"Seize on" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... everywhere seeking "new markets." Bengal having been in a great degree exhausted, it became necessary to annex the North-west provinces, and thence we find her stretching out her hand at one moment to seize on Affghanistan, at another to force the Chinese into permitting her to smuggle opium, and at a third to expel the Sikhs and occupy the Punjab, as preliminary to this invasion and subjection of the Burman Empire. ...
— The trade, domestic and foreign • Henry Charles Carey
... gone to thy boat,—falsehearted lad; snakes will rear their heads out of the water, and seize on him that honoureth not his parents ...
— Walladmor: - And Now Freely Translated from the German into English. - In Two Volumes. Vol. I. • Thomas De Quincey
... which had increased in force with the increasing power of the sun, would flag and finally die away. The heat and electric tension of the atmosphere would then become almost insupportable. Languor and uneasiness would seize on every one, even the denizens of the forest, betraying it by their motions. White clouds would appear in the cast and gather into cumuli, with an increasing blackness along their lower portions. The ...
— The Naturalist on the River Amazons • Henry Walter Bates
... the ship; but all differences of opinion were soon settled when she appeared abeam, fully as far off as the former one. As our hopes had risen to a high pitch, so they now fell proportionately low. I began to fear that despondency would seize on all hands. The ship came up on our quarter; then she got abeam of us. We could see her as clearly as we had seen the former one. Some of our people shouted and waved their hats and caps. No answering signal was made. ...
— Will Weatherhelm - The Yarn of an Old Sailor • W.H.G. Kingston
... germ of a new opinion began to, display itself in the south, and Bordeaux felt its full influence. The department of the Gironde had given birth to a new political party in the twelve citizens who formed its deputies. This department, far removed from the centre, was at no distant period to seize on the empire alike of opinion and of eloquence. The names (obscure and unknown up to this period) of Ducos, Gaudet, Lafondladebat, Grangeneuve, Gensonne, Vergniaud, were about to rise into notice and renown ...
— The World's Greatest Books, Vol XII. - Modern History • Arthur Mee
... of some writers, that to the African is reserved, in the later and palmier days of the earth, the full and harmonious development of the religious element in man. The African seems to seize on the tropical fervor and luxuriance of Scripture imagery as something native; he appears to feel himself to be of the same blood with those old burning, simple souls, the patriarchs, prophets, and seers, whose impassioned ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. XI., April, 1863, No. LXVI. - A Magazine Of Literature, Art, And Politics. • Various
... understood, captain. You and your people are drunk. You push me. I fall between the regent and him who has his arm. I separate them. You seize on him and gag him, and at a whistle the carriage arrives, while Simiane and Ravanne are held with pistols at ...
— The Conspirators - The Chevalier d'Harmental • Alexandre Dumas (Pere)
... terror, and the mingling yell— 760 For swords began to clash, and shouts to swell— Flung o'er that spot of earth the air of Hell! Distracted, to and fro, the flying slaves Behold but bloody shore and fiery waves; Nought heeded they the Pacha's angry cry, They seize that Dervise!—seize on Zatanai![216] He saw their terror—checked the first despair That urged him but to stand and perish there, Since far too early and too well obeyed, The flame was kindled ere the signal made; 770 He saw their ...
— The Works Of Lord Byron, Vol. 3 (of 7) • Lord Byron
... wonder whether You'd really taste as well. For my hand is fairly steady Though my heart is beating fast, Oh, tell me that you too are ready To make this hour your last. For repentance may come when we're sober, Let's seize on the chance while we may; Then why should we wait till October? Oh! Why not be shot to-day? Oh! tell me why, why should I remember With a thought of wild alarm, That all through the month of sweet September You should be free from harm. Why, why does your beauty enslave me, As it does, you're ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 103, September 17, 1892 • Various
... idea, and that idea the God-given one that life has destined you for a tremendous future in the particular field you have chosen. It means that one thing, a cake of soap, a new can-opener, a safety razor, or speed-accelerator, must seize on your imagination with tremendous force, burn as a raging flame, and make itself the be-all and end-all of your existence. As a rule, a man needs poverty to help him to this enthusiasm, and youth. The thing he has discovered, and with which he is going to busy himself, ...
— Jennie Gerhardt - A Novel • Theodore Dreiser
... labour, they compel him to fetch and carry and lay at their feet the fruit of his toils, and to spend it on their own heart's lusts; but as soon as he is seen to be incapable of further labour through old age, they leave him to his gray hairs and misery, and turn to seize on other victims. [21] Ah! Critobulus, against these must we wage ceaseless war, for very freedom's sake, no less than if they were armed warriors endeavouring to make us their slaves. Nay, foemen in war, it must be granted, especially when of fair and noble type, have many times ere now proved ...
— The Economist • Xenophon
... said. "But for Heaven's sake don't touch it, don't take it out of my hand," he said again, nervously conscious that his own strength was ebbing at every moment, and that if the resolute, dominant figure before him had chosen to seize on the paper, nothing could have prevented ...
— The Arbiter - A Novel • Lady F. E. E. Bell
... discovery of all sorts of means of existing and sting the first who comes, so as to live at his expense. Finally, we have among us drones,[128] who have no sting and who, without giving themselves the least trouble, seize on our revenues as they flow past them and devour them. 'Tis this that grieves us most of all, to see men who have never served or held either lance or oar in defence of their country, enriching themselves at our expense ...
— The Eleven Comedies - Vol. I • Aristophanes et al
... pace with his losses. The vehemence with which he nourished his chimerical hopes blinded him to the artful policy of his confederates, who at his expense were keeping the Swedish hero employed, in order to overturn, without opposition, the liberties of Germany, and then to seize on the exhausted North as an easy conquest. One circumstance which had not been calculated on — the magnanimity of Gustavus — overthrew this deceitful policy. An eight years' war in Poland, so far from ...
— The History of the Thirty Years' War • Friedrich Schiller, Translated by Rev. A. J. W. Morrison, M.A.
... pray, the promis'd aid of heav'n. Pity my brother, say a kindly word; But I implore thee, spare him when thou speakest. Too easily his inner mind is torn By joy, or grief, or cruel memory. A feverish madness oft doth seize on him, Yielding his spirit, beautiful and free, ...
— Iphigenia in Tauris • Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
... sometimes they must be set flying to bring in more. Men leave their riches either to their kindred, or to the public; and moderate portions prosper best in both. A great estate left to an heir, is as a lure to all the birds of prey round about to seize on him, if he be not the better established in years and judgment. Likewise glorious gifts and foundations are like sacrifices without salt; and but the painted sepulchers of alms, which soon will putrefy and corrupt inwardly. Therefore measure not thine advancements by quantity, but frame them by measure: ...
— The Best of the World's Classics, Restricted to prose. Volume III (of X) - Great Britain and Ireland I • Francis W. Halsey
... is effected is a mere change of place, the essence of the thing remaining unaltered. This, however, was a mistake. To celebrate the vintage festival among one's native hills, and to celebrate it at Jerusalem, were two very different things; it was not a matter of indifference whether one could seize on the spot any occasion that casually offered itself for a sacrificial meal, or whether it was necessary that one should first enter upon a journey. And it was not the same thing to appear by oneself at home before Jehovah and to lose ...
— Prolegomena to the History of Israel • Julius Wellhausen
... that Corpulent Persons in some Diseases, that seize on them, do fall away to wonder, not only in the Wast, but in the Arms, Legs, and Thighs; and the very Calves of the Legs have been observed so flaccid and loose, that one might wrap the skin about the bones. The reason whereof, according to the opinion ...
— Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society - Vol 1 - 1666 • Various
... the fallacious appearance of strength. It has become unusually sensitive to unusual stimuli and also, it is possible,—perhaps as a result of those conditions,—more liable to atavistic manifestations. An organism in this state becomes peculiarly apt to seize on the automatic sources of energy generated by emotion. The parched sexual instinct greedily drinks up and absorbs the force it obtains by applying abnormal stimuli to its emotional apparatus. It ...
— Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 3 (of 6) • Havelock Ellis
... friend in the condition to which he had been brought by the Camusots—mistresses and servants. He knew Pons so well; he feared lest some cruel, sad thought should seize on him at his conductor's desk, and undo all the good done by his ...
— Poor Relations • Honore de Balzac
... of my Free Lances, and he refused them—I will lead them to Hull, seize on shipping, and embark for Flanders; thanks to the bustling times, a man of action will always find employment. And thou, Waldemar, wilt thou take lance and shield, and lay down thy policies, and wend along with me, and share the fate which ...
— Ivanhoe - A Romance • Walter Scott
... I don't see what there is about you, Cynthia;" studying her intently. "You are pretty, but there are some handsome girls in Salem. And they run after Ed Saltonstall as if there was no other man in town. And my advice to you is to seize on him, for I think your chance best. He's an awful flirt, though. I ...
— A Little Girl in Old Salem • Amanda Minnie Douglas
... sufficient to satisfy the voracious cravings of this financial system. Cambon wanted to unite everything, that he might sell everything. Thus he forced the union of Savoy. In the war with Holland, he saw nothing but gold to seize on, and assignats to sell at par.[11] "Do not let us dissemble," said he one day to the Committee of General Defence, in presence even of the patriot deputies of Holland, "you have no ecclesiastical goods to offer us for our indemnity. IT IS A REVOLUTION IN THEIR COUNTERS AND IRON CHESTS[12] ...
— The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. V. (of 12) • Edmund Burke
... an exceptional mathematical brain really to refute those fallacies, whereas the one we are dealing with is due simply to the difficulty experienced by most of us in carrying in our heads two facts at the same time. It is so much easier to seize on one fact and forget the other. Thus we realize that when Germany has conquered Alsace-Lorraine she has "captured" a province worth, "cash value," in my critic's phrase, sixty-six millions sterling. What we overlook is that Germany has also captured ...
— Peace Theories and the Balkan War • Norman Angell
... end they determined to seize on and control all the resources of the Federal Government, and to spread their institutions through new States and Territories until the balance of power should fall into their hands and they should be able to force slavery into ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 11, No. 63, January, 1863 - A Magazine Of Literature, Art, And Politics • Various
... about the payment. The laws of nations provide a remedy for such occasions. It is a well-settled principle of the international code that where one nation owes another a liquidated debt which it refuses or neglects to pay the aggrieved party may seize on the property belonging to the other, its citizens or subjects, sufficient to pay the debt without giving just cause of war. This remedy has been repeatedly resorted to, and recently by France herself toward Portugal, ...
— Complete State of the Union Addresses from 1790 to the Present • Various
... it seize on others. One day a young girl rose up in the hall. A stenographer on one of the docks, she was neatly, rather sprucely dressed, but her face was white and scared. She had never made a speech before. She was speaking now as though impelled ...
— The Harbor • Ernest Poole
... Barton was notorious. This opposition at the moment had become peculiarly vindictive and embarrassing. The fall of Fort Donelson and the loss of Nashville had precipitated a storm of hostile criticism. The fierce junta of malcontents in the Confederate Congress were eager to seize on any excuse to attack the President. They were now demanding the removal of Albert Sidney Johnston from his command. Davis knew that his commanding general in Tennessee was the greatest soldier of his time—and that all he needed was a single ...
— The Victim - A romance of the Real Jefferson Davis • Thomas Dixon
... night you went secretly, in a manner worthy of the act, to seize on the printing presses of the Journal des Debats, the Paris Journal, and the Constitutionnel, were you aware of what you were doing? You imagined, perhaps, this act would have no other result than that of suppressing violently a private ...
— Paris under the Commune • John Leighton
... by all means," said Rodolphe, starting off to seize on the chairs, which belonged to ...
— Bohemians of the Latin Quarter • Henry Murger
... was easily settled by my wounded men receiving orders to keep their prisoners till claimed, when, should any people come forward, they would be punished, otherwise their loss in human stock would be enough. The Wanguana had done quite right to seize on the highway, else they would have starved; such was the old law, and such is the present one. It was no use our applying for a change of system. At this stage of the business, the birds he was watching having appeared, ...
— The Discovery of the Source of the Nile • John Hanning Speke
... democratic power against the tyranny of princes. Later still, you will see how that power has attained its end, and passed beyond it. You will see it, having chained and conquered princes, league itself with them, in order to oppress the people, and seize on temporal power. Schism, then, raises up against it the standard of revolt, and preaches the bold and legitimate principle of liberty of conscience: but, also, you will see how this liberty of conscience brings religious anarchy in its ...
— The Paris Sketch Book Of Mr. M. A. Titmarsh • William Makepeace Thackeray
... man of one district or country has a debt owing to him from the inhabitant of a neighbouring country, of which he cannot recover payment, an usual resource is to seize on one or more of his children and carry them off; which they call andak. The daughter of a Rejang dupati was carried off in this manner by the Labun people. Not hearing for some time from her father, she sent him cuttings of her hair and nails, by which she intimated a resolution ...
— The History of Sumatra - Containing An Account Of The Government, Laws, Customs And - Manners Of The Native Inhabitants • William Marsden
... at last!" cried Abiram, who was usually among the first to seize on any circumstance which promised relief ...
— The Prairie • J. Fenimore Cooper
... misfortune, led an army against the Nawab and the traitors, and was accompanied by his brother Budha Sen. Having obtained a victory, he restored his uncle; but, while they were still in the midst of their joy, Kalu Upadhyaya, a relation of the treacherous Brahman, contrived to seize on both the uncle and nephews, and again delivered them to the Nawab, who had made the most liberal promises. It was on this occasion that the Moslems reduced the greater part of the low country of Morang, and, in fact, they settled ...
— An Account of The Kingdom of Nepal • Fancis Buchanan Hamilton
... as we see around us in actual life, not silhouettes constructed to the old priestly scale such as the monuments show us—real living men dwelt by the old Nile-stream; and the poet who would represent them must courageously seize on types out of the daily life of modern men that surround him, without fear of deviating too far from reality, and, placing them in their own long past time, color them only and clothe them to ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers
... tradition of Red Pierre did not begin with his ride from the school of Father Victor to Morgantown, distant many days of difficult and dangerous travel. Neither did tradition seize on the gunfight that crippled Hurley and "put out" wizard Diaz. These things were unquestionably known to many, but they did not strike the popular imagination. What set men first on fire was the way Pierre le Rouge buried his father "at the point of ...
— Riders of the Silences • Max Brand
... letter came from my sweet Gaveston: What need'st thou, love, thus to excuse thyself? I know thou couldst not come and visit me. [Reads. I will not long be from thee, though I die;— This argues the entire love of my lord;— [Reads. When I forsake thee, death seize on my heart!— But stay thee here where Gaveston shall sleep. [Puts the letter into her bosom. Now to the letter of my lord the king: He wills me to repair unto the court, And meet my Gaveston: why do I ...
— Edward II. - Marlowe's Plays • Christopher Marlowe
... the rule that the most ancient fossils differ most from existing forms. We must not, however, assume that divergence of character is a necessary contingency; it depends solely on the descendants from a species being thus enabled to seize on many and different places in the economy of nature. Therefore it is quite possible, as we have seen in the case of some Silurian forms, that a species might go on being slightly modified in relation to its slightly altered conditions ...
— On the Origin of Species - 6th Edition • Charles Darwin
... her lost Prize bestows The glitt'ring Eminence exempt from Foes; See when the Vulgar 'scap'd, despis'd or aw'd, Rebellion's vengeful Talons seize on Laud. From meaner Minds, tho' smaller Fines content The plunder'd Palace or sequester'd Rent; Mark'd out by dangerous Parts he meets the Shock, And fatal Learning leads him to the Block: Around his Tomb let Art and Genius weep, But hear his ...
— The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749) and Two Rambler papers (1750) • Samuel Johnson
... have considered the most probable of all—he might be married. Not deliberately, but suddenly; drawn into it by some of those impelling trains of circumstance which are the cause of so many marriages, especially with men; or, impelled by one of those violent passions which occasionally seize on an exceedingly good man, fascinating him against his conscience, reason, and will, until he wakes up to find himself fettered and ruined for life. Such things do happen, strangely, pitifully often. The like might have happened to ...
— Mistress and Maid • Dinah Craik (aka: Miss Mulock)
... searcher he has received and gained more eager passions than the female; and, very differently from you, I look at this as one great difficulty in believing that the males select the more attractive females; as far as I can discover they are always ready to seize on any female, and sometimes on many females. Nothing would please me more than to find evidence of males selecting the more attractive females [? in pigeons[69]]: I have for months been trying to persuade myself of this. There is the case of man in ...
— Alfred Russel Wallace: Letters and Reminiscences, Vol. 1 (of 2) • James Marchant
... respected by their enemies. Observe any meetings of people, and you will always find their eagerness and impetuosity rise or fall in proportion to their numbers: when the numbers are very great, all sense and reason seem to subside, and one sudden frenzy to seize on all, even the ...
— The PG Edition of Chesterfield's Letters to His Son • The Earl of Chesterfield
... sentiments and intentions of the citizens present." Now, "the plan of a Constitution is offered to the acceptance of the sovereign. This fortunate circumstance should bring people to one mind, and, with hope thus renewed, let us at once seize on the means of salvation thus presented to us."—Moniteur, XVII., 102. (Speech of ...
— The Origins of Contemporary France, Volume 4 (of 6) - The French Revolution, Volume 3 (of 3) • Hippolyte A. Taine
... Angus; but it would seem that the facts of this strange occurrence in a civilised country, and not very far back, had never reached him. Even the histories of Forfarshire are silent; and the pictures of Scotland for tourists, which generally seize on any romantic trait connected with a locality or an old ruin, have also overlooked them. Yet the principal personage in the drama was one whose name was for years in the mouths of the people, not only for peculiarities of character, but retribution of fate; and this local fame has died away ...
— Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland, Vol. XXIII. • Various
... 11th an envoy from M. de la Tremouille offered the Parliament, in his master's name, 8,000 foot and 2,000 horse, who were in a condition to march in two days, provided the House would permit his master to seize on all the public money at Poitiers, Niort, and other places whereof he was already master. The Parliament thanked him, passed a decree with full powers accordingly, and desired him to hasten his levies with ...
— Marguerite de Navarre - Memoirs of Marguerite de Valois Queen of Navarre • Marguerite de Navarre
... gold-beater's skin, or any other transparent substance, in which is placed a dark lantern. The light of this lantern is extinguished or concealed by pulling a string, or touching a spring, at the moment when any one wishes to seize on the figure, which, by ...
— Paris As It Was and As It Is • Francis W. Blagdon
... as a prey. He had calculated that the struggle would last a great part of the night, and that conquered or conquering, the adventurers would not dare, during the following day, to leave their intrenchments. He would therefore have long hours before him in which to seize on some of the treasures of the Golden Valley, with which he would afterwards return to the protection of his companions, and when they all reached the place he could still claim his share as soldier and as guide. Pretexts would not ...
— Wood Rangers - The Trappers of Sonora • Mayne Reid
... buried merit raise the tardy bust. If dreams yet flatter, once again attend, Hear Lydiat's life, and Galileo's end[r]. Nor deem, when learning her last prize bestows, The glitt'ring eminence exempt from woes; See, when the vulgar scape[s], despis'd or aw'd, Rebellion's vengeful talons seize on Laud. From meaner minds though smaller fines content, The plunder'd palace, or sequester'd rent; Mark'd out by dang'rous parts, he meets the shock, And fatal learning leads him to the block: Around his tomb let art and genius weep, But hear his death, ye blockheads, hear ...
— Dr. Johnson's Works: Life, Poems, and Tales, Volume 1 - The Works Of Samuel Johnson, Ll.D., In Nine Volumes • Samuel Johnson
... and the Bonapartists of course deny that Napoleon wished to become Director, or to seize on power at this time; see Lucien, tome 1. p. 154. Thiers (vol. v. p. 257) takes the same view. Lanfrey (tome i. p. 363) believes Napoleon was at last compelled by the Directory to start and he credits the story told by Desaix to Mathieu Dumas, or rather to the wife of that officer, that ...
— Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte, Complete • Louis Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne
... the day draws on. Languor and uneasiness seize on every one;—even the denizens of the forest betray it by their motions. By this time every voice of bird or mammal is hushed. Only in the trees is heard at intervals the whir of the cicada. The leaves, so soft and fresh in the early morn, now become lax and drooping. The flowers shut their petals. ...
— The Western World - Picturesque Sketches of Nature and Natural History in North - and South America • W.H.G. Kingston
... Enclosing Welcombe fields, or idling hours In common talk with people like the Combes. All this to get a heartiness, a hold On earth again, lest Heaven Hercules, Finding me strayed to mid-air, kicking heels Above the mountain tops, seize on my scruff And bear me ...
— Toward the Gulf • Edgar Lee Masters
... breast and cried in rage: "Hither, ye powers of darkness! Hither, help! Seize on the caitiff who defies my will! Guard ye the ways, and ward the passage there! Ah, Parsifal, if thou shouldst fly from hence And learn the ways through all the weary world, The one Way that thou seekest to the King— That thou shalt never find! So have I sworn! So do ...
— Parsifal - A Drama by Wagner • Retold by Oliver Huckel
... should I sing but thee, The Maker of my tongue? Lo! other lords would seize on me, But I to thee belong. As waters haste unto their sea, And earth unto its earth, So let my soul return to thee, From whom it ...
— The Vicar's Daughter • George MacDonald
... boldness, having been frequently imprisoned, he was not inferior, nor was he at times less an adventurer. His "Mercurius Aulicus" was devoted to the court, then at Oxford. But he was the fertile parent of numerous political pamphlets, which appear to abound in banter, wit, and satire. Prompt to seize on every temporary circumstance, he had equal facility in execution. His "Paul's Church-yard" is a bantering pamphlet, containing fictitious titles of books and acts of parliament, reflecting on the mad reformers of those times. One of his poems is entitled "The Jolt," ...
— Curiosities of Literature, Vol. 1 (of 3) • Isaac D'Israeli
... Him in everything in those days. When the little weary lamb we drive home drags its feet, we seize on it, and carry it with its head against our face. His little lamb! We feel ...
— The Story of an African Farm • (AKA Ralph Iron) Olive Schreiner
... go mad, and small ones only dull; Distracting cares vex not the empty skull: They seize on heads that think, and hearts that feel, As flies attack the—better ...
— The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb IV - Poems and Plays • Charles and Mary Lamb
... anguish of that birth Seize on the world; and may all shelters fail, Till we behold new Heaven and new Earth Through the rent Temple-vail! When the high-tides that threaten near and far To sweep away our guilt before the sky,— Flooding the waste of this dishonored ...
— The Singing Man • Josephine Preston Peabody
... an appalling life of purification. In blow after blow she lost her mother, her husband, her children; she went through such violent temptations to impurity that she was obliged to seize on lighted coals and cauterize the plague of ...
— En Route • J.-K. (Joris-Karl) Huysmans
... where he crossed the Tripsche; but, in spite of the celerity of his march, his rear-guard was attacked, and lost four hundred men. The pursuit was continued that an attempt might be made, favored by the fears and disorder of the foe, to pass the bottom of Plauen with him and seize on this important post. But no diligence could accomplish this; the troops were two hours too late; for, on arriving at Ukersdorf, another corps of the enemy was discovered, that had already taken post at the Windberg, the right of which extended to the Trompeter ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, v. 13 • Various
... families, no expectation of advantage or return to be got out of them. I should rather say that mothers would be likely to be hostile and bear malice to their babes, owing to the great danger and pains of travail. And women say the lines, "When the sharp pangs of travail seize on the pregnant woman, then come to her aid the Ilithyiae, who help women in hard childbirth, those daughters of Hera, goddesses of travail,"[55] were not written by Homer, but by some Homerid who had been a mother, or was even then in the throes of travail, ...
— Plutarch's Morals • Plutarch
... my despatches from the public, as well as from His Majesty, the consequence of which was that the prejudicial representations of what were termed my arbitrary acts had full effect. It was represented that I, a foreigner, had dared, unauthorised, and on false pretences, to seize on the person of a gentleman occupying the highest position in one of the most important provinces, and had sent him to Rio de Janeiro as a prisoner, whilst it was I who deserved to be brought to condign punishment for the outrage; and had I at the moment been within ...
— Narrative of Services in the Liberation of Chili, Peru and Brazil, - from Spanish and Portuguese Domination, Volume 2 • Thomas Cochrane, Tenth Earl of Dundonald
... fickle, opportunity seldom returns; but I think you will agree with me that if the House of Lords, not content with its recent exploits with the legislative veto, were to seize on the new power which its backers claim for it over finance—if, not content with the extreme assertions of its own privileges, it were to invade the most ancient privileges of the House of Commons—if, as an act of class warfare, ...
— Liberalism and the Social Problem • Winston Spencer Churchill
... months without showing his face to his parent, till at last his mother said to his father, "O my lord, shall we lose our boy as well as the girl? If matters continue long in this way he will flee from us." "And what to do?" asked he; and she answered, "Do thou watch this night; and, when he cometh, seize on him and frighten him: I will rescue him from thee and do thou make peace with him and give him the damsel to wife, for she loveth him as he loveth her. And I will pay thee her price." So the Minister say up that night and, when his son came, he seized ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 2 • Richard F. Burton
... Lord, and having so often proved His faithfulness? Is not this strange? No; it is common-the strongest Christians are liable to err and get out of the way, and then to be beset with very great and distressing doubts-(Mason). Despair, like a tremendous giant, will at last seize on the souls of all unbelievers; and when Christians conclude, from some misconduct, that they belong to that company, they are exposed to be taken captive by him. They do not, indeed, fall and perish with Vain-confidence; but for ...
— The Works of John Bunyan • John Bunyan
... Poplar sleepe, that was the Satirs name, who had bin long a king within these woods, Since thou my sacred Groue, gan to prophane: a sleepe seize on thee, still as stigian floods, by Stix I vow the partiall destenies, Did they conspire, shold nere vnclaspe thin eies, hauing thus said, the Satire vanisht so, as mens prospect that from ...
— Seven Minor Epics of the English Renaissance (1596-1624) • Dunstan Gale
... opportunity to bag such game, Lord Cornwallis was not the man to let slip. Accordingly, on Sunday, the 3d of June, he dispatched a swift expedition under Tarleton, to surprise and capture the members of the legislature, "to seize on the person of the governor," and "to spread on his route devastation and terror."[323] In this entire scheme, doubtless, Tarleton would have succeeded, had it not been that as he and his troopers, on that fair Sabbath day, were ...
— Patrick Henry • Moses Coit Tyler
... nearly rendered me an invalid. Men with hearts so base ought, indeed, to become the scavengers of society, that, terrified by their example, succeeding judges may not rack the heart of an honest man, seize on the possessions of the orphan and the widow, and expel virtue ...
— The Life and Adventures of Baron Trenck - Vol. 2 (of 2) • Baron Trenck
... weakness, and his pains; These first induce him the vile trash to try, Then lend his name, that other men may buy: This love of life, which in our nature rules, To vile imposture makes us dupes and tools; Then pain compels th' impatient soul to seize On promised hopes of instantaneous ease; And weakness too with every wish complies, Worn out and won by importunities. Troubled with something in your bile or blood, You think your doctor does you little good; And grown impatient, you require in haste The nervous cordial, nor dislike the taste; It comforts, ...
— The Borough • George Crabbe
... and full strength, our troops uncorrupted, our revenues in the legal hands, our arsenals filled and possessed by government,—and not wait till the conspirators met to commemorate the 14th of July shall seize on the Tower of London and the magazines it contains, murder the governor, and the mayor of London, seize upon the king's person, drive out the House of Lords, occupy your gallery, and thence, as from an high tribunal, ...
— The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. VII. (of 12) • Edmund Burke
... nourish himself with the flesh of other animals. To search for this fleeing prey developed in him the art of hunting and fishing. His intelligence, still feeble, was entirely concentrated on this one point: to seize on an animal and to feed on it, although neither his nails nor his teeth nor his muscles make it natural to him. To hunt, to fish, to defend his territory against the wild beasts who attacked it and himself, to drive back tribes of his fellows who would diminish ...
— The Industries of Animals • Frederic Houssay
... another, had been free to carry on a happy lawless existence, cutting throats, selling slaves, committing acts of piracy, and indulging in every vile and sensuous custom, was one not to be lost. Rajah Gantang wanted no peace, or order, or prosperity in the land where he could seize on the wretched people, and make them pay him in gold, tin, rice, poultry, fruit, or any precious commodity, for the right to pass down the river, which he, and a few more of his stamp, looked upon as theirs by right; so that his three followers were certain to receive praise and reward for ...
— Middy and Ensign • G. Manville Fenn
... cousin would have nothing to do with her. You have genius; try to avenge yourself. The world looks down upon you; look down in your turn upon the world. Take refuge in some garret, write your masterpieces, seize on power of any kind, and you will see the world at your feet. Then you can give back the bruises which you have received, and in the very place where they were given. Mme. de Bargeton will be the more distant now because she has been friendly. That ...
— A Distinguished Provincial at Paris • Honore de Balzac
... look in his eyes when he had first paused before her in the library. Everything that had followed seemed to have grown out of that look: his way of speaking to her, his quickness in catching her meaning, his evident eagerness to prolong their excursions and to seize on every chance ...
— Summer • Edith Wharton
... imbued with a notion the judge has more to answer for than themselves. Opinions of this nature are very common among them, and prevent the discipline to which they are submitted having its proper effect. Minds in the state of theirs seize on any supposed injury to brood over and stifle their own reproaches. Of this dernier ressort they would be deprived, if equal sentences were passed on all for like offences. They are now all ill-used men, by comparison with others who have been more fortunate. The present system holds ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction - Vol. 19, Issue 551, June 9, 1832 • Various
... ill-nourished, and unhealthy people, is an example. Dolichocephalism and a flattening of the cranial arch, with corresponding loss of capacity in the skull—types that we see everywhere among the depraved and vicious—are other examples of this tendency of atavism to seize on weakened and unhealthy subjects. Effemination finds more victims among the wealthy and the educated than among the poor and uneducated. This phenomenon is a psychic rather than a physical hermaphroditism, and is directly traceable to the enervation produced by the habits ...
— Religion and Lust - or, The Psychical Correlation of Religious Emotion and Sexual Desire • James Weir
... Wolf. And as he was sitting on his Wolf-steed, the Wolf said to him: "You have become very heavy. We cannot leap back over the wall, but shall strike against it and wake everyone up. Nevertheless you shall kill them; and when they are all slain, be sure to seize on a white horse. I will then help you to fight; and as soon as we reach our tent, take your own steed, and I will mount the white horse. And when we have slain all the warriors, the Princess herself will come to meet you and ...
— The Russian Garland - being Russian Falk Tales • Various
... life; I gave my knightly word, and I will keep it. Yet, as I know the malice of thy thoughts, I'll have thee carried hence, and safely penn'd, Where neither sun nor moon shall reach thine eyes. Thus from thy arrows I shall be secure. Seize on him, guards, and ...
— Wilhelm Tell - Title: William Tell • Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller
... thrills to that great watchword "Act," To leave no record written on the sand For the first wave to crumble into naught, But to materialize on thought—to raise A standard glorious with the sign of heaven, And set it waving o'er oblivion; To seize on spirit like a willow rod, And bend and fashion it to perfect use, Curbing its wayward fancies and desires, Until it sway true to the Poet's creed; To move Earth's multitudes with nervous power, And burning eloquence, as leaves ...
— Eidolon - The Course of a Soul and Other Poems • Walter R. Cassels
... waste on love my time, Or vent my reveries in rhyme, Without the aid of Reason; For Sense and Reason (critics know it) Have quitted every amorous Poet, Nor left a thought to seize on. ...
— Byron's Poetical Works, Vol. 1 • Byron
... limited powers have, it is true, enabled me now and then to seize on some conspicuous group of unappropriated facts, and to search out some generalization which might bring them under the reign of known law; but they are not suited to that more scientific and more laborious process of elaborate induction, which in Mr. ...
— Contributions to the Theory of Natural Selection - A Series of Essays • Alfred Russel Wallace
... place, and no one appreciates them better than faithfully yours, for an hour or so. But when you get 'em for breakfast and lunch and dinner. And they even insist upon trifling with the holies of your smoking times, trying to light up cigarettes themselves, and jabbering all the time, why then you seize on a civil offer to risk your neck in a racing car as a drowning man would catch at a torpedo if ...
— In the Mist of the Mountains • Ethel Turner
... dear friend, it behoved us to win your assent, in order to seize on the Mortimer, sith you are Keeper of the Castle, and have the ...
— In Convent Walls - The Story of the Despensers • Emily Sarah Holt
... in light boats, now constructing for that purpose, to be at Natchez between the fifth and fifteenth of December, there to meet Wilkinson, there to determine whether it will be expedient in the first instance to seize on, or pass by, Baton Rouge. The people of the country to which we are going are prepared to receive us; their agents, now with Burr, say that if we will protect their religion, and will not subject them to a foreign power, then in three weeks all will be settled. ...
— Lewis Rand • Mary Johnston
... whom Louisa had so haughtily commanded to seize on Gauffridi, were, like all other of the Franciscan orders, enemies of the Dominicans. They were jealous of the prominence gained for these latter by their demoniac friend. Their wandering life, moreover, by throwing them into continual contact with the women, ...
— La Sorciere: The Witch of the Middle Ages • Jules Michelet
... turbulent French noblesse, or among the traders of the towns who were stirred to new dreams of constitutional freedom. Theories of liberty or of resistance to the crown were as abhorrent to Elizabeth as to the Guises, but again necessity swept her into the current of Calvinism. She was forced to seize on the religious disaffection of France as a check on the dreams of aggression which Francis and Mary had shown in assuming the style of English Sovereigns. The English ambassador, Throckmorton, fed the alarms of the Huguenots and ...
— History of the English People - Volume 4 (of 8) • John Richard Green
... but to ease his frame Of fleshly anguish, and the coward wretch, Whose ulcered soul can know no human help Shrink from the best Physician's certain aid? Oh it were better far to lay me down Here on this cold damp earth, till some wild beast Seize on his ...
— Poems • Robert Southey
... housing ought to take precedence of the urban, not because it is more intrinsically necessary, but because if the moment of demobilisation is let slip for want of rural cottages, we shall lose our very life blood, our future safety, perhaps our existence as a nation. We must seize on this one precious chance of restoring the land and guaranteeing our future. The towns can wait a little for their housing, the country cannot. It is a sort of test question for our leaders in every Party. Surely they will ...
— Another Sheaf • John Galsworthy
... succeeded Tiberius, belonged to the race of madmen. He put to death some of the most eminent Romans, in order to seize on their estates. He repudiated his wife; he expressed the wish that Rome had but one neck, that it could be annihilated by a blow; he used to invite his favorite horse to supper, setting before him gilded corn and wine in golden goblets; he wasted immense sums in useless works; ...
— The Old Roman World • John Lord
... who was called Narsymgua,[504] who was in some manner akin to him, seeing his mode of life, and knowing how ill it was for the kingdom that he should live and reign, though all was not yet lost, determined to attack him and seize on his lands; which scheme he ...
— A Forgotten Empire: Vijayanagar; A Contribution to the History of India • Robert Sewell
... Henry's reign, which pervaded all classes, is the appointment of Gascoyne to the high station of Chief Justice immediately upon his ascending the throne. But we have already seen that, however gladly an eulogist would seize on such an exalted instance of magnanimity and noble generosity, the truth of history forbids our even admitting its probability in this place. Henry certainly did not re-appoint Gascoyne. But, whilst we cannot admit the tradition which would mark the true character of Henry's ...
— Henry of Monmouth, Volume 2 - Memoirs of Henry the Fifth • J. Endell Tyler
... poisoned, but will take such a small portion from each that he will think it will not be detected. If he is innocent, and is really ignorant which dish is poisoned, he will not touch any of them, until driven to desperation by hunger. Then he will seize on one or more, and devour them to the end, running the chance of death by poison, rather than endure the ...
— With Clive in India - Or, The Beginnings of an Empire • G. A. Henty
... if he looks beyond this horizon," protested Io. "Life is sure to reach out in one form or another and seize on ...
— Success - A Novel • Samuel Hopkins Adams
... Pityocamptes were two famous robbers, who used to seize on travellers and commit the most horrid cruelties upon them. They were slain by Theseus. See ...
— Trips to the Moon • Lucian
... Louis Blanc, "it is we the leaders, who are to be blamed. We rouse them before we are ready for them—before we have prepared them or anything else for a result; and then it is not strange that they only rush bravely on to death and defeat. We seize on the occasion of a funeral for an outbreak without organization, and the cuirassiers of the military escort trample our ranks beneath their horses' hoofs. But for unusual efforts, such would have been the case at the funeral of Dulong, ...
— Edmond Dantes • Edmund Flagg
... Was made to seize on vice, and with a gripe Squeeze out the humor of such spongy souls As ...
— Halleck's New English Literature • Reuben P. Halleck
... worn-out beast of burden that must die at such a time; he knows the death date of everything that springs from earth except himself. In his blind hope he grasps at the worst of straws. No new universal panacea comes out that he does not seize on it, and that he is not sure, for a little while is doing him good. At last he weakens in the struggle and is taken to the rear. The procession of Life moves on; he never joins it again. If all this had happened to only one man, the World would ...
— Observations of a Retired Veteran • Henry C. Tinsley
... mentioning, that twelve sail of vessels belonging to the United States of America, with their cargoes on board, were in the road of Malaga, unable to proceed on their respective voyages, because three French privateers were waiting to seize on them the moment they got from under the guns of that port, and there was no doubt that the French consul would adjudge them to be good prizes, as he had recently adjudged several American vessels and cargoes. The consul added, that ...
— The Life of the Right Honourable Horatio Lord Viscount Nelson, Vol. I (of 2) • James Harrison
... but hatred of Woodrow Wilson led partisan Republicans, without careful investigation of the actual situation, to seize on the Shantung affair as an opportunity to embarrass the President. The ignorances and prejudices of many of our people on the subject of China played into the hands of those Republicans, whose main object was to injure the President and defeat the Treaty. Very few sought to understand ...
— Woodrow Wilson as I Know Him • Joseph P. Tumulty
... resistance. Soon I hope that the fire now smouldering in the breast of every true Scotsman will burst into flame, and that Scotland will make a great effort for freedom; but were you to fall now, despair would seize on all and all hope of a general rising ...
— In Freedom's Cause • G. A. Henty
... They first determined to poison the captain, supercargo, and mates, but owing to some failure in their calculations, this plan was abandoned. When off the Western Islands, it was determined, after some discussion to seize on the officers while they were taking an observation of the sun at meridian, and, following the example of the mutineers of the Bounty, compel them to embark in the long-boat, and run their chance of reaching ...
— Jack in the Forecastle • John Sherburne Sleeper
... pencil and paper slip beside you, not only to jot down arguments and illustrations, but to seize on the inspirations that may come. The thoughts we get from books are not at all as valuable as the train of natural ideas these books excite. When the mind is once set going there is no knowing what rich ore it may strike. When the brain throbs in labour with thought ...
— The Young Priest's Keepsake • Michael Phelan
... the homes of their birth into alien Greek or Moslem lands, wounded the Czar's monarchical sentiments. He would none of it; nor did he relish the prospect of seeing the French in the Morea, whence they could complete the disorder of Turkey and seize on Constantinople. He saw whither Napoleon was leading him. He drew back abruptly, and even notified to our ambassador, Admiral Warren, that England had ...
— The Life of Napoleon I (Volumes, 1 and 2) • John Holland Rose
... Instructions, that hee was coming along with mee; that being weary, wee stay'd behind; that they came a litle before for some brandy which they offerr'd to carry. The Englishmen would needs doe the office, & my 2 men stay'd in the fort. Hee that was hostage had orders to seize on the Court of Gard Dore, one of them newly come to seize the Dore of the House, & the 3 was to goe in & out, that in case the dessigne was discover'd hee might stopp the passage of the Dore with Blocks of wood, to hinder it from being shutt & to give me freedom to enter unto their ...
— Voyages of Peter Esprit Radisson • Peter Esprit Radisson
... could not possibly understand; and as they could not acquit themselves of those exercises, which were too sublime for them, he failed not to punish them severely. From thence arose murmurs and combinations, and even despair began to seize on those young ill-treated Indians; and from thence also it came to pass, that many of them, not able to endure so violent a government, leapt over the walls by night, and fled from out the college. Gomez, who could not ...
— The Works of John Dryden, Volume XVI. (of 18) - The Life of St. Francis Xavier • John Dryden
... nodding to Tom, was to seize on a pewter and resort to the cask in the corner, from whence he drew a pint or so of the contents, having, as he said, "'a whoreson longing for that poor creature, small beer.' We were playing Van-John in Blake's rooms till ...
— Tom Brown at Oxford • Thomas Hughes
... I had respect only to two articles in said Results." He apologizes for the speech, but at the same time defends his criticism of the two articles as arbitrary measures. He also confesses saying that "General Court had no Business to direct Committees to seize on Estates before they had been Confiscated in a course of Law," and "that their Constituents never elected or sent them for that Purpose," but this sentiment he claimed that he had subsequently retracted as rash and improper to be spoken. These objectionable expressions of opinion, he ...
— The Bay State Monthly, Volume I. No. VI. June, 1884 - A Massachusetts Magazine • Various
... disregarded adviser shall then laugh [at you]: as he, who in a passion pushed his refractory ass over the precipice. For who would save [an ass] against his will? This too awaits you, that faltering dotage shall seize on you, to teach boys their rudiments in the skirts of the city. But when the abating warmth of the sun shall attract more ears, you shall tell them, that I was the son of a freedman, and extended my wings beyond my nest; so that, as much as you take away ...
— The Works of Horace • Horace
... lightning when he wants to fix nitrogen. The air contains the oxygen and nitrogen which it is desired to combine to form nitrates but the atoms are paired, like to like. Passing an electric spark through the air breaks up some of these pairs and in the confusion of the shock the lonely atoms seize on their nearest neighbor and so may get partners of the other sort. I have seen this same thing happen in a square dance where somebody made a blunder. It is easy to understand the reaction if we represent the atoms of oxygen and nitrogen by the ...
— Creative Chemistry - Descriptive of Recent Achievements in the Chemical Industries • Edwin E. Slosson
... his arms uplifted, the figure of Basil the blacksmith, As, on a stormy sea, a spar is tossed by the billows. Flushed was his face and distorted with passion; and wildly he shouted,— "Down with the tyrants of England! we never have sworn them allegiance! Death to these foreign soldiers, who seize on our homes and our harvests!" More he fain would have said, but the merciless hand of a soldier Smote him upon the mouth, and dragged ...
— Elson Grammer School Literature, Book Four. • William H. Elson and Christine Keck
... literature, except the purely lyrical or the purely philosophic, are bastard in nature, facile of execution, and feeble in result. It is one thing to write about the inn at Burford, or to describe scenery with the word-painters; it is quite another to seize on the heart of the suggestion and make a country famous with a legend. It is one thing to remark and to dissect, with the most cutting logic, the complications of life, and of the human spirit; it is quite another to give them body and blood in the story of Ajax or ...
— Memories and Portraits • Robert Louis Stevenson
... Miss Carpenter. "I am not Smilash," he said; "I am Sidney Trefusis. I have just had the pleasure of meeting Sir Charles for the first time, and we shall be the best friends possible when I have convinced him that it is hardly fair to seize on a path belonging to the people and compel them to walk a mile and a half round his estate instead of four hundred yards between ...
— An Unsocial Socialist • George Bernard Shaw
... the hound overtook them, and the place he overtook them was Lic Dhubhain, the flag-stone of Dubhan, on Slieve Luachra. He rose with a light leap over Diarmuid, as if he had a mind to seize on Grania, but Diarmuid took him by the two hind legs, and struck a blow of his carcase against the side of the rock was nearest, till he had let out his brains through the openings of his head and of his ears. And then Diarmuid took up his arms and his battle clothes, and put his ...
— Gods and Fighting Men • Lady I. A. Gregory
... might have plenty of conveyances. He then selected the choicest troops out of the whole army of the Romans and allies, to the amount of six thousand infantry and one thousand horse; and gave out that he intended to seize on the nearest town in Lucania and the Carthaginian garrison in it, and that they should all be in readiness to march. Setting out by night he turned off towards Picenum, and making his marches as long as ...
— History of Rome, Vol III • Titus Livius
... enchanter, "can you remain five years in so undignified a position? And you have enemies who will assuredly seize on your kingdom." ...
— The Fairy Book - The Best Popular Stories Selected and Rendered Anew • Dinah Maria Mulock (AKA Miss Mulock)
... slow assassination. The pious bard who sings the praises of Napoleon's executioners—Wellington and his coadjutors—and whose "History" was unworthy of the reputations of himself and his publishers, will have sunk into oblivion when the fiery soul of the "Sultan Kebir"[2] will seize on the imagination of generations yet unborn, and intoxicate them with the memory of the ...
— The Tragedy of St. Helena • Walter Runciman
... is there among you that is so athirst for blood? You save one man's life—after intercession and prayer you save one man's life—only to seize on that of another. And it is to me—it is to me, his daughter—that you come with congratulations! I am only a child; I am to be pleased: you speak of a sweetheart; but you do not tell me that you are about to murder my father! You give me my lover; ...
— Sunrise • William Black
... impetuous blood begotten of success tingling through all his veins, he had no thought that dire mishap could seize on him; that pain or malady or mortal weakness could pierce his armour, which youth and health had girt about him. From place to place he went, wherever there was need of some brave champion to espouse a weak one's cause. It mattered not who was arrayed against him, whether a tyrant king, a dragon ...
— The Little Colonel's Chum: Mary Ware • Annie Fellows Johnston
... have my Capons And Turkeys brought me in, with my green Geese, And Ducklings i'th' season: fine fat chickens, Or if you chance where an eye of tame Phesants Or Partridges are kept, see they be mine, Or straight I seize on all your priviledge, Places, revenues, offices, as forfeit, Call in your crutches, wooden legs, false bellyes, Forc'd eyes and teeth, with your dead arms; not leave you A durty clout to beg with o' your heads, Or an old rag with Butter, ...
— Beggars Bush - From the Works of Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher (Vol. 2 of 10) • Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher
... naturally look for a nearer approach to it in those who associate together to disseminate the doctrines which they believe to be its formative essentials, and there is nothing which the enemies of religion seize on so gladly as any inconsistency between the conduct and the professions of such persons. Though utterly indifferent to the wrongs of the slave, the scoffer would not fail to remark upon the hollowness of a Christianity ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 2, Number 9, July, 1858 • Various
... Lanier's symbol of the poet], and you give its poetry with many touches of marvel and mystery in vegetable life. Your third landscape takes for an instant the form and tragic state of King Lear; you thus make it seize on our sympathies as if it were a real person, and you then restore it to the inanimate, and contemplate its possible beneficence in ...
— Sidney Lanier • Edwin Mims |
