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adjective
Able  adj.  (compar. abler; superl. ablest)  
1.
Fit; adapted; suitable. (Obs.) "A many man, to ben an abbot able."
2.
Having sufficient power, strength, force, skill, means, or resources of any kind to accomplish the object; possessed of qualifications rendering competent for some end; competent; qualified; capable; as, an able workman, soldier, seaman, a man able to work; a mind able to reason; a person able to be generous; able to endure pain; able to play on a piano.
3.
Specially: Having intellectual qualifications, or strong mental powers; showing ability or skill; talented; clever; powerful; as, the ablest man in the senate; an able speech. "No man wrote abler state papers."
4.
(Law) Legally qualified; possessed of legal competence; as, able to inherit or devise property. Note: Able for, is Scotticism. ""Hardly able for such a march.""
Synonyms: Competent; qualified; fitted; efficient; effective; capable; skillful; clever; vigorous; powerful.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Able" Quotes from Famous Books



... them have not been fully explained. Before you proceed any farther, you will please to begin again at the first lecture, and read over, attentively, the whole, observing to parse every example in the exercises systematically. You will then be able to parse the following exercises, which contain all the parts of speech. If you study faithfully six hours in a day, and pursue the directions given, you may become, if not a critical, at least, a good, practical grammarian, in six weeks; but if you study only three hours ...
— English Grammar in Familiar Lectures • Samuel Kirkham

... roadside fence I laid them across the streak of open water in the middle of the brook, piled snow over them, and dragged my patient across on the toboggan. I attempted to haul him up the Knoll, but he protested, asserting that he was much better and fully able to walk. He managed to crawl up the hill and left me with directions to find Angus Cameron and join him in taking charge of the slide in ...
— My Friends at Brook Farm • John Van Der Zee Sears

... it mout be, I've beat Meal 'Cotton mighty easy; and the boy you call Hiram Baugh are able to ...
— The Wit and Humor of America, Volume IV. (of X.) • Various

... Birnier always been able to negotiate, to live, and to quarrel when necessary, on terms of amity; but this black "swine," as he termed him in his wrath, prinked out in a masquerade of a white man's clothes.{HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS} He jammed his heel down savagely upon ...
— Witch-Doctors • Charles Beadle

... the next two or three months I may be able to explain it to you," replied Hastings. "In the meanwhile, there are one or two things I ...
— Masters of the Wheat-Lands • Harold Bindloss

... able adverse judgment of the Reformation was expressed by the Catholic Doellinger, the most theological of historians, the most historically-minded of divines. He, too, thought Luther had really {724} founded a new religion, of which the center was the mystical doctrine, ...
— The Age of the Reformation • Preserved Smith

... we have been able to detect the method by which Nature selects, and enables her pupils to prepare the materials of which their future knowledge is to be compounded. These materials are the ideas of sensible objects, and their properties and uses; ...
— A Practical Enquiry into the Philosophy of Education • James Gall

... been of one mind on that subject. Maude Hippesley had a lover and could not be supposed to give her accord. Mrs. Green had had one, but expressed an opinion that it was a trouble well over. A husband might be a comfort, but a lover was a "bother." "It's such a blessing to be able to wear my old gloves before him. He doesn't mind it now as he knows he'll have to pay for the new." But at length there came the lover. Sir Francis Geraldine was a man who had property in the county but had not lately lived ...
— Kept in the Dark • Anthony Trollope

... Virginia; 'he frightens me too much. Remember what mamma sometimes says, the bread of the wicked is like stones in the mouth.'—'What shall we do then?' said Paul: 'these trees produce no fruit; and I shall not be able to find even a tamarind or a lemon to refresh you.' Scarcely had he pronounced these words, when they heard the dashing of waters which fell from a neighbouring rock. They ran thither, and having quenched their thirst at this crystal spring, they ...
— Paul and Virginia • Bernardin de Saint Pierre

... a $5 greenback, with a twinkle in his eye, the President then said: "Look at Spinner's signature! Was there ever anything like it on earth? Yet it is unmistakable; no one will ever be able to counterfeit it!" ...
— Lincoln's Yarns and Stories • Alexander K. McClure

... exhorts every one to meditate on her words, and keep her example present to his mind. "How hard or insensible soever we are," says he, "they will make a deep impression upon us, and we shall not be able to refuse relief to the poor, when we have before our eyes the generous charity of this widow. It is true, you will tell me, that if you meet with a prophet in want, you could not refuse doing him all the good offices in your power. But what ought you not to ...
— The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Principal Saints - January, February, March • Alban Butler

... Queene workes wonders for my sake, And in my love entombes the hope of Fraunce: Rifling the bowels of her treasurie, To supply my wants and necessitie. Paris hath full five hundred Colledges, As Monestaries, Priories, Abbyes and halles, Wherein are thirtie thousand able men, Besides a thousand sturdy student Catholicks, And more: of my knowledge in one cloyster keep, Five hundred fatte Franciscan Fryers and priestes. All this and more, if more may be comprisde, To bring the will of our desires to end. Then Guise, Since thou hast all ...
— Massacre at Paris • Christopher Marlowe

... most of our histories, have exaggerated the influence of the Puritans and depreciated that of the Quakers and Cavaliers: Mr. Tyson himself, we believe, has been of this opinion; and we merely look for an able, fair, and liberal history, from ...
— The International Monthly, Volume 3, No. 2, May, 1851 • Various

... camels, ostriches and grizzly bears, and mules, and six yellow ponies all to onct. May be I could manage cows if I tried hard," answered Ben, endeavoring to be meek and respectful when scorn filled his soul at the idea of not being able ...
— St. Nicholas Magazine for Boys and Girls, Vol. 5, January 1878, No. 3 • Various

... and 1591- the preface to the second being dated September 25, 1589), are enough to throw considerable additional light upon the history of the place, and if, as I believe likely, we find no mention of Tabachetti's Calvary chapel in the edition of 1576, nor of his other chapels, we should be able to date his arrival at Varallo within a very few years, and settle a question which, until these two editions of Caccia are found, appears insoluble. I must be myself content with pointing out these libri desiderati to ...
— Ex Voto • Samuel Butler

... "Of course! We'd be able to come home from space and take a normal part in Earth's life, instead of pulling ...
— Starman's Quest • Robert Silverberg

... capacity for being amused by psychological inquiry. To such people I would say: "Don't miss Merrick." The extraordinary cheerfulness of Mr. Merrick's philosophy is a fact which will impress itself upon all folk who are able to take a really ...
— A Chair on The Boulevard • Leonard Merrick

... circumstance, some valuable lives have been sacrificed. It is therefore high time that those persons who are engaged in the business of pharmacy should be obliged to become so far acquainted with plants, as to be able to distinguish at sight all such as are useful in diet or medicine, and more particularly such as are of ...
— The Botanist's Companion, Vol. II • William Salisbury

... anything—really?" gasped Kate. "We have been hoping for a revolution, but had given up the idea—until after the war. Your Socialists either eat out of the Kaiser's hand or sputter and fizzle out. And all your able-bodied men are ...
— The White Morning • Gertrude Atherton

... feeling that my versions apply some such test to Leopardi's work, and that the reader sees it in them at much of the disadvantage which this critic desires for it. Yet, after doing my worst, I am not wholly able to agree with him. It seems to me that there is the indestructible charm in it which, wherever we find it, we must call poetry. It is true that "its strange sweetness wins you again and again," and that this "lonely pipe of death" thrills and solemnly delights as no other stop has done. Let us ...
— Modern Italian Poets • W. D. Howells

... a week, there had been no more raids upon barn or chicken-roost, and no more bear-tracks about the garden, Mrs. Gammit knew that her victory had been final, and she felt so elated that she was even able to enjoy her continuing diet of cold turkey. Then, one pleasant morning when a fresh, sweet-smelling wind made tumult in the forest, she took the gun home ...
— The Backwoodsmen • Charles G. D. Roberts

... of Monsignor Marini's book seemed useful in covering the retreat of the Church apologists. Aided by him, such vigorous writers as Ward were able to throw up temporary intrenchments between the Roman authorities and the ...
— History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom • Andrew Dickson White

... period, says Mr. Lodge, my information ceases. It seems unlikely that a family then so numerous should have utterly perished since, both in its male and female branches; and perhaps some of your correspondents may be able to trace their subsequent history: the name is certainly not extinct, whether its bearers be ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 195, July 23, 1853 • Various

... now. Once and once only did I love a woman who had a firm will which I was never able to vanquish... We parted as enemies—and then, perhaps, if I had met her five years later we ...
— A Hero of Our Time • M. Y. Lermontov

... arts and sciences which are also entirely necessary to the perfection and blessedness of human nature. We see that peoples living in uncivilized barbarism lead a wretched and almost animal life, and even they would not be able to acquire their few rude necessaries without assisting one another to a ...
— The Philosophy of Spinoza • Baruch de Spinoza

... this invention had lately been made apud barbaros in urbe Germaniae. They were dangerous neighbors—these barbarians, who could make such discoveries as the art of printing; and Brant lived to see the time when Joh. Caesarius was able to write to a friend of his: "At this moment, Germany, if she does not surpass Italy, at least need not, and will not, yield to her, not so much on account of her empire, as for her wonderful fecundity in learned men, and the almost incredible ...
— Chips From A German Workshop. Vol. III. • F. Max Mueller

... absorbed by the black draperies with which everywhere the room was hung. As our eyes adjusted themselves to these gloomy conditions we perceived that we were in a hall of great size; and presently we were able to distinguish objects clearly enough to see that at the far end of it was a raised dais, having a sort of throne upon it; but not until, being urged forward by the officer, we had traversed more than half ...
— The Aztec Treasure-House • Thomas Allibone Janvier

... fact that the Tuskegee Institute began at the bottom, with work in the soil, in wood, in iron, in leather, that it has now developed to the point where it is able to furnish employment as teachers to twenty-eight Negro graduates of the best colleges in the country. This is about three times as many Negro college graduates as any other institution in the United States for ...
— The Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, 1995, Memorial Issue • Various

... difficult than had been expected, for had Brett ridden on the step behind as usual the keys could readily have been taken from him. The rescuing party were, however, equal to the occasion, and the military precision with which the work was carried out displayed the discipline of the men and the able ...
— The Life Story of an Old Rebel • John Denvir

... Treasury, etc. The act apparently assumed that while a member of the Cabinet acted as President he would retain his Cabinet post. The Succession Act now in force was urged by President Truman, who argued that it was "undemocratic" for a Vice President who had succeeded to the Presidency to be able to appoint his own successor. By the act of July 18, 1947[43] the Speaker of the House and the President pro tempore of the Senate are put ahead of the members of the Cabinet in the order of succession, ...
— The Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis and Interpretation • Edward Corwin

... Learned and able counsel had been secured by the relatives of each of the prisoners and from the start it was evident a big legal battle was on and that every effort, would be put forth to them, not only to save the murderers from paying the penalty of their horrible crime but also to keep them from being ...
— The Mysterious Murder of Pearl Bryan - or: the Headless Horror. • Unknown

... during 1898 resulted in the grant of very important privileges to foreign commerce. The payment of the second instalment of the Japanese indemnity was becoming due, and it was much discussed how and on what terms China would be able to raise the amount. The Russian government, as has been stated, had made China a loan of the sum required for the first portion of the indemnity, viz. L15,000,000, taking a charge on the customs revenue as security. The British government ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 6, Slice 2 - "Chicago, University of" to "Chiton" • Various

... the few colours required to be used. It is quite unnecessary to introduce white lead at all. I was assisted by a practical German chemist to prepare borax, in such a manner, as to entirely supersede white lead. Now most of my readers will be able to testify how perfectly harmless must be borax, it being one of the drugs so constantly used with honey, and recommended by the faculty as an excellent remedy for canker in the mouth. I am, as I have previously stated, the daughter of a medical man, and am perfectly acquainted ...
— The Royal Guide to Wax Flower Modelling • Emma Peachey

... calamity; but many happy days and unnoted periods of enjoyment pass, that are unrecorded either in the book of memory, or in the scanty annals of our thanksgiving. We are little disposed and less able to call up from the dim remembrances of our past years, the peaceful moments, the easy sensations, the bright thoughts, the quiet reveries, the throngs of kind affections in which life flowed on, bearing us almost unconsciously ...
— Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry • Albert Pike

... as the broker showed that he was a wealthy man, and well able to pay for accommodations, Hal was at once lifted into the house and placed on a comfortable bed in one ...
— The Missing Tin Box - or, The Stolen Railroad Bonds • Arthur M. Winfield

... conservative, but religious thought can not always be bound nor its progress permanently hindered. Honest Christian men and women will think, and they are now thinking in the terms of a universal Christianity. If I am able to discern the signs of the times, the rising tide of Christian love and fellowship is about to overflow the lines of sect and bring together in one common hope and in one common brotherhood all those who love our Lord ...
— The Last Reformation • F. G. [Frederick George] Smith

... once more restored to its orderliness she closed the window and went down-stairs to wrestle with her curls. They were tangled, but ordinarily she would have been able to braid them into some semblance of neatness, but the trying experience of the past moments, the joy of gaining an adopted mother, set ...
— Patchwork - A Story of 'The Plain People' • Anna Balmer Myers

... course of her strangely simple existence; impersonal, devoted to a series of daily duties which never change, absorbed in a reunion of creatures almost neutral, who have abdicated everything, she will be able to walk with eyes lifted ever ...
— Ramuntcho • Pierre Loti

... he wins his battle by following a well-thought-out plan. So with the salesman. He must rely, in the main, upon good, quiet, steady, well-planned work. Some merchants compel a man to use extraordinary means to catch them at the start. And the all-around salesman will be able to meet such an emergency right at the moment, and in an original way ...
— Tales of the Road • Charles N. Crewdson

... approached the lip of that precipitous slope bordering the short canal which connects Juventae Fons with the Arorae Sinus Lowland. He consulted a rough chart, and turned the groundcar southward. A drive of about a kilometer brought them to a wide descending ledge down which they were able to ...
— Rebels of the Red Planet • Charles Louis Fontenay

... reigns of Arpad, Zoltan, and Toxus, are critically illustrated by Katona, (Hist. Ducum, &c. p. 107-499.) His diligence has searched both natives and foreigners; yet to the deeds of mischief, or glory, I have been able to add the destruction of Bremen, (Adam ...
— The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Volume 5 • Edward Gibbon

... Mr. Burton!" said the colonel. "I hope we shall be able to talk more comfortably now. Well, and how do you like the dark cell? Not quite so luxurious as your brother's drawing ...
— The Gadfly • E. L. Voynich

... be indefinitely increased. What confusion the practice must make in the language, especially when we come to inflect this part of the verb with st or est, has already been suggested. Yet an ingenious and learned writer, an able contributor to the Philological Museum, published at Cambridge, England, in 1832; tracing the history of this class of derivatives, and finding that after the ed was contracted in pronunciation, several eminent writers, as Spenser, Milton, and others, adopted in most instances ...
— The Grammar of English Grammars • Goold Brown

... knows what that answer should be, and, when other folks interfere and try to influence, it generally means trouble. I'm kind of disappointed; I'll own up to that. I think Jim is a fine, honest, able young man, and he'd make a good husband, I'm sure. And, so far as his business, or profession, or whatever you call it, goes, he's doin' pretty well and sartin to do better. Of course, 'twa'n't ...
— Cap'n Warren's Wards • Joseph C. Lincoln

... next lecture the speaker is usually able, by telling what ground he will cover, etc., to arouse the interest of the audience so that they make up their minds ...
— The Art of Lecturing - Revised Edition • Arthur M. (Arthur Morrow) Lewis

... nimble, and so full of subtle flame, As if everyone from whence they came Had meant to put his whole wit in a jest, And had resolved to live a fool the rest Of his dull life; then when there hath been thrown Wit able enough to justify the town For three days past; wit that might warrant be For the whole city to talk foolishly Till that were cancelled; and when that was gone, We left an air behind us, which alone Was able to make the two next ...
— An Introduction to Shakespeare • H. N. MacCracken

... the Secretary of War, that Loring's division, if left at Romney, might be cut off, did not exist. General Lander, an able and energetic officer, now in command of the Federal force at Cumberland, had put forward proposals for an active campaign in the Shenandoah Valley; but there was no possibility of such an enterprise ...
— Stonewall Jackson And The American Civil War • G. F. R. Henderson

... which is much to the point here. He said that a good workman should be able to plane with a saw and to saw with a plane. The insect is too good a workman not to follow the advice of the sage of Boston. Its industry abounds in instances where the plane takes the place of the saw, or the saw of the plane; its ...
— Bramble-bees and Others • J. Henri Fabre

... little to know much about de war but, little as I was, dere's one thing dat's still as fresh in my memory now as den, and dat's how people watched and waited to hear dat old Georgia train come in. Not many folks was able to take de papers den, and de news in 'em was from one to two weeks old when dey got here. All de men dat was able to fight was off at de front and de folks at home was anxious for news. De way dat old train brought 'em de news was lak dis: if de southern troops was in de front, den dat old ...
— Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves: Volume IV, Georgia Narratives, Part 1 • Works Projects Administration

... precipice, down which it was impossible to get; and they had, therefore, to scramble a mile or more before they found a practicable path into the valley. They went along it for a considerable distance, hoping to be able to climb up the cliff; but the sides were perfectly perpendicular, and at last they determined to turn back and make their way by the shore. Just then Willy, who had run on ahead, shouted out, "I see ...
— The Voyages of the Ranger and Crusader - And what befell their Passengers and Crews. • W.H.G. Kingston

... are deeper hued than with us, the heal-all is rich purple. What is the secret of this flower's successful march across three continents? As usual, the chief reason is to be found in the facility it offers insects to secure food; and the quantity of fertile seed it is therefore able to ripen as the result of their visits is its reward. Also, its flowering season is unusually long, and it is a tireless bloomer. It is finical in no respect; its sprawling stems root easily at the joints, and it ...
— Wild Flowers Worth Knowing • Neltje Blanchan et al

... during. povi to be able. ecx even. preni to take. gardi to guard. propono proposal. helpi to help, to aid. respondi to answer. honti to be ashamed. ruza sly, cunning. kara dear. sxteli to steal. kontenta satisfied. tia that kind of (65). ...
— A Complete Grammar of Esperanto • Ivy Kellerman

... behind us—at least, the few I have met and loved—is not made up of explainers. They let you find out. They seem able to wait. It is most convincing, to have events clean up a fact which you misunderstood; to have your doubts moved aside, not by words, nor any glibness, but leisurely afterward by the landmarks of solid matter. He did not come to the Study unless called for. The little girl brought in word ...
— Child and Country - A Book of the Younger Generation • Will Levington Comfort

... become members of the confederacy, and for their refusal expelled them from their borders. Such an insight into the highest objects of government is creditable to their intelligence. Their numbers were small, but they counted in their ranks a large number of able men. This proves the high ...
— Houses and House-Life of the American Aborigines • Lewis H. Morgan

... did good service as regards the philosophy of language. The French encyclopaedists, J.J. Rousseau, d'Alembert, and many others of this period, were none of them able to get free of the idea that a word is either a natural, mechanical fact, or a sign attached to a thought. The only way out of this difficulty is to look upon the imagination as itself active and expressive in ...
— Aesthetic as Science of Expression and General Linguistic • Benedetto Croce

... vessel, sufficient to contain ten tons of water. In our way we made the island of Plata, Cape St Francisco, Gorgonella, or Little Gorgona, and on the 2d of December arrived at the island of Gorgona. We had here the advantage of being able to fill our watercasks in the boat, the water running in small streams from the rocks into the sea, and we cut our wood for fuel close to high-water mark; so that in less than forty-eight hours we completed our business, and hurried away for fear of those vessels which we ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume X • Robert Kerr

... out to sea under all sail, in order to divide us, thinking that one of our ships would go after it, he with his flagship luffed toward our vessels, in order to get to windward of us, which he was not able to accomplish. On the contrary, when I discovered the number and excellence of his artillery, with which he began to cannonade me, I saw that success must consist in coming hand to hand with him as soon as possible, ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 - Volume XI, 1599-1602 • Various

... possible earnest with ordering the old scraps of translation and collating a vast heterogeneous collection of notes. I was fortunate enough to discover at unlettered Trieste, an excellent copyist able and willing to decypher a crabbed hand and deft at reproducing facetious and drolatic words without thoroughly comprehending their significance. At first my exertions were but fitful and the scene was mostly a sick bed to which I was bound between October '83 and ...
— Supplemental Nights, Volume 6 • Richard F. Burton

... as much as possible of the baggage we carried, I promised Filippe and Benedicto a considerable present of money if they were able to take the stuff until we reached ...
— Across Unknown South America • Arnold Henry Savage Landor

... had gone St. George sat in the darkness with his heart beating rather fast. He wondered what sort of torture it would be, and if he would be able to stick it. Then he remembered that Our Lord had suffered awful tortures, and had foretold that His friends would have to, as well. So he asked Our Lord to give him grace to be able to stick anything the Emperor should do, and then he felt quite ...
— Stories of the Saints by Candle-Light • Vera C. Barclay

... whether it is well done, if they can only "pass muster." But not so with Benjamin. He sought to understand the business to which he attended, and to do as well as possible the work he undertook. The consequence was that he was a thorough workman, and in five minutes he was able to satisfy Keimer of the fact. This was greatly in his favour; and such a young man is ...
— The Printer Boy. - Or How Benjamin Franklin Made His Mark. An Example for Youth. • William M. Thayer

... not able to obtain any satisfactory information as to these spirits, or their supposed attributes, nor, except as regards illness and death, as to the nature of, and ground for, the fears which the natives ...
— The Mafulu - Mountain People of British New Guinea • Robert W. Williamson

... being at her feet. In this scene Philippe repeated, in miniature, that of Richard III. with the queen he had widowed. The meaning of it is that personal calculation, hidden under sentiment, has a powerful influence on the heart, and is able to dissipate even genuine grief. This is how, in individual life, Nature does that which in works of genius is thought to be consummate art: she works by self-interest,—the genius ...
— The Celibates - Includes: Pierrette, The Vicar of Tours, and The Two Brothers • Honore de Balzac

... and other active Republicans gathered in Chicago in advance of the time appointed for the National Convention. The assemblage is memorable in political annals for its large number of able men, for its brilliant displays of oratory, for its long duration, and for its arduous struggle. From the United States Senate came Mr. Conkling, General Logan, George F. Hoar, J. Donald Cameron, Preston B. Plumb, William Pitt Kellogg, and Blanche K. Bruce. Of the men soon ...
— Twenty Years of Congress, Volume 2 (of 2) • James Gillespie Blaine

... engaged on the temple not made with hands, although he could not hear the sound of their hammers for the din he made himself. It would have changed his despair into joy, and his pity into a higher moral quality, had he been able to believe that, amidst all the millions against whom he hurled his anathemas, there is no one who, let him do what he will, is not constrained to illustrate either the folly and wretchedness of sin, or the glory of goodness. It is not given to any one, least of all to the ...
— Browning as a Philosophical and Religious Teacher • Henry Jones

... high, that it was half a minute before she righted, and then nearly full of water, but by baling out she was kept from sinking until they rowed ashore; besides the loss of the lives of three men who not being able to swim would probably have perished, we should have been deprived of nearly every thing necessary for our purpose, at a distance of between two and three thousand miles from any place where we could ...
— History of the Expedition under the Command of Captains Lewis and Clark, Vol. I. • Meriwether Lewis and William Clark

... I've lived single, David. I've ben able to take keer of myself, but I allers hed a hankerin' same as any woman, as is a woman, hez fer a man, but I never got no chanst to meet men folks. I wuz raised here, and folks allers hed it all cut out fer me to be an ...
— David Dunne - A Romance of the Middle West • Belle Kanaris Maniates

... but stunted oak, juniper, and truffles. Even the oaks only grow in patches where the rock is not close to the surface. The truffles are never found except very near these trees, or, in default of them, hazels. This is one of the mysteries of the cryptogamic kingdom, which no one has yet been able to explain. The truffle-hunters believe that it is the shade of the trees which produces the underground fruit, and the opinion is based upon experience. When an oak has been cut down, or even lopped, a spot near it that was rich in truffles year after year is soon ...
— Wanderings by southern waters, eastern Aquitaine • Edward Harrison Barker

... pocket-flask and an odd diamond-shaped stone pierced in the centre, which had hung from the end of his watch-chain, held in place by a minute gold ring. The flask became the property of Parton, and to me fell the stone, the exact hue of which I was never able to determine, since it was chameleonic in its properties. When it was placed in my hands by our "grateful patient" it was blood -red; when I looked upon it on the following morning it was of a livid, indescribable hue, yet ...
— Ghosts I have Met and Some Others • John Kendrick Bangs

... girls that ever looked over the Winter Garden footlights—she makes homemade bread now, too! The first time he went to the Metropolitan Opera House he claims he'd like grand opera if they wouldn't sing and when does the acrobats come out, yet the next week he's able to take a apartment on Riverside Drive. This here is just a few of the things Alex done to break up the dull monotony of life in a burg where that ...
— Alex the Great • H. C. Witwer

... He took my hand in his wasted feeble fingers, and talked a little with his hollow, death-smitten voice. I was to leave town the next day for a fortnight's absence, and whom had they to see to them? The mother named her landlord,— she knew no one else able to do much for them. It was the name of a physician of wealth and high social position, well known in the city as the owner of many small tenements, and of whom hard things had been said as to his strictness in collecting ...
— Two Years Before the Mast • Richard Henry Dana

... been registered, yet the engineers and the stokers become habituated to this heat and labor in it without apparent suffering. In Turkish baths, by progressively exposing themselves to graduated temperatures, persons have been able to endure a heat considerably above the boiling point, though having to protect their persons from the furniture and floors and walls of the rooms. The hot air in these rooms is intensely dry, provoking profuse perspiration. Sir Joseph Banks remained some ...
— Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine • George M. Gould

... and the wise of all denominations are gradually coming to the conviction that they will all do God more service by toleration and co-operation than by animosity and disunion. And so I hold that, until the spiritualist feels himself able to demonstrate to the unbeliever the existence of spirit and of God, as convincingly as a mathematical proposition, there should be no hard words or feelings upon these points. For the present they are immaterial in every sense of the word; and so long ...
— The People's Common Sense Medical Adviser in Plain English • R. V. Pierce

... hope I shall be able to keep it," said Bessie Lovel presently, as she stood in the window gloating over her locket; whereby it will be seen that Austin's wife did not feel so secure as she might have done in the possession ...
— The Lovels of Arden • M. E. Braddon

... singularities which distinguished him were softened; his thee and thy yielded to the common forms of speech; his drab suit altered its cut and hue; his hat came off occasionally; his women abated the rigor of their poke bonnets; he was able to say to the enemy of his country, "Friend, thee is standing just where I am going to shoot." The disintegration of his individuality set free the good that was in him to permeate surrounding society; his fellow flowers in the garden were more ...
— The History of the United States from 1492 to 1910, Volume 1 • Julian Hawthorne

... less able also to perform the voluntary exertions of exercise or of reasoning, and lastly the association of their ideas becomes more imperfect, as they are forgetful of the names of persons and places; the associations of which are less permanent, than those of ...
— The Temple of Nature; or, the Origin of Society - A Poem, with Philosophical Notes • Erasmus Darwin

... you a new exercise to-day," said a teacher to a class of boys, in Latin. "I am going to have you parse your whole lesson, in writing. It will be difficult, but I think you may be able to ...
— The Teacher - Or, Moral Influences Employed in the Instruction and - Government of the Young • Jacob Abbott

... to scratch you, and bite you, and push you into the first available ditch, for a poor coward, who was afraid to take care of the interests of woman, in case she got too well able in the end to take care of herself - ...
— Winding Paths • Gertrude Page

... who are bad at copying, yet are good originals, and of this kind was Master Rabbit, who, when he gave up trying to do as others did, succeeded very well. And, having found out his foible, he applied himself to become able in good earnest, and studied m'teoulin, or magic, so severely that in time he grew to be an awful conjurer, so that he could raise ghosts, crops, storms, or devils whenever he wanted them. [Footnote: The three previous chapters of the Rabbit ...
— The Algonquin Legends of New England • Charles Godfrey Leland

... wish was not able to bring that on which it was fixed. He had come to send this divine fire upon the earth; but there was something that stood in the way; and something needed to be done as a preliminary before the ...
— Expositions Of Holy Scripture - Volume I: St. Luke, Chaps. I to XII • Alexander Maclaren

... along the bay to the southwest, in the hope of meeting some of the natives, from whom he might obtain supplies. He saw the woods blazing at a distance, where they had been set on fire by the natives; but he was not able at any time to come within sight of the people themselves. After an absence of several days, he returned unsuccessful ...
— Journeys Through Bookland, Vol. 5 • Charles Sylvester

... establishment, the only remark he elicited in answer was, "How naturally he talks! you would think he was in his senses." Controversies should be decided by the reason; is it legitimate warfare to appeal to the misgivings of the public mind and to its dislikings? Anyhow, if Mr. Kingsley is able thus to practise upon my readers, the more I succeed, the less will be my success. If I am natural, he will tell them, "Ars est celare artem;" if I am convincing, he will suggest that I am an able logician; if ...
— Apologia pro Vita Sua • John Henry Newman

... of me, but I am sorry, I am very, very sorry you were not able to hand that dreadful woman, Margot, over to the authorities, Mr. Cleek," she said, with an expression of great seriousness. "She is not likely to forget or to forgive what you have done; and some day, perhaps ...
— Cleek: the Man of the Forty Faces • Thomas W. Hanshew

... sasnala@ngulakakudakhuravi@sa@nyartharupam," we are reminded of its similarity with "ayutasiddhavayavabhedanugata@h samuha@h dravyam" (a conglomeration of interrelated parts is called dravya) in the Vyasabhasya. So far as I have examined the Mahabha@sya I have not been able to discover anything there which can warrant us in holding that the two Patanjalis cannot be identified. There are no doubt many apparent divergences of view, but even in these it is only the traditional views of the old grammarians that are exposed and reconciled, and it would be very ...
— A History of Indian Philosophy, Vol. 1 • Surendranath Dasgupta

... no strange thing in human experience. Men, who attempt to do the world more good, than the world is able entirely to comprehend, are almost invariably held in bad odor. But yet, if the wise and good man can wait awhile, either the present generation or posterity, will do him justice. So it proved, in the case which we have been speaking of. In after years, when inoculation was universally practised, ...
— True Stories from History and Biography • Nathaniel Hawthorne

... fixing his eyes on hers, "we both know the name of the person who wounded Don John, very well indeed, I regret that I should not be able to recall it at this moment. His Highness has forgotten it too, ...
— In The Palace Of The King - A Love Story Of Old Madrid • F. Marion Crawford

... Koran. Having accepted the idea of one God universal, which had been so strongly emphasized by the Hebrews, and having accepted in part the doctrine of the teachings of Jesus regarding the brotherhood of man, Mohammed was able through the mysticism of his teaching, in the Koran, to excite his followers to a wild fanaticism. Nor did his successors hesitate to use force, for most of their conquests were accomplished by the power of the sword. At any rate, nation ...
— History of Human Society • Frank W. Blackmar

... a fairly short time, it learned enough to understand what was planned by the criminals; and it arrived at precisely your own conclusion ... that it might be possible to reduce and demoralize the gangs to the extent that they would no longer be able to carry out their plan. It began a systematic series of attacks on them with that end ...
— Lion Loose • James H. Schmitz

... intelligence, last long. Fallen man, left to himself, very soon corrupts his way upon the earth; his hands deal with wickedness; and, in a little while, "every imagination of the thoughts of his heart is only evil continually."[1110] When he becomes conscious to himself of sin, he ceases to be able to endure the thought of One Perfect Infinite Being, omnipotent, ever-present, who reads his heart, who is "about his path, and about his bed, and spies out all his ways."[1111] He instinctively ...
— History of Phoenicia • George Rawlinson

... seen without his riding-boots, his advent, except in Mistress Fawcett's house, heralded by the clanking of spurs. Mary would have none of his spurs on her mahogany floors, and the doctor never yet had been able to dodge the darkey who stood guard ...
— The Conqueror • Gertrude Franklin Atherton

... devoted to that quietude of heart which springs from within ... let him look through things, let him be much alone." That is to say, let him aim for the very tricks of the Yogis, which Buddha had discarded. Is there not here perhaps a little irony? Buddha does not say that the monk will be able to do this—he says if the monk wishes to do this, let him be quiet and meditate and learn righteousness, then perhaps—but he will at ...
— The Religions of India - Handbooks On The History Of Religions, Volume 1, Edited By Morris Jastrow • Edward Washburn Hopkins

... encouragement of the poultry industry. Our Canadian neighbors have done much more practical work in getting out among the farmers and improving the stock and methods along commercial lines. As a result the Canadians have built up a nice British trade with which we have thus far not been able to compete. The work by the Ontario Station on the subject of incubation is discussed in the Chapter ...
— The Dollar Hen • Milo M. Hastings

... few hours, and was away again before we could collar him; but, knowing his moves, and what photographs he had taken, I was able to write to him, and tell him that had I known beforehand that he wished to photograph these places, I could have supplied him with some ready made, as the forts which ...
— My Adventures as a Spy • Robert Baden-Powell

... things added together are distinct before the addition. Consequently if charity be added to charity, the added charity must be presupposed as distinct from charity to which it is added, not necessarily by a distinction of reality, but at least by a distinction of thought. For God is able to increase a bodily quantity by adding a magnitude which did not exist before, but was created at that very moment; which magnitude, though not pre-existent in reality, is nevertheless capable of being distinguished ...
— Summa Theologica, Part II-II (Secunda Secundae) • Thomas Aquinas

... courts of law. Yet everyone knows that he may stare out of the window of a railway carriage and have a long panorama pass before his eyes, or may walk along a crowded street and look his acquaintances in the face, and in neither case will he have "seen" or recognized anything, or be able to give an account of the scene that was pictured on the back of his eye. Attention, the direction of the mind to the sensation, is necessary; and it appears that it is very difficult (to some more than to others) to hold the attention alert, and to give ...
— More Science From an Easy Chair • Sir E. Ray (Edwin Ray) Lankester

... stairs; this leads to a low, vaulted cell, in which Lange Margrethe had been imprisoned, and whence she had been taken to the place of execution. She had eaten the hearts of five children, and believed that, could she have added two more to the number, she would have been able to fly and to render herself invisible. In the wall there was a small, narrow air-hole. No glass was in this rude window; yet the sweetly-scented linden tree on the outside could not send the slightest portion ...
— The Sand-Hills of Jutland • Hans Christian Andersen

... the old lawyer, "be sure you fix up a match with some of those country girls. No man is fit for anything till he is well married; and you are now able, with economy, to support a wife. Mind you get one of those country girls. These paste and powder people here aren't fit for a young man who wants ...
— Duffels • Edward Eggleston

... such his own energy, that in less than a month after his arrival in Adelaide he was on his way to Chambers Creek to make preparations for a fresh departure. His last two journeys had proved the existence of a long line of good country, fairly well-watered; and although beyond it he had not been able to gain a footing, still there was no knowing what a fresh endeavour would bring ...
— The Explorers of Australia and their Life-work • Ernest Favenc

... into the town near the H. Faure, but the Sassenage-Fontaine omnibuses go up to the "Place" and stop before the inn *H. du Commerce. To the left of the inn is the house of the guide for Les Cuves, whose services are necessary to be able to cross the Furon and the torrent from the Cuves. This is a most enjoyable little trip from Grenoble, and Sassenage itself makes a very pleasant residence in May. An immense number of small vehicles are constantly running to the Pont du Drac; whence it ...
— The South of France—East Half • Charles Bertram Black

... take up the English branches again, also the higher mathematics, and make myself thorough in them (which I am far from being now; they do not teach them thoroughly at the convent), so that I may be able to command a ...
— Elsie's children • Martha Finley

... clever face and sharp, bright eyes. Being amongst English boys, his instinctive combativeness made him assume a decidedly French pose, and this no doubt brought on him many a gibe, which, we may be equally sure, he was well able to return. I was amongst the older boys, saw little of him. But I recollect finding him cine day studying a high wall (of the old Oratory Church, since pulled down). It turned out that he was calculating its exact height by some cryptic mathematical process which he proceeded ...
— Shandygaff • Christopher Morley

... lost, along with a third part of their number, an important post which they were defending, which the enemy immediately after covered with his artillery. Roguet, feeling the destructive effects of its fire, fancied he was able to extinguish it. A regiment which he sent against the Russian battery was repulsed; a second (the 1st of the voltigeurs) got into the middle of the Russians, and stood firm against two charges of their cavalry. It continued to advance, torn ...
— History of the Expedition to Russia - Undertaken by the Emperor Napoleon in the Year 1812 • Count Philip de Segur

... almost his whole existence on the earth, and which still perpetuate all sorts of primitive barbarism in modern society. The conservative "on principle" is therefore a most unmistakably primitive person in his attitude. His only advance beyond the savage mood lies in the specious reasons he is able to advance for remaining of the same mind. What we vaguely call a "radical" is a very recent product due to ...
— The Mind in the Making - The Relation of Intelligence to Social Reform • James Harvey Robinson

... power: they followed on the heels of the corsairs and adventurers, whatever might be their country; they followed them up to their harbours of refuge, and became an effective police force in all parts of the sea where they were able to carry their flag. The memory of such exploits was preserved in the tradition of the Cretan empire which Minos had constituted, and which extended its protection over ...
— History Of Egypt, Chaldaea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 6 (of 12) • G. Maspero

... with the degree of technical progress attained. Moreover, the combatants and the possibility of using them are in relation with the number of persons who possess sufficient skill and instruction to direct the war. Germany, Great Britain, France, Italy, the United States of America, were able without any appreciable effort to improvise an enormous number of officers for the War, transforming professional men, engineers and technicians into officers. Russia, who did not have a real industrial bourgeoisie nor a sufficient ...
— Peaceless Europe • Francesco Saverio Nitti

... whereby more room is made for glory. Every vessel of glory shall at that day be full of it; but every one will not be capable to contain a like measure; and so if they should have it communicated to them, would not be able to stand under it; for there is "an eternal weight in the glory that saints shall then enjoy" (2 Cor 4:17), and every vessel must be at that day filled—that is, have its ...
— The Works of John Bunyan • John Bunyan

... have been made to explore the chief river of Mindanao—the most important of the island, and from which the island of Mindanao derives its name—but with little result, for our people have been able to discover only six or seven villages. Of these villages the principal one is where the petty king lives; others are Tanpacan, Boayen, and Valet, with others, which, according to what has been seen, have a population of a little ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803, Volume V., 1582-1583 • Various

... campaigning is its rapidly-succeeding surprises. The general of the army may be proceeding regularly in the path he marked out months before. The corps commanders, and even the chiefs of division, may sometimes be able to foresee the movements from day to day. But to their subordinates everything is a surprise: they lie down at night in delightful uncertainty as to where the next sunset will find them, and they sit down to a breakfast of hard bread and bacon, relieved ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science - Vol. XVII, No. 102. June, 1876. • Various

... swords, almost all the officers killed or wounded, and one of the best of them, Sextius Baculus (Caesar always paused in his narrative to note any one who specially distinguished himself), scarce able to stand. Caesar had come up unarmed. He snatched a shield from a soldier, and, bareheaded, flew to the front. He was known; he addressed the centurions by their names. He bade them open their ranks and give the men room to strike. His presence and his calmness gave ...
— Caesar: A Sketch • James Anthony Froude

... you'll be able to work here," said my little hostess the next morning, as she took me in—her only visit to it while I stayed in the house—and showed ...
— The Damned • Algernon Blackwood

... approval by the English Privy Council. I wonder nobody has proposed a modification of this form of Home Rule for Ireland now. Earl Grey's recent suggestion that Parliamentary government be suspended for ten years in Ireland, which I heard warmly applauded by some able lawyers and business men in Dublin, involves like this an elimination of the Westminster debates from the problem of government in Ireland. As we passed Drogheda, Father Burke's magnificent presence and thrilling voice came back to me out of the mist of ...
— Ireland Under Coercion (2nd ed.) (1 of 2) (1888) • William Henry Hurlbert

... his part with so much straightforwardness and trust, that when Manvers came of age he found his estates in such a thriving condition, that he was a very much richer nobleman than many of his predecessors had been. Well able to discern true merit, and grateful for the services already rendered, his guardian, by his earnest entreaty, remained his agent during his residence with his mother and sister in Switzerland. There, living very much within his income, his fortune ...
— The Mother's Recompense, Volume II. - A Sequel to Home Influence in Two Volumes • Grace Aguilar

... able to be wheeled down to the sands in Alick's perambulator, and perhaps it was the joy of his recovery that turned Susie's head, or perhaps she was tired of her long spell of goodness, but whatever the reason, ...
— Troublesome Comforts - A Story for Children • Geraldine Glasgow

... degree of that measure of delicacy which I recognise you to possess. The commission is somewhat beyond the accepted limits of what is purely diplomatic in character.... It is a matter of handing a certain trinket to a certain lady. The trinket is of little value, but, from causes you will be able to appreciate, the lady's favour is of very high value to myself. All depends on the manner in which the gift is presented. This should be sufficiently flattering to increase the value of the offering and to cause its unworthiness to be overlooked. My acquaintance with the lady, ...
— The Magnificent Montez - From Courtesan to Convert • Horace Wyndham

... sciences have developed in exactness, in so far as they have succeeded in expressing their formulations in numerical terms. The physical sciences, such as physics and chemistry, which have been able to frame their generalizations from precise quantities, have been immeasurably more certain and secure than such sciences as psychology and sociology, where the measurement of exact quantities is more difficult and rare. Jevons writes ...
— Human Traits and their Social Significance • Irwin Edman

... in a dim, vague way the skill of the taxi-driver, who seemed to be able to grope his way through and around any obstruction of traffic; and it was not until she found the cab traversing a country road that she had any suspicion that all was not well. Even then her doubts were allayed by her recognition ...
— The Daffodil Mystery • Edgar Wallace

... deliver at the rifle flashes above us, to cover their advance. Luckily there were many boulders scattered along the grassy treeless slope they had to advance across to reach the foot of the cliff. Thus by darting from one boulder to another they had tolerable cover and were able to reach us with no worse casualties than a comparatively slight flesh wound through Manuel's side and the shooting away ...
— The Red-Blooded Heroes of the Frontier • Edgar Beecher Bronson

... priest were, by his consent, published at his death. He formed one of the second party who absconded from Macquarie Harbour (1822). They had planned their escape with considerable skill: one was a sailor, and able to direct their course: they possessed themselves of a boat, and proposed to capture the vessel of the pilot, then laden for town. It was the custom, when a prisoner was missing, to kindle signal fires ...
— The History of Tasmania , Volume II (of 2) • John West

... the act. You don't reckon that Barry is goin' to take a active part in this here kidnappin' job, do you? Not much! He won't be anywheres near when it happens. He's too cute fer that. You won't be able to fasten anything on him till it's too late ...
— Viola Gwyn • George Barr McCutcheon

... incessantly in unknown places with papa, in regions of the old world; and sometimes, I think, took both him and myself to rest and home where wanderings are over. After a few days this passed away. I was able to come downstairs, and both Preston and his mother did their best to take good care of me. Especially Preston. He brought me books, and fruit, and birds to tempt me to eat, and was my kind and constant companion when his ...
— Daisy • Elizabeth Wetherell



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