interpretation of Socialist Principles • John Spargo

... same style into poetic narrative, herein abetted by Friedrich von Hagedorn as his predecessor and co-worker. Right on the threshold, then, of the great new German literature another mixture of styles sprang up, and we see, for example, Klopstock strangely transplanting his pathos into the field of theoretical researches on grammar and metrics, and Wieland not always keeping his irony aloof from the most solemn subjects. But beside them stood Gotthold Ephraim Lessing who proved himself to be the most thoughtful of the reformers ...
— The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, • Editor-in-Chief: Kuno Francke

... that afternoon particularly enlivening. Even Mrs. Tanberry gave way to the common depression, and, once more, her doctrine of cheerfulness relegated to the ghostly ranks of the purely theoretical, she bowed under the burden of her woe so far as to sing "Methought I Met a Damsel Fair" (her of the bursting sighs) at the piano. Whenever sadness lay upon her soul she had acquired the habit of resorting to this unhappy ballad; today she sang it four times. Mr. ...
— The Two Vanrevels • Booth Tarkington

... so long as they do so judiciously and do not molest the Duffys. The trouble goes deeper than that. The truth is that we are up against that most delicate of situations, the concrete adjustment of a theoretical individual right to a practical necessity. The same difficulty has always existed and will always continue to exist whenever emergencies requiring prompt and decisive action arise or conditions obtain that must be handled effectively without ...
— Courts and Criminals • Arthur Train

... the theatre fully developed in his blood, nor such a congenital lack of that instinct as to be wholly inapprehensive of any technical difficulties or problems. The intelligent novice, standing between these extremes, tends, as a rule, to overrate the efficacy of theoretical instruction, and to expect of analytic criticism more than it has ...
— Play-Making - A Manual of Craftsmanship • William Archer

... question of constitutional prerogative. Then the governor is no longer responsible to the imperial authority, and Canada is an independent country. Mr. Baldwin's proceeding, therefore, not only leads to independence but involves (unconsciously, I admit, from extreme and theoretical views), a practical declaration of independence before the arrival of the ...
— George Brown • John Lewis

... stricken in years, whose name was Douban: and he had studied many books, Greek, ancient and modern, and Persian and Turkish and Arabic and Syriac and Hebrew, and was skilled in medicine and astrology, both theoretical and practical. Moreover he was familiar with all plants and herbs and grasses, whether harmful or beneficial, and was versed in the learning of the philosophers; in brief, he had made himself master of all sciences, medical and other. He had not been long in the town before he heard of ...
— The Book Of The Thousand Nights And One Night, Volume I • Anonymous

... the Irish Parliament adopted on this occasion, would have been productive of anomalies, both theoretical and practical, had the continued illness of the King allowed the projected Regency to take place. As it was, the most material consequence that ensued was the dismissal from their official situations of Mr. Ponsonby and other powerful individuals, by which the ...
— Memoirs of the Life of Rt. Hon. Richard Brinsley Sheridan Vol 2 • Thomas Moore

... are likewise divided into two classes, theoretical and productive: of the latter, one part is pure, the other impure. The pure part consists of arithmetic, mensuration, and weighing. Arts like carpentering, which have an exact measure, are to be regarded as higher than music, which for the most part is mere guess-work. ...
— Philebus • Plato

... general credit was springing up; the old, old payments in kind, in iron or even meal and apparel, or gold, had given place to reciprocal understandings of deferred indebtedness. The actual thousands of earlier commerce were replaced by theoretical millions. His own realty, his personal property, because of such understandings, were outside computation. They were, he knew, reckoned in surprising figures; but in a wide-spread panic, forced liquidation, the greater part of his wealth would ...
— The Three Black Pennys - A Novel • Joseph Hergesheimer

... weapon, scientists and technicians expanded their knowledge of nuclear fission and developed both the gun-type and the implosion mechanisms to release the energy of a nuclear chain reaction. Their knowledge, however, was only theoretical. They could be certain neither of the extent and effects of such a nuclear chain reaction, nor of the hazards of the resulting blast and radiation. Protective measures could be based only on estimates and calculations. Furthermore, scientists were reasonably ...
— Project Trinity 1945-1946 • Carl Maag and Steve Rohrer

... compelled to retreat from his theoretical position all along the line. He is ready to meet the western ...
— The Bullitt Mission to Russia • William C. Bullitt

... But a theoretical adherence of the mind to dogmas that satisfy it, does not suffice to convert it to a new religion. There must be motives of conduct and a basis for hope besides grounds for belief. The Persian dualism was not only a powerful ...
— The Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism • Franz Cumont

... which give physical and moral energy, ambition and industry. One man is splendidly equipped with knowledge and is thoroughly posted in regard to how a business should be conducted in all of its practical and theoretical details, but he is afflicted with inertia, he does not move. The unscientific observer says he is lazy, and that is true, but Phrenology analyzes even laziness and finds that it is caused by a lack of sense. Develop the organs of physical and moral energy, ...
— How to Become Rich - A Treatise on Phrenology, Choice of Professions and Matrimony • William Windsor

... whom science owes a fine system of theoretical physiology, and who, while still young, made himself a celebrity in the medical school of Paris, that central luminary to which European doctors do homage, practised surgery for a long time before he took up medicine. ...
— The Atheist's Mass • Honore de Balzac

... point mentioned in the theoretical consideration of turbidity removal in the filters, the daily turbidities of the filtered water have been classified and summarized for different turbidities in the applied water, and also for different temperatures. The average turbidities thus ...
— Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers, vol. LXXII, June, 1911 • E. D. Hardy

... not going to argue with you," laughed Benson. "You'll go your own way and do as you please, and probably get yourself comfortably shot up before you get through. But I didn't come up here to wrangle with you about your theoretical notions of law and order. I came to tell you that I have been hunting for ...
— The Taming of Red Butte Western • Francis Lynde

... load I had to carry in the woman question, but you did not know the load you had to carry in Train. When the poor man's horse fell and broke his leg, the crowd sympathized. "How much you pity?" asked the Frenchman; "I pity man $20." I saw that the theoretical breeching had broken in Kansas, and with voice, with pen, with time and, what none of your old friends did, with purse, I threw myself ...
— The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony (Volume 1 of 2) • Ida Husted Harper

... beside Mallet at the Freshmen's table in the Hall, wild and eager, shy and forthcoming, bursting with the desire to talk and to hear talk, and yet not exactly knowing how to approach my fellow-novices, I was an ardent, if theoretical, Republican and Socialist. I was, while only a schoolboy of fourteen or fifteen, a passionate admirer of Arch, the man who formed the first Agricultural Labourers' Union, and a regular reader of his penny weekly organ. ...
— The Adventure of Living • John St. Loe Strachey

... "There are two theoretical methods whereby man may become the master of society, and make of society an intelligent and efficacious device for the pursuit and capture of happiness and laughter. The first theory advances the proposition that no government ...
— Revolution and Other Essays • Jack London

... of the New Testament, which is nothing more than the working out of the theoretical and practical consequence of these great truths. All the Epistles, the Book of Revelation, and the history of the Church, as embodied in the Acts of the Apostles,—all these are but the consequences of that fundamental truth; and the whole ...
— Expositions of Holy Scripture: St. John Chaps. XV to XXI • Alexander Maclaren

... logic, threw away argument, and came down to the sure demonstrations of sober fact. You watched by the marshy pool, and caught the 'peeper' in the act, took him 'in flagrante, delicto,' as the lawyers say, and thus ended the theoretical discussion about the 'peepers.' You placed another fixed fact upon the ...
— Wild Northern Scenes - Sporting Adventures with the Rifle and the Rod • S. H. Hammond

... to be a religion of health, longevity and happiness, the fruits of spiritual action; a religion which denies both the theoretical and practical existence ...
— Modern Saints and Seers • Jean Finot

... material serving exactly the function of the coating of a bulletproof gasoline tank. No meteor under a quarter-inch size could hope to make a puncture, even at the forty-five-mile-per-second speed that is the theoretical maximum for meteors. And if one did, the selfsealing stuff would stop the leak immediately. Joe could explain the protection of the metal skins. ...
— Space Platform • Murray Leinster

... nothing. A classic of the first water, a very respectable mathematician, an expert in theology, a student of sundry foreign languages and literature in his lighter moments, an inquirer into sociology, a theoretical musician though his playing of the organ excruciated most people because it was too correct, a really first-class authority upon flint instruments and the best grower of garden vegetables in the county, also of apples—such were ...
— When the World Shook - Being an Account of the Great Adventure of Bastin, Bickley and Arbuthnot • H. Rider Haggard

... the unanimous consent of all the States? Can any thing in theory be more perniciously improvident and injudicious than this submission of the will of the majority to the most trifling minority? Have not experience and practice actually manifested this theoretical inconvenience to be extremely impolitic? Let me mention one fact, which I conceive must carry conviction to the mind of any one,—the smallest State in the Union has obstructed every attempt to ...
— American Eloquence, Volume I. (of 4) - Studies In American Political History (1896) • Various

... there's the last and best point of all, eh?" wound up Mr Small, with a thumping blow upon the ribs of the middy, that almost took away his breath. We give this as a specimen of Mr Small's style of practical and theoretical ...
— The Poacher - Joseph Rushbrook • Frederick Marryat

... into business, as a clerk to some merchant, or in some store. His father's home is abandoned, except when it may suit his convenience, his salary being sufficient for most of his wants. He frequents the bar, calls for gin cocktails, chews tobacco, and talks politics. His theoretical education, whether he has profited much by it or not, is now superseded by a more practical one, in which he obtains a most rapid proficiency. I have no hesitation in asserting that there is more practical knowledge among the Americans than among ...
— Diary in America, Series One • Frederick Marryat (AKA Captain Marryat)

... unwilling reformer, but that he had not clear and fair convictions of the truth of the great principles of political economy, that he was still the man of mere political expediency, and almost as jealous as ever of all bold attempts at theoretical or practical reform. The support of Sir Robert, such as it was, saved the government, for on this question, at all events, he held the balance of power. The debate lasted through the nights of the 27th and 28th, the West-India interest affecting great horror of slavery, ...
— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. - From George III. to Victoria • E. Farr and E. H. Nolan

... forgotten. In his History of Medicine, Dr. Bostock gives a sketch of the attitude of Galen towards the rival schools. "In his general principles he may be considered as belonging to the Dogmatic sect, for his method was to reduce all his knowledge, as acquired by the observation of facts, to general theoretical principles. These principles he indeed professed to deduce from experience and observation,[267] and we have abundant proofs of his diligence in collecting experience and his accuracy in making observations; ...
— Jerome Cardan - A Biographical Study • William George Waters

... our faith in the existence of a God, not only as the ground of the universe by his essence, but as its maker and judge by his wisdom and holy will, appeared to stand thus. The sciential reason, the objects of which are purely theoretical, remains neutral, as long as its name and semblance are not usurped by the opponents of the doctrine. But it then becomes an effective ally by exposing the false show of demonstration, or by evincing the equal demonstrability of the contrary from premises equally ...
— Biographia Literaria • Samuel Taylor Coleridge

... seen was most certainly not the Projectile; 2. Error of theory regarding the final fate of the Projectile, since to make it become the Moon's satellite was flying in the face of one of the great fundamental laws of Theoretical Mechanics. ...
— All Around the Moon • Jules Verne

... to his general, and from whom it was learnt that the garrison contained only six thousand, men. This personal temerity, and the applause of Field-marshal Laudon, procured him then a kind of reputation, which he has not since been able to support. Some theoretical knowledge of the art of war, and a great facility of conversing on military topics, made even the Emperor Joseph conceive a high opinion of this officer; but it has long been proved, and experience confirms ...
— Memoirs of the Court of St. Cloud, Complete - Being Secret Letters from a Gentleman at Paris to a Nobleman in London • Lewis Goldsmith

... another. That person has persuaded the other to administer to Eugenia an extract because 'it must be a boy and an Atherton.' That person is a high-class defective, born with a criminal instinct, reacting to it in an artful way. Thank God, the love of a man whom theoretical ...
— The War Terror • Arthur B. Reeve

... as it is recognized that our thought, as logic deals with it, reposes on our will to think, the primacy of the will, even in the theoretical sphere, must be conceded; and the last of presuppositions is not merely [Kant's] that 'I think' must accompany all my representations, but also that 'I will' must dominate all my thinking." (Sigwart; ...
— The Will to Believe - and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy • William James

... no way radical, either in the subject-matter selected or in the method of treatment. At the same time it is in thorough harmony with the most recent developments in chemistry, both in respect to theory and discovery. Great care has been taken in the theoretical portions to make the treatment simple and well within the reach of the ability of an elementary student. The most recent discoveries have been touched upon where they come within the scope of an elementary text. Especial ...
— An Elementary Study of Chemistry • William McPherson

... cahiers to the twenty-one proposals before the National Assembly, vary more or less from the original, either in conciseness or in breadth, in cleverness or in awkwardness of expression. But so far as substantial additions are concerned they present only doctrinaire statements of a purely theoretical nature or elaborations, which belong to the realm of political metaphysics. To enter upon them here is unnecessary. Let us confine ourselves to the completed work, the Declaration as it was finally determined after long ...
— The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of Citizens • Georg Jellinek

... and theoretical parts of Chemistry it has been thought best to intersperse throughout the book, placing each where it seemed to be especially needed; in this way, it is hoped that the tedium which pupils find in studying consecutively many chapters of theories ...
— An Introduction to Chemical Science • R.P. Williams

... only in extent but also in variety. The ways in which we can wisely make effort seem to be as follows: 1. Agriculture, which is to be, after all, the occupation of the great majority of the people for whom we are laboring. In this, we may well give somewhat of theoretical instruction through lectures and even text-books; but more important than this, and not incompatible with it, is that effective teaching which comes by working out the practical object lesson of a thoroughly well tilled farm, as ...
— The American Missionary—Volume 39, No. 02, February, 1885 • Various

... acquired a knowledge of mechanical forces, who understands at least that great law that for all force exerted there is exacted an equivalent, ever dreams upon the folly of the perpetual motion. In like manner does a knowledge, purely theoretical, of the laws of electricity prevent that waste of time in gropings and dreams of which the story of science and the long human struggle in all ages and in ...
— Steam Steel and Electricity • James W. Steele

... und Isolde" is not so great as between "Tristan und Isolde" and "Siegfried," notwithstanding that in the love tragedy Wagner took as uncompromising a stand as ever did a Greek poet, and hewed to the lines of his theoretical scheme with unswerving fidelity. In the subject-matter of the drama lies the distinction. Despite the absence of the ethical element which places "Tannhuser" immeasurably higher than "Tristan" as a dramatic poem, the latter drama contains an expression of the universal ...
— Chapters of Opera • Henry Edward Krehbiel

... 50 lbs. weight, is necessary to draw it up; if 1 1/2 feet deep, that a much more considerable strain is necessary; and that, if 2 feet deep, it is quite impossible for a single man to pull it up. In the following theoretical case, the resistance would be as the cube of the depth; but in sand or shingle, the increase is less rapid. It varies under different circumstances; but it is no exaggeration to estimate its increase as seldom less than as the square of the depth. The ...
— The Art of Travel - Shifts and Contrivances Available in Wild Countries • Francis Galton

... has given us a closer rule to try the question by. He told his disciples, "This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you." Does any one ask how that was? The Lord tells us in the next breath. It was no theoretical feeling. "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye ...
— The Old Helmet, Volume I • Susan Warner

... Biology 4: Bird Course; Biology 5: Tree Course; Biology 6: Bacteriology and Fermentation; Biology 7: Biology of Sex; Heredity and Eugenics; Biology 8: Biology and Education; Biology 9: Evolution and Theoretical Problems. ...
— College Teaching - Studies in Methods of Teaching in the College • Paul Klapper

... are pardonable to one who, in his calmer hours, was ready to confess them. "Your temptation and mine," he writes to his brother Alexander, "is a tendency to imperiousness and indignant self-help; and, if no wise theoretical, yet, practical forgetfulness and tyrannical contempt of other men." His nicknaming mania was the inheritance of a family failing, always fostered by the mocking-bird at his side. Humour, doubtless, ought to discount many of his criticisms. Dean Stanley, in his funeral sermon, charitably ...
— Thomas Carlyle - Biography • John Nichol

... confusion of inference with observation, weakness of judgment, prepossession, emotional interest, excitement, or an abnormal mental condition. It is the author's view that the judge should understand these relations not merely in their narrower practical bearings, but in their larger and more theoretical aspects which the study of psychology as a comprehensive science sets forth. There is the allied problem of testimony and belief, which concerns the peculiarly judicial qualities. To ease the step from ideas to their expression, to estimate motive and intention, to ...
— Robin Hood • J. Walker McSpadden

... uniformity. While it may work satisfactorily in many cases, it is very evident that in others, when the cream is already filled with a large number of malign species of bacteria, such an artificial culture would not produce the desired results. This appears to be not only the theoretical but the actual experience. The addition of such pure cultures in many cases produces favourable results, but it does not always do so, and the result is not uniform. While the use of pure cultures in this way is an advantage over the method of simply allowing the cream to ripen normally ...
— The Story Of Germ Life • H. W. Conn

... he went next to fight in Africa at Azamor, a town in Morocco, where he received a slight wound in his knee, but one which by injuring a nerve made him lame for the remainder of his life, and obliged him to return to Portugal. Conscious of the superiority which his theoretical and practical knowledge and his services had earned for him above the herd of courtiers, Magellan naturally felt more keenly than another would have done the unjust treatment he received from Emmanuel with regard to certain complaints laid by the people of Azamor against the Portuguese officers. ...
— Celebrated Travels and Travellers - Part I. The Exploration of the World • Jules Verne

... From a theoretical point of view, I prefer to this our American plan of a tribunal permanently in session: the judges, in every particular case, to be selected from this. Thus would be provided a court of any odd number between three and nine, ...
— Autobiography of Andrew Dickson White Volume II • Andrew Dickson White

... compete with it; in short, it may be said to embrace a very fair college education. Read the following list of professors: the Principal, who is also Professor of Moral, Mental, and Political Science; Professor of Practical Mathematics; of Theoretical Science and Astronomy; of History and Belles-Lettres; of Natural History; of Latin and Greek; of French and Spanish; of Drawing, Writing, and Book-keeping; of Chemistry and Natural Philosophy; and three assistants. The highest salary received by these ...
— Lands of the Slave and the Free - Cuba, The United States, and Canada • Henry A. Murray

... studies social phenomena should bear in mind that side by side with their theoretical value they possess a practical value, and that this latter, so far as the evolution of civilisation is concerned, is alone of importance. The recognition of this fact should render him very circumspect with regard to ...
— The Crowd • Gustave le Bon

... there is a vicious circle in our previous reasoning? Theoretical culture must it seems bring along with it practical culture, and yet the latter must be the condition of the former. All improvement in the political sphere must proceed from the ennobling of the character. But, ...
— Literary and Philosophical Essays • Various

... day my feet are not so weary, and while I iron I mull over ideas on women in industry. After all, have not some of us with the good of labor at heart been a bit too theoretical? Take the welfare idea so scoffed at by many. After all, there is more to be said for than against. Of course, provided—It is all very well to say labor should be allowed to look after itself, and none of this paternalism. Of course, the paternalism can be overdone and unwisely done. But, at least ...
— Working With the Working Woman • Cornelia Stratton Parker

... struggles were the lot of his early friends also; Mackintosh talked of going to India as a lecturer; Smith recommended Jeffrey to do the same. Happily, both had the courage and the sense to await for better times at home; yet Smith's opinion of Mackintosh was, that 'he never saw so theoretical a head which contained so much practical understanding;' and ...
— The Wits and Beaux of Society - Volume 2 • Grace & Philip Wharton

... its highest value, of course, the theoretical side of our instrument must occupy the attention of the most accomplished experts. We may not despair that our somewhat too practical past in this respect may right itself in our own country; but meantime the ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 643, April 28, 1888 • Various

... possibility, and he does not relish the prospect of being done with as a possibility. Such considerations, all connected more or less with the loss of "freedom" (oh, mysterious and thrilling word!), will affect his theoretical attitude. And be it known that even the freedom to be lonely and ...
— Mental Efficiency - And Other Hints to Men and Women • Arnold Bennett

... knowledge was impossible, and whose intellectual examination was therefore fruitless. The Philosophy based on this critical Method was denominated by its founder Positivism. All modern Scientists, with rare exceptions, whether they are disciples of Comte or not, are theoretical Positivists in their modes of investigation, in their unwillingness to accept theories not proven, in their partiality for Facts, and in their devotion to the Inductive Method, although the nature of proof is still but dimly comprehended by them as a body, and much laxity creeps into their ...
— Continental Monthly , Vol IV, Issue VI, December 1863 - Devoted to Literature and National Policy. • Various

... the others should have only delegated powers; and that this one should be designated by some general presumption of law, for example as being the eldest. The law never does this: nor does experience show it to be necessary that any theoretical inequality of power should exist between the partners, or that the partnership should have any other conditions than what they may themselves appoint by their articles of agreement. Yet it might seem that the exclusive power might be conceded with less danger to the rights and interests of ...
— The Subjection of Women • John Stuart Mill

... by proper combinations. In this part of his performances He had none to imitate, but has himself been imitated by all succeeding writers; and it may be doubted, whether from all his successors more maxims of theoretical knowledge, or more rules of practical prudence, can be collected, than he alone has given ...
— Preface to Shakespeare • Samuel Johnson

... the outline of this famous tribute by an unbelieving philosopher to the merits of Christianity as a scheme of moral discipline. Now, it must be remembered that Marcus Aurelius was by profession a Stoic; and that generally, as a theoretical philosopher, but still more as a Stoic philosopher, he might be supposed incapable of descending from these airy altitudes of speculation to the true needs, infirmities, and capacities of human nature. Yet strange ...
— The Caesars • Thomas de Quincey

... of extensive medical and physiological reading. This great treatise by the learned Good found in Dr. Doane a worthy editor. His edition is enlarged by numerous notes by the cis-atlantic scholar, and as they embrace the theoretical and practical views of the physicians and writers of the United States, it has always held a conspicuous place among books referred to for the doctrines, in theory and in practice, of a large number of the ...
— The International Monthly, Volume 5, No. 3, March, 1852 • Various

... material power, which was greatly strengthened by the last French war, did nothing to dull the sense of rights, but it was, on the contrary, a marked stimulus to the mind in formulating a plausible, if theoretical, justification of desired aims. Doubtless no American would say that being able to pay taxes was a good reason for not paying them, or that obligations might rightly be ignored as soon as one was in a position to do so successfully; but that he should not "lose his native rights" any American ...
— The Eve of the Revolution - A Chronicle of the Breach with England, Volume 11 In The - Chronicles Of America Series • Carl Becker

... Oldborough says and thinks—and, in short, to come to the point at once, I was not sounding you from idle curiosity respecting patronage, or from any impertinent desire to interfere with your concerns; but I come, commissioned by Lord Oldborough, to make an offer, which, I am persuaded, whatever theoretical objections might occur," said the commissioner, with a significant smile, "Mr. Percy is too much a man of practical sense to reject. Lord Oldborough empowers me to say, that it is his wish to see his government supported and strengthened by men of Mr. Percy's talents and character; that ...
— Tales and Novels, Vol. VII - Patronage • Maria Edgeworth

... man of science, eagerly examining the phenomena of sea and sky, to add to the stock of human knowledge. Very naturally there grew up under such conditions an increasing desire to reach the Pole itself, and to test whether the theoretical conclusions of the astronomer were borne out by the actual observations of one standing upon the apex of the spinning earth. The attempt to reach the Pole became henceforth the great preoccupation of Arctic discovery. From this time on the story of what ...
— Adventurers of the Far North - A Chronicle of the Frozen Seas • Stephen Leacock

... The sovereignty of England was not to be diminished; he would hold the kingdom as freely as his predecessors had done. Peter's pence, which it belonged of right to England to pay, should be regularly collected and sent to Rome, but no right of rule, even theoretical, over king or kingdom, could be allowed ...
— The History of England From the Norman Conquest - to the Death of John (1066-1216) • George Burton Adams

... filled with woodcuts and zinc etchings of buildings that never existed save in his own dear old head, and about twice a year during the boom days he would bring them around and have a circular printed on which were the pictures showing the imaginary public buildings and theoretical business thoroughfares of the ...
— In Our Town • William Allen White

... upon our subject. The most important American contribution, however, is to be found in the Special Report on the Blind and the Deaf, in the Twelfth Census of the United States, prepared by Dr. Alexander Graham Bell. Although American writers have had little part in the theoretical discussions, our legislators have been active, so that the statutes of every state specify degrees of kinship within which marriage is prohibited. In at least sixteen states the prohibition is extended to include first cousins. In New Hampshire ...
— Consanguineous Marriages in the American Population • George B. Louis Arner

... of outside fertilizers, and relying wholly upon repeated and perfect pulverization of the soil.[10] And Mr. Way, the distinguished chemist of the Royal Society, in a paper on "The Power of Soils to absorb Manure,"[11] propounds the question as follows:—"Is it likely, on theoretical considerations, that the air and the soil together can by any means be made to yield, without the application of manure, and year after year continuously, a crop of wheat of from thirty to thirty-five ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 13, No. 77, March, 1864 • Various

... rosy, romping, but amiable children; and there was so much of good nature and kindness about the manners of every member of the family, that the whole neighborhood were prepossessed in their favor. Mr. James was a man of somewhat visionary and theoretical turn of mind, and very much in the habit of following out his own ideas of right and wrong, without troubling himself particularly as to the appearance his course might make in the eyes of others. He was a supporter ...
— The May Flower, and Miscellaneous Writings • Harriet Beecher Stowe

... That criticism for the time being checked official leanings towards a League of Nations. But the war went on, threatening to end in a balance of power, which was anything but welcome to those who combined a theoretical belief in the Balance of Power with a practical demand for its complete destruction by an overwhelming victory for our Allies and ourselves. Meanwhile, before America came in, President Wilson was declaring that, ...
— Essays in Liberalism - Being the Lectures and Papers Which Were Delivered at the - Liberal Summer School at Oxford, 1922 • Various

... opportunity of growing upward towards final perfection. In the mass it is, of course, unlikely that it will travel that road: final perfection is not a gift to be bestowed upon all, but to be worked for by those who desire it. It may be put within the theoretical reach of all; there may be no human creature living at this moment, of whom it can be said that the highest possibilities of Nature are impossible of attainment, but it does not follow by any means that every individual will ...
— Five Years Of Theosophy • Various

... his delay in meeting A. J. Smith and Porter at Alexandria, yet, whatever may be the theoretical merits of such a criticism, in fact no loss of time that occurred up to the moment of quitting Alexandria had the least influence on the course of the campaign, for even after the concentration was ...
— History of the Nineteenth Army Corps • Richard Biddle Irwin

... fight disease, and the weight of the responsibility added zest to his care of each particular case. It was, however, natural to him to be more interested in the general weal than in the individual, more interested in a theoretical problem than in its practical working. His mind was concerned now as to where and how the contagion hid itself, reappearing as it had done, again and again in unlikely places; for there could be assuredly ...
— The Mermaid - A Love Tale • Lily Dougall

... much. In a prison or an asylum each functionary is important in exact proportion to his nominal insignificance; and why? Because the greater his nominal unimportance the more he comes in actual contact with the patient. The theoretical scale runs thus: 1st. The presiding physician. 2d. The medical subordinates. 3d. The keepers and nurses. The practical scale runs thus: 1st. The keepers and nurses. 2d. The medical attendants. 3d. The ...
— A Terrible Temptation - A Story of To-Day • Charles Reade

... easy to see that signals can be sent in this way. The first to do so in a practical manner was Signer Marconi, a young Italian hitherto unknown to fame. In carrying out his invention, Marconi made use of facts well known to theoretical electricians, one of whom, Dr, Oliver J. Lodge, had even sent signals with them in 1894; but it often happens in science as in literature that the recognised professors, the men who seem to have everything in their favour—knowledge, even talent—the ...
— The Story Of Electricity • John Munro

... the women connived, posed, and set most ingenious traps and devised most extraordinary means to captivate their hero. As the century wore on and the vices and appetites gradually consumed the healthy tissues, there sprang up a class of monsters, most accomplished roues, consummate leaders of theoretical and practical immorality, who were without conscience. To gain their ends, they manipulated every medium—valets, chambermaids, scandal, charity; their one object was to ...
— Women of Modern France - Woman In All Ages And In All Countries • Hugo P. Thieme

... THE CHURCH, PROTESTANT AND CATHOLIC. Sir Robert Filmer's attack on the old doctrine Retreat of the Protestant Church in Holland In Germany and America Difficulties in the way of compromise in the Catholic Church Failure of such attempts in France Theoretical condemnation of usury in Italy Disregard of all restrictions in practice Attempts of Escobar and Liguori to reconcile the taking of interest with the teachings of the Church Montesquieu's attack on the old theory Encyclical of Benedict ...
— History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom • Andrew Dickson White

... society to higher and more complex types of social organization and the causes of social decline. The former problem, social progress, is in a peculiar sense the central problem of sociology. The effort of theoretical sociology is to develop a scientific theory of social progress. The study of social evolution, then, that is, social changes of all sorts, as we have emphasized above, is the vital part of sociology; and it is ...
— Sociology and Modern Social Problems • Charles A. Ellwood

... the tendency of engineer service to unfit men for command. It was once said of a certain colonel that he was an admirable officer when absent from soldiers. No amount of theoretical training can supply the knowledge gained by direct and immediate association with troops. The ablest and most promising graduates from West Point are annually assigned to the engineer and ordnance corps. After some years they become scientists, perhaps ...
— Destruction and Reconstruction: - Personal Experiences of the Late War • Richard Taylor

... excessive activity of the ovarian nerves, derived from the hypogastric plexus; paralysis of uterine vaso-motor nerves, as a secondary result of this excessive action: exhaustion of these same vaso-motor nerves, as an element of general nervous exhaustion. The last theoretical condition would be, excitement of the brain or spinal cord, in a manner analogous to what may be determined by a galvanic current, and followed, therefore, by the same consequence—paralysis of vaso-motor nerves, and excessive dilatation ...
— The Education of American Girls • Anna Callender Brackett

... when placed in acid, was entirely dissolved, with the exception of some flocculent animal matter; its specific gravity was 2.63. The specific gravity of ordinary limestone varies from 2.6 to 2.75; pure Carrara marble was found by Sir H. De la Beche to be 2.7. ("Researches in Theoretical Geology" page 12.) It is remarkable that these rocks of Ascension, formed close to the surface, should be nearly as compact as marble, which has undergone the action of heat and ...
— Volcanic Islands • Charles Darwin

... with regard to specific output are difficult to classify. It would be most interesting to give the data in the form of watt-hours per pound of active material, and then to compare them with the theoretical values, but such figures are impossible in the nature of the case except in very special instances. For many purposes, long life and trustworthiness are more important than specific output. Except in the case ...
— Project Gutenberg Encyclopedia

... Necessity as makes us cry for bread. They were clearly concerned only with magic or poetry; though the Professor claimed that poetry was but a branch of his subject; and it was so regarded at Saragossa, where it was taught by the name of theoretical magic, while by the name of practical magic they taught dooms, brews, hauntings, ...
— Don Rodriguez - Chronicles of Shadow Valley • Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, Baron, Dunsany

... excellent air. Did you see a report of Mr. Lashmar's speech? Rather good, I thought. Perhaps just a little too vague: the fault I hoped he would avoid. But of course it's very difficult to adapt oneself all at once to electioneering necessities. Mr. Lashmar is theoretical; of course that ...
— Our Friend the Charlatan • George Gissing

... of these names some pronounce a misnomer, And say the first person Was call'd James M'Pherson, While, as to the second, they stoutly declare He was no one knows who, and born no one knows where) Or had I the quill of Pierce Egan, a writer Acknowledged the best theoretical fighter For the last twenty years, By the lively young Peers, Who, doffing their coronets, collars, and ermine, treat Boxers to "Max," at the One Tun in Jermyn Street; —I say, could I borrow these ...
— The Humourous Poetry of the English Language • James Parton

... work, says: "In order to satisfy the sentiments of friendship, as well as those of gratitude, I must publicly acknowledge my obligations to the zeal, intelligence, taste, and erudition of the Rev. Mr. Twining, a gentleman whose least merit is being perfectly acquainted with every branch of theoretical ...
— The Violin - Its Famous Makers and Their Imitators • George Hart

... representative out of reach before the man who is to operate it fully realizes that he has a new type of prime mover on his hands, with which he has little or no acquaintance, has not been written. There has been much published, both descriptive and theoretical, about the turbine, but so far as the writer knows, there is nothing in print that tells the man on the job about the details of the turbine in plain language, and how to handle these details when they need handling. The operating ...
— Steam Turbines - A Book of Instruction for the Adjustment and Operation of - the Principal Types of this Class of Prime Movers • Hubert E. Collins

... unsullied, the fine theoretical moralist, was to return along that road a thief. A thief of ...
— Bunker Bean • Harry Leon Wilson

... P. Stearns, the foremost American authority on earth-dam construction, gave evidence regarding the safety of the proposed dams at Gatun and other points. His views and conclusions are based upon large practical experience and a profound theoretical knowledge of the subject. Mr. Stearns had also been a member of the Consulting Board of Engineers and as such had signed the report of the minority in favor of the lock project. He reaffirmed his views favoring a lock canal with a dam at Gatun. Mr. John F. Wallace, former chief engineer, ...
— The American Type of Isthmian Canal - Speech by Hon. John Fairfield Dryden in the Senate of the - United States, June 14, 1906 • John Fairfield Dryden

... willing to keep their sons from the workshops a little longer than usual. The course of the two years' further instruction proposed, includes (besides the ordinary code subjects, the three R's) mathematic, theoretical, and practical mechanics, freehand, geometry, and model drawing, machine construction and drawing, chemistry and electricity, and the use of the ordinary workshop tools, workshops being fitted with benches, lathes, ...
— Showell's Dictionary of Birmingham - A History And Guide Arranged Alphabetically • Thomas T. Harman and Walter Showell

... importance than all of the ships of war or the arms of the nation in maintaining and upholding those policies which have been adopted for our protection against foreign and domestic foes. But it is not alone a theoretical education which is necessary for this higher citizenship. It must be linked with the knowledge which comes of the study of the character, of the manner and methods of other nations than our own, which leads the artisan to inspect and to improve upon the ingenuity of his fellows of other lands. ...
— New York at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, St. Louis 1904 - Report of the New York State Commission • DeLancey M. Ellis

... who are also twins born as like as two peas; and each pair of you has a family. Which of the two batches of children will tend on the whole to have the stronger legs? Your legs are strong by use; your brother's are weak by disuse. But do use and disuse make any difference to the race? That is the theoretical question which, above all others, complicates and hampers our present-day ...
— Anthropology • Robert Marett

... are endless. Dr. Prosper Lucas' treatise, in two large volumes, is the fullest and the best on this subject. No breeder doubts how strong is the tendency to inheritance; that like produces like is his fundamental belief: doubts have been thrown on this principle only by theoretical writers. When any deviation of structure often appears, and we see it in the father and child, we cannot tell whether it may not be due to the same cause having acted on both; but when among individuals, apparently exposed to the same conditions, ...
— On the Origin of Species - 6th Edition • Charles Darwin

... have the market supplied with the Irish spades, because, in the hands of such Irishmen as have used them "at home," we find them a most effective tool. We are met with all sorts of reasonable theoretical objections on the part of implement sellers, and of farmers, who never saw an Irish spade in use. "Would not the tool be better if it were wider and lighter," asks one. "I think it would be better if the spur, or "treader," were movable and of iron, ...
— Farm drainage • Henry Flagg French

... respective historical developments. It would be far more accurate to say that the Indian and Greek systems of grammar represent two opposite poles, exhibiting the two starting-points from which alone the grammar of a language can be attacked, viz., the theoretical and the empirical. Greek grammar begins with philosophy, and forces language into the categories established by logic. Indian grammar begins with a mere collection of facts, systematizes them mechanically, and thus leads in the end to a system which, though marvelous for its completeness ...
— Chips from a German Workshop - Volume IV - Essays chiefly on the Science of Language • Max Muller

... not such a simple matter as all that. But let's talk about something else. What a strange idea to indulge in a theoretical conversation on the subject of art, when we haven't seen each other for a hundred years! So come, then, Bertha, tell me something about yourself! What do you do with yourself at home? How do you live? And what really put it into your head to ...
— Bertha Garlan • Arthur Schnitzler

... increasing numbers every day. The trustification of industry—the object lesson which demonstrates the possibility of collective ownership—will in time compel even these to understand, and by the time they have learnt that, they will also have learned by bitter experience and not from theoretical teaching, that they must either own the trusts or perish, and then, and not, till then, they will achieve Socialism. But meanwhile we have this election. Do you think it will make any real difference—for good or evil—which of these two men ...
— The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists • Robert Tressell

... being well nigh similar in all, and foculising at certain common points of primary importance. We have given the bare body of truth in connection with the development, evolution and unfoldment of the body and the soul, stripping of the metaphysical trappings and the theoretical draperies in which they are clothed. We have had to literally rend asunder the heavy wheel that had the divine face of truth. Hence our lessons are brief and to the point. We have had to contend against and overcome another serious difficulty. Expressed in the matter of fact English language, ...
— The Doctrine and Practice of Yoga • A. P. Mukerji

... another subject of theoretical reasoning, and imposition, (at least in my opinion.) I wish the reader to judge for himself; get rid of whims and prejudice, and look at the subject candidly and fair; and if there is no corroborative testimony comes up to confirm any position that I assume, I shall not complain if my assertions ...
— Mysteries of Bee-keeping Explained • M. Quinby

... conditions, any error in the reading of the thermometers will be approximately the same for the temperatures T and t{2} and the above method therefore corrects for both the radiation and thermometer errors. The theoretical readings for dry steam, where there are no losses due to radiation, are obtainable from formula (5) by letting x 0 and solving for t{2}. The difference between the theoretical reading and the normal reading ...
— Steam, Its Generation and Use • Babcock & Wilcox Co.

... practical remedy for the theoretical absurdity. One or two of the judges act upon such occasions as prompters and assessors to their own doorkeepers. But you know what Cujacius says, 'Multa sunt in moribus dissentanea, multa sine ratione.' [*The singular inconsistency ...
— Guy Mannering • Sir Walter Scott

... acknowledge that the essences of things are eternal, and that there are propositions of eternal truth; consequently that the essences of things and the truth of the first principles are immutable. That is to be understood not only of theoretical but also of practical first principles, and of all the propositions that contain the true definition of creatures. These essences and these truths emanate from the same necessity of nature as the knowledge of God. Since therefore it is by the nature of things that God exists, ...
— Theodicy - Essays on the Goodness of God, the Freedom of Man and the Origin of Evil • G. W. Leibniz

... have a splendid scorn for all opinions which do not agree with theirs. Under the spell of this sublime contempt they think they can ignore anything that does not square with their evolutionary hypothesis. The center of gravity of their thinking is in the theoretical, not in the religious; in reason, not in faith. Supremely satisfied with its self-constituted authority, the mind thinks itself competent to criticize the Bible, the thinking of all the centuries, and even Jesus Christ Himself. The followers of this cult ...
— In His Image • William Jennings Bryan

... added her up; he pronounced, with a touch of conventional male patronage (caught possibly from the Liberal Club), that Janet was indubitably a nice girl and a fine girl. He would not admit that he was afraid of her, and that despite all theoretical argufying, he deemed her ...
— Clayhanger • Arnold Bennett

... was a very sentimental woman, with a strong theoretical bias for the practical. She was by way of teaching Daphne housekeeping and how to manage on a small income (of which art she knew very little herself, but was supposed to know a great deal because she wore a kind of cap). She had a pretty, delicate, ...
— The Limit • Ada Leverson

... "Now you, Elliott, have had as thorough a theoretical education as the schools can give you; and you, Orde, have had a lot of practical experience in logging. You ought to make a good pair. Here's a map of the Government holdings hereabouts. What I want is a working plan for every forty, together with a topographical description, ...
— The Rules of the Game • Stewart Edward White

... theoretical opinions or conjectures is certain from the fact that Mademoiselle Garnerin once wagered to guide herself with a parachute from the point of separation from her balloon to a place determined and very remote. ...
— Up in the Clouds - Balloon Voyages • R.M. Ballantyne

... in the struggle for existence as attempt to resist or elude him, to overcome and reduce to subservience those alien forces that assert themselves refractorily in the environment. So tenaciously and with such nicety is this theoretical distinction between exploit and drudgery adhered to that in many hunting tribes the man must not bring home the game which he has killed, but must send his woman to ...
— The Theory of the Leisure Class • Thorstein Veblen

... obtained with sludge. Thus it was found that 53 lb. of phosphoric acid as superphosphate, or 60 lb. as farmyard manure, produced a considerably larger crop than 240 lb. of phosphoric acid in the sludge. That is to say, that the phosphoric acid in the sludge did not exert more than one-fifth of its theoretical effect. The explanation of this somewhat strange result Dr Munro finds in the unsuitable physical character of the sludge-cakes. In farmyard manure we have a loose texture and a large amount of soluble constituents ...
— Manures and the principles of manuring • Charles Morton Aikman

... practise, and the same obligation applies to Americans who may arrive, otherwise qualified, in the Islands. Practical instruction in the healing art, or "walking the hospitals," as it is called in England, is given at the San Juan de Dios Hospital as heretofore. The theoretical tuition in these faculties is furnished at the College of San Jose. Besides the Government schools, there are many others continuing the Spanish system, such as the Colegio de San Juan de Dios, where, besides the usual subjects taught, the ...
— The Philippine Islands • John Foreman

... the investigations of Leonardo, it must be admitted that his work in science remained almost as infertile as that of his great precursor, Bacon. The really stimulative work of this generation was done by a man of affairs, who knew little of theoretical science except in one line, but who pursued that one practical line until he achieved a wonderful result. This man was Christopher Columbus. It is not necessary here to tell the trite story of his accomplishment. Suffice it that his practical demonstration of the rotundity of the earth is regarded ...
— A History of Science, Volume 2(of 5) • Henry Smith Williams

... in his chair and laughed softly. The discussion was so purely theoretical that he could be amused ...
— The Philistines • Arlo Bates

... now reviewed the past, she perceived to have been her theoretical attitude toward marriage. It was unconsciously, insidiously, that her ten years of happiness with Westall had developed another conception of the tie; a reversion, rather, to the old instinct of passionate dependency and possessorship ...
— The Early Short Fiction of Edith Wharton, Part 2 (of 10) • Edith Wharton

... powerful a minority as the Mahomedans under the Indian Councils Act of 1909; and the Report admitted that it could not be withdrawn from them, and that it might have to be conceded to other communities, such as the Sikhs. At the same time it developed at great length all the theoretical arguments against the principle, viz. that it is opposed to history, that it perpetuates class division, that it stereotypes existing relations based on traditions and prejudices which we ...
— India, Old and New • Sir Valentine Chirol

... and studio traditions. I do not know that in any branch of human study this distinction is so marked and so strong. This is to be regretted, for many reasons, but it can hardly be done away with so long as the community is generally careless of both the theoretical and the practical—so long as the students and the practitioners alike feel themselves nearly isolated units, floating in a sea of good-humored indifference. This state of things only time can alter. Only time can civilize our new community in intellectual and perspective matters; but ...
— The American Architect and Building News, Vol. 27, Jan-Mar, 1890 • Various

... of women, and the greatest pleasure in their society, he had never married; and with the greatest affection for his nieces, and the greatest theoretical confidence in them, he had hedged them about with countless laws and restrictions, and had educated them in a way quite different from the training of young ladies of their rank and prospects. He had succeeded two childless elder brothers in ...
— Mr. Hogarth's Will • Catherine Helen Spence

... began to theorize, and the results of this speculation were inevitably embodied in their works. They were men of mind rather than men of deeds, who minimized the importance of action and exaggerated the reflective, the abstract, the theoretical, the inner life of man. Hettner,[12] with fine insight, points to the introduction to "Sebaldus Nothanker" as exhibiting the characteristic of this epoch of fiction. Speculation was the hero's world, and in speculation lay for him the important things of life; he knew not the real world, ...
— Laurence Sterne in Germany • Harvey Waterman Thayer

... is detrimental to the happiness of man, and that no one disease is more so than another. The morality of the body is health—not disease. So much for the actual facts and reality. In passing to the theoretical, we again see the truth of the statement that religion is the last resort of ...
— The Necessity of Atheism • Dr. D.M. Brooks

... course of his studies, Dick Sand showed a particular liking for geography, for voyages, while waiting till he was old enough to learn that branch of mathematics which relates to navigation. Then to this theoretical portion of his instruction, he did not neglect to join the practical. It was as novice that he was able to embark for the first time on the "Pilgrim." A good seaman ought to understand fishing as well as navigation. It is a good preparation for all the contingencies which the maritime career admits ...
— Dick Sand - A Captain at Fifteen • Jules Verne

... for speculation and inquiry, and embraces many things which, though true enough in themselves, are unfit to be incorporated with any system of practical grammar, however comprehensive its plan. Many authors have erred here. With what is merely theoretical, such a system should have little to do. Philosophy, dealing in generalities, resolves speech not only as a whole into its constituent parts and separable elements, as anatomy shows the use and adaptation ...
— The Grammar of English Grammars • Goold Brown

... the dispute might easily have been compromised, by enacting that, the King should have no power to keep a standing army on foot without the consent of Parliament. He reasons as if the question had been merely theoretical, and as if at that time no army had been wanted. "The kingdom," he says, "might have well dispensed, in that age, with any military organisation" Now, we think that Mr. Hallam overlooks the most important ...
— Critical and Historical Essays Volume 1 • Thomas Babington Macaulay

... leading up to a strike are bad. What is the measure of evil? A certain conception of a proper standard of living, hygiene, economic security, and human dignity. The industry may be far below the theoretical standard of the community, and the workers may be too wretched to protest. Conditions may be above the standard, and the workers may protest violently. The standard is at best a vague measure. However, we shall assume that the conditions are below par, as par ...
— Public Opinion • Walter Lippmann

... per cent., from cereals and sugars 8 per cent., from vegetables and fruits 80 per cent. The difference between the proportions digested of the other food constituents was much less. Although there is here a theoretical advantage in favour of animal food, there are other considerations of far more importance than a little undigestible waste. The main question is one of health. In some dietary experiments of a girl aged 7, living upon a fruit diet, of whom ...
— The Chemistry of Food and Nutrition • A. W. Duncan

... have sprung those who now call themselves Republicans, was Alexander Hamilton. I believe I may say that all the political sympathies of George Washington were with the same school. Washington, however, was rather a man of feeling and of action than of theoretical policy or speculative opinion. When the Constitution was written Jefferson was in France, having been sent thither as minister from the United States, and he therefore was debarred from concerning himself personally in the matter. His views, however, ...
— Volume 2 • Anthony Trollope

... betray an amazing intimacy with the pestiferousness of woman," Dick commented. "Or is it all purely theoretical?" Terrence began ...
— The Little Lady of the Big House • Jack London

... over him, he accumulated much classical lore, withal read much latter-day philosophy and developed a fine youthful, theoretical love for the new humanitarianism. He dipped aesthetically into science, wherein he found a dim kind of help towards a more recondite appreciation of the beauties of nature. His was not a mind to delight in profound knowledge, but ...
— The Light of Scarthey • Egerton Castle



Words linked to "Theoretical" :   hypothetical, supposititious, suppositional, empirical, theoretic, a priori, suppositious, academic, speculative, notional, applied, hypothetic, theory-based, metaphysical, conjectural, abstractive, pure, supposed, divinatory, abstract



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