"Critical" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... numbers, was valiant and enduring. Their heavy guns were pouring a deadly fire upon the Northern center. Beyond the taking of the fort by the cavalry the Army of the Shenandoah had made no progress, and the Southern troops were rapidly concentrating at every critical point. Old Jube Early, mighty swearer, was proving ...
— The Tree of Appomattox • Joseph A. Altsheler
... he would say. "They probably look as they talk, without form and void." But at the moment when Maud entered his little room, he had put on his lenses to look out of the window, and he turned to see a perfect form in a closely fit ting dress, and a face pretty enough to look on with a critical pleasure. He received her kindly, and encouraged her to hope for an appointment, and it was in accordance with his suggestion that she called upon Farnham, as ...
— The Bread-winners - A Social Study • John Hay
... master of arts, and to read publick lectures to the students; a design from which his father could not dissuade him, though he did not approve it; so certainly do honours or preferments, too soon conferred, infatuate the greatest capacities. He published an invitation to three lectures; one critical on the book of Job, another on astronomy, and a third upon ancient ecclesiastical history. But of this employment he was soon made weary by the petulance of his auditors, the fatigue which it occasioned, and the interruption of his studies ...
— The Works of Samuel Johnson, Vol. 6 - Reviews, Political Tracts, and Lives of Eminent Persons • Samuel Johnson
... the importance of each item, here are some of the attractions which make this Exposition vocal and harmonious: Edwin Henry Lemare, of London, by general critical agreement declared the greatest living organist, is expected here early in September, when he will begin his series of one hundred organ recitals, to continue till the Exposition closes in December. A unique episode of ...
— The Jewel City • Ben Macomber
... believe so, or else the I.W.W. leaders took advantage of a critical time. I'm bound to say that now thousands of I.W.W. laborers are loyal to the United States, and that made ...
— The Desert of Wheat • Zane Grey
... which case our situation would have been both disagreeable and dangerous, as, with the east wind which had just set in, we might have been unable to return for many days, and we had not a day's water on board. At the critical moment I served out some strong spirits to my men, which put fresh vigour into their arms, and carried us out of the influence of the current before it ...
— The Malay Archipelago - Volume II. (of II.) • Alfred Russel Wallace
... Griffith, whose communication is enclosed. Such is his ability in his profession, and so large are his acquirements, And so just and broad his critical faculty, that I cannot commend Miss Kelsey in any way so well as by saying that I accept the Professor's judgment as most satisfactory. His opinion of ...
— The Canadian Elocutionist • Anna Kelsey Howard
... cryptogrammarian will do well to drink a bottle of the elixir of life every morning before breakfast, and stave off dissolution as long as he can. There's no getting around the fact, sir," Surrennes added, with a significant shake of the head, "that the present leaders of literary thought with critical tendencies are going to have the hardest kind of a time when they cross the river and apply for admission to the Ghost Club. I don't ask for any better fun than that of watching from a safe distance the initiation ceremonies of the next dozen who go ...
— The Water Ghost and Others • John Kendrick Bangs
... hospitals. Many soldiers being down with fever in July, the general recommends "the strictest attention to the cookery, and that broiling and frying meat, so destructive to health, be prohibited;" going into the water in the heat of the day is also forbidden. A neglect of these matters at this critical season, Greene continues, "may be attended with ...
— The Campaign of 1776 around New York and Brooklyn • Henry P. Johnston
... Europe. The English mind is the only unconscious mind the world has ever seen. And for this reason the English mind is incapable of criticism. There has never been an English critic of the first rank, hardly a critic of any rank; and the critical work of England consists either of an academical bandying of a few old canons and shibboleths out of Horace or Aristotle, or else of the merest impressionism, and wordy struggle to convey the sentiment awakened by the ...
— Emerson and Other Essays • John Jay Chapman
... the critical stage of cigarette lighting, grunted unintelligibly. Billy was just laying hand to the door-knob when the foreman looked toward him in the manner of one about to speak. ...
— The Long Shadow • B. M. Bower
... the doctrine of Mahomet. This matter, as well as the necessary supplies to be sent for our aid, your highness will order to be looked after with great diligence; because all that we ask for in the memorandum is of great necessity in our present critical condition. May your highness add and send whatever may seem best to you, so that we may be able to accomplish in these regions what his majesty desires. There is great need of the Christian religion among these natives, as well as of the men and other things asked ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803, Volume II, 1521-1569 • Emma Helen Blair
... you, I am sorry for you ... poor devils. My lungs are all right; my cough comes from indigestion ... I can endure this hell, not to mention the Red Sea! Besides, I have a critical attitude toward my illness, as well as to my medicine. But you ... you are ignorant.... It's hard lines ...
— The House with the Mezzanine and Other Stories • Anton Tchekoff
... that a social or political system has attained its end, I will tell you: it is when it is manifest only in its inconveniences and abuses. Then the machine has finished its work, and should be replaced. Indeed, I declare that French centralization has reached its critical term, that fatal point at which, after protecting, it oppresses; at which, after vivifying, it paralyzes; at which, having saved France, ...
— Monsieur de Camors, Complete • Octave Feuillet
... said the judge, cocking a critical eye on the now furious Quinby. "I am afraid we most of us enjoy our scandal, and for my part I always like to see a humbug catch it hot. But if the scandal's about a woman, and if it's an old scandal, and if she's a lonely woman, that quite alters the case, and in my opinion the ...
— No Hero • E.W. Hornung
... critical observations,-which, not confined to works of utility or ingenuity, is equally open to those of frivolous amusement,-and, yet worse than frivolous, dullness,-encourages me to seek for your protection, since,-perhaps for my sins!-it intitles me to your annotations. ...
— Evelina • Fanny Burney
... I've heard," said Challoner, surveying the roughly marked scene of battle with critical eyes. "You were weak in numbers, but your position was strong. It could ...
— The Intriguers • Harold Bindloss
... a stone's throw, under a great branching of gnarled trees, is a nook where the curious sun, peeping at you through the interlaced leaves, will stencil Japanese shadows on your white umbrella. Then the trap is unstrapped, the stool opened, the easel put up, and you set your palette. The critical eye with which you look over your brush case and the care with which you try each feather point upon your thumbnail are but ...
— Outdoor Sketching - Four Talks Given before the Art Institute of Chicago; The Scammon Lectures, 1914 • Francis Hopkinson Smith
... not at luncheon, should be given a place and a part. At this juncture it is not best to introduce sitting-games, such as checkers, authors, caroms, or flinch, for the contestants might be called to take refreshments at a critical moment in the contest. With a little attention to it, appropriate games may be introduced here that need not interfere with luncheon. Fully half an hour should be spent at each set of tables, where at the close of the meal, some humorous subject or subjects ...
— Questionable Amusements and Worthy Substitutes • J. M. Judy
... myself an emotion that the person seated opposite was not diplomatically inspired in so persistently clinging to the one subject upon which he must assuredly know that I experienced an all-pervading deficiency. Nevertheless, being by this more fully convinced that the disguise was one of critical necessity, and not deeming that the essential ceremonies of one Palace would differ from those of another, no matter in what land they stood (while through all I read a clear design on Sir Philip's part that the opportunity was craftily arranged so that I might impress upon any vindictively-intentioned ...
— The Mirror of Kong Ho • Ernest Bramah
... slipped so easily into the character of a sullen boy, hating a benefactor for no reason other than his benefactions; but the same vicious impulse made him study the face of Sally Fortune with an impersonal, coldly critical eye. It was not easy to do, for she sat with her head tilted back a little, as though to take the warmth of the fire more fully. The faint smile on her lips showed her comfort, ...
— Trailin'! • Max Brand
... strictly speaking, but she was possessed of that 'something than beauty dearer,'—that nameless and indescribable charm that is sometimes seen to surround a person whose form and features would not satisfy the critical eye of an artist. It was Edith's character which looked out from her clear hazel eye, and won the interest and the affection of all who knew her. Gentle and affectionate in disposition, but at the same time, firm, enduring, and fall of ...
— The Pilgrims of New England - A Tale Of The Early American Settlers • Mrs. J. B. Webb
... the boy, I received the clerk in another room. He came with bad news of his employer. The agitation and excitement of the last two days had proved too much for Mr. Bruff. He had awoke that morning with an attack of gout; he was confined to his room at Hampstead; and, in the present critical condition of our affairs, he was very uneasy at being compelled to leave me without the advice and assistance of an experienced person. The chief clerk had received orders to hold himself at my disposal, and was willing to do his best ...
— The Moonstone • Wilkie Collins
... their flavor? In reading a translated poem we wish to have as much of the essence of the original, that is, as much of the poetry, as possible. A poem it is we sit down to read, not a relation of facts, or an historical or critical or philosophical or theological exposition,—a poem, only in another dress. Thence a work in verse, that has poetic quality enough to be worth translating, must be made to lose by the process as little as may be of its worth; and its worth ...
— Essays AEsthetical • George Calvert
... we should now begin to connect the business with the pleasure of the evening, by drinking prosperity to the Artists' Benevolent Fund, it becomes important that we should know what that fund is. It is an Association supported by the voluntary gifts of those who entertain a critical and admiring estimation of art, and has for its object the granting of annuities to the widows and children of deceased artists—of artists who have been unable in their lives to make any provision for those dear objects ...
— Speeches: Literary and Social • Charles Dickens
... was more affected by this chill, critical after-hour than Miss Bayard and Ethel. Mostyn accompanied them home, but he was depressed, and his courtesy had the air of an obligation. He said he had a sudden headache, and was not sorry when the ladies bid him "good night" ...
— The Man Between • Amelia E. Barr
... certain pieces of literature have become classic; by general consent there is no dispute about them. How they have become so we cannot exactly explain. Some say by a mysterious settling of universal opinion, the operation of which cannot be exactly defined. Others say that the highly developed critical judgment of a few persons, from time to time, has established forever what we agree to call masterpieces. But this discussion is immaterial, since these supreme examples of literary excellence ...
— Baddeck and That Sort of Thing • Charles Dudley Warner
... attended created much surprise, and intelligence of the arrival was instantly conveyed to the vizier, who acted as regent till the election of a new monarch, which ceremony was just on the point of taking place. The minister, who thought he perceived in such a critical arrival the work of fate, immediately waited on the now supposed prince, whom he invited to be present at the election; at the same time informing him that when in this kingdom a sultan died without issue, the laws appointed that his successor should be chosen by the alighting of a bird ...
— The Arabian Nights Entertainments Complete • Anonymous
... THIS being neither a critical edition of the text nor an emended edition of Casaubon's translation, it has not been thought necessary to add full notes. Casaubon's own notes have been omitted, because for the most part they are discursive, and not necessary to an understanding of what ...
— Meditations • Marcus Aurelius
... I sent my hints to the author of the Atalantis,(2) and she has cooked it into a sixpenny pamphlet, in her own style, only the first page is left as I was beginning it. But I was afraid of disobliging Mr. Harley or Mr. St. John in one critical point about it, and so would not do it myself. It is worth your reading, for the circumstances are all true. My chest of Florence was sent me this morning, and cost me seven and sixpence to two servants. I would give two guineas you had ...
— The Journal to Stella • Jonathan Swift
... that "improving the quality of urban life is the most critical domestic problem facing the United States." Two years later it affirmed the historic goal of "a decent home . . . for every American family." That ...
— State of the Union Addresses of Lyndon B. Johnson • Lyndon B. Johnson
... behalf of the oppressed nationalities, not only Belgium, Serbia, and Poland, but also the Czecho-Slovaks and the Jugo-Slavs, became stronger and more frequent during the spring and summer of 1918, and solidified the opposition to Germany at a critical period of the war. On September 3 he recognized the Czecho-Slovak National Council as a belligerent government. This meant the break-up of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which had not been contemplated at an earlier period, but, as he stated in his ...
— From Isolation to Leadership, Revised - A Review of American Foreign Policy • John Holladay Latane
... latter state, under the warrant of the Russian minister; and a treaty of nearly similar import was in progress at Cabool. Under these circumstances preparations were set on foot for marching an army into Affghanistan. The moment was very critical: there was a prospect of Persian dominion and Russian supremacy in all the Affghan states. By Russian subsidies, Kohun Dil Khan, chief of Candahar, besieged Furrah, a dependency of Herat; and Dost Mohammed Khan, chief of Cabool, commenced a system of hostile intrigues even in India. ...
— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. - From George III. to Victoria • E. Farr and E. H. Nolan
... propose to analyze the poetry of Chaucer, or enter upon a critical inquiry as to his relative merits in comparison with the other great poets. It is sufficient for me to know that critics place him very high as an original poet, although it is admitted that he drew much of his material ...
— Beacon Lights of History, Volume VI • John Lord
... been outwitted. They slew a man and He rose a God. They in wrath offered a sacrifice once and for all, even for the very sin in which they were then indulging. They unknowingly abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light. The critical and unbelieving Sadducees, who denied another life than this, gave aid in proving another and a better; for Christ risen condemned their unbelief. The proud and ritualistic Pharisee, who loved the temple ...
— The Lost Ten Tribes, and 1882 • Joseph Wild
... "At this critical moment the white dog interfered. In his eyes Young Grumpy belonged to the Boy, and was therefore valuable property. He ran at the gander. The gander, recognizing his authority, withdrew, haughty and protesting. Young Grumpy followed with a triumphant rush, and, of course, took all ...
— Children of the Wild • Charles G. D. Roberts
... and leaders: Gush Emunim, Israeli nationalists advocating Jewish settlement on the West Bank and Gaza Strip; Peace Now supports territorial concessions in the West Bank and is critical of ...
— The 1999 CIA Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency.
... sympathy and oneness that connects a public speaker with his audience, that is just as strong as though it was something tangible and visible. If in an audience of a thousand people there is one person who is not in sympathy with my views, or is inclined to be doubtful, cold, or critical, I can pick him out. When I have found him I usually go straight at him, and it is a great satisfaction to watch the process of his thawing out. I find that the most effective medicine for such individuals is administered at first in the form of a story, although ...
— Up From Slavery: An Autobiography • Booker T. Washington
... a revolution in the accepted modes, with refined-communities, of bringing up children. To a community, however, like that of which we are treating, such plan is not ill-suited, the Indian mother being secure against any very critical observation of her acts, or of the fashion she adopts. Let the custom, then, continue, as it can be shown, I think, to favour the production of a healthier and stronger frame both in the mother and in ...
— A Treatise on the Six-Nation Indians • James Bovell Mackenzie
... men of this stamp act so, it may be when leading the battle line, it may be at critical moments of quite other kinds? It is, I think, because they are more than mere individuals. Individual they are, but completely real, even as individual, only in their relation to organic and social wholes in which they are members, such as the family, the city, ...
— Introduction to the Science of Sociology • Robert E. Park
... the soldier touched his horse, and now began a race for the river and the ferry, which were in plain sight, Luna fortunately at this critical moment sailing from between the vapors and shining from a clear lake in the sky. The chaste light, out of the angry convulsions of the heavens, showed the fugitives the road and the river, winding like a broad ...
— The Strollers • Frederic S. Isham
... patriotism was devotion to the law and customs of his race. In this respect he was a leader supremely acceptable to the Hasideans or Pious, who rallied about his standard. In any other age or setting his devotion would have seemed but fanaticism. The situation, however, was extremely critical. Disloyalty to the law and the distinctive rites of Judaism was treason. If ever in the world's history it was justifiable to meet force by force and to unshield the sword in behalf of religion, this certainly was the ...
— The Makers and Teachers of Judaism • Charles Foster Kent
... that at eleven o'clock on a certain morning in August, Mr. Horatio Marcy discovered himself to be eyeing with critical, reluctant gaze a quaintly attractive, low-spreading white house among trees and vines. He became aware at the same time of a sudden close clasp ...
— The Indifference of Juliet • Grace S. Richmond
... the subtle means he had devised for ridding the world of its unpopular rulers. Where Alec was concerned, the bomb ought to remain a trade secret, so to speak. He would not have trusted even Beaumanoir with its properties had he not known that his own nerve would fail at the critical moment. For that was Felix Poluski's weakness. He could not use his diabolical invention—an anarchist in theory, in practice he would not harm ...
— A Son of the Immortals • Louis Tracy
... picturesque objects, that could not be viewed without interest. I have been thus minute in describing this excursive voyage, that others, whose business may hereafter lead them to this river, may profit by the difficulties we experienced in this critical and dangerous passage. We were obliged to come to an anchorage in the river during the night, under a very violent rain, and the next day arrived at Robart, the factory of ...
— Observations Upon The Windward Coast Of Africa • Joseph Corry
... we could to Railway Dugouts, and telephoned the news to the various battalion headquarters. The telegram was never confirmed, and I was accused of having made it up myself. It certainly had a wholesome effect upon our men at a critical and ...
— The Great War As I Saw It • Frederick George Scott
... bow to the Florentine opera going public, one of the most critical in Italy, as Inez, in Meyerbeer's "L'Africaine," and her success was so pronounced that she was engaged at a salary of $100 a month, a phenomenal beginning for a young singer. Queen Margherita was present on the occasion and complimented her highly and prophesied for her a great ...
— Caruso and Tetrazzini on the Art of Singing • Enrico Caruso and Luisa Tetrazzini
... friends, read the newspaper accounts of his act, saw his funeral, and let his mind run altogether in morbid channels. Thus it was that the vision of his own act exerted an hypnotic influence upon him which became at the critical moment supreme ...
— A Plea for the Criminal • James Leslie Allan Kayll
... real importance!" said Sviazhsky. But to show he was not trying to ingratiate himself with Vronsky, he promptly added some slightly critical remarks. ...
— Anna Karenina • Leo Tolstoy
... justly observ'd, that People are fond of discovering any little personal Story of the Great Men of Antiquity: and that the common Accidents of their Lives naturally become the Subject of our critical Enquiries: That however trifling such a Curiosity at the first View may appear, yet, as for what relates to Men of Letters, the Knowledge of an Author may, perhaps, sometimes conduce to the better ...
— Preface to the Works of Shakespeare (1734) • Lewis Theobald
... name:' Dr Tobias Smollett, the well-known author of 'Roderick Random, 'The Regicide,' an unfortunate tragedy, and one of the editors of the 'Critical Review,'is here satirised. ...
— Poetical Works • Charles Churchill
... the law discerning a sediment of litigation in the case, eggit on Mr Smeddum into a persuasion that the seating of the kirk was a thing which the magistrates had no legal authority to undertake. At this critical moment, my ancient adversary and seeming friend, the dean of guild, happened to pass the door, and the bickering snuff-man seeing him, cried to him to come in. It was a very unfortunate occurrence; for Mr ...
— The Provost • John Galt
... worth while to mention it to Mrs. Fenelby. From the time she was informed of the existence of the tariff up to the arrival of Kitty Bridget paid into Bobberts' bank twenty cents. This was the duty on a two dollar hat that even the most critical mind could not have called a luxury, and there Bridget's payments seemed to stop. She did not seem to feel the need of ...
— The Cheerful Smugglers • Ellis Parker Butler
... Fuller first gave distinction to the literary notices and reviews of the New York Tribune. Miss Fuller was a woman of extraordinary scholarly attainments and intellectual independence, the friend of Emerson and of the "transcendental" leaders, and her critical papers were the best then published, and were fitly succeeded by those of her scholarly friend, George Ripley. It was her review in the Tribune of Browning's early dramas and the "Bells and Pomegranates" that introduced him to such general knowledge and appreciation among cultivated ...
— From the Easy Chair, vol. 1 • George William Curtis
... Just at the critical moment Dercylidas arrived, and in a single day received the adhesion of the three seaboard cities Larisa, Hamaxitus, and Colonae—which threw open their gates to him. Then he sent messengers to the cities of ...
— Hellenica • Xenophon
... inequality between his mental and social development. The same person who will be regarded as a boor in good society, will yet exhibit a rapidity and profundity of thought and intelligence—a depth and soundness of judgment—an acuteness in discrimination—a logical accuracy, and critical analysis, such as mere good society rarely shows, and such as books almost as rarely teach. There will be a deficiency of refinement, taste, art—all that the polished world values so highly—and which it ...
— Charlemont • W. Gilmore Simms
... written on his face. A moment later, I realized the cause—the two planets were passing out of wave contact. At such a critical moment nothing could be more unfortunate, and I was about hastily to suggest a postponement, when Almos exclaimed: "It ...
— Zarlah the Martian • R. Norman Grisewood
... but there had ever fitfully danced at the back of Maggie's head the suspicion that these expressions were mercies, not judgments, embodying no absolute, but only a relative, frankness. Hadn't Charlotte, with so perfect a critical vision, if the truth were known, given her up as hopeless—hopeless by a serious standard, and thereby invented for her a different and inferior one, in which, as the only thing to be done, she patiently and soothingly abetted her? Hadn't she, in other words, ...
— The Golden Bowl • Henry James
... one would tell me what academical lectures at Oxford and Cambridge can be, as long as the present system of teaching and examining is maintained. It is easy to say what these lectures are not. They do not profess to contain the results of long continued original research. They are not based on a critical appreciation of the authorities which had to be consulted. They are not well arranged, systematic or complete. All this the suddenly elected professor of history at Cambridge would have been the first to grant. 'I am not here,' he says, 'to teach you history. I am here to teach you how to teach ...
— The Roman and the Teuton - A Series of Lectures delivered before the University of Cambridge • Charles Kingsley
... cigarette to hang pendant from his lower lip, tilted his Panama with the purple and white band, sank his hands in his pockets and imitated carefully the dead game sporting slouch of his companion as they proceeded on their critical inspection of the ...
— Skippy Bedelle - His Sentimental Progress From the Urchin to the Complete - Man of the World • Owen Johnson
... grand amphitheater in which it was rendered, the grassy slopes were the only seats, and there were no tickets of admission, but, like the gospel itself, it was given without money and without price. Musical artists are often sensitive and critical and exclusive people, chary of a free exercise of their gifts and particular as to their audience, but angels will ...
— A Wonderful Night; An Interpretation Of Christmas • James H. Snowden
... till to-morrow. At the critical moment, it will be of immense weight with many waverers. 'Tis late; in a few minutes I must go out. Place me at the feet of your gracious master, and tell him he will have no more faithful subject than his ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 61, No. 379, May, 1847 • Various
... judgment; try judgment, hear a cause. Adj. judging &c. v.; judicious &c. (wise) 498; determinate, conclusive. Adv. on the whole, all things considered. Phr. "a Daniel come to judgment" [Merchant of Venice]; "and stand a critic, hated yet caress'd" [Byron]; "it is much easier to be critical than to be correct" [Disraeli]; la critique est aisee et l'art est difficile[Fr]; "nothing if not critical" [Othello]; "O most lame ...
— Roget's Thesaurus
... delivered a grand assault by sea and by land. The attack by sea, under the command of the renegade Candellissa, proved the more formidable. At the critical moment the defenders were thrown into confusion by an explosion on the ramparts, during which the Turks were able to make their way through the stockade and into the fortress, being checked with difficulty by the desperate resistance ...
— Knights of Malta, 1523-1798 • R. Cohen
... see her just a moment. It is so provoking. Just at this critical time! Doesn't my—her election mean ANYTHING to you? Don't you ...
— Cap'n Dan's Daughter • Joseph C. Lincoln
... the critical moment of the killing of the sacred cat to the perilous exodus into Asia with which it closes, is very skillfully constructed and full of exciting adventures. ...
— Adrift on the Pacific • Edward S. Ellis
... writings, it will be well to put broadly the fact, that these Fathers are simply worthless as witnesses to any matter of fact, owing to the absurd and incredible stories which they relate with the most perfect faith. Of critical faculty they have none; the most childish nonsense is accepted by them, with the gravest face; no story is too silly, no falsehood too glaring, for them to believe and to retail, in fullest confidence ...
— The Freethinker's Text Book, Part II. - Christianity: Its Evidences, Its Origin, Its Morality, Its History • Annie Besant
... at this moment, in a state of the most anxious and critical suspense, having heard nothing from Count d'Estaing, nor from America, since ...
— The Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution, Vol. I • Various
... "an' she canna' expect as much as a laddie," and he looked at Mysie, as if measuring her with a critical ...
— The Underworld - The Story of Robert Sinclair, Miner • James C. Welsh
... man's career comes a time of probation. During this critical period that youth is wise who enters into a truce with his feelings. This is the period when influences for good or bad assert themselves—the parting of the ways. The ...
— The Story of Isaac Brock - Hero, Defender and Saviour of Upper Canada, 1812 • Walter R. Nursey
... they should be. Dr. Washington could sympathize with us because he knew what it was. He had borne the burden in the heat of the day. But I find that persons who have done nothing themselves, but have lived as parasites most of their days, are much more critical than Dr. Washington ever could be. Sometimes I am asked to what I attribute Dr. Washington's success in life. My answer to this question has always been the same: to his spirit and simplicity. ...
— Twenty-Five Years in the Black Belt • William James Edwards
... rather leave her, yourself? Remember, she had dined the brother of a baronet (and dined him well, too)! And George Farwell had never earned her salary on The Day. Still, if you will stick by her a little longer, you may feel a little more tolerant of her, and that is much, in this critical ...
— The Strange Cases of Dr. Stanchon • Josephine Daskam Bacon
... big business deal to be accepted or rejected,—whichever his judgment advised and the fates favored,—and he in bed at seven o'clock! He dressed hurriedly, expecting to hear an impatient rapping on the door before he was ready to face a critical business world. If he had time that day, he ought to get himself some clothes. He would not want to eat again in that place where Cliff Lowell took him, dressed as ...
— The Thunder Bird • B. M. Bower
... dramatic reporting which is satisfied when it has told the story of the play. In this, the first two sentences are a very bald attempt to repay the manager for his tickets. The resume of the story, given very obviously to fill space, is not of any critical value. The only real criticism is at the end and is inadequate because the praise is ...
— Newspaper Reporting and Correspondence - A Manual for Reporters, Correspondents, and Students of - Newspaper Writing • Grant Milnor Hyde
... Dickon, you do the lad injustice, said the Judge; he uses much discretion in critical moments. Dost thou not ...
— The Pioneers • James Fenimore Cooper
... wrote it I had already had some, and since I wrote it I have had much more, experience in writing literary history. I have never seen reason to alter the opinion that, to make such history of any value at all, the critical judgments and descriptions must represent direct, original, and first-hand reading and thought; and that in these critical judgments and descriptions the value of it consists. Even summaries and analyses of the matter ...
— A History of English Literature - Elizabethan Literature • George Saintsbury
... those singular incrustations. Dr. Hovaker, believing of course that the specimen I held in my hand came from the Yellowstone, took the nutmeg, and with wonder exhibited in every feature, proceeded to give it a critical examination, frequently exclaiming: "How very like it is to a nutmeg." He finally took a nutmeg from a box near by, and balanced the supposed incrustation with it, declaring the former to be the lighter. ...
— The Discovery of Yellowstone Park • Nathaniel Pitt Langford
... by brave warriors, seemed to be like the welkin resounding with the noise of thunder and fallen down (through some convulsion of nature).[146] That loud uproar, O monarch, resounded through the ten points and frightened that host like critical incidents at the end of the Yuga frightening all living creatures. Then, Duryodhana and those eight great car-warriors appointed for the protection of Jayadratha all surrounded the son of Pandu. The son of ...
— The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 2 • Kisari Mohan Ganguli
... was nearly on the rocks! At that critical moment overboard went the bundle, the two men with the lantern rushing out and dragging it clear ...
— A Village of Vagabonds • F. Berkeley Smith
... Just at the critical moment another terror appeared on the scene. The sea, having reached the level of the beach, now entered the caves, and flowed smoothly but swiftly over the flat flooring of rock. In the excitement of conflict neither of the three struggling in the Mermaid's ...
— Chatterbox, 1906 • Various
... Hampton than elsewhere. He had himself been born to the inheritance of a most inordinate mouthful of provincial accent, and since he had studied and learned to speak almost every dialect known to the little islands which are the centre of our Empire, his ear had grown nice and critical. The ladies and gentlemen of the company, with the exception of the famous and admirable comedian who led them, were all of colonial education, and they all spoke with the accent the existence of which our colonial brethren and sisters so strenuously deny. ...
— Despair's Last Journey • David Christie Murray
... That there are some legitimate concealments of an organized character—such as the privacies of the family and business firms, the temporary concealment of public negotiations at critical stages, the occasional withdrawal of scandals which could only disturb and demoralize communities, and the secrecy of military combinations; nor are we prepared totally to condemn all private plans and arrangements between good and ...
— Secret Societies • David MacDill, Jonathan Blanchard, and Edward Beecher
... artistic impulse in itself that involves such lack of equilibrium. To impress a meaning and a rational form on matter is one of the most masterful of actions. The trouble lies in the barren and superficial character of this imposed form: fine art is a play of appearance. Appearance, for a critical philosophy, is distinguished from reality by its separation from the context of things, by its immediacy and insignificance. A play of appearance is accordingly some little closed circle in experience, some dream ...
— The Life of Reason • George Santayana
... great bull is seen in full charge. The boy toreador has succeeded in catching the monster's horns and turning a clean somersault over his back, while one of the girls holds out her hands to catch his as he comes to the ground. But the other girl, standing in front of the bull, is just at the critical moment of the cruel sport. The great horns are almost passing under her arms, and it looks almost an even chance whether she will be able to catch them and vault, as her companion has done, over the bull's back, or whether she will fail and be gored ...
— The Sea-Kings of Crete • James Baikie
... a critical mind and a fairly withheld judgment Blinker considered the temples, pagodas and kiosks of popularized delights. Hoi polloi trampled, hustled and crowded him. Basket parties bumped him; sticky children tumbled, howling, under his feet, candying his clothes. Insolent youths ...
— The Trimmed Lamp and Others • O Henry
... she been so called to suffer. If the keen glances of the congregation had been softened by the slightest sympathy she could better have stood the glare of curiosity; but no such ray of sympathy was there blended with the looks. Hard, cold, and critical—such was the language of every eye. Rehoboth hated what it called 'foreigners'—those who had been born and brought up in districts distant from its own. All strange places were Nazareths, and all strangers were Nazarenes, and ...
— Lancashire Idylls (1898) • Marshall Mather
... summons to a Cabinet at four precisely, and went to the Foreign Office; but nobody came. I think it must have been summoned to meet at Peel's house. The times are so critical that I should be sorry to lose a Cabinet. I could not find out that any summonses had been sent from the Foreign Office. There was a crowd of people in Downing Street, who had, I dare say, followed the Duke from the House ...
— A Political Diary 1828-1830, Volume II • Edward Law (Lord Ellenborough)
... in fact, the most brilliant society-poem in the literature. De Quincey pronounces it to be, though somewhat extravagantly, "the most exquisite monument of playful fancy that universal literature offers." Bishop Warburton, one of the great critical authorities of the age, believed in the infallibility of Pope, if not of ...
— Introduction to Robert Browning • Hiram Corson
... of the 11th this A.M. This year, owing to election excitement, department reports only came in a few days before the meeting of Congress. When they did come the situation in South Carolina was so critical that dispatches were coming to me, or to members of my cabinet, and brought from them to me in such rapid succession that I do not think I had one single half hour without interruption all the time I was preparing my ...
— Letters of Ulysses S. Grant to His Father and His Youngest Sister, - 1857-78 • Ulysses S. Grant
... with his request, permit me to say that, although Mr. Winters and I see this matter differently, in view of his strong feelings in the premises, I hereby declare that I do not know those "charges" (if such they are) to be true, and I hope that a critical examination would altogether disprove them. CONRAD WIEGAND. Gold Hill, January ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain
... carried many of them back to the Casualty Clearing Station, but this process suddenly stopped. All sorts of conveyances were then seized and men were gradually carried back. When the order to withdraw became known matters were critical, but the Padre continued his labours. Difficulties were not diminished when the Hun commenced to drop 5.9's near this spot. Hoskyns was slightly wounded, but he was bound up and carried on his self-appointed task until ...
— The Seventh Manchesters - July 1916 to March 1919 • S. J. Wilson
... can't take any woman to my place.' 'Bunker,' I interrupted, solemnly, 'you brought this young woman here, you have pretended to be her friend, and her claim upon you is enough to warrant her in expecting help at this critical moment. Remember, Bunker, this is a crisis with her. If she is helped, she may pull through; if not, she may lose heart and courage, ...
— The Grain Ship • Morgan Robertson
... sea, the anchor was dropped in 7 fathoms, sandy bottom. The master sounded round the ship, but nothing was found to injure the cables; and except the water being shallow in the north-west corner of the bay, there was no danger to be apprehended, unless from strong south-west winds. The critical circumstance under which this place was discovered induced me to give it the name of ...
— A Voyage to Terra Australis • Matthew Flinders
... he wished to speak rose to his lips, for the longing to make her his confidante over the Jacobite difficulty was intense. But somehow at the critical moments he either shrank from fear of causing her trouble and anxiety, or else felt that he ought not to run the risk of bringing Andrew into trouble after what had passed. He knew that Lady Gowan would not injure the mistaken lad; but still there was the risk of danger following. Besides, he had ...
— In Honour's Cause - A Tale of the Days of George the First • George Manville Fenn
... evident to all; the faults of parliamentarianism, and the inherent vices of the representative principle, are so self-evident, that the few thinkers who have made a critical study of them (J. S. Mill, Leverdays), did but give literary form to the popular dissatisfaction. It is not difficult, indeed, to see the absurdity of naming a few men and saying to them, "Make laws regulating all our spheres of activity, although not ...
— The Conquest of Bread • Peter Kropotkin
... he thought, would remember nothing except his fall. After trying to recall the positions of the others, he felt comforted; nobody could charge him with anything worse than reckless riding or a failure of nerve at a critical moment. He would confess to the latter—it was to some extent the truth—and show concern about Lisle's injury. Awkward as it was, the incident could be smothered over; it was consoling to remember that the people he lived among were addicted to treating anything of an unpleasant nature ...
— The Long Portage • Harold Bindloss
... in order of battle, and so arrived at Epipolae, and ascending by Euryelus, as the Athenians had done at first, now advanced with the Syracusans against the Athenian lines. His arrival chanced at a critical moment. The Athenians had already finished a double wall of six or seven furlongs to the great harbour, with the exception of a small portion next the sea, which they were still engaged upon; and in the remainder of the circle towards ...
— The History of the Peloponnesian War • Thucydides
... be disappointed, after all. My idea is that you enjoyed my singing because all your critical faculties were dulled in sleep, and you heard only through your heart, as it were. Don't you think it would be better to live awhile on the pleasant memory you ...
— Daybreak: A Romance of an Old World • James Cowan
... I went to see Good, and found him quite delirious. The fever set up by his wound seemed to have taken a firm hold of his system, and to be complicated with an internal injury. For four or five days his condition was most critical; indeed, I believe firmly that had it not been for Foulata's indefatigable nursing he must ...
— King Solomon's Mines • H. Rider Haggard
... subject and stuff of the Lay. Jeffrey's remark about 'the present age not enduring' the Border and mosstrooping details was contradicted by the fact, and was, as a matter of taste, one of those strange blunders which diversified his often admirably acute critical utterances. When he feared their effects on 'English readers,' he showed himself, as was not common with him, actually ignorant of one of the simplest general principles of the poetic appeal, that is to say, the element of strangeness. ...
— Sir Walter Scott - Famous Scots Series • George Saintsbury
... [12]. Recurring to the old satyr-chorus, he reduced its unmeasured buffooneries into a regular and systematic form; he preserved the mythological tale, and converted it into an artistical burlesque. This invention, delighting the multitude, as it adapted an ancient entertainment to the new and more critical taste, became so popular that it was usually associated with the graver tragedy; when the last becoming a solemn and gorgeous spectacle, the poet exhibited a trilogy (or three tragedies) to his mighty audience, while the satyric invention of Pratinas closed the whole, and answered the ...
— Athens: Its Rise and Fall, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton
... intent to admit to the series only such tales as have for years or for generations commended themselves not only to the fastidious and the critical, but also to the great multitude of the refined reading public,—tales, in short, which combine purity and classical beauty ...
— The Standard Oratorios - Their Stories, Their Music, And Their Composers • George P. Upton
... aside, and giving him a small present of gunpowder, asked his advice in so critical a situation. He was decidedly of opinion that I ought not to go to the king: he was fully convinced, he said, that if the king should discover anything valuable in my possession, he would not be over scrupulous about the means of obtaining it. This made me the more solicitous to conciliate ...
— Life and Travels of Mungo Park in Central Africa • Mungo Park
... own toes happened to feel as if they were pasted back on my insteps; yet I laughed heartily at the suggestion, and to my critical ear there was only a slight hollowness in the ring, although before us now loomed a huge railway van. It was loaded with iron bars, their rusty ends hanging far out and sagging towards the roadway, enough to frighten the gentlest automobile. Ours seemed far from gentle, and ...
— The Princess Passes • Alice Muriel Williamson and Charles Norris Williamson
... even though it were a church. He went with some secret misgiving lest the service should move him more than he wished; but to his satisfaction he found that while he felt aesthetic pleasure, he was inclined to be critical about the doctrine of the ritual. His satisfaction, he reflected, would have been thought amusing by Mrs. Staggchase; but it at least assured him that he had not been mistaken in his mental attitude toward the ...
— The Puritans • Arlo Bates
... universal praise and applause greeted William and his immortal sonnets; and if any critical reader or author will take pains to delve into and scan the poetry and philosophy of Spenser and Bacon with that of Shakspere, they will quickly and honestly come to the conclusion that the former writers are merely rushlights ...
— Shakspere, Personal Recollections • John A. Joyce
... tars: he therefore approached him and told him his real case, not even concealing his being taken in actual hostility to the British government, and his escape from prison. The sailor mused a few minutes. "Thy case, said he, is a little critical, but do not despair. Had I met thee as an enemy, I should have fought thee; but as it is, compassion is the first consideration. Perhaps I may be in as bad a situation before the war is ended." Then slipping off his coat ...
— Alonzo and Melissa - The Unfeeling Father • Daniel Jackson, Jr.
... save him if you choose, Gerrard. What! do you think that I will allow the work here—the regeneration of the Granthi state—to be endangered by petty, miserable squabbles between my assistants? I have seen too much of support withheld at critical moments because one man had a grudge against another. Here we are all brothers. If Charteris intends to keep up this enmity, ...
— The Path to Honour • Sydney C. Grier
... more varied; and the effect of this prosperous and varied industry shows itself in active and critical minds. Importation from places beyond Poughkeepsie awakened imagination and invited reflection upon the state of ...
— Quaker Hill - A Sociological Study • Warren H. Wilson
... majesty doubted not but his faithful commons, on whose affection and zeal he entirely relied, would enable him to make such augmentations, and to take such measures for supporting the honour of his crown, and the true interest of his people, and for the security of his dominions in the present critical conjuncture, as the exigency of affairs might require; in doing which his majesty would have as much regard to the ease of his good subjects as should be consistent with their safety and welfare. In answer to this message, a very warm and affectionate address was presented to his majesty; ...
— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.II. - From William and Mary to George II. • Tobias Smollett
... got Cleopatra's Needle, and the pelicans in St. James's Park," Sir John Dene retorted scornfully. He had never forgotten the occasion when, at a critical moment in the country's history, the First Lord of the Admiralty had casually enquired if he had ...
— Malcolm Sage, Detective • Herbert George Jenkins
... Henry over the question of his marriage with Edith (who claimed release from vows taken under compulsion in a convent at Romsey), and his fidelity at the critical time when Robert of Normandy and the discontented nobles threatened the safety of the Crown was invaluable. But Henry was an absolutist, anxious for all the threads of power to be in his own hands; and just when a great Church Council at the Lateran ...
— The Rise of the Democracy • Joseph Clayton
... on. The lunch counter girl, following him with critical eyes, demanded for him or ...
— The Desert Valley • Jackson Gregory
... world only as it is portrayed by the pens of Bernard Shaw and Anatole France. The first is deplorable; the second is dangerous. I should deeply regret the day when a simple story of honest American manhood winning a million and a sparkling, piquant sweetheart lost all power to lull my critical faculty and warm my heart. I doubt whether any literature has ever had too ...
— Definitions • Henry Seidel Canby
... establish the reasons for it, and to define its quality, so far he becomes a critic. As every man who perceives beauty in nature and takes it up into his own life is potentially an artist, so every man is a critic in the measure that he reasons about his enjoyment. The critical processes, therefore, are an essential part of our total experience of art, and criticism may be an ...
— The Gate of Appreciation - Studies in the Relation of Art to Life • Carleton Noyes
... a question of degree. He was an artist and something of a dramatist; he was not at the Place Vendome at a certain critical moment; he was not at Montmartre at a particular terrible time; he was not a high officer like Mayer; he was young, with the face of a patriot. Well, they sent Mayer to the galleys at Toulon first; then, among the worst of the prisoners here—he was too bold, too full of speech; ...
— The Judgment House • Gilbert Parker
... vessel, made her way to the spot. Her sudden appearance caused the mutineers to hesitate, when Mr Baker shouted to the drummer boy to beat the drum, and then ordered the men to fall in. Two-thirds obeyed him, and formed in line, while the remainder retreated with their ringleader. At this critical moment Mrs Baker implored her husband to forgive the mutineer, if he would kiss his hand and beg his pardon. This compromise completely won the men, who now called upon their ringleader to apologise, and all would be right. This he did, and Mr Baker made them rather ...
— Great African Travellers - From Mungo Park to Livingstone and Stanley • W.H.G. Kingston
... though my father greatly admired Mr. Lincoln, he did not put into my mind that passionate devotion to the saviour of the Union which I developed later. By this I do not mean that he was critical of Lincoln, but merely that Lincoln was not one of his special heroes. This fact, however, made a sounder foundation for my feelings about America and the American people than would the mere cult of the individual. I learned first to understand the greatness ...
— The Adventure of Living • John St. Loe Strachey
... likewise most of the writings of St. Francis. The former were and still are undergoing changes, owing to new historical researches and discoveries made by students of Franciscan sources, while the latter were but lately again newly translated into English and edited as completely as possible with many critical notes and references of great value by the scholarly Father Paschal Robinson, O.F.M.—The Writings of St. Francis of Assisi by Father Paschal Robinson, ...
— The Life and Legends of Saint Francis of Assisi • Father Candide Chalippe
... to say anything rather than injure {313} her lover.—She is conducted before a court and condemned to the funeral pile. Gerold, not once doubting her, is resolved to share her death, when in the last critical moment the minstrel once more raises his voice and finishes the ballad, which the Rhinegrave had interrupted so violently. He tells the astonished hearers, that the wife and daughter of the Count, who was slain by his brother, were not burnt in the castle, but escaped to the forest, finding kindly ...
— The Standard Operaglass - Detailed Plots of One Hundred and Fifty-one Celebrated Operas • Charles Annesley
... captiously critical, and received our well-meant but weak attempts to please them with hearty pleasure and vigorous applause; and when we finally took ourselves off down to the river to wash our faces, every one declared we were a great ...
— Brighter Britain! (Volume 1 of 2) - or Settler and Maori in Northern New Zealand • William Delisle Hay
... judgment. His aspect was very singular, for he was like a child in figure, and very weakly in appearance, but with that, eyes and a forehead indicating the highest intelligence. In short, the only faculty lacking, was one which would have caused him to abjure Catholicism, viz. the critical one. Or I should rather say that he had the critical faculty very highly developed in every point not touching religious belief; but that possessed in his view such a co-efficient of certainty, that nothing could counterbalance ...
— Recollections of My Youth • Ernest Renan
... and the wire had been put on by a farmer who combined with great ingenuity a fervent hatred of his fellow-men. To Miss Drewitt it seemed insurmountable, but, aided by Mr. Tredgold and a peal of thunder which came to his assistance at a critical moment, she managed to clamber over and reach the shed. Mr. Tredgold followed at his leisure with a strip of braid torn from the ...
— Dialstone Lane, Complete • W.W. Jacobs
... drawing them out with my dissecting- needles and letting them spring back again. Yet I looked repeatedly at other rootlets similarly treated, and could never again discover these elastic threads. I therefore infer that the branch in question must have been slightly moved from the wall at some critical period, whilst the secretion was in the act of drying, through the absorption of its watery parts. The genus Ficus abounds with caoutchouc, and we may conclude from the facts just given that this substance, ...
— The Movements and Habits of Climbing Plants • Charles Darwin
... next literary labour was the editorship of the Works of John Dryden, with Notes. Critical and Explanatory, and a Life of the Author: the chief aim of which appears to be the arrangement of the "literary productions in their succession, as actuated by, and operating upon, the taste of an age, where they had so predominating an influence," ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, No. 571 - Volume 20, No. 571—Supplementary Number • Various
... be found in Chesterton's masterly study of Charles Dickens it lies in the fact that in parts of the book the meaning is not always clear, or, rather, it is not always so at a first reading. Whether this may be justly termed a fault depends largely upon what the reader of a critical ...
— Gilbert Keith Chesterton • Patrick Braybrooke
... knock you out if you have to take it, but it might also keep you alive. I'm waiting myself to see if it's necessary to go on kwil. The hallucinations I get from the stuff afterwards could hit me while we're in the middle of some critical activity or other, and that mightn't be so good." He closed the case again, put it away. "I think we've covered everything. If you'll check the view plate, something—or somebody—has come out from under the trees ...
— The Star Hyacinths • James H. Schmitz
... move. De Colonel"—her sobriquet for Marny—"doan' keer whar he drap his seegars. But doan' you move, honey"—sobriquet for me. "I kin git 'em." Or "Clar to goodness, you pillows look like a passel o' hogs done tromple ye, yo're dat mussed." Critical remarks like these last were given in a low tone, and, although addressed to the offending articles themselves, accompanied by sundry cuffs of her big hand, were really intended to convey Aunt Chloe's private opinion of the habits of her master and ...
— The Underdog • F. Hopkinson Smith
... times the owner came to see me. We had rejoiced in the rented property, rejoiced in owning nothing, yet having it all.... Thoreau in his daily westward migrations studied it all with the same critical delight, and found his abode where others did not care to follow. We look twice at the spot we choose to build our house. That second look is not so free and innocent.... Yet a man may build his house. Thoreau had no little brood coming up, ...
— Child and Country - A Book of the Younger Generation • Will Levington Comfort
... this painful subject at great length before the Provincial Government, and stated that, having failed to receive relief, I could only see one way left of mitigating the evil, and that is by an appeal to my people on the present critical situation of the Church, and in behalf of my destitute clergymen. It is indeed a step which I take with extreme reluctance, and which, were it possible, I would most willingly avoid.... ...
— The Story of My Life - Being Reminiscences of Sixty Years' Public Service in Canada • Egerton Ryerson
... few instances also we have found ourselves called upon to adopt a more critical tone; where we were disposed to dissent from the view taken by the author on particular questions of a controversial kind, or when he is arguing in support, or in refutation, of opposing theories on some points of science not yet satisfactorily ...
— Biographies of Distinguished Scientific Men • Francois Arago
... all," exclaimed the pirate, in a fierce tone, so loud, that, had not those to whom it related been absorbed in their own conversations, they must have been startled by it. "That I slay you not this instant, you have to thank the critical position in which the ship is placed. Go, tell them that I, Zappa, their chief, intend to remain their captain as long as the Sea Hawk floats proudly on the ocean, or till I absolve them from their allegiance. Go, tell them this, and think well before you again venture to be the bearer of ...
— The Pirate of the Mediterranean - A Tale of the Sea • W.H.G. Kingston
... a queer business," observed Mr. Bennett, allowing himself for a moment, an outside and critical consideration of ...
— The Secret of the Tower • Hope, Anthony
... was entertained that they would no more fight with them than they had done with the AEqui; that even some more serious attempt was not to be despaired of, considering the irritated state of their feelings, and the very critical occasion. The affair turned out altogether differently; for never before in any other war did the Roman soldiers enter the field with more determined minds (so much had the enemy exasperated them by taunts on the one hand, ...
— The History of Rome, Books 01 to 08 • Titus Livius
... to write to any such yourself, please let me have a list of three or four of those most likely to respond, and I will address them through the Post Office. May I also ask you to favour me with any critical observations that have ever presented themselves to your reflective faculties, on "Cain, a Mystery," by the ...
— Life And Adventures Of Martin Chuzzlewit • Charles Dickens
... was now very critical. On one flank and in front were impassable rivers. The whole country was in arms against them, and on their rear and flank pressed a hostile army fourfold their strength. The country was swampy and thinly populated, and flour ...
— Saint George for England • G. A. Henty
... was seized with most severe cramp in his stomach. This gave us the occasion to send for a doctor in the morning, who, learning that Jack had been ill ever since we left Barbary, and not understanding his present complaint, pulled a very long face, and, declaring his case was very critical, bled him copiously, forbade him to leave his bed for another fortnight, and sent him in half a dozen bottles of physic. About midday he returns, and, finding his patient no better, administers a bolus; and while we are all standing about the bed, and Dawson the ...
— A Set of Rogues • Frank Barrett
... tense and tragic situations and deeply-moving scenes. The affairs of the family turned out much better than had been expected, but Alfred de Musset continued to work with application and ardor. His fine critical faculty kept his vagaries within bounds: he knew better than anybody "how much good sense it requires to do without common sense"—a dictum of his own. Like every true artist, he took his subjects wherever he found them: the dripping raindrops and tolling of the convent-bell suggested one ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, October, 1877, Vol. XX. No. 118 • Various
... decide that it must be a long distance through the wood,—half-way round the schoolroom, in fact. The wolf selects the spot where he will meet Red Riding Hood, and the woodchopper chooses a position from which he can rush in at the critical moment, to ...
— How to Tell Stories to Children - And Some Stories to Tell • Sara Cone Bryant
... and the tide served, a fierce tornado broke upon us, and the sky looked grisly in the critical direction, north-east. Having no wish to recross the Gaboon River during a storm blowing a head wind, I resolved to delay my departure till the morrow, and amused myself with drawing from the nude a picture of the village ...
— Two Trips to Gorilla Land and the Cataracts of the Congo Volume 1 • Richard F. Burton
... wind and sea, worse than a lightship in a surf gale—tried to crowd us out just as an awful squall swooped down. It was the Johnnie or the Withrow then. We took it full and they didn't, and there is all there was to it. But for a minute it was either vessel's race. At the critical time Sam Hollis didn't have the nerve, and the skipper ...
— The Seiners • James B. (James Brendan) Connolly
... for a time, through the madness and folly of the people: but now they were silent; many of them went to their long home, not able to foretell their own fate, or to calculate their own nativities. Some have been critical enough to say[251] that every one of them died. I dare not affirm that; but this I must own, that I never heard of one of them that ever appeared ...
— History of the Plague in London • Daniel Defoe
... But, unfortunately, Melas had sent back 2,200 horsemen to watch the district between Alessandria and Acqui, to which latter place Suchet's force was advancing. To guard against this remoter danger, he weakened his attacking force at the critical time and place; and now, when the Austrians approached the hill of San Giuliano with bands playing and colours flying, their horse was not strong enough to complete the French defeat. Still, such was the strength of their onset that all resistance seemed unavailing, ...
— The Life of Napoleon I (Volumes, 1 and 2) • John Holland Rose
... seen, a strange smile upon her face that betokened a secret bitterness; and for a moment he had been confused, and had faltered in his speech, and had felt as if he were sitting with a stranger who was hostile to him, or, if not actually hostile, was almost cruelly critical of him. Now that stranger silently spoke to him, silently told him ...
— A Spirit in Prison • Robert Hichens
... suspense of the ladies became terrible. This was the critical moment. Already his eyes could look down upon the mystery that lay beneath that precipice. And what lay revealed there? Did his eyes encounter a spectacle of horror? Did they gaze down into the inaccessible depths of some hideous abyss? Did they see those jagged rocks, ...
— The American Baron • James De Mille
... them, have inspired all the great masterpieces of the language. On the one hand, there is that positive spirit of searching and unmitigated common sense which has given French prose its peculiar distinction, which lies at the root of the wonderful critical powers of the nation, and which has produced that remarkable and persistent strain of Realism—of absolute fidelity to the naked truth—common to the earliest Fabliaux of the Middle Ages and the latest Parisian novel of ...
— Landmarks in French Literature • G. Lytton Strachey
... study of the laws of life of human societies, there exists but one indubitable method,—the positive, experimental, critical method ...
— What To Do? - thoughts evoked by the census of Moscow • Count Lyof N. Tolstoi
... reached the steps. Mr. Donovan landed. Smith stepped ashore after him. Captain Wilson bade his men push off. He remained, a critical observer of the scene, some twenty or thirty ...
— The Island Mystery • George A. Birmingham
... before, Colonel Arthur, late Governor of Honduras, had arrived at a most critical moment. The former Governor, Colonel Sorrell, was a man of genial temperament, but little strength of character. He was, moreover, profligate in his private life; and, encouraged by his example, his officers violated all rules ...
— For the Term of His Natural Life • Marcus Clarke
... writer to acknowledge Jackson's contributions to color printing, although he was critical of his inks. The book attempts to show, through examples, that color printing from woodblocks is practical for a ...
— John Baptist Jackson - 18th-Century Master of the Color Woodcut • Jacob Kainen
... anything, save that you may undoubtedly serve the United States of America most essentially in this affair in a few weeks from this. The attention to my business here, which is not merely political, but partly commercial, the critical situation of affairs at this Court, and the anxious suspense for the events at New York and Canada have actually fixed me here, and the having received no intelligence for some time past has well nigh distracted ...
— The Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution, Vol. IX • Various
... afternoon will always be graven on my mind. Northmour and I were persuaded that an attack was imminent; and if it had been in our power to alter in any way the order of events, that power would have been used to precipitate rather than delay the critical moment. The worst was to be anticipated; yet we could conceive no extremity so miserable as the suspense we were now suffering. I have never been an eager, though always a great, reader; but I never knew books ...
— New Arabian Nights • Robert Louis Stevenson |
