"Rare" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... possible one for herself, that of a teacher was it. And yet, the first money she ever earned in her life was the twenty dollars the management paid her for teaching the other four girls in the sextette to say their lines. She was a born teacher, too. And the born teacher is a rare bird. ...
— The Real Adventure • Henry Kitchell Webster
... exceedingly beautiful, glorious prospects meeting the eye at almost every turn; the path sometimes traverses forests of fir trees, with amongst them innumerable bushes of the bright-leaved holly, at others it runs along the edges of steep ravines and precipices: many curious and rare wild flowers attracting the eye on the way; till at length, after an ascent of about two hours from San Romolo and four from San Remo, the broad sloping and grassy summit of the mountain is reached. Continue the ascent until its highest point, marked by a stone obelisk, ...
— The South of France—East Half • Charles Bertram Black
... vacuum is increased so that but one-millionth of the original gas is left the radiant state is reached. The molecules in their kinetic movements beat back and forth in straight lines without colliding, or with very rare collisions. Their motions can be guided and rendered visible by electrification. A tube or small glass bulb with platinum electrodes sealed in it, is exhausted to the requisite degree and is hermetically sealed by melting the glass. The electrodes are connected ...
— The Standard Electrical Dictionary - A Popular Dictionary of Words and Terms Used in the Practice - of Electrical Engineering • T. O'Conor Slone
... deem this conduct somewhat singular, and ascribe it to certain peculiarities of temper. I am not aware of any such peculiarities. I can account for my devotion to this image no otherwise than by supposing that its properties were rare and prodigious. Perhaps you will suspect that such were the first inroads of a passion incident to every female heart, and which frequently gains a footing by means even more slight and more improbable than these. I shall not controvert the ...
— Stories by Modern American Authors • Julian Hawthorne
... of the festivities came a great review, and a sight somewhat rare. To greet the King there were present the Emperor of Germany, the Emperor of Austria, and various minor German sovereigns, each of whom had in the Saxon army a regiment nominally his own, and led it past the Saxon monarch, ...
— Autobiography of Andrew Dickson White Volume II • Andrew Dickson White
... the glory of that offering should not be depreciated by the great number of those who shared it. During so many years, and amid so many wars since that time, grand spoils have been only twice gained,[18] so rare has been the successful attainment ...
— The History of Rome, Books 01 to 08 • Titus Livius
... direction of the studies made by Rashi's descendants, is that they possessed the manuscripts written and corrected by their ancestor; and these autographs were veritable treasures at a time when books were rare ...
— Rashi • Maurice Liber
... Federation Oaths, and its top-stone brought out with dancing and variegated radiance, went to pieces, like frail crockery, in the crash of things; and already, in eleven short months, were in that Limbo near the Moon, with the ghosts of other Chimeras. There, except for rare specific purposes, let them rest, in ...
— The French Revolution • Thomas Carlyle
... would have died, no doubt, and, if properly managed, might have added another to the long catalogue of wasting children who have been as cruelly played upon by spiritual physiologists, often with the best intentions, as ever the subject of a rare disease by the curious ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 3, Issue 17, March, 1859 • Various
... me, I will swear: I'm a rare hand at it; I can swear for half an hour at a stretch ...
— Debts of Honor • Maurus Jokai
... Helen. "The entire absence of so many silly knick-knacks oftentimes heaped up in ordinary drawing-rooms. How my eyes gloated over a few pieces of quaint and rare old china!" ...
— Marguerite Verne • Agatha Armour
... be limited by the narrow space from which they proceed, whereas in parietal and free central placentation the ovules are generally numerous. In the latter case, however, it will be remembered that solitary ovules are not rare. An increased number of ovules is generally remarked in conjunction with some other change, such as a foliaceous condition of the carpel, in which the margins are disunited. In such cases the ovules may occupy the margin or may be placed a short distance within it, as in the case of some open ...
— Vegetable Teratology - An Account of the Principal Deviations from the Usual Construction of Plants • Maxwell T. Masters
... Presentation in the Temple and her becoming head girl at Temple College. These years, we may be assured, can hardly have been other than eventful; but incidents, or bits of life, are like living forms—it is only here and here, as by rare chance, that one of them gets arrested and fossilised; the greater number disappear like the greater number of antediluvian molluscs, and no one can say why one of these flies, as it were, of life should get preserved in amber ...
— Essays on Life, Art and Science • Samuel Butler
... sailed to Majorca, whose Governor met me with above one hundred coaches of the Spanish nobility, and carried me to mass at the Cathedral, where I saw thirty or forty ladies of quality of more than common charms; and, to speak the truth, the women there in general are of rare beauty, having a graceful tincture both of the lily and the rose, and wear a head-dress which is exceedingly pretty. The Governor, after having treated me with a magnificent dinner under a tent of gold brocade near the seaside, carried me to a concert of music in a convent, where I found the ...
— The Memoirs of Cardinal de Retz, Complete • Jean Francois Paul de Gondi, Cardinal de Retz
... late to present any labored analysis of the writings of Emerson,—too late to set down any eulogy. Whoever loves to deal with first principles, and is not deterred from grappling with abstract truths, will find in these essays a rare pleasure in the exercise of his powers. These volumes are universally admitted to be among the most valuable contributions to the world's stock of ideas which our age has furnished. Every page bears the impress of thought, but it is thought ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. IV, No. 22, Aug., 1859 • Various
... following we went up to its top, where it is stony. Though there is earth enough for plants, yet they are so thin sown, that hardly two hundred could be found on an acre of ground. Trees are also very rare on that spot, and these poor, meagre, and cancerous. The stones I found there are all ...
— History of Louisisana • Le Page Du Pratz
... doorway, communicating with the drawing-rooms, at the far end, among towering ranks of rare and gorgeous flowers, over the encaustic tiles, and through this atmosphere of perfume, did Captain Stanley Lake, in his shooting coat, glide, smiling, toward ...
— Wylder's Hand • J. Sheridan Le Fanu
... all the reforms produced by the Revolution, perhaps the most important was the full establishment of the liberty of unlicensed printing. The Censorship which, under some form or other, had existed, with rare and short intermissions, under every government, monarchical or republican, from the time of Henry the Eighth downwards, expired, and ...
— Critical and Historical Essays Volume 1 • Thomas Babington Macaulay
... cause to give thanks to God, who had so happily and comfortably provided for me in my desolate condition; and that of two ships' companies, who were now cast away upon this part of the world, not one life should be spared but mine. I learnt here again to observe, that it is very rare that the providence of God casts us into any condition of life so low, or any misery so great, but we may see something or other to be thankful for, and may see others in worse circumstances ...
— The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1808) • Daniel Defoe
... greeted Black Rifle, who smiled one of his rare smiles at sight of the youth. Willet and Tayoga gave him the ...
— The Shadow of the North - A Story of Old New York and a Lost Campaign • Joseph A. Altsheler
... with many others, it is a matter of wonder that in the present age, which produces many highly skilled in the arts Of popular persuasion, many of keen and active powers, many especially rich in every pleasing gift of language, the growth of highly exalted and wide-reaching genius has with a few rare exceptions almost entirely ceased. So universal is the dearth of eloquence which prevails throughout ...
— On the Sublime • Longinus
... it is true, have been somewhat rare, for made oftentimes on the impulse of the moment, "unheedful vows," as Shakespeare says, "may heedfully be broken." But, scarce as the records of unbroken vows may be, they are deserving of a permanent record, more especially ...
— Strange Pages from Family Papers • T. F. Thiselton Dyer
... varying degrees of exposure to unfavorable conditions of a more serious nature some, but not all, of the organisms are destroyed; in the slight exposure, few; in the longer, many. Unfavorable conditions which will destroy all individuals of a species exposed to them must be extremely rare.[1] There is no such individuality in non-living things. In a mass of sugar grains each grain shows just the same characteristics and reacts in exactly the same way as all the other grains of the mass. Individuality, however expressed, is ...
— Disease and Its Causes • William Thomas Councilman
... made it a chief commendation of Lucullus, that he had conquered two great and potent kings by two most opposite ways, haste and delay. For he wore out the flourishing power of Mithridates by delay and time, and crushed that of Tigranes by haste; being one of the rare examples of generals who made use of delay for active achievement, and ...
— Plutarch's Lives • A.H. Clough
... presently, every grain of dust gone, in her clear dress of pearl gray. The neutral tint suited her well. As she stood by the window, listening gravely to them, the homely face and waiting figure came into full relief. Nature had made the woman in a freak of rare sincerity. There were no reflected lights about her; no gloss on her skin, no glitter in her eyes, no varnish on her soul. Simple and dark and pure, there she was, for God and her master to conquer and understand. Her flesh was cold and colourless,—there ...
— Margret Howth, A Story of To-day • Rebecca Harding Davis
... a queen. What needs it? Adoring Thy reign, we see pouring The wealth of their store in Already, I ween. The seasons—scarce roll'd once, Their gifts are twice told— And the months, they unfold On thy bosom their dower, With profusion so rare, Ne'er was clothing so fair, Nor was jewelling e'er Like the bud and the flower Of the groves on thy breast, Where rejoices to rest His magnificent crest, The mountain-cock, shrilling In quick time, his note; And the clans of the grot With melody's note, Their numbers are trilling. ...
— The Modern Scottish Minstrel, Volumes I-VI. - The Songs of Scotland of the Past Half Century • Various
... singular adventure, have increased in us, it must be confessed, a permanent and reasoned admiration for this people's qualities. Such an attitude of mind is rare enough and often dangerous: it is but a qualification the more for beginning the work. It permits us to follow the main line of the past of the French, to comprehend and not to be troubled by the energy of their present, to catch the advancing omens ...
— Avril - Being Essays on the Poetry of the French Renaissance • H. Belloc
... he had something to communicate. "By your countenance," said I, "I expect to hear good tidings." "Indifferently," replied he, tittering, "that is, hereafter as it shall be. You must know, I have some thoughts of altering my condition." "What!" cried I, astonished, "a matrimonial scheme? O rare Strap! thou hast got the heels of me at last." "N—no less, I assure you," said he, bursting into a laugh of self-approbation: "a tallow chandler's widow that lives hard by, has taken a liking to me, a fine jolly dame, as plump as a partridge. She has a well-furnished ...
— The Adventures of Roderick Random • Tobias Smollett
... rare source of delight for all who can find pleasure in really good works of prose fiction.... They are prose poems, carefully meditated, and exquisitely couched in by a teacher ready to sympathize with every joy ...
— Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag VI - An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving, Etc. • Louisa M. Alcott
... profusion of marbles in the Italian churches, but I had not thought to find them wild on a lonely Sicilian beach. Once or twice already I had seen a block rosy in the torrent-beds, and it had seemed a rare sight; but here the whole shore was piled and inlaid with ...
— Heart of Man • George Edward Woodberry
... indifferent god has been crucified, and she, Venus Aphrodite, has been born again, not from the salt sea, but in the bitterness of her own tears, the tears of Madonna Mary. It is thus Botticelli, with a rare and personal art, expresses the very thought of his time, of his own heart, which half in love with Pico of Mirandola would reconcile Plato with Moses, and since man's allegiance is divided reconcile the gods. You may discern something, perhaps, of the same thought, but ...
— Florence and Northern Tuscany with Genoa • Edward Hutton
... few of our people," I said, "but know how to handle these weapons; and it's rare that they venture into an unknown country without ...
— The Gold Hunter's Adventures - Or, Life in Australia • William H. Thomes
... When Madame Dammauville spoke to him of you he did not raise the smallest objection; on the contrary, he praised you. He says that you are one of the rare young men in whom one may have confidence. These are his own words that ...
— Conscience, Complete • Hector Malot
... at East-Bourn, which is the eastern extremity of those downs, they abound much more. One thing is very remarkable — that though in the height of the season so many hundreds of dozens are taken, yet they never are seen to flock; and it is a rare thing to see more than three or four at a time: so that there must be a perpetual flitting and constant progressive succession. It does not appear that any wheat-ears are taken to the westward of Houghton-bridge, which stands on the ...
— The Natural History of Selborne • Gilbert White
... are his company, and he misses them when people are around him. Philosophers also enjoy solitude in order to clarify their thoughts, and they are eager to meet disciples to discuss their problems with them. In our days it is difficult to reach the position of these rare men. In former times when the Shekinah rested in the Holy Land, and the nation was fit for prophecy, there were people who separated themselves from their neighbors and studied the law in purity and holiness in the company of men like them. These ...
— A History of Mediaeval Jewish Philosophy • Isaac Husik
... filled with rings, reliquaries, lockets, crucifixes, brooches, and such like. The diamonds set in among variously colored stones flashed out brightly and shimmered among golden flowers of varied hues, with petals of enamel, all of peculiar designs and rare ...
— The Reign of Greed - Complete English Version of 'El Filibusterismo' • Jose Rizal
... respected by all who knew him. It was not the first occasion that a member of the legal profession had been placed on trial on a capital charge, though he was glad to say, for the honour of the profession, that cases of the kind were extremely rare. But what made the case unique was that it was not the first trial in connection with the murder of Sir Horace Fewbanks, and that at the first trial when a man named Frederick Birchill had been placed in the dock, the prisoner now ...
— The Hampstead Mystery • John R. Watson
... difference in the state of the Established Church at the end of the last Century and to-day. It is a very rare thing now to see a parish without a resident clergyman, but then, clergymen often held two or more parishes without residing in either. In 1791, for instance, the Vicar of the two parishes of Great and Little Abington lived in a house of his own at Thriplow. The truth is, says ...
— Fragments of Two Centuries - Glimpses of Country Life when George III. was King • Alfred Kingston
... all men least able to inquire into any fundamental errors in that doctrine. Eminent persons among them will nevertheless aim after and attain a purer truth than that which they find established: but such a case must always be rare and exceptive. Only by disusing ministerial service can any one give fair play to doubts concerning the wisdom and truth of that which he is solemnly ministering: hence that friend of Arnold's was wise in this world, who advised him to take a curacy in order ...
— Phases of Faith - Passages from the History of My Creed • Francis William Newman
... especially in the part of jests, puns, or cases of double entendre. The few selected may suffice. The so-called conversations of "the Ettrick Shepherd" are full of matter of this kind, treated by "Christopher North" with a happy combination of rare power of description and apt exaggeration of detail, often highly amusing. One or two instances are given here, such as the Fox-hunt and the Whale. The intention of this book is primarily to be amusing; but it will be ...
— Heads and Tales • Various
... Petrie," he replied, with one of his rare smiles. "Two C.I.D. men have been watching the ...
— The Devil Doctor • Sax Rohmer
... with my dull career, his short life had been one of positive gayety. He had seen Frederic le Maitre at the Comedie Francaise. He had been at Court and spoken with the Prince Imperial. He was on terms of intimacy with Monsignori, and had been a protege of the sainted Darboy. It was a rare pleasure to hear him talk of ...
— Short Story Classics (American) Vol. 2 • Various
... full to the brim with old coins, many quite rare, while scattered here and there were postage stamps on sheets and loose, queer, foreign looking things that made Billie's eyes glisten ...
— Billie Bradley and Her Inheritance - The Queer Homestead at Cherry Corners • Janet D. Wheeler
... to summer, and summer to autumn, and life at Dynevor seemed to move quietly enough. Griffeth took a fancy to book learning — a rare enough accomplishment in those days — and a monk from the Abbey of Strata Florida was procured to give him instruction in the obscure science of reading and writing. Wendot, who had a natural love of study, and who had ...
— The Lord of Dynevor • Evelyn Everett-Green
... them at the station; but Reuben persisted in going to an old-fashioned eating-house in the centre of the city, where he had been accustomed to stay on the occasion of his rare visits to Manchester, in spite of his nephew's repeated offers ...
— The History of David Grieve • Mrs. Humphry Ward
... thick, rare sort of man, of quick and precise movements, sardonic countenance; and one look from his sharp round set of eyes, tells you at once that you must not trifle with him. Of a temper that must have cost him some pains ...
— The Eureka Stockade • Carboni Raffaello
... not easy for me to tell you all," he said. "I know and I have the words, but, somehow, when I try to fit the words to the thing, they run asunder and will not mix, like water and oil. But see, Hugo, here is an elixir of rare value. Drop a drop or two on my tongue if ye see me wander. It will bring me back for ...
— Red Axe • Samuel Rutherford Crockett
... part of every year in close, ill-ventilated, overheated rooms. From a health viewpoint the cave-dweller would no doubt have the advantage over the average American who follows a sedentary occupation. The steam-heated apartments of our great cities are thoroughly aired only on rare intervals, and consequently those who reside therein often dry up in mind, soul and ...
— Vitality Supreme • Bernarr Macfadden
... harmonious setting the most beautiful aspirations of art towards the ideal. The Duke de Morlay travelled there with them, adoring Italy as does every devotee of art. There was not a corner of this rare country ...
— The Idol of Paris • Sarah Bernhardt
... public undertaking, he did not consider himself entitled to any indemnity from the public. Opinions may be divided on such a conclusion, but in it we cannot but recognise a delicacy and nobility of sentiment as rare, unfortunately, as it is admirable. Yet, if they have thus voluntarily cut themselves off from the substantial rewards which have hitherto recompensed other explorers, they are still entitled to the high praise ...
— The Overland Expedition of The Messrs. Jardine • Frank Jardine and Alexander Jardine
... audience room was finely proportioned, but looked uninviting, as the rugs were rolled up and the furniture covered. The stables adjoining were, however, of great interest, as three hundred horses were in the collection, some of them of rare value. Later, we visited the elephant stalls and the leopard and tiger cages. In another locality the observatory, covering a large open space, was filled with the quaint old devices, now obsolete, for studying ...
— Travels in the Far East • Ellen Mary Hayes Peck
... "Only on rare occasions, and only from love," answered Robin. "They needn't die unless they wish to. They have been known to do it through love. They frequently wish they hadn't afterward—in fact, invariably—and then they can come to ...
— Little Saint Elizabeth and Other Stories • Frances Hodgson Burnett
... exists, the complaisance, voluntary at the beginning, drifts into habit, more and more grimly endured. Some have the moral courage to put an end to it as they would to any false situation, but if individuals were not rare in this world we should have chaos, not a civilization of sorts which is a pleasant place to plant the feet, however high into the clouds the head may poke ...
— The Sisters-In-Law • Gertrude Atherton
... and Giotto.) This was our office. When I had got a Tuscan painter to plant our flag in the shape of a sign-board, I sailed forth into the street and inspected it from outside with a swelling heart. It is true, the Tuscan painter's unaccountable predilection for the rare spellings 'Scool' without an h and 'Stenografy' with an f, somewhat damped my exuberant pride for the moment; but I made him take the board back and correct his Italianate English. As soon as all was fitted up with desk and tables we reposed upon ...
— Miss Cayley's Adventures • Grant Allen
... his 'Literary Lapses' Mr. Stephen Leacock gave the laughter-loving world assurance of a new humorist of irresistible high spirits and rare spontaneity and freshness. By this rollicking collection of 'Nonsense Novels,' in tabloid form, he not only confirms the excellent impression of his earlier work, but establishes his reputation as a master of the art of ...
— Winsome Winnie and other New Nonsense Novels • Stephen Leacock
... house; he had been playing some of his favourite composer; he had stopped now, and was doubtless sorting his music and putting it away, each piece four-square and absolutely neat. Day by day, and year by year, they lived this quiet life, with a drive for a rare holiday treat, and the discovery of a new flower as the goal of all hope and ambition. Things did not happen to them, bad things that needed doubtful remedies; they had never had to scratch for their living, and show one face outwards and another in. They, none of them, ever wanted to ...
— The Good Comrade • Una L. Silberrad
... same time, freed from those intrusions which wear away the time, and the spirits, and the very powers of enjoyment, of those who are placed in a more public position than your own. When you do, at rare intervals, enjoy any intercourse with congenial minds, it has for you a pleasurable excitement, a freshness of delight, which those who mix much and habitually in literary and intellectual society have long ceased to enjoy: while the ...
— The Young Lady's Mentor - A Guide to the Formation of Character. In a Series of Letters to Her Unknown Friends • A Lady
... I mean? why, I mean that you're the best man in the smack, out o' sight, an' it's a rare pity that your mother hasn't got half-a-dozen more like you. If she had I'd man the Evening Star with your whole family. Here, give us a hold o' your grapplin'-iron, ...
— The Young Trawler • R.M. Ballantyne
... been as far as Tom Dowson's to fetch some barberries. There was a rare junketting at Tom's last night among Sir Harry Benson's servants. And I hear as how Sir Harry is going to be married to Miss Walton. Tom's wife told it me, and, to be sure, the servants told her; but, of course, it mayn't be ...
— The World's Greatest Books, Vol VI. • Various
... that it was easy to escape. A Mr. Mitchell, like a true friend, came to him, afforded him his own clothes as a disguise, and was willing to abide the consequence of being found in his place. This was a rare friendship: but he refused the offer; saying, "I know no cause why I should be in prison. To do thus, were to make myself guilty. I will expect God's good will, yet do I think myself much obliged to you:" and so Mr. ...
— Fox's Book of Martyrs - Or A History of the Lives, Sufferings, and Triumphant - Deaths of the Primitive Protestant Martyrs • John Fox
... that once inhabited the mind of an ancestor. At other times the things I have learned and the things I have been taught, drop away, as the lizard sheds its skin, and I see my soul as God sees it. There are also rare and beautiful moments when I see and hear in Dreamland. What if in my waking hours a sound should ring through the silent halls of hearing? What if a ray of light should flash through the darkened chambers of my soul? What would happen, I ask many and many a time. ...
— Story of My Life • Helen Keller
... not to be put on and off with one's best clothes. Politeness is an article for every-day wear. If you don it only on special and rare occasions, it will be sure to sit awkwardly upon you. If you are not well behaved in your own family circle, you will hardly be truly so anywhere, however strictly you may conform to the observances of good breeding, when in society. The true gentleman or lady is a gentleman or lady ...
— How To Behave: A Pocket Manual Of Republican Etiquette, And Guide To Correct Personal Habits • Samuel R Wells
... the house an old man came forth to meet him. He viewed Jack with astonishment, for visitors in that lonely spot were rare. "Where does the most noble senor come from?" he asked, ...
— Jack North's Treasure Hunt - Daring Adventures in South America • Roy Rockwood
... verses; and should be met with nowhere else. The writer,—supposing that he had only S. Matthew's Gospel before him,—traverses (except in one single instance) wholly new ground; moves forward with unmistakable boldness and a rare sense of security; and wherever he plants his foot, it is to enrich the soil with fertility and beauty. But on the supposition that he wrote after S. Luke's and S. John's Gospel had appeared,—the marvel becomes increased an hundred-fold: for how then does it come to pass that he evidently ...
— The Last Twelve Verses of the Gospel According to S. Mark • John Burgon
... every thing sweet and pleasing is collected. As these ladies have no taste but what is directed by good sense, nothing found a place here from being only uncommon, for they think few things are very rare but because they are little desirable; and indeed it is plain they are free from that littleness of mind, which makes people value a thing the more for its being possessed by no one but themselves. Behind the shrubbery is a little wood, which affords a gloom, rendered more agreeable by its contrast ...
— A Description of Millenium Hall • Sarah Scott
... the rugged mountain side, flecked with gleaming granite boulders and bordered with sturdy hedges (a mixture of mud and bracken), and beyond them the meadows, traversed by sinuous streams whose scintillating surfaces sparkle like diamonds in the silvery moonlight. At rare intervals the scene is variegated, and nature interrupted, by a mill or a cottage,—toy-like when viewed from such an altitude,—and then the sweep of meadowland continues, undulating gently till ...
— Byways of Ghost-Land • Elliott O'Donnell
... harmonized well with the snowy whiteness of his linen shirt, which was fastened with silver brooches, while on the equally decorated leggins, he wore around the ankle, strings of minute brass bells. On his head floated the rich plumage of various rare birds, but no paint was visible beyond the slightest tint of vermilion on the very top of each cheek-bone, rendering even more striking the expression of ...
— Hardscrabble - The Fall of Chicago: A Tale of Indian Warfare • John Richardson
... and confidence are rare even among women. There are many who would have searched a year, some who would have waited five years, a few who might have hoped ten years; but for twenty-five years this woman has retained her affection for and her faith in a man she has ...
— The Wife of his Youth and Other Stories of the Color Line, and - Selected Essays • Charles Waddell Chesnutt
... in English gardens. During spring and early summer this subject makes rapid growth, pushing forth its thick leafy stems, which are attractive, not only by reason of their somewhat unusual form, but also because of their tender and unseasonable appearance, especially during spring; it is rare, however, that the late frosts do any damage to its foliage. It continues to grow with remarkable vigour until, at the height of 5ft. or more, the flower panicles begin to develop; these usually add 2ft. ...
— Hardy Perennials and Old Fashioned Flowers - Describing the Most Desirable Plants, for Borders, - Rockeries, and Shrubberies. • John Wood
... slowly into the room. "Ye still carry your head on a stiff neck," said he, deliberately examining Sophia. Then with great care he put out his long thin arm and took her hand. "Well, I'm rare ...
— The Old Wives' Tale • Arnold Bennett
... certainly he would claim his pension; claim an infinitesimal but actual fraction of this man's great wealth; would live long so as to claim it as long as possible, till the paying of it, indeed, should become a weariness to the payer. And he would spend it, too, unquestionably he would. Mr. Iglesias' rare and gracious smile had an almost cruel edge ...
— The Far Horizon • Lucas Malet
... accomplished as much for him as the most passionate enthusiasm would have done for another. He set before himself the principle that having undertaken a profession he had better try to understand it, and understand it he did with a determined thoroughness {343} that was rare indeed, if not unknown, among the young officers of his day. We are told that soon after he got his first commission he had one of the privates of the Seventy-third weighed, first in his ordinary military clothes, and then in heavy marching order, in order to ascertain ...
— A History of the Four Georges and of William IV, Volume III (of 4) • Justin McCarthy and Justin Huntly McCarthy
... that there was game of a more dangerous nature in the neighborhood. On one occasion, Mr. Crooks had wandered about a mile from the camp, and had ascended a small hill commanding a view of the river. He was without his rifle, a rare circumstance, for in these wild regions, where one may put up a wild animal, or a wild Indian, at every turn, it is customary never to stir from the camp-fire unarmed. The hill where he stood overlooked the place where the massacre of the buffalo had taken place. As ...
— Astoria - Or, Anecdotes Of An Enterprise Beyond The Rocky Mountains • Washington Irving
... Artemis, and the solemn sacrifices at her shrine were the occasion of feasts, whose solemnity only enhanced their enjoyments. As Mr. Dakyns writes: "The lovely scenery of the place, to this day lovely; the delicious atmosphere; the rare combination of mountain, wood, and stream; the opportunity for sport; the horses and the dogs; the household, the farmstead, and their varying occupations; the neighboring country gentlemen, and the local politics; the recurring festival at ...
— Great Men and Famous Women. Vol. 5 of 8 • Various
... my brains were ample compensation for my mother's struggles. Sending me to work was out of the question. She was resolved to put me in a Talmudic seminary. I was the "crown of her head" and she was going to make a "fine Jew" of me. Nor was she a rare exception in this respect, for there were hundreds of other poor families in our town who would starve themselves to keep their sons studying the ...
— The Rise of David Levinsky • Abraham Cahan
... am the blood Burgundian sunshine makes; A fine old feudal knight Of bluff and boisterous might, Whose casque feels—ah, so heavy when one wakes!" "And I, the dainty Bordeaux, violets' Perfume, and whose rare rubies gourmets prize. My subtile savour gets In partridge wings ...
— Facts About Champagne and Other Sparkling Wines • Henry Vizetelly
... for the head or hand at a price that would support a poor labourer and his family for a month. The colors of the wreaths are artfully arranged, so as to suit different complexions, and so also as to exhibit the most rare and costly flowers to ...
— Flowers and Flower-Gardens • David Lester Richardson
... arranged your plans and are quite sure that you will be able to kill the dragon, light one of these. We will then have a princess in readiness, and on observing your signal will tie her to a tree, or, since this is a district where trees are rare and buildings frequent, to a pillar. She will be perfectly safe if you make your plans correctly. And in any case you must not attempt to deal with the dragon without first lighting ...
— The Magic City • Edith Nesbit
... life's stage they fret. May mock his fellow-men! In sooth, their soberest freaks afford Rare food for mockery then. But ah! when passed their brief sojourn— When Heaven's dread doom is said— Beats there the human heart could pour Like ...
— My Schools and Schoolmasters - or The Story of my Education. • Hugh Miller
... probably trying to pull off one of his grand-stand plays," commented another. "Passes are pretty rare birds, nowadays, and I suppose he thought he could make a hit with the company ...
— Bob Chester's Grit - From Ranch to Riches • Frank V. Webster
... not understand you, mademoiselle," he said, one day, on one of the rare occasions when she had allowed herself to be left alone with him. "You are brave, and yet you are ...
— The Isle of Unrest • Henry Seton Merriman
... paid to a raja as an inducement to him to spare a man whom he had seen preparing for a victim: and it is in fact this commendable discouragement of the practice by our government that occasions its being so rare a sight to Europeans, in a country where there are no travellers from curiosity, and where the servants of the Company, having appearances to maintain, cannot by their presence as idle spectators give a sanction to proceedings which it is their duty to discourage, although their influence is ...
— The History of Sumatra - Containing An Account Of The Government, Laws, Customs And - Manners Of The Native Inhabitants • William Marsden
... in the scale of being, we find that, with rare exceptions, reproduction is the result of the union of two dissimilar elements. These elements do not, in higher organisms, as in lower forms of life, constitute the individuals, but are produced by them; and being unlike, they are produced by special organs, ...
— Plain Facts for Old and Young • John Harvey Kellogg
... his face to the wall, while Cabot, securing the bag, quickly became absorbed in an examination of its contents. Among these he found rich specimens of iron and copper ores, slabs of the rare and exquisitely beautiful Labradorite, with its sheen of peacock-blue, and even bits of gold-bearing quartz. For a long time he examined and tested these; then, with a sigh of content, he laid them aside and went to bed. His mission to Labrador was at length accomplished, and ...
— Under the Great Bear • Kirk Munroe
... acquaintance in an informal manner at an afternoon tea to which he went in a wheeled chair—one of the very rare outings that the state of his health permitted. Maumbry showed himself to be a handsome man of twenty-eight or thirty, with an attractive hint of wickedness in his manner that was sure to make him adorable with good young women. The large dark eyes that lit his pale face expressed ...
— A Changed Man and Other Tales • Thomas Hardy
... private secretary in the presidential mansion, Edward Coles was one of the most interesting. I know not which ought to rank highest in our esteem, the wise and gallant Lewis, who explored for us the Western wilderness, or Edward Coles, one of the rare men who know how to surrender, for conscience' sake, home, fortune, ease, and ...
— Captains of Industry - or, Men of Business Who Did Something Besides Making Money • James Parton
... brought in and arranged upon the altar. The baby at its christening, the bride at the altar, the dead body in its bier, are all adorned with flowers. We are told that in the days of Cortes a bouquet of rare flowers was the most valuable gift presented to the ambassadors who visited the court of Montezuma, and it presents a strange anomaly, this love of flowers having existed along with their ...
— Life in Mexico • Frances Calderon De La Barca
... supplies, etc. I waited till the Viceroy had given his orders, and then my wife and I started off, usually in the forenoon; sometimes we remained till later in the day, lunching with one or other of our friends in camp, and on very rare occasions, such as a dinner-party at the Viceroy's or the Commander-in-Chief's, we drove on after dinner by moonlight. But that was not until we had been on the march for some time and I felt that the head ...
— Forty-one years in India - From Subaltern To Commander-In-Chief • Frederick Sleigh Roberts
... she might hear, that she could learn little manners of her. After dinner to my office, and there we sat all the afternoon till 8 at night, and so wrote my letters by the post and so before 9 home, which is rare with me of late, I staying longer, but with multitude of business my head akes, and so I can stay no longer, but home ...
— Diary of Samuel Pepys, Complete • Samuel Pepys
... But these were rare occasions, happily; for the child yearned to be out of doors, and walking in her solemn garden. Parties, too, would come to see the church; and those who came, speaking to others of the child, sent more; so even at that season of the year they had visitors almost daily. The old man would follow ...
— The Old Curiosity Shop • Charles Dickens
... woke me this morning, will be the index of an unfailing spring of mirthfulness—of that breezy, piquant, laughing philosophy which gives to some women an indescribable charm, enabling them to render gloom and despondency rare inmates of the home over which they preside. When I recall what dark depths of perplexity and trouble my mother often hid with her light laugh, I remember that I have never yet had a chance even to approach her in heroism. In my dream, at least, I can give to my wife my mother's ...
— A Day Of Fate • E. P. Roe
... calmly pocketing the tickets, for they were of rare value at that time. "The way out of ...
— The Enchanted Typewriter • John Kendrick Bangs
... elder Buckland's habit to try strange dishes. While he was Dean of Westminster, hedgehogs, tortoises, potted ostrich, and occasionally rats, frogs, and snails, were served up for the delectation of favored guests, and alligator was considered a rare delicacy. "Party at the Deanery," one guest notes: "tripe for dinner; don't like crocodile for breakfast." Thus freed, to begin with, from the trammels of habit and prejudice, there was little in ...
— Lippincott's Magazine, September, 1885 • Various
... as young and fair As aught of mortal birth; And form so soft, and charms so rare, Too soon returned to Earth![ar] Though Earth received them in her bed, And o'er the spot the crowd may tread[as] In carelessness or mirth, There is an eye which could not brook A moment on ...
— The Works Of Lord Byron, Vol. 3 (of 7) • Lord Byron
... afterwards coolly, and soon, he said nothing at all. Sometimes, perhaps, if we were quite alone, and there was no chance whatever of discovery, he would venture half a word or so upon the convenient subject of the weather; but these occasions were very rare. If a superior were present, hurricanes would not draw a syllable from his careful lips; and, under the eye of the stout and influential Mr Bombasty, it was well for me if frowns and sneers were the only exhibitions of rudeness on the part of my worldly and far-seeing ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. CCCXXVIII. February, 1843. Vol. LIII. • Various
... hearing of the others; but when the right time has come for anything to be found out, what is the use of trying to keep it hidden? Justina, seeing her opportunity, went forward just as Brandon drew the rest of the party aside to look at some rather rare ferns, whose curled-up fronds, like little crosiers, were showing on the sandy bank. She drew on, and one more step would have brought her even with them, when John Mortimer uttered ...
— Fated to Be Free • Jean Ingelow
... motive so to do, I felt an interest in my theory which, in its way, was rather philosophical than superstitious. And I can sincerely say that I was in as tranquil a temper for observation as any practical experimentalist could be in awaiting the effects of some rare, though perhaps perilous, chemical combination. Of course, the more I kept my mind detached from fancy, the more the temper fitted for observation would be obtained; and I therefore riveted eye and thought on the strong daylight sense in the ...
— Haunted and the Haunters • Edward Bulwer Lytton
... to the ether, we may add that on this point it resembles a solid, and Lord Kelvin has shown that this solid, would be much more rigid than steel. This conclusion produces great surprise in all who hear it for the first time, and it is not rare to hear it appealed to as an argument against the actual existence of the ether. It does not seem, however, that such an argument can be decisive. There is no reason for supposing that the ether ought ...
— The New Physics and Its Evolution • Lucien Poincare
... ours told us that in consequence of certain natural—do I explain myself?—of certain natural causes, it is rare for a human being to live more than one hundred years. ...
— Castellinaria - and Other Sicilian Diversions • Henry Festing Jones
... Ellen thought with herself, it was an ill wind that blew no good. She was getting a nice ride in the early morning, that she would not have had but for Timothy's lawless behaviour. To ride at that time was particularly pleasant and rare; and, forgetting how she had left poor Miss Fortune, between the ox and the cheese-tub, Ellen and the Brownie ...
— The Wide, Wide World • Elizabeth Wetherell
... rare combinations of qualities which make it superior in the manufacturing of the articles mentioned above. Its freedom from warping, checking, or splitting when subjected to alternate wetting and drying is an unusual quality. It works ...
— Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the 41st Annual Meeting • Various
... resources: crude oil, natural gas, timber Land use: arable land 1%; permanent crops 1%; meadows and pastures 1%; forest and woodland 79%; other 18%; includes irrigated NEGL% Environment: typhoons, earthquakes, and severe flooding are rare Note: close to vital sea lanes through South China Sea linking Indian and Pacific Oceans; two parts physically separated by Malaysia; almost ...
— The 1992 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency.
... the Allies now have in commission on the Western Front such an enormous number of aircraft—I think I have said elsewhere the French alone probably have close to seven thousand machines—and they have made such great improvements in their anti-aircraft guns that to-day it is a comparatively rare thing to see a German flier over territory held by the Allies. The moment that a German flier takes the air, half a dozen Allied airmen rise to meet and engage him, and, in the rare event of his being able to elude them and get over the Allied lines, the "Archies," as ...
— Italy at War and the Allies in the West • E. Alexander Powell
... Constantine Capronymus, Emperor of the East sent to King Pepin as a rare present the first organ ever ...
— Chess History and Reminiscences • H. E. Bird
... circumstances, it is an extremely able speech, and it is by itself enough to show how remarkably effective he must have been as a canvasser in the remoter districts of his State where means of intellectual excitement were rare and a political meeting was the best-known form of ...
— Abraham Lincoln: A History V1 • John G. Nicolay and John Hay
... careful enquiry into their meaning. Here and there we meet with Sutras which do not directly involve a discussion of the sense of some particular Vedic passage, but rather make a mere statement on some important point. But those cases are rare, and it would be altogether contrary to the general spirit of the Sutras to assume that a whole adhyaya should be devoted to the task of showing what Brahman is. The latter point is sufficiently determined in the first five (or six) adhikara/n/as; but after we once know ...
— The Vedanta-Sutras with the Commentary by Sankaracarya - Sacred Books of the East, Volume 1 • George Thibaut
... said Mr. Baxter, with increased interest. "Well, to be quite candid, the thing is out of my line. Now if it was a rare Saxon penny or a doubtful noble I'd stake my reputation on my opinion, but I do very ...
— Four Max Carrados Detective Stories • Ernest Bramah
... was indigenous to our times. The dynamite outrages at Westminster Hall and the House of Commons were explosions we in America heard faintly. Their importance was exaggerated. A hundred years back, the kings of England, of France, of Russia who died in their beds were rare. The violent incidents of life were less conspicuous as the years went on. What riots Philadelphia had seen during the old firemen's battle in the streets! And those theatrical riots in New York, when the military was called ...
— T. De Witt Talmage - As I Knew Him • T. De Witt Talmage
... over its crosses and graves, Though the green earth is fair and I love it, We must love it as masters, not slaves. Come up where the dust never rises - But only the perfume of flowers - And your life shall be glad with surprises Of beautiful hours. Come up where the rare golden wine is Apollo distills in my sight, And your life shall be happy as mine is, And as ...
— Poems of Cheer • Ella Wheeler Wilcox
... to console Louise and Germain, without counting the time she lost in these visits from her work, her only resource; but the prince feared to weaken the merit of the grisette's devotion in rendering it too easy; quite decided to recompense the rare and charming qualities which he had discovered in her, he wished to follow her to the end of this new and interesting trial. At the end of an hour the carriage, on its return from her Rue Saint Honore, stopped on the Boulevard Saint Denis, ...
— The Mysteries of Paris V2 • Eugene Sue
... spent in the Fatherland I never heard a single word of pity for the people of the regions overrun by her armies—except, of course, the Pecksniffian variety used by her diplomats. It was now any rare privilege to return with German refugees to their ruined country, and they vied with one another when they talked to me in the presence of my guides in accusing the Russians of every crime under ...
— The Land of Deepening Shadow - Germany-at-War • D. Thomas Curtin
... passers-by; and on very small provocation we should have given alms for the relief of the poor inmates. In this country there were no roads and paths, and the poor vegetation, however slow, would soon efface the rare ...
— A Journey to the Interior of the Earth • Jules Verne
... church, when mass is done, The people to the nave repair Round the tomb to stray; And marvel at the Forms of stone, And praise the chisell'd broideries rare— Then they drop away. The princely Pair are left alone ...
— Poetical Works of Matthew Arnold • Matthew Arnold
... words, expresses the characteristical virtue of this glorious patriarch of the monastic order, when he says, that, returning from Vicovara to Sublaco, he dwelt alone with himself;[14] which words comprise a great and rare perfection, in which consists the essence of holy retirement. A soul dwells not in true solitude, unless this be interior as well as exterior, and unless she cultivates no acquaintance but with God and herself, admitting no other company. Many dwell in monasteries, or alone, without possessing ...
— The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Principal Saints - January, February, March • Alban Butler
... words came full of a passionate sincerity. There were no half measures in this child of the prairie. Her love was given, a wealth of generous feeling and loyal self-sacrifice. Her father read with a rare understanding. And in his big heart, so rough, so warm, he cursed with every forceful epithet of his vocabulary the folly of the man he had marked out for ...
— The Forfeit • Ridgwell Cullum
... and nation. It sometimes happens that a gigantic mind possesses supreme power and rises superior to the age in which he is born, such was Alfred in England and Peter in Russia, but such instances are very rare; and, in general, it is neither amongst sovereigns nor the higher classes of society that the great improvers or benefactors of mankind are to be found. The works of the most illustrious names were little valued at the times when they were produced, ...
— Consolations in Travel - or, the Last Days of a Philosopher • Humphrey Davy
... that it keeps lent all the time—not so much piously as profanely. Am I my brother's keeper? No. But my brother is quite too often a keeper of mine—of mine own choice authors. The best of friends are, of course—like the best of steaks—rather rare. Like honest men they count only one in ten thousand—an extremely small per cent in a commercial point of view. Books—what should we do without them? What may we not do with them, if it were not for the season ...
— Punchinello, Vol. 1, No. 2, April 9, 1870 • Various
... lost his early love for a soldier's life any more than he ever forgot the rare delights of his bell-ringing days. John Bunyan, all his days, never saw a bell-rope that his fingers did not tingle, and he never saw a soldier in uniform without instinctively shouldering his youthful musket. Bunyan was one of those rare men who are of imagination ...
— Bunyan Characters - Third Series - The Holy War • Alexander Whyte
... easy to irritate," Grim went on. "He's one of those rare men, who get born once in an epoch, who force you to believe that virtue isn't extinct. He's almost like a child in some things—like a good woman in others—and a man of iron courage all the time, who can fire Arabs in the same way ...
— Affair in Araby • Talbot Mundy
... when pools and river-beds were full of foaming beer-coloured water, and every kloof and donga was brimmed with flowers and ferns, she would be drawn away by these, would return, trailing after her armfuls of rare blooms, and thenceforward, until these faded, the ridgy grave-mound and the heaped cairn of boulders would be gay with them. She never took them to the house. It might have meant a beating—so many ...
— The Dop Doctor • Clotilde Inez Mary Graves
... flowing LIQUIDS, we,— Tethered with our brothers. Make we music, melody, More than all the others; Lulling, mellowy, nimble, rare, Reveling in rhythm, Running here and everywhere, Make me ...
— Mother Truth's Melodies - Common Sense For Children • Mrs. E. P. Miller
... siluer wings, That mounts me vp vnto the highest heauens— To heauen? I, there sits up Horatio, Backt with troup of fierry cherubins Dauncing about his newly healed wounds, Singing sweet hymns and chaunting heauenly notes, Rare harmony to greet his innocence, That dyde, I, dyde a mirrour in our daies! But say, where shall I finde, the men, the murderers, That slew Horatio? whether shall I runne To finde them out, that ...
— The Spanish Tragedie • Thomas Kyd
... was the basis if not the completed substance for a very splendid memorial. Already in it were gathered paintings of all the important schools; to say nothing of collections of jade, illumined missals, porcelains, rugs, draperies, mirror frames, and a beginning at rare originals of sculpture. The beauty of these strange things, the patient laborings of inspired souls of various times and places, moved him, on occasion, to a gentle awe. Of all individuals he respected, indeed revered, the sincere artist. Existence was a mystery, but these souls who set themselves ...
— The Titan • Theodore Dreiser
... and wood. Sporangium .8-1.2 mm. in diameter, the stipe shorter than the diameter, sometimes nearly obsolete. Apparently rare in this country. ...
— The Myxomycetes of the Miami Valley, Ohio • A. P. Morgan
... History of Philosophy," that he is now best remembered. In this remarkable book, which appeared in 1845-46, Lewes the novelist and the journalist collaborates with Lewes the philosopher and man of science. He has the rare art of making an abstruse subject clear and attractive; he does not give a dry summary of the ideas of the great thinkers, but depicts the living man and relates his way of life to his way of thinking. The result is that in his hands metaphysic becomes as interesting as history ...
— The World's Greatest Books—Volume 14—Philosophy and Economics • Various
... absentee proprietors profits tended to go everywhere except into the owners' pockets, deliberately braved the climate, settled down for life (usually a brief one) in either Jamaica or Barbados, built themselves sumptuous houses, stocked with silver plate and rare wines, and held high and continual revel until such time as Yellow Jack should claim them. In the East Indies the soldiers and Civil Servants of "John Company," and the merchant community, "shook the pagoda tree" until they had accumulated sufficient ...
— Here, There And Everywhere • Lord Frederic Hamilton
... Sea Pens yet known, the first is one of the largest and most curious in its appearance; being of a beautiful silvery white, elegantly straited on each of the feather-like processes, with lines or streaks of the deepest black. It is extremely rare, and is a native of the Indian Seas. The accompanying Engraving is copied from a fine specimen in the ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction - Volume 14, No. 396, Saturday, October 31, 1829. • Various
... took occasion to examine more minutely the room in which I found myself captive. The mural painting depicted scenes of rare and wonderful beauty; mountains, rivers, lake, ocean, meadow, trees and flowers, winding roadways, sun-kissed gardens—scenes which might have portrayed earthly views but for the different colorings of the vegetation. ...
— A Princess of Mars • Edgar Rice Burroughs
... Danish, Ancient Danish, Swedish, Ancient Irish, Irish, Gaellic, Ancient British, Cambrian British, Greek, Modern Greek, Latin, Provencal, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and Rommany. A few specimens from this work may be acceptable to the English reader—a work so rare, that the authorities of a German university not long ago sent a person to St. Petersburgh to endeavor to discover ...
— The International Monthly, Volume 3, No. 2, May, 1851 • Various
... do. And the reason I believe so is that I was over at a chemical supply factory the other day when an order came in for a quantity of a very rare chemical." ...
— Tom Swift among the Fire Fighters - or, Battling with Flames from the Air • Victor Appleton
... only for that end he cared for her. Through what cold depths of solitude her soul breathed faintly mattered little. Yet an idle fancy touched him, what a triumph the man had gained, whoever he might be, who had held the master-key to a nature so rare as this, who had the kingly power in his hand to break its silence into electric shivers of laughter and tears,—terrible subtle pain, or joy as terrible. Did he hold the power still, he wondered? Meanwhile she ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 8, No. 48, October, 1861 • Various |
