"Optional" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... realities, and every thing intellectual, disinterested, and heroic, which enthusiasts connect with it as idle dreams. Besides, said I, I am yet a stranger to the secret, on the preservation of which so much stress is laid, and it will be optional with me to receive it or not. If, in the progress of my acquaintance with Mrs. Benington, I should perceive any extraordinary danger in the gift, cannot I refuse, or at least delay to comply with any new conditions from Ludloe? Will not his candour and his affection for me rather ...
— Memoirs of Carwin the Biloquist - (A Fragment) • Charles Brockden Brown
... beside frequent entrance, entrance is required for multitudes at the same time, the size of the aperture either must be increased, or other apertures must be introduced. It may, in some buildings, be optional with the architect whether he shall give many small doors, or few large ones; and in some, as theatres, amphitheatres, and other places where the crowd are apt to be impatient, many doors are by far the best arrangement of the two. Often, however, the purposes ...
— The Stones of Venice, Volume I (of 3) • John Ruskin
... Rest," he said negligently. "Nine hundred for the three dive periods. But Rest is optional, of course. Some passengers prefer the experience of staying awake during a subspace dive." He smiled—rather sadistically, Trigger felt—and added, "Till they've lived through one ...
— Legacy • James H Schmitz
... is quite optional: many prefer 7 because they may make a coup at once by throwing that number or by throwing 11, which is a "nick" to 7, but to 7 only. Shrewd players, however, prefer some other main, with the view of having a more favourable chance ...
— The Gaming Table: Its Votaries and Victims - Volume II (of II) • Andrew Steinmetz
... attendance at which is of course optional, affords all the opportunity of gaining a knowledge of the doctrine of the Catholic Church. Affiliated with this church are four flourishing societies, one for the men called the Holy Name Society; one for the women called The Sodality of the Mother of Jesus; one for men and ...
— The Journal of Negro History, Volume 2, 1917 • Various
... laymen, irrespective of their theological opinions, and to make each English cathedral a centre of intellectual activity, a college as it were of philosophers and writers. But afterwards his suggestions grew bolder, the Articles of Religion were to be set aside, the creeds made optional even for the clergy. His dream became more and more richly picturesque until at last he saw Canterbury a realized Thelema, and St. Paul's a new Academic Grove. He was to work at that remarkable proposal intermittently for ...
— The Passionate Friends • Herbert George Wells
... instruction had been inserted in this act of 1862 because Senator Morrill and others saw clearly the advantage which had accrued to the States then in rebellion from their military schools; but the act had left military instruction optional with the institutions securing the national endowment, and, so far as I could learn, none of those already created had taken the clause very seriously. I proposed that we should accept it fully and ...
— Volume I • Andrew Dickson White
... I'll make it more binding. It was optional with you before; it's a sheer necessity now. ...
— The Taming of Red Butte Western • Francis Lynde
... to the south the ice showed itself in far from pleasing proximity under the lee—boiling, for so the edge of a pack appears to do in a gale of wind. It was a wild sight; but we felt that, at any rate, it was optional with a screw steamer whether she ran into the pack or kept the sea, for her clawing-to-windward power astonished us who had fought in the teeth of hard gales elsewhere in flying Symondite brigs. Not so, however, thought ...
— Stray Leaves from an Arctic Journal; • Sherard Osborn
... 3RD YEOMAN [optional] You, when brought to execution, Like a demigod of yore, With heroic resolution Snatched a sword and ...
— The Complete Plays of Gilbert and Sullivan - The 14 Gilbert And Sullivan Plays • William Schwenk Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan
... this is a scheme of emancipation. It is nothing of the sort. It is not intended that the owner shall be obliged to accept compensation for his slave. That is left optional with him. He may take it or not as he likes. The effect of accepting compensation would be just the same as if he sold his slave to the North. The gentleman from Virginia raises a curious objection; that the owner ...
— A Report of the Debates and Proceedings in the Secret Sessions of the Conference Convention • Lucius Eugene Chittenden
... many pertaining to the heart; but if a man's life be valuable, not for the incense it consumes, but for the instruction it affords, to state even defects, (in one like Mr. C. who can so well afford deduction without serious loss) becomes in his biographer, not optional, but ...
— Reminiscences of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey • Joseph Cottle
... of instruction was adopted, extending to three years, but still confined to English studies. In 1856, the Latin and Greek languages were introduced, and in 1859, the German was added to the full course. These ancient and foreign languages were optional with the students, as well as the French language, which ...
— Cleveland Past and Present - Its Representative Men, etc. • Maurice Joblin
... general profession of holding to the principle of Benjamin Franklin that office should neither be sought nor refused and in part to the American idea that the people choose their own officers so that public service is not optional. In other countries this is not so. For centuries some seats in the British Parliament were controlled and probably sold as were commissions in the army, but that has never been the case here. A certain Congressman, however, on arriving at Washington was asked by an old friend how he happened ...
— Have faith in Massachusetts; 2d ed. - A Collection of Speeches and Messages • Calvin Coolidge
... instruction should be obligatory for all, while another part intended for ulterior individual development should be optional, according to individual taste and talent. In the obligatory part of instruction certain subjects might be made obligatory for one sex and optional for the other; sewing and algebra, for instance. In this way each sex could choose the most suitable subjects, ...
— The Sexual Question - A Scientific, psychological, hygienic and sociological study • August Forel
... forth are cited in the margin. The more important passages, particularly those which the catechumens may be expected to memorize, are specially indicated by a dagger (), and are printed in full at the end of the chapter. The use of a Scripture lesson is, of course, optional with the pastor. One is indicated, however, for each chapter, and may be read in class or be assigned to the catechumens to be read at home. The Scriptural illustrations are cited for the convenience of the ...
— An Explanation of Luther's Small Catechism • Joseph Stump
... quite optional; Lady Rookwood will give as much, and make no mouths about it. Soho, lass! What makes Bess prick her ears in that fashion?—Ha! carriage-wheels in the distance! that jade knows the sound as well as I do. I'll just see what it's like!—you will have ten minutes for reflection. Who knows ...
— Rookwood • William Harrison Ainsworth
... obedience to an unperverted appetite? The doctors seem to know little about health; they are not asked to keep us healthy, but only to cure us of disease, and so their studies relate to disease, not health; and dietetics, a science dealing with the very first principles of health, is an optional course in the curriculum of ...
— No Animal Food - and Nutrition and Diet with Vegetable Recipes • Rupert H. Wheldon
... take the waters, so it is with Kew. One goes to Kew to take the watercresses. I have found out by exhaustive inquiries from one of the waitresses that, though you may substitute rolls and butter for bread and margarine, and may have marmalade with either or both, and though it is optional to eat even the cakes with yellow sugar upon them, there is no way of evading the watercresses. There is a strong feeling amongst the waitresses that it is just these compulsory watercresses which have made us Englishmen ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 158, April 21, 1920 • Various
... widening of nations, so as to include circumjacent outsiders, as well as the first compact and sacred group—the number of parties to a discussion was at first augmented very slowly. Thirdly, the number of 'open' subjects—as we should say nowadays—that is, of subjects on which public opinion was optional, and on which discussion was admitted, was at first very small. Custom ruled everything originally, and the area of free argument was enlarged but very slowly. If I am at all right, that area could only be enlarged thus slowly, for Custom was in early days the cement of ...
— Physics and Politics, or, Thoughts on the application of the principles of "natural selection" and "inheritance" to political society • Walter Bagehot
... arithmetic, Japanese history, geography, science, drawing, singing, and gymnastics, and, in schools for females, sewing. Besides these agriculture, commerce, and manual work, as well as the English language, are optional subjects. The moral lessons taught in these schools, I may remark, are not based upon any particular religious doctrines or dogmas, but are entirely and ...
— The Empire of the East • H. B. Montgomery
... was abolished as a tax, it remained optional with the publishers to have any number of their issue stamped they pleased for transmission through the poet. The number of stamps thus issued in the first six months after the repeal was 21,646,688, whereas the ...
— The Continental Monthly, Vol. 6, No 2, August, 1864 - Devoted to Literature and National Policy • Various
... engines that he built during the term of the "crank patents." This arrangement had the advantage of turning the flywheel through two revolutions during a single cycle of operation of the piston, thus requiring a flywheel only one-fourth the size of the flywheel needed if a simple crank were used. The optional link (JK of fig. 7e) was used in the ...
— Kinematics of Mechanisms from the Time of Watt • Eugene S. Ferguson
... most of the mandarins understand the real occasion of eclipses, or, at least, they have the sense to perceive that nothing which they can do will have any effect upon the object eclipsed, or the cause which produces the phenomenon; but they have no optional course in regard to the matter. They must comply with established custom, and with the understood will of their superiors. The imperial astronomers, having been taught the principles of astronomy and the causes which produce eclipses by ...
— Moon Lore • Timothy Harley
... dangerous instruments should a holder desire to use them dangerously. Mr. Inglesby could give Eustis an extension of time, or he could demand full payment and immediately foreclose. You see, it's entirely optional with Mr. Inglesby." And he leaned back in his chair, perfectly self-possessed, entirely at his ease, and waited for ...
— Slippy McGee, Sometimes Known as the Butterfly Man • Marie Conway Oemler
... rescued by one of his own side. The prisoner may reach as far out of the prison as possible, so long as one foot is within it. When there are several prisoners, they may take hold of hands or otherwise touch each other, as by the feet (this is optional with the prisoners), and reach forward as far as possible, to be tagged by a rescuer, so long as one of them (the last caught) keeps one foot within the prison goal. In such a line the first one caught should be farthest from the prison, the next one caught holding his hand, and so on in the ...
— Games for the Playground, Home, School and Gymnasium • Jessie H. Bancroft
... administered in the first ages under both forms. The faithful, however, had the privilege of dispensing with the cup and of partaking only of the bread until the time of Pope Gelasius, in the fifth century, when this general, but hitherto optional, practice of receiving under both kinds was enforced as a law for ...
— The Faith of Our Fathers • James Cardinal Gibbons
... outward adornments or optional accomplishments. They are the essential conditions of the Christian man. They constitute his inmost and necessary character. They do not, however, supersede or render superfluous the other virtues. On the contrary they ...
— Christianity and Ethics - A Handbook of Christian Ethics • Archibald B. C. Alexander
... contemporaries, marked with their own individuality. All Viols until about 1520 were furnished with pieces of gut tied round the neck and fingerboard to mark the divisions of the scale—in short, were fretted. From the work of Ganassi we learn that the use of these divisions was optional, thus supplying us with authentic information of considerable value with regard to the gradual emancipation of this class of instrument from frets, and foreshadowing the union of the Geige or Fiddle with the Viol. Passing to the question of form given by the ...
— The Violin - Its Famous Makers and Their Imitators • George Hart
... the method used in fertilizer analysis (ibid., pp. 2-5), destroying the organic material in the beer by digestion with strong sulphuric acid and nitric acid and determining the phosphoric acid finally by the optional volumetric method (ibid., p. 4). The uranium acetate method given for beers was not used, for the reason that it was found to be exceedingly difficult to obtain ...
— A Study Of American Beers and Ales • L.M. Tolman
... the egg is optional. The choice rests with the mother, who is guided by considerations of space and, according to the accommodation at her disposal, which is frequently fortuitous and incapable of modification, places a female in this cell and a male ...
— Bramble-bees and Others • J. Henri Fabre
... believe, under consideration. Many of the natives speak, and understand, Danish—indeed the laws are read to them in that language; and between Danish and Icelandic, we ladies succeeded in making our German understood. Icelandic is now given with English and Anglo-Saxon as optional subjects for the examination at Cambridge for the ...
— A Girl's Ride in Iceland • Ethel Brilliana Alec-Tweedie
... an additional official, suggested by Walter Camp, was adopted in providing that any team shall have the right to have a fourth official, who shall be known as a field judge. His duty will be to assist the referee and umpire. The naming of such an official is optional. ...
— Owen Clancy's Happy Trail - or, The Motor Wizard in California • Burt L. Standish
... she have no others at her disposal. And, further, we learn from the interesting observations of M. Fabre on the Osmiae, which are wild and olitary bees of the Gastrilegidae family, that not only does the Osmia know in advance the sex of the egg she will lay, but that this sex is "optional for the mother, who decides it in accordance with the space of which she disposes; this space being often governed by chance and not to be modified; and she will deposit a male egg here and a female there." I shall not enter into the details ...
— The Life of the Bee • Maurice Maeterlinck
... says:—"A second edition of Mr. Coleridge's poems being demanded, I was under no obligation, the copyright being mine, in publishing a second edition, to make Mr. Coleridge any payment, alterations or additions being optional with him; but in his circumstances, and to show that my desire was to consider Mr. C. even more than myself, I promised him, on the sale of the second edition of 500, twenty guineas. The following was his reply: (not ...
— Biographia Epistolaris, Volume 1. • Coleridge, ed. Turnbull
... ultimately wish to see would be one in which the state would be the sole recipient of economic rent, while private capitalistic enterprises should be replaced by self-governing combinations of those who actually do the work. It ought to be optional whether a man does a whole day's work for a whole day's pay, or half a day's work for half a day's pay, except in cases where such an arrangement would cause practical inconvenience. A man's pay should not cease through the accident of his work being no longer needed, but ...
— Political Ideals • Bertrand Russell
... constructed in stone or marble? The answer is obvious: Certainly not, when those features suggest the mass and proportions or treatment proper only for stone or marble; but when they do not so represent the material, it is quite optional for the architect to build up his front with castings, if by so doing he can obtain greater rigidity of bearing, strength, and durability. He ought, of course, to vary the proportions of his pilasters and horizontal ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 324, March 18, 1882 • Various
... until their original indebtedness is paid. A father is in debt, we'll say. He sells his daughter to a geisha or a sing-song master, and the girl is rented out until the debt is paid. Then the work is optional; they go on their own. There are sing-song girls in Hong-Kong and Shanghai who are famous and wealthy. Sometimes they marry well. If they become bad it is through inclination, ...
— The Ragged Edge • Harold MacGrath
... champions of military necessity were glad to learn later that the cathedral still stood, though much damaged. There was military excuse for the bombardment of the city of Rheims. But the cathedral was by far the most conspicuous object in the Rheims landscape. It was optional with the Germans to spare it except for some casual shell that missed its aim. On the contrary they chose the great church as a special target, as evidenced by repeated damage to the cathedral and by the destruction of buildings all about it by shell fire. This ...
— The Story of the Great War, Volume II (of VIII) - History of the European War from Official Sources • Various
... he says Londres. And the same is true with Dover; Dover is not French; The French would be Douvres. However, I want to say this, that after the first three or four years after I took up Esperanto geographical or proper names were left optional and they were not given any particular spelling in the Esperanto language and are not now. Many Esperantists now would say Washington and London. But you can make the change ...
— Esperanto: Hearings before the Committee on Education • Richard Bartholdt and A. Christen
... this request. You will possibly set it down as additional evidence of my cold-heartedness. If so you must. Would you also mind writing the business letter on an independent sheet, with a proper beginning and ending? Whether you inclose another sheet is of course optional.—Sincerely ...
— A Laodicean • Thomas Hardy
... similar laws, followed by Missouri in 1875 and New Jersey in 1878. By 1890 over a dozen States had passed laws attempting to eliminate the grosser frauds attendant upon making nominations. In many instances it was made optional with the party whether the direct plan should supersede the delegate plan. Only in certain cities, however, was the primary made mandatory in these States. By far the larger areas retained ...
— The Boss and the Machine • Samuel P. Orth
... never knew a foreigner!" said young Townsend, in a tone which seemed to indicate that his ignorance had been optional. ...
— Washington Square • Henry James
... in seemly order, and converse in a low tone; first upon the property of the defunct, and next upon the politics of the day. You walk with the others into the church, where service is said over the body. It is optional to go to the grave or not. When you go away, you enter your carriage and return to ...
— The Laws of Etiquette • A Gentleman
... Paisley) endorses The sentence of violent death, Though he leaves him alternative courses For yielding his ultimate breath; He allows him an optional charter— To swing by his neck from a tree, Or to perish a ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 158, February 4, 1920 • Various
... charlatanism. "Louis Lambert," as a whole, is now quite unreadable; it contains some admirable descriptions, but the "scientific" portion is mere fantastic verbiage. There is something extremely characteristic in the way Balzac speaks of its having been optional with him to make it a "purely learned" work. His pretentiousness was simply colossal, and there is nothing surprising in his wearing the mask even en famille (the letter we have just quoted from is, as we have said, to his sister); he wore it during ...
— The Galaxy, Volume 23, No. 2, February, 1877 • Various
... remarkable one," said Simon Orts. "As I understand it, you appeal to me to meddle in your affairs on the ground that you once made a fool of me. I think the obligation is largely optional. I remember quite clearly the incidents to which you refer; and it shames even an old sot like me to think that I was ever so utterly at the mercy of a good-for-nothing jilt. I remember every vow ...
— Gallantry - Dizain des Fetes Galantes • James Branch Cabell
... this drawing work was remarkably fine, and elicited hearty commendation. Its utility was clearly recognized when on the walls were seen drawings of house framings, house plans, architectural and building details, etc. It should be said that the work along industrial lines is neither optional nor elective, but that it is a part of the regular class-work of the school as much as ...
— The American Missionary — Volume 48, No. 7, July, 1894 • Various
... in which condition they were obliged to remain during the remainder of the year in which they incepted and for a twelvemonth afterwards. In the case of the Non-Regents, who had exceeded this period of probation, lecturing appears to have been optional. The Regent Master was required to devote forty days of his novitiate ...
— The Customs of Old England • F. J. Snell
... must be concerned not only about hearing, but also about learning and retaining it in memory, and do not think that it is optional with you or of no great importance, but that it is God's commandment, who will require of you how you have heard, learned, and honored His ...
— The Large Catechism by Dr. Martin Luther
... as school districts, and by a natural process the school district became the nucleus of a township government, at first for school purposes and later for the self-government of the whole community. In some cases, as in Illinois, it was made optional with the people of a county whether they would organize a township government or not, but wherever the two systems entered into comparison and competition the township government proved the more popular. As long as ...
— Society - Its Origin and Development • Henry Kalloch Rowe
... braver in the hour of despair than ever before, they never faltered or murmured. The trial found them true, I can safely say that the men of my brigade were even more prompt in rendering obedience, more careful in doing their full duty at this time, when it was entirely optional with themselves whether they should go or stay, than they had ever been in the most prosperous days of the Confederacy. To command such men was the proudest honor ...
— History of Morgan's Cavalry • Basil W. Duke
... to any such degree as holding that recognition of the interest of our nation in religion, through the granting, to qualified representatives of the principal faiths, of opportunity to present religion as an optional, extracurricular subject during released school time in public school buildings, was equivalent to an establishment of religion."[28] He further pointed out that "the Congress of the United States has a ...
— The Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis and Interpretation • Edward Corwin
... sins. The Reformers, however, distinctly rejected the necessity of the penitents enumerating his individual sins, and the propriety of the minister's prescribing any penance to the penitent. They also distinctly made confession optional with the penitent, and the absolution dependent on his faith; and this purified rite they termed Private Confession, although in some parts of the church it was still called Auricular Confession (Ohrenbeicht). [Note 1] The manner in which this rite was performed in the Lutheran ...
— American Lutheranism Vindicated; or, Examination of the Lutheran Symbols, on Certain Disputed Topics • Samuel Simon Schmucker
... the ball has to be touched to the goal while in the hand of a player; it can not be thrown. The goals are spaces four by one foot, situated at each short end of the playing area, eighteen inches above the water level. The size of the playing area is optional, tho the recognized dimensions are 60 x 40 feet or 25 x 75 feet, with a uniform depth of seven feet of water. Imaginary lines are drawn across the tank (see Fig. T), parallel to the short ends, at four and fifteen feet from them. The first, called four-foot ...
— Swimming Scientifically Taught - A Practical Manual for Young and Old • Frank Eugen Dalton and Louis C. Dalton
... mathematics, and physical science had a poor chance, though they clamoured for recognition. Latin and Greek verse were considered far more important. In the two highest forms we had to speak Latin, and such as it was it seemed to us much easier than to speak French. Hebrew was also taught as an optional subject during the last four years, and the little I know of Hebrew dates chiefly from my school-days. Schoolboys soon find out what their masters think of the value of the different subjects taught at school, and they are apt to treat not only the subjects themselves ...
— My Autobiography - A Fragment • F. Max Mueller
... If I give myself entirely away in Him and lose all ownership in myself, He may deny me many things I greatly desire. He may make my life hard and wearisome, depriving me of all that now makes it agreeable.' But, I reply, this is no matter of parley and discussion; it is not optional with God's children whether they will pay Him a part of the price they owe Him, and keep back the rest. He asks, and He has a right to ask, for all you have and all you are. And if you shrink from what is involved in such ...
— Stepping Heavenward • Mrs. E. Prentiss
... always been the Eastern custom to bare the feet as a courteous recognition of place or persons, the Western custom, on account of the cold climate, has been to bare the head. Hence in India, where East and West meet, it is optional to follow whichever use the individual prefers; but to enter a church or house without baring head or feet is not polite. The lads quickly respond to the kindly explanation. Some slip off their shoes; one or two take off their caps instead, especially ...
— India and the Indians • Edward F. Elwin
... with seats all round and a rude table in the middle. In sitting down he placed himself as nearly as possible in full view, but with his face toward the mountains. It gave him a preoccupied air to be seen relighting his cigar. It was thus optional with the couple who began to advance along the promenade to pass him by or to pause and ...
— The Letter of the Contract • Basil King
... else you would have known better than to suggest the possibility of friendship between us. You are a poor judge of human nature, and conceited past my understanding, to imagine that it is a matter which is entirely optional with you." With the slow one-sided smile of irony which her face sometimes wore, she bowed slightly. Then, "You will ...
— The Fighting Shepherdess • Caroline Lockhart
... he should give his card at the door. At following calls it is optional whether to give a card or merely the name, asking at the same time for the person one desires to see. When the servant's intelligence seems doubtful, or the name is an unusual one, it is safer to ...
— The Book of Good Manners • W. C. Green
... disposed to look upon this matter as optional with them; but such is a mistake. The time comes in the experience of every true believer when the Holy Spirit brings before him the conditions of a definite and absolute consecration. A refusal to meet these conditions, done ignorantly, will bring a cloud over our experience of justification ...
— Sanctification • J. W. Byers
... admitted, in subsequent conversation, that the President of the South African Republic's scheme could, in his opinion, be improved in detail; for instance, by immediately admitting men who had entered the country previous to 1890, and by making optional the period ...
— Lord Milner's Work in South Africa - From its Commencement in 1897 to the Peace of Vereeniging in 1902 • W. Basil Worsfold
... the relation of the clause, 'the adhvaryu is not to sing,' to the general injunction 'all the priests join in the singing.' Unless we admit that one statement, which defines some other more general statement, may stand to the latter in a supplementary relation, we are driven to assume an optional proceeding, and this is objectionable as long as there is any other way open; according to a principle laid down in the Prva Mmms (X, 8, 15). As the clauses referring to the abandonment of the works, and those referring to their being taken up by others, thus form one connected ...
— The Vedanta-Sutras with the Commentary by Ramanuja - Sacred Books of the East, Volume 48 • Trans. George Thibaut
... who, passing to the opposite extreme, entertain the opinion that love is a sentiment, not only subject to human control, but capable of being entirely suppressed. They deem it altogether optional with themselves, whether they shall know anything of the affection between the ...
— The Young Maiden • A. B. (Artemas Bowers) Muzzey
... at the north side of the building, where the men will be found who conduct visitors over the church. Gratuity optional. The first hall shown contains small and indifferent portraits of all the popes. Then down 27 large marble steps to the crypt. At the foot is a white marble group, St. Michael overcoming Satan. None of the monuments are worthy the name of royal mausoleums. The best ...
— The South of France—East Half • Charles Bertram Black
... optional with me whether I should walk through one hundred and twenty miles of primeval and most impassable forest, or paddle over an equal number of miles of water. Preferring the latter, as being at once the less disagreeable and more ...
— Hudson Bay • R.M. Ballantyne
... conversation in the country: Servants, and Can fowls be made to pay? The first, I believe, is compulsory, the second optional." ...
— Reginald • Saki
... goal assigned to its protection, and equally to try to drive it through the opposite goal. Under no circumstances can the ball be touched during the game, while within the bounds, by the hands of the players. Each player has a racket, the length of which, though optional, is ordinarily from four to five feet. One end of this racket or bat is curved like a shepherd's crook, and from the curved end a thong is carried across to a point on the handle about midway its length. In the space thus enclosed between the thong and the handle, which at its broadest part ...
— Indian Games • Andrew McFarland Davis
... the tongue be a dry one, steep in water all night. Boil it three hours. If you prefer it hot, stick it with cloves. Clear off the scum, and add savory herbs when it has boiled two hours; but this is optional. Rub it over with the yolk of an egg; strew over it bread crumbs; baste it with butter; set it before the fire till it is of a light brown. When you dish it up, pour a little brown gravy, or port wine sauce mixed the ...
— Burroughs' Encyclopaedia of Astounding Facts and Useful Information, 1889 • Barkham Burroughs
... "These visits are optional. They are made without invitation. Between the hours of 3 and 4 every Tuesday I am prepared to receive them. Gentlemen, often in great numbers, come and go, chat with each other, and act as they please. A porter shows them into the room, and ...
— Life And Times Of Washington, Volume 2 • John Frederick Schroeder and Benson John Lossing
... knew it was a wrong move, was so distressed that he called out in despair to one of his officers beside him, "What will Nelson think of us?" The poor captain was subsequently killed. There can be no doubt now that the signal 39 was not permissive or optional, nor that Nelson, having the enemy by the throat, refused to let go until he had strangled him, nor that he did dramatically act the blind-eye trick. He deliberately disobeyed orders, and saved England's honour ...
— Drake, Nelson and Napoleon • Walter Runciman
... anatomized. But, alas! I had not calculated aright the power of that particular potentate to "draw." No sooner had I arrived at the cloak-room than the very hats and umbrellas warned me of the number of his votaries. Evening Dress was "optional;" and I frankly confess, at whatever risk of his displeasure, that I had not deemed Mephistopheles worthy of a swallow-tailed coat. I came in the garb of ordinary life; and at once felt uncomfortable when, mounting the stairs, I was received by a portly gentleman and an affable lady in violent ...
— Mystic London: - or, Phases of occult life in the metropolis • Charles Maurice Davies
... very often quotes it in his speeches. Socrates gave Pythagoras as an authority on the simple life, and stated that he was willing to follow him in anything save his injunction to keep silence. Socrates wanted silence optional; whereas Pythagoras required each of his pupils to live for a year without once asking a question or making an explanation. In aggravated cases he ...
— Little Journeys To The Homes Of Great Teachers • Elbert Hubbard
... my sermons, and I cannot take this valuable time from my studies. If the Association persists in taking up the meetings with such subjects, instead of discussing some of the recent theological themes that are attracting the attention of the clergy everywhere, I must beg that I be given optional attendance. These new-fangled notions of uneducated young men may be all right for some, but you can't expect such men as myself to listen to them. I move that ...
— That Printer of Udell's • Harold Bell Wright
... upon whether or not Robert Herrick was insane. Sir Thomas Browne always preferred to think that he was; whereas Philip Borsdale perversely considered the answer to be optional. Perversely, Sir Thomas protested, because he said that to believe in Herrick's sanity was ...
— The Certain Hour • James Branch Cabell
... boring the ear is very old, mention of it being made in Exodus xxi., 5 and 6, in which we find that if a Hebrew servant served for six years, his freedom was optional, but if he plainly said that he loved his master, and his wife and children, and did not desire to leave their house, the master should bring him before the judges; and according to the passage in Exodus, "he shall also bring him to the door or unto the doorpost, and his master shall ...
— Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine • George M. Gould
... wider blade is desired, a greater number of steps may be made by adding the requisite number of strips; or, the strips may be made thicker. In many propellers, not to exceed four different strips are thus glued together. The number is optional with the maker. ...
— Aeroplanes • J. S. Zerbe***
... recipe entirely and that Tor. concludes the preceding formula with the last sentence of the above formula, except for the difference in one word. Tor. et de quacunque libra [List. et al. herba] si volueris facies ut demonstratum est supra. This might mean that it is optional (in the preceding formula) to shape the fish into one pound loaves instead of the small fish balls, which is often done in the case of forcemeats, as in veal, beef, ham ...
— Cooking and Dining in Imperial Rome • Apicius
... days of papacy in England, fish was an article not of optional, but compulsive consumption, and this rendered the business of a fishmonger one of the principal trades of London. Fish Street Hill, and the immediate vicinity, was the great mart for this branch of traffic, from its close connexion with the river, and here lived ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction - Vol. 19, Issue 529, January 14, 1832 • Various
... to the regret of many of the Committee, who thought he should have been punished. The executive committee called together the board of delegates, and issued a statement showing that death and banishment were the only penalties optional with them. Death they could not inflict, because Hopkins had recovered; and banishment they thought impractical at that time, as it might prolong discussion indefinitely, and enforce a longer term in service than ...
— The Story of the Outlaw - A Study of the Western Desperado • Emerson Hough
... part the reward is their due, as, indeed, it really is; and they come and demand it as such. The tendency, then, is, to divest their minds of all sense of obligation in respect to doing right, and to make them feel that it is in some sense optional with them whether to do right and earn the reward, or not to do ...
— Gentle Measures in the Management and Training of the Young • Jacob Abbott
... various odd shapes and for making shots under various conditions. Usually a boy accompanies each player to carry his clubs. Such boys are called "caddies." The clubs are peculiarly named and it is optional with each player to have as many clubs as he desires. Some of the more common ones are called "driver," "brassie," "cleek," "iron," "mashie," "niblick," "putter," and ...
— Outdoor Sports and Games • Claude H. Miller
... of protection" for girls was raised from 10 to 16 years, and it was made optional with the court to impose less than the existing penalty of ten years' imprisonment. A few years afterward it was proposed to reduce the age to 12 years. Mrs. Mary H. Hunt, in behalf of the W. C. T. U., went before the Judiciary ...
— The History of Woman Suffrage, Volume IV • Various
... Philosophy; these they read before him and the division of the class to which they belong, on appointed days. It was formerly customary for the teacher to name those who were to write on the affirmative and those on the negative, but it is now left optional with the student which side he will take. This word was originally used as an adjective, and it was usual to speak of a forensic dispute, which has now ...
— A Collection of College Words and Customs • Benjamin Homer Hall
... right to use in his religious teaching any catechetical manual he preferred, provided he informed the Consistory of his choice. The use of the liturgical prayers, published by the Consistory, became optional. The pastors were now required merely to declare before God that "they will teach and preach conscientiously, according to their lights and faith the Christian truth contained in our holy hooks". ...
— Practical Essays • Alexander Bain
... referred to the custom in the white homes of Hooker's Bend of having only two meals cooked a day, breakfast and the twelve-o'clock dinner, with a hot supper optional with the mistress. ...
— Birthright - A Novel • T.S. Stribling
... eight hens, or as usual eight men yearly at their own expense to shear corn or cut hay a davoch of ploughing, and four horses for mucking. The above John also obliges himself and his foresaids to attend road duty yearly four days, with all his servants and sub-tenants, or pay a yearly capitation optional to the landlord during this lease under breach of tack, and to sell all the cod and ling that shall be caught by him and his foresaids at the current prices to our order and to dispose of all his marketable cattle ...
— History Of The Mackenzies • Alexander Mackenzie
... of the tones is to a certain extent optional with the composer, but by no means wholly so; the rules of rhythm are probably the most definite and obvious of all the rules of music writing. They do not concern the analytical student intimately, but at least the general distinction ...
— Lessons in Music Form - A Manual of Analysis of All the Structural Factors and - Designs Employed in Musical Composition • Percy Goetschius
... the Orientals; a committee of the prisoners arrange the hours for each set of players. Skittles are very popular. Fencing is eagerly learned; the English officer who teaches it being delighted with his pupils' progress. Lessons in gymnastics, like those in other sports, are optional. ...
— Turkish Prisoners in Egypt - A Report By The Delegates Of The International Committee - Of The Red Cross • Various
... years of age; universal, compulsory for literate persons ages 18-65, optional for other ...
— The 2000 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency.
... questions. But in the reign of Louis IX., commissioners, or baillis, of the king, held provincial courts of appeal in his name. The great suzerains established, each in his own fief, like tribunals, but of more restricted authority. Louis IX. made it optional with the vassal to be tried by his immediate suzerain, or in the king's courts, which were subordinate to his council. As time went on, the authority of the royal tribunals increased, as that of the feudal ...
— Outline of Universal History • George Park Fisher
... well knew that education should bring peace and not a sword. We may make education a battle-ground,' he said, 'where the laurels we reap may be wet with the tears of our country.' At this time primary education was optional, given in private schools, aided in some cases by provincial grants. Both Howe and Johnston would fain have substituted a compulsory system, supported by local assessments, but both feared the repugnance of the country voters to direct taxation, and ...
— The Tribune of Nova Scotia - A Chronicle of Joseph Howe • W. L. (William Lawson) Grant
... sermon the minister led the congregation in prayer for blessing upon the Word preached and for the general estate of Christ's Church: if the Lord's Prayer and the Apostles' Creed were employed in the service (but this was optional with the minister) they were repeated by the minister alone at the close of this prayer, and embodied in it; a Psalm was sung by the congregation and the Benediction was pronounced, or rather, the Blessing was invoked, for the petitions were framed as supplications: ...
— Presbyterian Worship - Its Spirit, Method and History • Robert Johnston
... moral condition, and with a paradoxical result. The moral condition is that the pride of science should turn into humility, that it should no longer imagine that it is laying bare the intrinsic nature of things. And the paradoxical result is this: that the forms of science are optional, like various languages or methods of notation. One may be more convenient or subtle than another, according to the place, senses, interests, and scope of the explorer; a reform in science may render ...
— Some Turns of Thought in Modern Philosophy - Five Essays • George Santayana
... are the fishermen expected to deal only in your store for their fishing materials and the supplies for their families?-That is quite optional. They can take their supplies from our store; and suppose they take most of them there, because it is more convenient for them than ...
— Second Shetland Truck System Report • William Guthrie
... when told to do so, shows the strength of that falsehood. Incidentally, it shows also the sort of discipline on board these ships, the sort of hold kept on the passengers in the face of the unforgiving sea. These people seemed to imagine it an optional matter: whereas the order to leave the ship should be an order of the sternest character, to be obeyed unquestioningly and promptly by every one on board, with men to enforce it at once, and to carry it out methodically and swiftly. And it is no use to say it cannot ...
— Notes on Life and Letters • Joseph Conrad
... condemned as lawful prize by the Mexican authorities. When the order was issued, it operated as a privilege to the vessels of the United States as well as to those of foreign countries to enter the ports held by our arms upon prescribed terms and conditions. It was altogether optional with citizens of the United States and foreigners to avail themselves of the privileges granted ...
— A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents: Polk - Section 3 (of 3) of Volume 4: James Knox Polk • Compiled by James D. Richardson
... to the end of the enterprise on which I had been sent; but as the situation of the country gave me some reason to apprehend that it might be attended with an unfortunate result to some of us, I would leave it optional with them to continue with me or ...
— The Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains, Oregon and California • Brevet Col. J.C. Fremont
... general in the priesthood, but apparently optional with others of the faith. When a dignitary of the priesthood passes away his confreres assemble from far and near at the funeral pyre to do him honor. The incineration usually takes place in a palm grove. The corpse is surrounded with dried wood, made ...
— East of Suez - Ceylon, India, China and Japan • Frederic Courtland Penfield
... liberal in their financing and strong in their faith regarding this enterprise, so typically American, to a degree that a secondary education may no longer be regarded as a luxury or a heritage of the rich. No longer may the field be treated as either optional or exclusive. The statutes of several of our states now expressly or impliedly extend their compulsory attendance requirements beyond the elementary years of school. Many, too, are the lines of more desirable employment for young people which demand or give preference ...
— The High School Failures - A Study of the School Records of Pupils Failing in Academic or - Commercial High School Subjects • Francis P. Obrien
... be reduced as rapidly as can be done without the violation of contract. The public debt is represented in great part by bonds having from five to twenty and from ten to forty years to run, bearing interest at the rate of 6 per cent and 5 per cent, respectively. It is optional with the Government to pay these bonds at any period after the expiration of the least time mentioned upon their face. The time has already expired when a great part of them may be taken up, and is ...
— A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents: Ulysses S. Grant • James D. Richardson
... last, in February 1893, he wrote denouncing the Uccialli treaty, which differed in the Italian and Amharic versions. According to the former, the negus was bound to make use of Italy as a channel for communicating with other powers, whereas the Amharic version left it optional. Meanwhile the dervishes were threatening Eritrea. A fine action by Colonel Arimondi gained Agordat for Italy (21st December 1893), and a brilliant march by Colonel Baratieri resulted in the acquisition of Kassala (17th ...
— Project Gutenberg Encyclopedia
... till ten; and the intervening hour was all the time I could find in the whole day for writing, and occasionally it would happen that the half of that hour was all that I could secure for the purpose. But there was no remedy. Long usage had made that which was at first optional a point of good manners, and consequently of necessity, and I was forced to neglect The Task to attend upon the Muse who had inspired the subject. But she had ill-health, and before I had quite finished the work was obliged to repair to Bristol." Evidently this ...
— Cowper • Goldwin Smith
... younger 10) In school, at their studies and tasks 9 " In school, or in the house, the elder at optional studies or work, the younger at play 31/2 " (the younger 21/2) At meals 11/2 " Exercise in the open air, in the shape of a formal walk, often with lesson-books in hand, and even this only when the weather is fine at the appointed time. 1 " ...
— Essays on Education and Kindred Subjects - Everyman's Library • Herbert Spencer
... may conceive, as to human destiny in another world, either of punishments optional and arbitrary, growing out of the indignation of an offended Judge who hates and requites sin, or of punishments natural and inherent, growing out of the very nature of sin itself, as delirium tremens requites a long career of intemperance. We may conceive ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 16, No. 97, November, 1865 • Various
... insurance was compulsory. At the convention of October, 1893, it became optional and remained so until October, 1894, when it again became compulsory. Owing to opposition from members carrying old-line insurance and from the uncertainty in the number of assessments levied each year, the St. Louis convention of 1896 reverted to a system of optional ...
— Beneficiary Features of American Trade Unions • James B. Kennedy
... exempt, immune, independent, unrestrained; liberated, freed, released, emancipated, delivered; unconstrained, unreserved, informal, familiar, frank, ingenuous, communicative, artless, candid; gratuitous, spontaneous, voluntary, optional; liberal, open-handed, generous, bountiful, lavish, flush, munificent, hospitable; unrestrained, immoderate, prodigal, dissolute, lax; ready, eager, prompt, willing. Antonyms: subject, reserved, formal, ...
— Putnam's Word Book • Louis A. Flemming
... principle with which this work is carried on is incredible. Many governments have on this account fixed prices for text-books, and commissioners to select them. This in itself is right and proper, but the use of any book should be left optional, so that the one-sidedness of a science patronized by government as it were patented, may not be created through the pressure of such introduction. A state may through its censorship oppose poor text-books, and recommend good ones; but it may not establish as it were a state-science, ...
— Pedagogics as a System • Karl Rosenkranz
... letter I made an effort to answer every argument that had been made in opposition to such a proposition. It had been argued by some fairly good lawyers, for instance, that the subsequent ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment had so modified the Fourteenth as to take away from Congress this optional and discretionary power which had been previously conferred upon it by the Fourteenth Amendment. I tried in that letter,—and I think I succeeded,—to answer the argument on that point. It was also said that if Congress were ...
— The Facts of Reconstruction • John R. Lynch
... small sleeping-cabin for each family, comfortably fitted up and admirably ventilated. The members were received on board in the order in which they had entered the Society, the earlier members thus having the priority. Of course it was optional for any member to make the voyage on any ship not belonging to the Society, without losing his place in the list of claimants when ...
— Freeland - A Social Anticipation • Theodor Hertzka
... institution. This was soon taken advantage of by a few individuals who proceeded to conduct private transactions among themselves. Their excuse was that if transactions were merely permitted in the Clearing House it became optional as to whether they should take place there or elsewhere. Within a few days thereafter the Committee amended the ruling by substituting the word "must" for the word "may." The great responsibility attached to promulgating rulings, which were to be the law during this critical ...
— The New York Stock Exchange in the Crisis of 1914 • Henry George Stebbins Noble
... hypothesis which should await confirmation. I now believe that Yule was correct in his conception, and that, in accordance with his suggestion, Jang indeed represents the phonetically exact transcription of a Tibetan proper name. This is the Tibetan a Jan or a Jans (the prefixed letter a and the optional affix -s being silent, hence pronounced Jang or Djang), of which the following precise definition is given in the Dictionnaire tibetain-latin francais par les Missionnaires Catholiques du Tibet (p. 351): 'Tribus et regionis nomen in N.W. provinciae Sinarum ...
— The Travels of Marco Polo, Volume 2 • Marco Polo and Rustichello of Pisa
... respects as the regular course, except that it omits Greek and substitutes instead of it the modern languages and some elective work in science. Previous to 1875 the work of the College was mainly prescribed, with but little opportunity for optional or elective studies. At that time the scope of electives was greatly broadened. There are now eleven full courses of electives open to students. From the middle of the junior year, a very large percentage of the student's ...
— The New England Magazine, Volume 1, No. 2, February, 1886. - The Bay State Monthly, Volume 4, No. 2, February, 1886. • Various
... its size, is connected with a central kitchen so that service may be had equivalent to that of any hotel and at any hour from seven in the morning until midnight. There is a complete hotel service, all of which is entirely optional ...
— How to Write Letters (Formerly The Book of Letters) - A Complete Guide to Correct Business and Personal Correspondence • Mary Owens Crowther
... that you wished (for it is optional), and again played if you can, deal out the remainder of the pack, the cards not suitable for the foundations being placed ...
— Lady Cadogan's Illustrated Games of Solitaire or Patience - New Revised Edition, including American Games • Adelaide Cadogan
... thirteen according to the standard attained. In the upper grade schools the same subjects are taught in a more advanced form, with the addition of universal history, French, German, and English. These languages, being optional, are taught more or less ...
— Dutch Life in Town and Country • P. M. Hough
... ever since have brought comfort and security to their officers and clerical staff, and have proved of benefit to the companies themselves. A pension encourages earlier retirement from work, quickens promotion, and vitalises the whole service. On nearly all railways retirement is optional at sixty and ...
— Fifty Years of Railway Life in England, Scotland and Ireland • Joseph Tatlow
... many different routes are there from which he may select? For example, he can take the short direct route, A, B, C, D, E, F, in a straight line; or he can go one of the long routes, such as A, B, D, C, B, C, E, D, E, F. It will be noted that he has optional lines between certain stations, and his selections of these lead to variations of the complete route. Many readers will find it a very perplexing little problem, though ...
— The Canterbury Puzzles - And Other Curious Problems • Henry Ernest Dudeney
... contrary, the observance of fixed hours of prayer was a matter of voluntary action with the Christians of the first age. There was, as we say, no "shall" about it. But when the founders of the monastic orders came upon the scene a fixed rule took the place of simple custom, and what had been optional became mandatory. By the time we reach the mediaeval period evolution has had its perfect work, and we find in existence a scheme of daily service curiously and painfully elaborate. The mediaeval theologians were very fond of classifying things by sevens. ...
— A Short History of the Book of Common Prayer • William Reed Huntington
... It is optional with man to obtain spiritual or material manna as it is disseminated throughout existence. To feed on material diet alone, contracts and distorts the circle of the man; but a full comprehension of the needs of the circle, a proper denial of supply to some of the compounds, ...
— 10,000 Dreams Interpreted • Gustavus Hindman Miller
... is a born diplomatist! I should not wonder if the world should hear of him some day, after all!" he said, as he read letter after letter that had been left unsealed for his optional perusal. In these letters he found his own hard "No's" expressed with a courtesy that softened them even to the most bitterly disappointed; his arrogant "Yes's," with a delicacy that could not wound ...
— Ishmael - In the Depths • Mrs. E. D. E. N. Southworth
... the unnecessary loss of a moment. He must know what the other teams have done, and are capable of doing; he must drive his own race, and he must know how the other men are driving theirs. He must decide wisely how many dogs it is well to use—that matter also being optional with him. For it is an important point to select enough dogs to keep up to the required standard, yet not too many for good team work, in which individual peculiarities have been merged ...
— Baldy of Nome • Esther Birdsall Darling
... to grant time for the payment of fines, but it is optional, not imperative. It is high time for a change, and surely it will come, for the absurdity ...
— London's Underworld • Thomas Holmes
... as men. Even Miss Lyon, in those early days, looked forward to the needs of the future, by placing in her course of study, Sullivan's Political Class-Book, and Wayland's Political Economy. The four years' course is solid and thorough, while the optional course in French, German, and Greek is admirable. Eventually, when our preparatory schools are higher, all our colleges for women will have as difficult entrance examinations ...
— Lives of Girls Who Became Famous • Sarah Knowles Bolton
... Sutras, Yaska, and Sayana should be left unexplored before we venture to propose a rendering of our own. Sayana, though the most modern, is on the whole the most sober interpreter. Most of his etymological absurdities must be placed to Yaska's account, and the optional renderings which he allows for metaphysical, theological, or ceremonial purposes, are mostly due to his regard for the Brahmanas. The Brahmanas, though nearest in time to the hymns of the Rig-veda, indulge in the most frivolous and ill-judged interpretations. When ...
— Chips From A German Workshop - Volume I - Essays on the Science of Religion • Friedrich Max Mueller
... reprinting gave me an opportunity to reply to my critics that "political economy, trades unions, insurance companies, and newspapers" were outside the scope of the laws we live under. But I thought that in a new State where the optional duties of the Government are so numerous, it was of great importance for the young citizen to understand economic principles. As conduct is the greater part of life, and morality, not only the bond of social union, but the main source of individual happiness, I took ...
— An Autobiography • Catherine Helen Spence
... it must be in the estimation of the triune God, a matter of prime necessity that we should be thus cleansed. If God, therefore, regards it as an essential that we be sanctified wholly, let us beware of the thought that it is only optional, that it is possible, if possible at all, only for the few and not for the many, and that it can be done without, or what is practically too nearly the same thing, postponed until we see, or think we see, the near approach of death. What every person of the Godhead is urging upon ...
— The Theology of Holiness • Dougan Clark
... of the classic or 18th century Suite were the Allemande, the Courante, the Sarabande and the Gigue; and, between the last two, it became customary to insert an optional number of other dances—the most usual being the Gavotte, Bourree, Minuet and Passepied. In effect, the Suite was a kind of "international Potpourri" of the dances most in vogue, and affords us a vivid ...
— Music: An Art and a Language • Walter Raymond Spalding
... "don't say that! I can't have made the case clear. You are too big, too comprehending, Mr. Hodder, to have a hard-and-fast rule. There must be times—extenuating circumstances—and I believe the canons make it optional for a clergyman to marry ...
— The Crossing • Winston Churchill
... of the claims of the original author. Renaissance scholarship was bringing a new knowledge of texts and authors and encouraging a new alertness of mind in approaching texts written in foreign languages. It was now possible, while making faithfulness to source obligatory instead of optional, to put the matter on a reasonable basis. The most vigorous and suggestive comment came from a small number of men of scholarly tastes and of active minds, who brought to the subject both learning and enthusiasm, and who ...
— Early Theories of Translation • Flora Ross Amos
... in which case the rites of their religion must be followed. Between his sixth and seventh year the child must enter some school or receive elementary instruction at home. So far is education compulsory; beyond, it is optional. When duly prepared, he enters, if the parents desire it, the Government Gymnasium or Lyceum, answering pretty much to our College; it fits the youth for entering the University. It confers no degrees; only, at the conclusion of the studies, an Examen ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 7, Issue 41, March, 1861 • Various
... evaporated milk, whole milk or buttermilk, instead of beer as in No. 1. Then, to keep everything bland, cut down the mustard by half or leave it out, and use paprika in place of cayenne. As in No. 1, the use of Worcestershire sauce is optional, although our feeling is that any spirited Rabbit would ...
— The Complete Book of Cheese • Robert Carlton Brown
... interesting statement that the Devil knows Greek, Latin and Hebrew, but speaks English with an accent. These facts were long used at Harvard as an argument in favor of the Classics. And when Greek was at last made optional, the Devil was supposed to have filed a protest with ...
— Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great, Vol. 1 of 14 - Little Journeys to the Homes of Good Men and Great • Elbert Hubbard
... stripped to the waist and wear only overalls, shoes, and thick gloves. The kiln drawers are never forced to draw out the saggers, however, when they are intensely hot unless they wish to do so. The law protects such workers and specifies at just what degree of temperature the work is to become optional. Not only do these men draw the ware, but they also empty it from the saggers as well as put it into the baskets in which it is carried back to the factory and inspected, further ...
— The Story of Porcelain • Sara Ware Bassett
... Federal Republic of Mexico. Texas had now of right the option of returning into the family of Mexican States, or of maintaining her separate existence; but she was under no obligation to return, for, the confederacy having been once broken up, it was optional with the only member that had not submitted to the usurper to re-enter this unreliable family, or to continue outside. This election was not long open; for, by the pronunciamiento of Toluca (1835), the Federal Constitution was again abolished, and Santa Anna ...
— Mexico and its Religion • Robert A. Wilson
... in respect to the mode of payment. The payment usually takes the form of a lump sum payment at death or at the maturity of the endowment. In recent times there has been a growing use of optional forms of payment which give to the beneficiary annual or monthly installments for a definite number ...
— Modern Economic Problems - Economics Vol. II • Frank Albert Fetter
... with an unlettered class of people, it is well to put a footnote in very small type under optional lines or words and to instruct the purchaser to "Cross out the style you do not want" or "Put an X opposite the ...
— Business Correspondence • Anonymous
... bad cast for a mate—and good Lord! how are they to know before it's too late!—they haven't a choice except to play tricks or jump to the deuce or sit and "drape in blight," as Colney has it; though his notion of the optional marriages, broken or renewed every seven years!—if he means it. You never know, with him. It sounds like another squirt of savage ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith
... system has cheapness to recommend it, when people worship in a respectable manner, as you might hire a house and farm of fifty acres in that State for the same rent which this gentleman pays for going to church; but it must also be recollected that it is quite optional and that those who do not go to church need ...
— Diary in America, Series One • Frederick Marryat (AKA Captain Marryat)
... North Australia (on the shores of the Gulf of Carpentaria) is the absolute prohibition of eating the totem. In regard to the performance of magical ceremonies for increase of the totem also there is the peculiarity that a clan is not bound to conduct such performances—it is optional with it to do so or not; it has magical power, but is not required by custom to exercise it. It is suggested by Spencer and Gillen that this variation from the usage of the Central region is to be attributed to the more regular rainfall ...
— Introduction to the History of Religions - Handbooks on the History of Religions, Volume IV • Crawford Howell Toy
... argue that the condition of servants was an OPTIONAL one from the fact that RICH strangers did not become servants. Indeed, so far were they from becoming servants themselves, that they bought and held ...
— The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Omnibus • American Anti-Slavery Society
... been dismissed the service and sent on board of the Smeaton to be conveyed to Arbroath. He therefore wished each man to consider for himself how far it would be proper, by any unreasonableness of conduct, to place themselves in a similar situation, especially as they were aware that it was optional in him either to dismiss them or send them on board a man-of-war. It might appear that much inconveniency would be felt at the rock by a change of hands at this critical period, by checking for a time the progress of a building so intimately ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 16 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson
... in the high school has not yet come into its own, though it is on the road to recognition. All of the newer high schools have gymnasiums, but the children do not use them for more than thirty, forty, or fifty minutes a week. Sometimes the work is optional. The West Technical of Cleveland, with its outdoor basket ball court, its athletic grounds and grandstand, in addition to the indoor gymnasium, offers a good example of effective preparation for physical ...
— The New Education - A Review of Progressive Educational Movements of the Day (1915) • Scott Nearing
... Whether in formal or aerial chiaroscuro, it is optional with the student to make the local colour of objects a part of his shadow, or to consider the high lights of every colour as white. For instance, a chiaroscurist of Lionardo's school, drawing a leopard, would take no notice ...
— Lectures on Art - Delivered before the University of Oxford in Hilary term, 1870 • John Ruskin
... contain certain absolute excellences of form or feeling which an attentive eye could enjoy at any time. Yet if appended to a structure they have no function in, these excellences will hardly impose themselves on the next builder. Being adventitious they will remain optional, and since fancy is quick, and exotic beauties are many, there will be no end to the variations, in endless directions, which art will undergo. Caprice will follow caprice and ...
— The Life of Reason • George Santayana
... sense. At Plutoria they now taught everything. Concordia College, for example, had no teaching of religion except lectures on the Bible. Now they had lectures also on Confucianism, Mohammedanism Buddhism, with an optional course on atheism for students in the ...
— Arcadian Adventures with the Idle Rich • Stephen Leacock
... appeal in a silence that implied not so much disdain or indifference, as the total inability to deal verbally with emotional crises. At length, he said, a slight unsteadiness in his usually calm tones: "I presume at the time it was optional with ...
— The Custom of the Country • Edith Wharton
... Empire; for no charge of desertion or "herisliz," as refusal to do military service was called, or even of neglect of feudal duties, was ever brought against him. He probably possessed some privilege, like that bestowed on Henry Jasomirgott, rendering it optional with him to accompany the Emperor on expeditions ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume VI. • Various
... 1855 the Governors proposed to appoint such an one. They laid down the following regulations: He should attend five days a week—all classes except the highest and lowest should learn French, and the highest might, if they wished. Italian, German and Hebrew were to be optional with all. Lastly, all classes except the highest must attend the English Master. The salary of the Modern Language Master was to ...
— A History of Giggleswick School - From its Foundation 1499 to 1912 • Edward Allen Bell
... who possessed property or debts to the amount of one thousand dollars. It required all resident Chinese laborers to register, and the Chinese Government was similarly entitled to require the registration of all American laborers resident in China. The treaty made optional the clause requiring merchants, travelers, and other classes privileged to come to the United States, to secure a certificate from their Government vised by the American representative ...
— Our Foreigners - A Chronicle of Americans in the Making • Samuel P. Orth
... for good, and not to return, he felt a sudden and singular sense of freedom. It was a feeling of unbounded expansion, quite out of proportion, as he said to himself, to any assignable cause. Everything suddenly appeared to have become very optional; but he was quite at a loss what to do with his liberty. It seemed a harmless use to make of it, in the afternoon, to go and pay another visit to the ladies who lived at the confectioner's. Here, however, he met a reception which introduced a fresh element of ...
— Confidence • Henry James
... By the necessary lead lines I mean those which separate different colours; for you know that there must be a lead line between these. Then, when these are drawn, it is a question of convenience whether to draw in also the more or less optional lead lines which break up each space of uniform colour into convenient-sized pieces. If you do not want your cartoon afterwards for any other purpose you may as well do so: that is, first "set" the cartoon if it is in charcoal or chalk, and then try the places ...
— Stained Glass Work - A text-book for students and workers in glass • C. W. Whall
... kind of agreeable dissimulation, quite the reverse of genuine form conceived as a necessary relation between the proportions of a figure, having no concern whatever with the notions "agreeable" or "disagreeable," simply because it is necessary and not optional. But even where form is not openly exacted by civilised people, there is no greater evidence of this requisite relation of proportions; a striving after the agreeable dissimulation, already referred to, is on the contrary noticeable, though it ...
— Thoughts out of Season (Part One) • Friedrich Nietzsche
... morning session lasts until twelve o'clock. We have an hour and a quarter for luncheon, and our last recitation for the day is over at half past three o'clock. We have devotional exercises in the chapel on Monday and Friday mornings, and the course in gymnastics is optional. There are, of course, many other things regarding the regulations of the school which you will gradually come ...
— Marjorie Dean High School Freshman • Pauline Lester
... variously applied. In the Compulsory Referendum, which is the most common form, a measure must be submitted to the people whenever a designated number of voters petition that this step be taken. The Optional Referendum allows the state legislature to decide whether or not an enacted measure should be submitted to the people. The Statutory Referendum applies only to proposed statutes, while the Constitutional Referendum is limited to proposed ...
— Problems in American Democracy • Thames Ross Williamson
... register to another should always be made a couple of tones below the extreme limit, so that there will be at the juncture of every two registers a few "optional" tones which it is possible to take with both mechanisms. The singer will be wise, however, to avail himself of the power of producing an optional tone with the mechanism of the lower register only on rare occasions. To force the register beyond its natural limit ...
— The Mechanism of the Human Voice • Emil Behnke
... troubles upon happiness is then optional!" - he said, with a humorous expression so cool and shrewd that ...
— Daisy in the Field • Elizabeth Wetherell
... these alternatives: either to refuse visits altogether, or to appropriate a time for the reception of them. ... To please everybody was impossible. I therefore, adopted that line of conduct which combined public advantage with private convenience. ... These visits are optional, they are made without invitation; between the hours of three and four every Tuesday I am prepared to receive them. Gentlemen, often in great numbers, come and go, chat with each other, and act as they please. A porter shows them into the room, and they retire from ...
— Heroes Every Child Should Know • Hamilton Wright Mabie |
