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Matter   /mˈætər/   Listen
Matter

verb
(past & past part. mattered; pres. part. mattering)
1.
Have weight; have import, carry weight.  Synonyms: count, weigh.



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"Matter" Quotes from Famous Books



... the matter is, that we're all in trade when we've got anything, from poetry to pork, to sell; and it's all foolishness to talk about one fellow's goods being sweller than another's. The only way in which he can be different is by making them better. But if we haven't anything to sell, ...
— Old Gorgon Graham - More Letters from a Self-Made Merchant to His Son • George Horace Lorimer

... fast, And must go with it! Ah, how bright the sun Strikes on the sea and on the masts of vessels, That are uplifted, in the morning air, Like crosses of some peaceable crusade! It makes me long to sail for lands unknown, No matter whither! Under me, in shadow, Gloomy and narrow, lies the little town, Still sleeping, but to wake and toil awhile, Then sleep again. How dismal looks the prison, How grim and sombre in the sunless street,— The prison where she sleeps, or wakes and waits For what I dare not ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

... am sleepy; and no matter what the rest of you say I'm going to get my bunk made up. I want to be in apple-pie shape for to-morrow, for I expect it's going to be a red-letter day ...
— Phil Bradley's Mountain Boys - The Birch Bark Lodge • Silas K. Boone

... Caledonia, a town high on the snowy prairie. Caledonia! For years that word was a poem in my ear, part of a marvellous and epic march. Actually it consisted of a few frame houses and a grocery store. But no matter. Its name shall ring like a peal of bells ...
— A Son of the Middle Border • Hamlin Garland

... "you pain and surprise me. I do not profess to be ignorant of the cause of your—annoyance. But perhaps if I acquaint you with the facts of my own position in the matter you will be open to reconsider ...
— Dope • Sax Rohmer

... and she would not be stopped in her account of their anxieties on the day of the examination. Flora was pleased that Meta, catching some words, begged to hear more, and Flora gave an account of the matter, soberer in terms, but quietly setting Norman at a much greater distance ...
— The Daisy Chain, or Aspirations • Charlotte Yonge

... is the matter this morning? You really are very provoking. Yesterday, when everything was gloomy, and you might have been aware that I was out of spirits, I heard nothing but expressions of delight; to-day, when every creature under heaven ...
— Ruth • Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

... a little, "what do you think of my asking John Firinn to plough the land for the wheat—and to sow it too, for that matter?" ...
— Shenac's Work at Home • Margaret Murray Robertson

... conscience was a most insubordinate conscience, and held as wrong the things felt and thought, as well as things said and done; and his remorse was as that of an abandoned but repentant jilt. But when he saw how cheerfully she smiled, he grew easier in his mind. The women always have such a matter fully under control—I mean the ...
— Double Trouble - Or, Every Hero His Own Villain • Herbert Quick

... lastly, let me take an example which leads me on directly to the general matter I wish to discuss for the remaining space of the articles at my command. The Secularist constantly points out that the Hebrew and Christian religions began as local things; that their god was a tribal god; that they gave him material form, and ...
— Gilbert Keith Chesterton • Maisie Ward

... Hamlet which was in existence at least as early as the year 1589, in the representation of which an exclamation of the Ghost—"Hamlet, revenge!"—was a striking and well-remembered feature. This production is alluded to in some prefatory matter by Nash in the edition of Greene's Menaphon, issued in that year, here given: "I'le turne backe to my first text, of studies of delight, and talke a little in friendship with a few of our triuiall translators. It is a common practise now a daies amongst a sort ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Vol. 1-20 • Various

... rather than change. Certain small towns, like Springfield, were to become cities, and certain others, like New Salem, were to disappear. Railroads were not yet, though many were planning, and manufactures were chiefly of the domestic sort. But in the matter of the opportunities it presented to aspiring youth the country was already Western, and no longer wild Western. Hunting shirts and moccasins were disappearing. Knives in one's belt had gone out of fashion. The merely adventurous were passing beyond the Mississippi, ...
— Stephen Arnold Douglas • William Garrott Brown

... true causes of it have only been known for the last thirty or forty years; and we English are, as good King Alfred found us to his sorrow a thousand years ago, very slow to move, even when we see a thing ought to be done. Let us hope that in this matter—we have been so in most matters as yet—we shall be like the tortoise in the fable, and not the hare; and by moving slowly, but surely, ...
— Sanitary and Social Lectures and Essays • Charles Kingsley

... "What would it matter, if the dinner were burnt sometimes," he thought, "if I could have such a pretty, fascinating ...
— Fairy Tales from the German Forests • Margaret Arndt

... note from her in which "she humbly asked his pardon, but she could not marry him; he must excuse her. She trusted to his generosity to let the matter drop, and forgive a poor brokenhearted girl who had behaved ill from weakness of judgment, ...
— It Is Never Too Late to Mend • Charles Reade

... enthusiast for him when I was nineteen, but I find that his subject matter is rather thin, and his themes are a little worn. He was entirely enslaved by the ideals of the French Revolution. Take away what the French Revolution contributed to his poetry, and there is not ...
— Clara Hopgood • Mark Rutherford

... has achieved such superhumanity as he possesses not by challenging laws and conventions, but by getting around them. My wife and family loved me; and paradoxically I still had affection for them, or thought I had. But the superman creed is, "be yourself, realize yourself, no matter how cruel you may have to be in order to do so." One trouble with me was that remnants of the Christian element of pity still clung to me. I would be cruel if I had to, but I hoped I shouldn't have to: something would turn up, something in the nature of an intervening miracle ...
— The Crossing • Winston Churchill

... of England and Scotland, for all time, the lion's share of the proceeds of George the Third's ill-fated gift to Canada of the clergy reserves. Lord John Russell, the pretentious and vacillating Secretary of State for the Colonies at the time, proved himself to be, in this matter, a pliant instrument in the hands of Henry of Exeter. This prelate endorsed, con amore, all the extreme views of the Bishop of Toronto; and with the aid of Lord Seaton (Sir John Colborne) and the Bench and Bishops in the House of Lords, compelled the Government to perpetuate an ...
— The Story of My Life - Being Reminiscences of Sixty Years' Public Service in Canada • Egerton Ryerson

... case, combined with the cripple's optimism, made us laugh—all except the one-eyed girl, espying whom, the maimed girl suddenly changed the tone of levity with which she treated her own misfortune, and asked in a lowered voice: "What's the matter with yer eye?" And the hospital infection ...
— The Long Day - The Story of a New York Working Girl As Told by Herself • Dorothy Richardson

... "What's the matter?" cried Fitz, for the boatswain had made a sudden dash with one hand as if striving to catch something that had eluded ...
— Fitz the Filibuster • George Manville Fenn

... where he would introduce Goethe to a family resident there.[128] The family was that of Herr von la Roche, a Privy Councillor in the service of the Elector of Trier, and it consisted of himself, his wife and two daughters. The head of the house, a matter-of-fact man of the world, plays no part in Goethe's relations to the family. It was Frau von la Roche to whom, as a desirable acquaintance, Merck specially wished to introduce his friend, and the sequel proved that he had rightly divined ...
— The Youth of Goethe • Peter Hume Brown

... who saw his mistress, whom he greatly loved, between two other gentlemern, and did not notice that she had hold of both of them till another knight informed him of the matter as ...
— One Hundred Merrie And Delightsome Stories - Les Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles • Various

... church does need the money so much, Uncle William," the girl interrupted, "and it's a Unitarian church, so the raffle doesn't matter. Mr. Blythe says he sees no objection to it if it's conducted properly, and everyone is so interested. All the Pungville people will come in quite a procession, and Tom Mason is to drive the performers over ...
— Ainslee's, Vol. 15, No. 6, July 1905 • Various

... is no special fault to be found. It is as well, doubtless, to keep the pedigrees of men as it is to keep those of horses and dogs; though the animals, being ignorant of their records, are less likely to make them a matter of pride and presumption. In Russia the fact that certain men knew the names and standing of their ancestors led to the most absurd consequences. The books of ancestry were constantly appealed to for the support of foolish pretensions, and the nobles of Russia strutted like ...
— Historic Tales, Vol. 8 (of 15) - The Romance of Reality • Charles Morris

... back to life. When he at last opened his eyes, he was conscious of nothing but an excruciating pain through his temples. He was vaguely aware of unfamiliar surroundings. Where was he? What had happened? He blinked feebly. This was not his bedroom at the Ritz. And what the devil was the matter with his head? ...
— The Secret Adversary • Agatha Christie

... exercise, and of the ill-health especially of our women; but I opposed this view as far as I could with any truth, insinuating my opinion that we are about as healthy as other people, and affirming for a certainty that we live longer. In good faith, so far as I have any knowledge of the matter, the women of England are as generally out of health as those of America; always something has gone wrong with them; and as for Jenny Lind, she looks wan and worn enough to be an American herself. This charge of ill-health ...
— Passages From the English Notebooks, Complete • Nathaniel Hawthorne

... what to do, and begged for a fortnight's delay, for he wanted to find some way of escape. The head-servant consented to this delay. The bailiff summoned all his clerks together, and they were to think the matter over, and give him advice. The clerks pondered for a long time, but at last they said that no one was sure of his life with the head-servant, for he could kill a man as easily as a midge, and that the bailiff ought to make him get into the ...
— Household Tales by Brothers Grimm • Grimm Brothers

... hypnotizing yourself into the belief that I am going to marry Ethel Quintard. When"—he painfully recrossed his legs, and smiled pleasantly at his mother—"when, as a matter of fact, what I have been trying to lead up to is to tell you that I shall never lead Ethel's three millions to ...
— No. 13 Washington Square • Leroy Scott

... of St. Mary's, but dying soon after in the year 1327, the project was forgotten till about forty years after, when I suppose the example of the great bibliomaniac Richard de Bury drew attention to the matter; for his book treasures were then "deposited there, and the scholars permitted to ...
— Bibliomania in the Middle Ages • Frederick Somner Merryweather

... discipline; so whatever of the romantic was in me has taken refuge in my brains, and my heart has become the most reasonable of all hearts. If I had the good fortune to be at the same time an artist and rich, I should take life as a play; but being neither the one nor the other I treat it as a matter of business." ...
— Stories of Modern French Novels • Julian Hawthorne

... the day before that fixed for the execution when a decision was reached to let the law take its course. The feeling in Quebec in support of the commutation was so intense and overwhelming that it was accepted as a matter of course that Riel would be reprieved; and the news of the contrary decision was to them, as Professor Skelton says, "unbelievable." The actual announcement of the hanging was a match to a powder magazine. That night there ...
— Laurier: A Study in Canadian Politics • J. W. Dafoe

... a part of the drainage system and the distinction between the two is merely a matter of size. Generally, structures of spans less than about eight feet are classed as culverts, but the practice is not uniform. In this discussion culverts will be defined as of spans ...
— American Rural Highways • T. R. Agg

... xcix.). "And though I do not myself believe that fairies are ... I believe there once was a small race of people in these islands, who are remembered as fairies, for the fairy belief is not confined to the Highlanders of Scotland" (I. c.) "This class of stories is so widely spread, so matter-of-fact, hangs so well together, and is so implicitly believed all over the United Kingdom, that I am persuaded of the former existence of a race of men in these islands who were smaller in stature than the Celts; who used stone ...
— Fians, Fairies and Picts • David MacRitchie

... the kitchen evidently intended originally for a laundry. She wanted to laugh when she saw the primitive makeshifts, but instead the tears came into her eyes to think how many luxuries she had taken all her life as a matter of course and never realized how hard it was for people who had none. In fact it had never really entered her head before that there were people ...
— Exit Betty • Grace Livingston Hill

... "No matter where from, at present. Enough that I am here." The servant had retired, and the closed door was locked. "But there is one thing I don't ...
— The Good Time Coming • T. S. Arthur

... regard to the personal merit of these inferior officers, I believe I need not tell you that it is very little regarded. But if you recommend him, let the person be what he will, I am convinced it will be done; for I know it is in your power at present to ask for a greater matter than this." ...
— Amelia (Complete) • Henry Fielding

... What's the matter with you—fever? Come in here out of that sun. You can lie down on my ...
— Ranson's Folly • Richard Harding Davis

... The latter thus openly appeals to his accuser. "You are," says he, "upon the spot. It is happy for me that you are so. You can now inquire into my conduct." Did Mr. Hastings so inquire? No, my Lords, we have not a word of any inquiry; he even found fresh matter of charge in the answer of the Rajah, although, if there is any fault in this answer, it is its extremely humble and submissive tone. If there was anything faulty in his manner, it was his extreme humility and submission. It is plain he would have almost submitted to anything. He offered, ...
— The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. XI. (of 12) • Edmund Burke

... 8th and 9th May a large number of sledges heavily laden with reindeer skins and drawn by many dogs, passed along the coast from west to east. Of course all rested at the Vega, the only house of entertainment on the coast of the Asiatic Polar Sea, considering it as a matter of indisputable right, that they should in return for a little talk and gossip obtain food and "ram." Very eagerly they now informed us that a letter would come with another dog train that might be expected in a few hours. This was ...
— The Voyage of the Vega round Asia and Europe, Volume I and Volume II • A.E. Nordenskieold

... turn, would be a most suitable pupil. Why therefore not make my first experiment with my little precocious Grandson, whose casual remarks on the meaning of 3^3 had met with the approval of the Sphere? Discussing the matter with him, a mere boy, I should be in perfect safety; for he would know nothing of the Proclamation of the Council; whereas I could not feel sure that my Sons—so greatly did their patriotism and reverence for the Circles predominate over mere blind affection—might not feel compelled ...
— Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions (Illustrated) • Edwin A. Abbott

... Company, lying in the bottom of my chaise most of the route, upon a large pillow which I had the prevoyance to purchase before I set out. I am worn out, but pass on to Barnby Moor to-night, and if possible to York the next. I know not what is the matter with me, but some derangement presses hard upon this machine. Still, I think it will not be overset this bout"—another of those utterances of a cheerful courage under the prostration of pain which reveal to us the manliest side of Sterne's nature. On reaching Coxwold his health ...
— Sterne • H.D. Traill

... I then thought peace to be nearer at hand than it is, and I found that I was right in composing them. I confess that this code will give me a considerable deal of trouble before it is brought to that degree of perfection at which I wish to see it. But no matter, it ...
— The Empire of Russia • John S. C. Abbott

... God to take all I had and give her speech. He gave her speech, but what was speech without sight? I asked God to take my place from me and give her sight. He gave her sight, and I was cast out of the town like a beggar. What matter? She had all, and I was forgiven. But when I was happy, when I was content, when she filled my heart with sunshine, God snatched me away from her. And where is she now? Yonder, alone, friendless, a child new-born into the world at the mercy of liars and libertines. And where am I? Here, like a ...
— The Scapegoat • Hall Caine

... George Templemore," the simple-hearted girl ingenuously added, scarcely knowing how much her words implied— "Perhaps this matter night be reconsidered." ...
— Home as Found • James Fenimore Cooper

... haste, it ran to Edgar, and jumped on him, pulling and barking. "Poor Frolic," said Edgar, "I treated you unkindly once, and now you forgive me." But Frolic pulled harder and harder, and ran towards the river, and then back again to Edgar, so that at last he thought something was the matter, and hastened to the shore. In a few minutes he had rowed out in another boat, and reached the sinking one just in time to save his own sister Lucy from drowning. O, how they both thanked Frolic when they reached the shore! and Edgar said he would never, in all his life, hurt a living thing ...
— The Magician's Show Box and Other Stories • Lydia Maria Child

... though they had been very anxious to keep this from their mother, something had crept through which had revealed a suspicion of the suspicion even to her. She, dear old lady, had resolved upon no line of conduct in the matter. She had conceived no project of rebelling against her eldest daughter, or of being untrue to her youngest son. But now that she was alone with her eldest son, with the real undoubted Marquis, with him who would certainly be to her more than all the world beside if he would ...
— Is He Popenjoy? • Anthony Trollope

... several bright flakes resembling thistleblows, floating in the sunlight. But the telescope was so focused that, if these things were distinct, they must have been so far away from this earth that the difficulties of orthodoxy remain as great, one way or another, no matter what we think ...
— The Book of the Damned • Charles Fort

... the eternity of matter; a stubborn and rebellious substance, the origin of a second principle of an active being, who has created this visible world, and exercises his temporal reign till the final consummation of death and sin. [8] The appearances of moral and physical evil had ...
— The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Volume 5 • Edward Gibbon

... grasp very much of the truth, and was decidedly mystified by the domestic changes which she had very limited power to appreciate, and in which she had so little part. She was not a coarse woman, but matter of fact, superficial, and ...
— A Face Illumined • E. P. Roe

... them. The hurried search in the nearer scrub. The mother calling all the time for Maggie and Wally, and growing wilder as the minutes flew past. Old Peter's ride to the musterers' camp. Horsemen seeming to turn up in no time and from nowhere, as they do in a case like this, and no matter how lonely the district. Bushmen galloping through the scrub in all directions. The hurried search the first day, and the mother mad with anxiety as night came on. Her long, hopeless, wild-eyed watch through the night; starting up ...
— Joe Wilson and His Mates • Henry Lawson

... but as far as we can learn from the public prints, it was for the murder of his Master. The probability is there was some provocation; for such dire deeds are not perpetrated without a strong and powerful impulse. It is however of no consequence; no matter what was his crime, such a punishment was abominable, and could not be inflicted, even if the laws permitted it, in our State. If that monster who committed the Stoneham murder in cold blood, impelled solely by avarice, had not put an end to his own life, but had awaited his ...
— The Olden Time Series, Vol. 5: Some Strange and Curious Punishments • Henry M. Brooks

... more need be said than that, had Margaret Fuller Ossoli edited it, she might have reduced its size. Yet it is not surprising that love and reverence should seek with diligence and save with care whatever had emanated from her pen; and if the matter thus laid before the world take something from her reputation, it also completes the standard by which to measure her power. She appears to have been without creative faculty, yet her perception of the gift in others was often remarkable, and it pleased her to hold the possessor of it up to admiration. ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 5, No. 30, April, 1860 • Various

... was naturally a matter of utter indifference to us, and toward their close we usually paid a visit to my grandmother and aunt ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers

... supplications the commandment came forth, and I am come to shew thee; for thou art greatly beloved: therefore understand the matter, and consider ...
— The Christian Year • Rev. John Keble

... by any means, the tissue was said to have been killed. We have seen further that from this observed fact—that a tissue when killed passes out of the state of responsiveness into that of irresponsiveness; and from a confusion of 'dead' things with inanimate matter, it has been tacitly assumed that inorganic substances, like dead animal tissues, must necessarily be irresponsive, or incapable of being excited by stimulus—an assumption which has ...
— Response in the Living and Non-Living • Jagadis Chunder Bose

... giddiness left him. He knew the feeling to be the same as what he had felt on the Friday evening, but he had no idea of the cause, and as soon as the giddiness left him he thought there was nothing the matter ...
— Erewhon Revisited • Samuel Butler

... trail a phosphorescent wake. Sometimes in the case of a fast liner the destroyers, what with the high speed of the craft they are protecting and the uncertain course, narrowly escape disaster. As a matter of fact, one of them, the American destroyer Chauncey, was lost in this manner. But she is the ...
— Our Navy in the War • Lawrence Perry

... in the other States will be found to desire it, so that, according to the committee's own belief, it can never be forced by a majority on unwilling communities? The prevention of unjust discrimination by States against large classes of people in respect to suffrage is even admitted to be a matter of national concern and an important function of the national constitution and laws. It is the duty of congress to propose amendments to the constitution whenever two-thirds of both houses deem them necessary. Certainly an ...
— History of Woman Suffrage, Volume III (of III) • Various

... told of Isaac and Ishmael, and Lot and Esau, every one knew at once who these personages were, and how they were related to Israel and to one another. But this was merely the presupposition of the narratives, known as a matter of course to the hearers; the interesting element in them consisted in those traits which the Priestly Code omits. Stories of this kind compel attention because they set forth the peculiarities of different peoples as historically and really ...
— Prolegomena to the History of Israel • Julius Wellhausen

... "Matter?" cried Rusty Wren. "Here I've sung my best for Farmer Green all summer, and waked him at dawn every morning without fail! And what do you suppose he's done? He has brought home a strange bird from the village, because he doesn't care for ...
— The Tale of Rusty Wren • Arthur Scott Bailey

... it would be a sin to distress a widow woman. None was so able—but, on the other hand, none was likely to be less willing—to stand his friend upon the present occasion, than Gibbie Girder, the man of tubs and barrels already mentioned, who had headed the insurrection in the matter of the egg and butter subsidy. "But a' comes o' taking folk on the right side, I trow," quoted Caleb to himself; "and I had ance the ill hap to say he was but a Johnny New-come in our town, and the carle bore the family an ill-will ever since. But he married ...
— Bride of Lammermoor • Sir Walter Scott

... have no right to make our bodies pestiferous hospitals to bear about the seeds of disease, weakness, and misery. Our physical education is the very first thing to be attended to. In childhood and youth it is a matter of great moment. Every child should be thoroughly instructed in his physical duties, and every youth should make himself wise in all matters pertaining to life and health. I deem this subject of vast importance to young women. Their usefulness ...
— Aims and Aids for Girls and Young Women • George Sumner Weaver

... as General Harney remarked, "Better to board and lodge them at the Fifth Avenue Hotel than to fight them, as a matter of economy." Besides depleting the Indian appropriation fund, voted annually by Congress, of millions of dollars, but which was used to carry on elections, and the Indian got what was left; which may be compared to cheese-parings and ...
— Three Years on the Plains - Observations of Indians, 1867-1870 • Edmund B. Tuttle

... by which a section of the bordering sky is thrown below the horizon; but I am convinced that they are the effect of reflection. It seems that a gas (emanating probably from the heated earth and its vegetable matter) floats upon the elevated flats, and is of sufficient density, when viewed obliquely, to reflect the objects beyond it; thus the opposing sky being reflected in the pond of gas, gives ...
— Monsieur Violet • Frederick Marryat

... witch-delusion from the beginning. He did not disbelieve in the existence of witches—or that the devil was tormenting the "afflicted children"—but that faith should be put in their wild stories was quite another matter. ...
— Dulcibel - A Tale of Old Salem • Henry Peterson

... simplification of language has of late years emerged from the scholar's study and become a matter of practical politics, even as regards the leading national languages. Within the last few years there have been official edicts in France and Germany, embodying reforms either in spelling or grammar, with the sole object of simplifying. ...
— International Language - Past, Present and Future: With Specimens of Esperanto and Grammar • Walter J. Clark

... worse than a few broken heads, but of course I can't tell. I'll stand behind you with my last dollar, no matter ...
— The Iron Trail • Rex Beach

... and M. Chebe made his appearance amid the pipe-smoke. He was as surprised and annoyed to find Delobelle there as Delobelle himself was by his coming. He had written to his son-in-law that morning that he wished to speak with him on a matter of very serious importance, and that he would meet him at the brewery. It was an affair of honor, entirely between themselves, from man to man. The real fact concerning this affair of honor was that M. Chebe had given notice of his intention to leave the little house at Montrouge, ...
— Fromont and Risler, Complete • Alphonse Daudet

... every man above the rank of an artizan or a huckster as "Esquire," seems now to be settled as a matter of ordinary politeness and courtesy; whilst the degradation of the gentleman into the "Gent," has caused this term, as the title of a social class, to have fallen into total disuse. Originally, they ...
— Notes & Queries, No. 27. Saturday, May 4, 1850 • Various

... breath of Malay thought and speech. In "His Little Bill," the coolie, Lim Teng Wah, facing his debtor, stands very distinct before us, an insignificant and tragic victim of fate with whom he had quarrelled to the death over a matter of seven dollars and sixty-eight cents. The story of "The Schooner with a Past" may be heard, from the Straits eastward, with many variations. Out in the Pacific the schooner becomes a cutter, and the pearl-divers are replaced by the Black-birds of the Labour Trade. But Mr. Hugh Clifford's ...
— Notes on Life and Letters • Joseph Conrad

... on my plan under Colby's direction in June, July and August.—On Sept. 15th Mr Goulburn, Chancellor of the Exchequer, asked my opinion on the utility of Babbage's calculating machine, and the propriety of expending further sums of money on it. I replied, entering fully into the matter, and giving my opinion that it was worthless.—I was elected an Honorary Member of the Institution of ...
— Autobiography of Sir George Biddell Airy • George Biddell Airy

... practical and matter-of-fact as possible, I wiped the moisture from his brow with my handkerchief and ...
— Revelations of a Wife - The Story of a Honeymoon • Adele Garrison

... "It doesn't matter now," Grandfather Mole assured her. "To be sure, I was alarmed. And when you said he wouldn't mind I ...
— The Tale of Grandfather Mole • Arthur Scott Bailey

... hardly set foot in Stoneborough before he was told what was in store for him, and, to the general surprise, submitted as if it were a very simple matter. As Dr. Spencer told him, it was only a foretaste of the penalty which every missionary has to pay for coming to England. Norman was altogether looking much better than when he had been last at home, and his spirits were more even. He had turned his whole soul to the career he had chosen, cast ...
— The Daisy Chain, or Aspirations • Charlotte Yonge

... like to hear of a case more applicable. But it's no use to multiply words about the matter. My bill is correct, and I cannot take a ...
— Finger Posts on the Way of Life • T. S. Arthur

... she patted my shoulder and gave me a dollar bill. "I was a bit hasty, Nat. It's only a—a little business matter that Mr. Moriway's attending to for me. We—we'll finish it up this afternoon. I shouldn't like Miss Kingdon to know of it, because—because I—never like to worry her about business, you know. So don't mention it ...
— In the Bishop's Carriage • Miriam Michelson

... my horses require no attention. (Sleepily.) No attention whatever. I assure you I am perfectly competent to drive this car and give you information going along at the same time. (The car takes another corner rather abruptly.) Simply matter of ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 103, October 1, 1892 • Various

... spectacles on forehead, and with both hands in his trousers-pockets creating disturbance among the keys and coppers. "I might have known that she could not hold her tongue. It would never do to let Mrs Brooke remain on the tenter-hooks till Stride comes home to clear the matter up. Poor Mrs Brooke! No wonder she is almost broken down. This hoping against hope is so wearing. And she's so lonely. To be sure, sweet May Leather runs out and in like a beam of sunshine; but it must be hard, very hard, to lose an only son in this way. It would be almost better to know ...
— Charlie to the Rescue • R.M. Ballantyne

... the boy, bewildered by the severity which he did not anticipate, coupled indeed with a hint that he must be prepared, if he could not exhibit a more elastic sympathy, to have his course suspended in favour of some more simple discipline, told me the whole matter. "What am I to do?" he said. "I cannot care for Barbara; her whole nature upsets me and revolts me. I know she is very good and all that, but I simply am not myself when she is by; it is like taking a ...
— The Child of the Dawn • Arthur Christopher Benson

... advent of a philosophical historian who will explain the psychological reason why the eighteenth century was distinguished above all others in the matter of clubs, the fact is to be noted in all its baldness that the majority of those institutions which are famous in the annals of old London had their origin during that hundred years. One or two were of earlier date, but those ...
— Inns and Taverns of Old London • Henry C. Shelley

... not a doubt that he meant this melodramatic twaddle. It did not seem twaddle or melodramatic to her—or, for that matter, to him. She clasped him more closely. "What's the matter, dear?" she asked, her head on ...
— Susan Lenox: Her Fall and Rise • David Graham Phillips

... news of whose death Authority would be glad, went down on his hands and knees and began to examine the clothing of the dead for proofs of his identity, which could be sent in to headquarters for the establishing of his death. He foresaw that there was need for care; when the matter came to be investigated, it would be discovered that Granger had been Spurling's partner in the Klondike; questions would certainly be asked of Robert Pilgrim, as Hudson Bay factor and head man of the district, concerning Granger's conduct in Keewatin, ...
— Murder Point - A Tale of Keewatin • Coningsby Dawson

... Asiatic Greeks was regularly treated as an embodiment of a divinity of vegetation. Probably the persons whom the Athenians kept to be sacrificed were similarly treated as divine. That they were social outcasts did not matter. On the primitive view a man is not chosen to be the mouth-piece or embodiment of a god on account of his high moral qualities or social rank. The divine afflatus descends equally on the good and the bad, ...
— The Golden Bough - A study of magic and religion • Sir James George Frazer

... heard her sigh, and looked at her. Her face was altered; a sort of sullen misery was written on it. Lady Bassett was quick at reading faces, and this look alarmed her. "Mary," said she, kindly, "is there anything the matter?" ...
— A Terrible Temptation - A Story of To-Day • Charles Reade

... said Mr. Thornton, "it's like eating pancakes and honey; the more cakes you have the more honey you want. I think I can almost see my way through in this matter; we are to correct the acid with limestone, to work the legumes for nitrogen, and turn under everything we can to increase the organic matter, and if we find that the soil won't furnish enough phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, or calcium, even with the ...
— The Story of the Soil • Cyril G. Hopkins

... sympathy—"well, child, well—since the reading of that book I have thought better of it. It may be, that your silly caprice for this boy can be indulged without interfering with more important objects. This first love is—well, well, no matter what it is, I would rather not turn it to gall in the bosom of a young girl. So trust ...
— Mabel's Mistake • Ann S. Stephens

... "Nay, the matter of his speech I could not understand," laughed the boy, "but the manner was as gentle as thine, ...
— Frontier Stories • Bret Harte

... water of the streams and the winds of heaven. He has tunnelled the mountains, bridged the rivers, and laid his cables beneath the ocean. He has learned to ride over land and sea and even to skim along the currents of the air. He has been able to discover the chemical elements that permeate matter and the nature and laws of physical forces. By numerous inventions he has made use of the materials and powers of nature. The physical universe is a challenge to human wits, a stimulus to thought and activity that ...
— Society - Its Origin and Development • Henry Kalloch Rowe

... many picturesque and easily grasped features in the literature, labels, and advertising of patent medicines that spell danger. When these features are seen, the medicine should be abandoned immediately, no matter what your friends tell you about it, or how highly recommended it may have been by ...
— The Home Medical Library, Volume II (of VI) • Various

... the brigade-major, and our guns, and the heavies behind them, fired harder than ever. Then for an hour until 3 o'clock we got a respite. A couple of pioneers, lent to us by the colonel, who had shown himself so sympathetic in the matter of the lost dog, worked stolidly with plane and saw and foot-rule, improving our gun-pit mess by more expert carpentering than we could hope to possess. The colonel tore the wrapper of the latest copy of an automobile journal, posted to him weekly, and devoted himself ...
— Pushed and the Return Push • George Herbert Fosdike Nichols, (AKA Quex)

... comprehended in its full significance. While there is much in these publications that is necessarily of an evanescent character, and much that might perhaps be better excluded, it cannot be denied that the best of our daily and weekly papers often contain literary matter which in a less fugitive form would become a permanent and valuable contribution to the ...
— Handbook of Universal Literature - From The Best and Latest Authorities • Anne C. Lynch Botta

... said Jane; 'you make my head go all swimmy, like being on a roundabout. It doesn't matter! Only, I hope we shall be able to see our dinner, that's all - because if it's invisible it'll be unfeelable as well, and then we can't eat it! I KNOW it will, because I tried to feel if I could feel the Lamb's chair, and there was nothing under him at all but air. ...
— Five Children and It • E. Nesbit

... gave their names-Robert Olev, Alexei Vasilienko and Erni Sachs, an Esthonian. But now they didn't want to be officers any more, because officers were very unpopular. They didn't seem to know what to do, as a matter of fact, and it was plain that they ...
— Ten Days That Shook the World • John Reed

... originated. Our men in the edge of the woods, in the bushes, and in the grain-fields had perhaps become so tired of inaction, and so exasperated by the deadly fire which was picking them off, one by one, as they lay, that they were ready for any desperate venture; and when somebody—no matter who—started forward, or said, "Come on, boys!" they simply rose en masse and charged. I cannot find, in the official reports of the engagement, any record of a definite order by any general officer to storm the heights; ...
— Campaigning in Cuba • George Kennan

... some coaxing to git him down, but he come after a spell, and he was the scaredest man ever I see. I asked him what the matter was. ...
— Cape Cod Stories - The Old Home House • Joseph C. Lincoln

... let him alone: I 'll go another way to work with him; I 'll have an action of battery against him, if there be any law in Illyria: though I struck him first, yet it 's no matter for that. ...
— Twelfth Night; or, What You Will • William Shakespeare [Hudson edition]

... necessary, the field magnet is so arranged that it has four or more poles instead of two; the armature likewise consists of several portions, and even the commutator may be very complex. But no matter how complex these various parts may seem to be, the principle is always that stated in Section 309, and the parts are limited to ...
— General Science • Bertha M. Clark

... the matter?" cried I, for my father had taken the child in his arms soothingly, and she was now ...
— The Caxtons, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... best." He admired her deeply, was grateful to her for that complete mastery of the detail of life which she had shown, aware that if it were not for the dominating personality of this woman he had somehow had the good fortune to marry, life would have been a smaller matter ...
— Together • Robert Herrick (1868-1938)

... the shelves are not fixed to the uprights, it is a simple matter to remove each shelf in turn from the room, and brush out the ...
— The Book-Hunter at Home • P. B. M. Allan

... hoofs with a sober daintiness of gait; from time to time she shook her ears or her tail; and she looked so small under the bundle that my mind misgave me. We got across the ford without difficulty—there was no doubt about the matter, she was docility itself—and once on the other bank, where the road begins to mount through pine-woods, I took in my right hand the unhallowed staff, and with a quaking spirit applied it to the donkey. Modestine brisked up her pace for perhaps three steps, and then relapsed into ...
— Short Stories and Selections for Use in the Secondary Schools • Emilie Kip Baker

... different usages and ideas have been brought together by conquest and state combinations, must be allowed for. In some cases a great interest was thought to be at stake; in other cases no importance was attached to the matter. The mores developed under the notions which got control by accident or superstition. There was no rational ground for the taboo, and none even blindly connected with truth of fact, until the opinion gained a footing that close intermarriage was unfavorable to the number or vigor of the offspring. ...
— Folkways - A Study of the Sociological Importance of Usages, Manners, Customs, Mores, and Morals • William Graham Sumner

... Southern hospitality meant. If Mrs. Peyton had been accustomed to that, it must be a matter of pride not to let her feel that Northern homes were cold and comfortless places by comparison. By the time she had shown the visitors to Charlotte's guest-room, and had made up a bed for the boy on a wide couch there, Celia had worked off a little of her regret. Nevertheless, ...
— The Second Violin • Grace S. Richmond

... The Indians talked the matter over by their camp fire, and little Philip listened to the story as eagerly as he had listened to the story ...
— Four American Indians - King Philip, Pontiac, Tecumseh, Osceola • Edson L. Whitney

... talk to you, Rachel," said Mrs. Maldon, once more reassuringly matter-of-fact. "Sit ...
— The Price of Love • Arnold Bennett

... uniforms, and condemned to wander from department to department, objects of contempt to the minister, and of derision to the patricians, who receive you only to enjoy the spectacle of your distress. No matter; come, we will combat naked like ...
— History of the Girondists, Volume I - Personal Memoirs of the Patriots of the French Revolution • Alphonse de Lamartine

... the custom are probably misinterpretations adopted at a later time when its original meaning was forgotten. For a custom often outlives the memory of the motives which gave it birth. And as royalty is very conservative of ancient usages, it would be no matter for surprise if the corpses of kings should continue to be carried out through special openings long after the bodies of commoners were allowed to be conveyed in commonplace fashion through the ordinary door. In point of fact we find the old custom observed by kings in countries where ...
— The Belief in Immortality and the Worship of the Dead, Volume I (of 3) • Sir James George Frazer

... was, some of the family went to the gate and found my hat and took charge of the horse which I had ridden. That morning I dragged myself to school with a sad, heavy heart. As my scholars came in, they seemed to understand that something was the matter with me, and often during the day their wondering looks were directed toward me as if they sought some explanation of my appearance. The day was a long and weary one to me—a day, like many another since then, of most intense wretchedness. ...
— Fifteen Years in Hell • Luther Benson

... in London, and, having upon my previous visit made the acquaintance of Junius S. Morgan, the great banker, I called upon him one morning and opened negotiations. I left with him a copy of the prospectus, and upon calling next day was delighted to find that Mr. Morgan viewed the matter favorably. I sold him part of the bonds with the option to take the remainder; but when his lawyers were called in for advice a score of changes were required in the wording of the bonds. Mr. Morgan ...
— Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie • Andrew Carnegie

... salaried position; that she herself was decidedly attractive to look upon; that her voice had spoken the whispered words; and that her present animated air might safely be attributed rather to the fact that she addressed Count Bunker than to the subject-matter of her reply. ...
— Count Bunker • J. Storer Clouston

... pick and the meat-ration can for a shovel; wading rivers by day and sleeping exposed to the elements by night, are all sandwiched with numerous mirthful incidents. Soldiers, above all people, have an eye for the ridiculous, and are ever ready to make merry and laugh over the most trivial matter. Even the horrors of battle are unable to quench the spark of gaiety ever present in the make-up ...
— Bamboo Tales • Ira L. Reeves

... Street, 20 Canadian poplars in St. Martin's church-yard, a score or so of plane trees near Central Station, and a number in Gosta Green and the various playgrounds belonging to Board Schools, a few elms, sycamores, and Ontario poplars being mixed with them. As a matter of historical fact, the first were put in the ground Nov. 29, 1885, in ...
— Showell's Dictionary of Birmingham - A History And Guide Arranged Alphabetically • Thomas T. Harman and Walter Showell

... so," agreed Chunky. "What's the matter with having Tad Butler for president? He knows all about horses, even if he ...
— The Pony Rider Boys in the Rockies • Frank Gee Patchin

... has implied that our Constitution was an original creation, "struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man." But as a matter of fact the Constitution was not so much the result of political originality as it was a careful selection from British and colonial experience. The trial of the Confederation government had proved especially valuable, and in drawing up the Federal Constitution, the members of the Constitutional ...
— Problems in American Democracy • Thames Ross Williamson

... eager to have this friend serve as missionary secretary of his church. But he knew, as everybody knows, how difficult appointments oftentimes are in all large bodies. He was earnestly discussing the matter with my friend, and made this remark: "If you will allow the use of your name for this appointment, I will lay myself out to have it made." Now if you will kindly not think there is any lack of reverence in my saying so—and there is surely none in my thought—that ...
— Quiet Talks on Prayer • S. D. (Samuel Dickey) Gordon

... it to firms in European countries which have good credit, for consumption by people who are in no great want. As an individual business man, I could hardly do otherwise with any assurance of financial profit. I am not here presenting the issue as a matter of individual morals. If the surplus of economic supplies is to be distributed according to needs, on an emergency credit basis adjusted to that end, it is evident that this can be done only by international cooeperation. This shifts the moral problem from the individual to the ...
— Morals of Economic Internationalism • John A. Hobson

... matter of self defense he at once invited Jack Harvey, who was a mutual friend of himself and Grantham, to ...
— Among Malay Pirates - And Other Tales Of Adventure And Peril • G. A. Henty

... of which he afterwards admitted that fourteen out of the seventy-three were wholly written by himself. John Pinkerton, whom Sir Walter Scott described as "a man of considerable learning, and some severity as well as acuteness of disposition," made clear conscience on the matter in 1786, when he published two volumes of genuine old Scottish Poems from the MS. collections of Sir Richard Maitland. He had added to his credit as an antiquary by an Essay on Medals, and then applied ...
— Early Australian Voyages • John Pinkerton

... moment she smothered her face in her hands. This meant so much to her. It was not a matter of a day, a week, a year; it was for a whole weary, lonesome lifetime. Then she ...
— The Web of the Golden Spider • Frederick Orin Bartlett

... plainsmen dare use their weapons against a legitimate claimant? For that matter, what good would their weapons be against a Federation Strike Group, even if they ...
— The Best Made Plans • Everett B. Cole

... Yet she could not—durst not—frame words to tell him of her suffering. It was to risk too much; it might strike a fatal blow at his respect for her. Even those last words she had breathed with dread, involuntarily; already, perhaps, she had failed in the delicacy he looked for, and had given him matter for disagreeable thought as soon as he left her. She rose at length from her kneeling attitude, and leaned back in her chair with a look ...
— A Life's Morning • George Gissing

... trade, together with all the honors, favors, and exemptions usually given to the pacifiers and settlers of new provinces. Preparations for the expedition were under way, when a dispute arose between the leader and his partners in the enterprise, and the matter was carried into the courts. Before a decision was reached, the leader died, and the judge ordered the other partners, among whom was one Sebastian Vizcaino, to begin the voyage to the Californias within three months. Under this order, Vizcaino applied to Viceroy Velasco, and ...
— The March of Portola • Zoeth S. Eldredge

... been accurately known and recorded ever since the order has existed in the country. For several centuries past, the addition to it of a single individual has been a matter of public interest and notoriety: this hereditary honour conferring not personal dignity merely, but important privileges, and being almost always identified with great wealth and influence. The records ...
— The Miscellaneous Writings and Speeches of Lord Macaulay, Vol. 2 (of 4) - Contributions To The Edinburgh Review • Thomas Babington Macaulay

... to a great extent a matter of conjecture as to the exact authorship of "The Tatler" papers. In the preface to the fourth volume the authorship of a very few of the articles was admitted. Peter Wentworth wrote to his brother, Lord ...
— The Prose Works of Jonathan Swift, D. D., Volume IX; • Jonathan Swift

... English Constitution is a newly-elected House of Commons. No matter whether the question upon which it decides be administrative or legislative; no matter whether it concerns high matters of the essential Constitution or small matters of daily detail; no matter whether it be a question of making ...
— The English Constitution • Walter Bagehot

... myself. And I listened diligently to him preaching to the people, not with that intent I ought, but, as it were, trying his eloquence, whether it answered the fame thereof, or flowed fuller or lower than was reported; and I hung on his words attentively; but of the matter I was as a careless and scornful looker-on; and I was delighted with the sweetness of his discourse, more recondite, yet in manner less winning and harmonious, than that of Faustus. Of the matter, ...
— The Confessions of Saint Augustine • Saint Augustine

... committee-men had a right to a 'charity'; each of them could select a canvas among the lot, no matter how execrable it might be, and it was thereupon admitted without examination. As a rule, the bounty of this admission was bestowed upon poor artists. The forty paintings thus rescued at the eleventh hour, were those of the beggars at the ...
— His Masterpiece • Emile Zola

... blood, and their avarice with our property, so that all ranks ought to dread them. Therefore do not be troubled at seeing our crops destroyed, our towns burned, our fortresses occupied; for if we preserve the city, the rest will be saved as a matter of course; if we lose her, all else would be of no advantage to us; for while retaining our liberty, the enemy can hold them only with the greatest difficulty, while losing it they would be preserved in vain. Arm, therefore; and when in the fight, remember that the reward of victory will be ...
— History Of Florence And Of The Affairs Of Italy - From The Earliest Times To The Death Of Lorenzo The Magnificent • Niccolo Machiavelli

... arrived, they deputed one of their number, named Rokurobei, to inquire the reason. Rokurobei arrived at Sogoro's house towards four in the afternoon, and found him warming himself quietly over his charcoal brazier, as if nothing were the matter. The messenger, seeing ...
— Tales of Old Japan • Algernon Bertram Freeman-Mitford

... me, for I don't care a straw for the gracious attentions of you lords of creation. I've only come to you because I've been to five other places already to-day, and everywhere I was met with a refusal, and it's a matter that can't be put off. Listen," she went on, looking into his face. "Five students of my acquaintance, stupid, unintelligent people, but certainly poor, have neglected to pay their fees, and are being excluded from the university. Your wealth makes it your duty to go straight to the university ...
— The Darling and Other Stories • Anton Chekhov

... see Foch, but he was away from his Headquarters with de Maud'huy. I sent Henry Wilson after him to explain my views, namely, that our present plan must be modified, owing largely to the fact that we had considerably under-estimated the enemy's strength, particularly in the matter of machine guns. Foch sent Wilson back to tell me that he agreed in thinking that the present operations had not proved a success. He proposed to break them off as soon as we could reconsider our arrangements. He begged me, however, to continue demonstrating all along ...
— 1914 • John French, Viscount of Ypres

... deductions than the facts. The truth is, Harris wrote to please his patron, the republican Hollis, who supplied him with books, and every friendly aid. "It is possible for an ingenious man to be of a party without being partial" says Rushworth; an airy clench on the lips of a sober matter-of-fact man looks suspicions, and betrays the weak ...
— Literary Character of Men of Genius - Drawn from Their Own Feelings and Confessions • Isaac D'Israeli

... raised by the general introduction of the rifle, and its greater range, of such a change in warfare as to make the bayonet useless, seem to have met with disappointment in the recent wars. No matter how perfect the gun, men, in the heat and excitement of battle, will hardly be deliberate in aim, or effective enough in firing to stop a charge of determined men; the bayonet, with the most of mankind, will always be the queen of weapons in a pitched battle; only for skirmishing, for ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 4, No. 24, Oct. 1859 • Various

... do I see how I can easily be mistaken in this matter. I know evidently that distance is not perceived of itself. That by consequence it must be perceived by means of some other IDEA which is immediately perceived, and varies with the different degrees of distance. I know also ...
— An Essay Towards a New Theory of Vision • George Berkeley

... Civilisation" and Mill's "Liberty" were the most alarming, but they neither of them reached the substratum of the reading public, and Ernest and his friends were ignorant of their very existence. The Evangelical movement, with the exception to which I shall revert presently, had become almost a matter of ancient history. Tractarianism had subsided into a tenth day's wonder; it was at work, but it was not noisy. The "Vestiges" were forgotten before Ernest went up to Cambridge; the Catholic aggression scare had lost its terrors; Ritualism was still ...
— The Way of All Flesh • Samuel Butler

... cloying. There was no mirth in his heart, such as usually made his voice gush out, of its own accord, and swell the merriment of his companions. In short, he grew so uneasy and discontented, that the other children could not imagine what was the matter with Epimetheus. Neither did he himself know what ailed him, any better than they did. For you must recollect that, at the time we are speaking of, it was everybody's nature, and constant habit, to be happy. The world had not yet learned ...
— Myths That Every Child Should Know - A Selection Of The Classic Myths Of All Times For Young People • Various

... Violet; 'but unluckily he is a little bit of a coward, and is afraid when papa plays with him. We make resolutions, but I really believe it is a matter of nerves, and that poor Johnnie ...
— Heartsease - or Brother's Wife • Charlotte M. Yonge

... brethren, consists in wishing well to those who are loved.' This seems like a harmless proposition. It is the sort of thing you might hear in a sermon and think no more about. But St. Augustine goes to the root of the matter, and asks what it means to wish well to the person you are trying to help. He comes to the conclusion that if you really wish him well, you must wish him to be at least as well off and as well able to take care of himself as you ...
— By the Christmas Fire • Samuel McChord Crothers

... As a matter of fact, Codices abound in which the Sections are noted without the Canons, throughout. See more on this subject in the ...
— The Last Twelve Verses of the Gospel According to S. Mark • John Burgon

... got the damper turned," said Matilda, coming up to look; "see, that's the matter. It won't light with the ...
— What She Could • Susan Warner

... me agin I'll spoil the whole of your face, you cur! After arestin' a boy for meetin' with an accident in doin' what you oughter done, an' gettin' out warrants for others what couldn't have had a hand in the matter, it's easy to see why you want to believe this little villain's story. When the truth is known you understand blessed well that the town will be too hot to ...
— Down the Slope • James Otis

... months before he got it. The fifth officer, Lieutenant Gannet, did most of the talking, because he was Jimmie's immediate superior, and had conducted the investigations into the case. He had discussed the matter with Major Prentice, the Judge-Advocate of the court, also with Captain Ardner, the young military lawyer who went through the form of defending Jimmie; the three had agreed that the case was a most serious one. The propaganda of Bolshevism in this Archangel expedition must certainly be ...
— Jimmie Higgins • Upton Sinclair

... career first and take up marriage only when all other avenues is closed. She's the one that is now regarded by her brainy sisters as a failure. I consider it an evil state for the world to be in—but no matter; I can't do anything about it from up here, with ...
— Ma Pettengill • Harry Leon Wilson

... large tree at no great height from the ground. The place where it was found had an elevation of about 10,000 feet. Although the parent bird was sent with the egg, I cannot say that I have any great confidence in its authenticity, and only record the matter quantum valeat. ...
— The Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds, Volume 1 • Allan O. Hume

... the Duchess de La Ferte, and an ardent desire for liberty from my condition of servitude led me to accept his proposal of marriage, subject only to be the permission of my Duchess. This she was reluctant to give, and the matter was still under discussion when we heard of M. Dacier's ...
— The World's Greatest Books, Vol X • Various

... well myself. The baron was a fearful man to meet in his rage. Where to fly I knew not, but stay I could not. I had bare time to rush to my room, don a dress that would not excite inquiry if I had to lie hid in the forest a few days. I did not think flight would be so difficult a matter, but I knew that every moment spent in Mortimer's Keep was at peril of my life; and I had but just made my escape through a small postern door before I heard the alarm bell ring, the drawbridge go up, and knew that the edict had gone forth for ...
— The Secret Chamber at Chad • Evelyn Everett-Green

... animate power, if not the panacea which is to cure all the evils of our condition, is at least one that comes recommended as a matter of fact—easy of operation, and effectual in its result. If want of food, or, in other words, redundancy of population be the bane of the country, it does not propose to meet that evil by a visionary project, tending ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. - Volume 20, No. 567, Saturday, September 22, 1832. • Various

... didn't like to sit there and hear them and not tell them that I was your cousin; but I was too—too—frightened to speak to them, so I thought I would never repeat what they said, and then it wouldn't be any matter." ...
— A Little Country Girl • Susan Coolidge

... think that even if the creeds, from the so-called "Apostles" to the so-called "Athanasian," were swept into oblivion; and even if the human race should arrive at the conclusion that, whether a bishop washes a cup or leaves it unwashed, is not a matter of the least consequence, it will get on very well. The causes which have led to the development of morality in mankind, which have guided or impelled us all the way from the savage to the civilised state, will not cease to operate because a number of ecclesiastical hypotheses turn out to be baseless. ...
— Lectures and Essays • Thomas Henry Huxley

... interesting resignation, "it really does not matter. All I know is, if it were all to happen over again I should ...
— A Dog with a Bad Name • Talbot Baines Reed

... sound of it. 3. Guy Steele in his persona as 'The Great Quux', which is somewhat infamous for light verse and for the 'Crunchly' cartoons. 4. In some circles, used as a punning opposite of 'crux'. "Ah, that's the quux of the matter!" implies that the point is *not* crucial (compare {tip of the ice-cube}). 5. quuxy: /adj./ Of or pertaining ...
— The Jargon File, Version 4.0.0

... that Mrs. West only sipped her coffee occasionally and did not touch the food on her plate. Seeing in her face that something was not quite right, he said: "What is the matter, dear, you look as if something troubled you? ...
— A California Girl • Edward Eldridge

... sense to develop in the Western void was apparently the sense of chronology—unless, indeed, it were a sense for the shades of difference which served to distinguish between one age and another and provided the raw material that made chronology a matter of consequence ...
— Bertram Cope's Year • Henry Blake Fuller

... was not made up; therefore I spoke of the matter to no one. I only hinted something to you, when on bidding you good by at North End Junction I told you that you might possibly see me before you would ...
— For Woman's Love • Mrs. E. D. E. N. Southworth

... matter of opinion,' said the waiter. 'I likes 'em a bit more full-flavoured myself. And as to 'er taste, why there, if you 'ad seen 'er turn up 'er nose ...
— A Duet • A. Conan Doyle

... long a respite from the tiresome duties of school; but it was a severe blow to Frank. A few more months, he was confident, would have carried him ahead of all competitors. But he always submitted to his mother's requirements, no matter how much at variance with his own wishes, without murmuring; and when the spring term was ended he took his books under his arm, and bade a sorrowful farewell to ...
— Frank, the Young Naturalist • Harry Castlemon

... own heart was very heavy; she dreaded this harsh new voice and face that had come into her life. It did not matter very greatly for herself, Cecile thought, but Maurice—Maurice was very tender, very young, very unused to unkindness. Was it possible that Aunt Lydia would be unkind to little Maurice? How he would look at her with wonder in his big brown ...
— The Children's Pilgrimage • L. T. Meade

... me, even if he did n't actually touch me, when things went wrong—but it would have done your heart good to hear him laugh! he had a most excellent heart, just like your own, Rosy dear; but, for that matter, all the Budds have excellent hearts, and one of the commonest ways your uncle had of showing it was to laugh, particularly when we were together and talking. Oh, he used to delight in hearing me converse, especially about vessels, and never failed to ...
— Jack Tier or The Florida Reef • James Fenimore Cooper

... a matter of surprise, if in the lapse of time, which is unlimited, while fortune[101] is continually changing her course, spontaneity should often result in the same incidents; for, if the number of elemental things is not limited, fortune has in the abundance of material a bountiful supply of sameness ...
— Plutarch's Lives Volume III. • Plutarch

... no faith in doctors. One never knows what they put in their old prescriptions. Now when I buy one of these advertised medicines, they send me a lot of little books or circulars telling me all about it. This last treatment of mine sends more reading matter, I think, than any of the others, and ...
— Patty's Butterfly Days • Carolyn Wells

... of the local story. Ward was a man of good sentiment. He judged that it became a vicar of Stratford to know his Shakespeare well, and one of his private reminders for his own conduct runs—"Remember to peruse Shakespeare's plays, and bee much versed in them, that I may not bee ignorant in that matter." ...
— Shakespeare and the Modern Stage - with Other Essays • Sir Sidney Lee



Words linked to "Matter" :   faecal matter, gook, mental object, content, emanation, soft copy, sediment, addendum, goo, prelims, area, problem, piece of writing, deposit, blind spot, trouble, muck, writing, slime, import, sludge, text, remit, res judicata, written material, moment, ylem, written matter, system, goop, residue, dictation, glop, postscript, consequence, least, press, cognitive content, physical entity, solute, guck, fluid, supplement, gray matter, res adjudicata, recitation, solid, typescript, concern, hard copy, gunk, ooze, substance, be



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