"Explain" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... herself that she was tired after last night, so as to explain the ache, but her little, pale face was looking pinched in the light from the sea when Laura Temple paused at the barrier to say a few words. The two girls spoke to each other through the little window; one smiling, the other rather grave and reluctant. They talked a moment or two of ...
— The Privet Hedge • J. E. Buckrose
... Hamilton he gave an account of this scene which differs little from the above, except in its greater vividness. "I believe my arrival was most welcome, not only to the Commander of the fleet, but also to every individual in it; and, when I came to explain to them the 'Nelson touch,' it was like an electric shock. Some shed tears, all approved—'It was new—it was singular—it was simple!' and, from admirals downwards, it was repeated—'It must succeed, if ever they will allow us to get at them! You are, my ...
— The Life of Nelson, Vol. II. (of 2) - The Embodiment of the Sea Power of Great Britain • A. T. (Alfred Thayer) Mahan
... would come too late, and that every week more harm was done by procrastination than could be repaired by months of labor and perhaps by torrents of blood. What the precise process was, through which Philip was to cure all disorders by his simple presence, the President did not explain. ...
— The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-1566 • John Lothrop Motley
... days believed that dreams were sent by the gods to warn them of coming events, and so Hecuba was very anxious to know what the burning brand meant. She told her husband all about it, and they finally decided to ask an oracle to explain the dream. ...
— The Story of the Greeks • H. A. Guerber
... rumor of the revolt of the American Colonies seems to have reached him. "The natural term of an hog's life" has more interest for him than that of an empire. Burgoyne may surrender and welcome; of what consequence is that compared with the fact that we can explain the odd tumbling of rooks in the air by their turning over "to scratch themselves with one claw"? All the couriers in Europe spurring rowel-deep make no stir in Mr. White's little Chartreuse;(1) but the arrival of the house-martin a day earlier or later than last year is a piece of news worth ...
— My Garden Acquaintance • James Russell Lowell
... sought to discover some bond or connection between the several men who had been found drowned, which would serve to explain their similar fate. But all my efforts in this direction were fruitless. There was no bond between them, and the matter remained for a ...
— Room Number 3 - and Other Detective Stories • Anna Katharine Green
... amiable and interesting Gabrielle, is more an affair of the heart than of the head, more the instinct of taste than the choice of reason. With me the heart is no longer touched, when the imagination ceases to be charmed. Explain to me this metaphysical phenomenon of my nature, and, for your reward, I will quiet your jealousy, by confessing without compunction what now weighs on my conscience terribly. I begin to feel that I can never love this English friend as I ought. She is too ...
— Tales And Novels, Vol. 8 • Maria Edgeworth
... he was quite of equal rank with the rest of the company, for his dress was inappropriate to the occasion (and he apparently was an invited, while I was an involuntary guest); and one or two of his gestures and actions were more like the tricks of an uneducated rustic than anything else. To explain what I mean: his boots had evidently seen much service, and had been re-topped, re-heeled, re-soled to the extent of cobbler's powers. Why should he have come in them if they were not his best—his only pair? And what can be ...
— Curious, if True - Strange Tales • Elizabeth Gaskell
... will return it to me. I know the lady slightly and will explain that I did not wish to part with it." Still his eyes were roving around the room, and his interest in the chair seemed somewhat perfunctory. "The other piece of furniture was a sort of escritoire, set on a square pedestal that had a carved base of lions' feet." His voice had grown eager now, although ...
— Mary Louise and the Liberty Girls • Edith Van Dyne (AKA L. Frank Baum)
... lunch-bell; but I shall be very happy to explain the matter more fully later in the day, Miss Woolridge, unless you prefer that Louis should do ...
— Across India - Or, Live Boys in the Far East • Oliver Optic
... sooner tell you myself. Father could not explain. To-morrow, or after in the convent I'll tell you. I'll tell you and the ...
— Celibates • George Moore
... market day first, and on that Stead would come and explain his preparations, and hear what the Doctor had arranged. And so it was. The time was to be three o'clock, the very dawn of the long summer day, the time when sleep is deepest. Dr. Eales and Mrs. Lightfoot would come out the night ...
— Under the Storm - Steadfast's Charge • Charlotte M. Yonge
... escape. He meant to explain to his royal brother how much mischief a child might do who was not kept at home performing squaw duties in her wigwam. And Powhatan's favorite daughter or not, Pocahontas should be kept waiting outside her father's lodge until he had related his important ...
— The Princess Pocahontas • Virginia Watson
... those who had not been able, or who had not been willing, to go to the aid of the expedition in Portugal. Our forces, everywhere dispersed, were everywhere insufficient. Marshal Soult, justly uneasy, demanded reinforcements from all sides. General Foy had returned to Paris, in order to explain to the emperor the retreat ...
— Worlds Best Histories - France Vol 7 • M. Guizot and Madame Guizot De Witt
... of reflectors was discarded, and Roland determined that the right thing to do was to take Margaret into his confidence and explain to her why he and she should not stand together and look down the course of the Artesian ray. She scolded him for not telling her all this before, and a permanent screen was erected around the spot on which the ray was intended ...
— The Great Stone of Sardis • Frank R. Stockton
... crystal globe might be which one could hold in one's hand, and my mind was as clear to her. There is a sense accompanying it almost of identity, as if the other nature was the exact and perfect complement of one's own; I can explain this best by an image. Think of a sphere, let us say, of alabaster, broken into two pieces by a blow, and one piece put away or mislaid. The first piece, let us suppose, stands in its accustomed place, and the owner often thinks in a trivial way of having it restored. One day, turning ...
— The Child of the Dawn • Arthur Christopher Benson
... the rule of his conduct, and of which I afterwards had, at my own expense, but too many convincing proofs. It is the interior doctrine Diderot has so frequently intimated to me, but which I never heard him explain. ...
— The Confessions of J. J. Rousseau, Complete • Jean Jacques Rousseau
... each of its component parts, of wages, profit, and rent; and in every society this rate varies according to their circumstances, according to their riches or poverty, their advancing, stationary, or declining condition. I shall, in the four following chapters, endeavour to explain, as fully and distinctly as I can, the causes of those ...
— An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations • Adam Smith
... ask the reader to indulge me for a while, that I may explain just the condition I was in, both physically and mentally. I know just how much charity I am to expect and receive from the corrupt wilderness of human society, for it is a rank and rotten soil, from which every shrub draws poison as ...
— Fifteen Years in Hell • Luther Benson
... report of the thing he had done to his department. He came back with a deeper quiet in his eyes and told no one but Carlin what the days had shown him. Skag never was at his best in trying to make words work. He was slow to explain. He had been hurt two or three times in earlier days, trying to tell something of peculiar interest to his work and finding incredulity and uncertain comment afterward. This made the animal trainer more wary ...
— Son of Power • Will Levington Comfort and Zamin Ki Dost
... of congress shall not take effect until the President of the government orders their fulfillment and execution. Whenever the said President shall be of the opinion that any act is unsuitable or against public policy, or pernicious, he shall explain to congress the reasons against its execution, and if the latter shall insist on its passage the President shall have power to oppose his veto under his most ...
— The Story of the Philippines and Our New Possessions, • Murat Halstead
... excuse must be that for many years I have sought to revise the traditional story of his career in the light of facts gleaned from the British Archives and of the many valuable materials that have recently been published by continental historians. To explain my manner of dealing with these sources would require an elaborate critical Introduction; but, as the limits of my space absolutely preclude any such attempt, I can only briefly refer to the ...
— The Life of Napoleon I (Volumes, 1 and 2) • John Holland Rose
... Denver Express and get off to-night at Weeping Water. You will find me at Grayson's speaking, standing just in front of him. Don't fail to come. Will explain everything to you ...
— The Candidate - A Political Romance • Joseph Alexander Altsheler
... W. I have scarce time or quiet to explain my present situation, how unquiet and distracted it is.... Owing to the absence of some of my compeers, and to the deficient state of payments at E. I. H. owing to bad peace speculations in the Calico market (I write this to W. W., Esq. Collector of ...
— The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb, Vol. 5 • Edited by E. V. Lucas
... circle, but would seem flat and insipid in any other, and therefore will not bear repeating. Nothing makes a man look sillier than a pleasantry not relished or not understood; and if he meets with a profound silence when he expected a general applause, or, what is worse, if he is desired to explain the bon mot, his awkward and embarrassed situation is easier imagined' than described. 'A propos' of repeating; take great care never to repeat (I do not mean here the pleasantries) in one company what you hear in another. Things, seemingly indifferent, ...
— The PG Edition of Chesterfield's Letters to His Son • The Earl of Chesterfield
... drinking my pale tea I heard these people asking Emma why she didn't do this any more, and why she didn't come to that any more, and Emma just as dignified and nice as you please, telling all sorts of perforated paper fibs to explain and decline. One can't be perfect, and nobody could be as absolutely kind and gracious and universally beloved as Emma if she always told the ...
— The Forerunner, Volume 1 (1909-1910) • Charlotte Perkins Gilman
... everything else, drew Jesus to her. The two on the road to Emmaus were puzzled, honest, painful seekers after truth. It was worth Christ's while to spend hours of that day of Resurrection in clearing, questioning, and confirming sincere minds. Does not this other appearance explain itself? The brief spasm of cowardice and denial had changed into penitence when the Lord looked, and the bitter tears that fell were not only because of the denial, but because of the wound of that sharp arrow, the poisoned ...
— Expositions Of Holy Scripture - Volume I: St. Luke, Chaps. I to XII • Alexander Maclaren
... relief. At any rate, if the weaver could not guess the riddle, he at least might put the minister on the right track. So without more ado he told the story of the circle, and ended by declaring that the person who could explain its ...
— The Olive Fairy Book • Various
... then went on to explain how much nicer Pao-ch'in was, plucking plum blossom in the snow, than the very picture itself; and she next minutely inquired what the year, moon, day and hour of her birth were, and how things were getting on in ...
— Hung Lou Meng, Book II • Cao Xueqin
... this," he said; and it seemed as if he would have given it into her very hands; but they were folded; so he laid it on the edge of the piano, and stepped back a pace. He knew there was no need for him to explain. ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 13, No. 77, March, 1864 • Various
... "To explain each step as I take it," said the investigator, "would be much more difficult than the work itself. However the time has now arrived for me to enlighten you somewhat upon this point, at least. I am quite convinced ...
— Ashton-Kirk, Investigator • John T. McIntyre
... made to explain a number of the commonest rites of the Catholic Church as remnants of pagan ceremonies, and no one doubts that many local and popular usages, which are associated with religious festivals, are forgotten fragments ...
— The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy • Jacob Burckhardt
... of the Society for Psychical Research, states that Mr. Bourne had in early life shown a tendency to abnormal psychic conditions; but he had never before engaged in trade, and nothing could be remembered which would explain why he had assumed the name A. J. Brown, under which he did business. He had, however, been hypnotized when young and made to assume various characters on the stage, and it is possible that the name A. J. Brown was then suggested to him, the name resting ...
— Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine • George M. Gould
... difference in cost was so great that Crawford returned to Belfast to explain matters to his Committee, calling in London on his way to inform Carson and Craig. He strongly urged the acceptance of the third alternative offer, laying stress, among other considerations, on the moral effect on men who knew they had in their hands ...
— Ulster's Stand For Union • Ronald McNeill
... its efficacy lies in the unforeseen, the miraculous, the extraordinary. Thus religion attracts more devotion in proportion as it demands more faith,—that is to say, as it becomes more incredible to the profane mind. The philosopher aspires to explain away all mysteries, to dissolve them into light. It is mystery, on the other hand, which the religious instinct demands and pursues: it is mystery which constitutes the essence of worship, the power of proselytism. When the cross ...
— Library Of The World's Best Literature, Ancient And Modern, Vol. 2 • Charles Dudley Warner
... I may as well explain to you, was a sort of bay, or wide place, in Turtle River, which ran into Sandport Bay. The town of Bellemere, where Bunny and his sister lived, was partly on Sandport Bay and partly on the ocean. The bay extended back of the town, and if one sailed up the bay or went up in ...
— Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue at Christmas Tree Cove • Laura Lee Hope
... his first-born. There can be no doubt at all that he spent far too much money in these years; he would attend the sales of works of art and pay extravagant sums for any that took his fancy. If he ever paused to question himself, he would be content to explain that he paid big prices in order to show how great was his respect for art and artists. He came to acquire a picture by Rubens, a book of drawings by Lucas van Leyden, and the splendid pearls that may be seen in the later portraits ...
— Rembrandt • Josef Israels
... is not her place to admire out loud," Damaris continued. "Over and over again I have tried to explain that to her. But in some ways, she is not at all clever. She can't or won't understand, and only tells Aunt Felicia I am wanting in sympathy and that I hurt her feelings. She has unreasonably many feelings, ...
— Deadham Hard • Lucas Malet
... Lieutenant Van Dorn, Aide to General Smith, who brought an order requiring the Rifle Regiment and the engineer company to return to the head of the column on the road. I told Van Dorn the purpose I had in view, asked him to explain the matter to General Smith, and expressed my conviction that he would approve the movement, when he knew its object. Van Dorn replied: "General Smith was very peremptory. I am directed to see that you and Major Loring, with your respective commands, return at once". On our way back, Van Dorn said ...
— Company 'A', corps of engineers, U.S.A., 1846-'48, in the Mexican war • Gustavus Woodson Smith
... always commands a high price upon the Scotch coast. As yet their displeasure is only signified by sullen countenances and black looks, but I heard from the second mate this afternoon that they contemplated sending a deputation to the Captain to explain their grievance. I much doubt how he will receive it, as he is a man of fierce temper, and very sensitive about anything approaching to an infringement of his rights. I shall venture after dinner to say a few ...
— The Captain of the Pole-Star and Other Tales • Arthur Conan Doyle
... conceded by the same hand, that, "When numerals denoting more than one, are used as adjectives, with a substantive expressed or understood, they must have a plural construction." Now who can show that this is not the case in general with the numerals of multiplication? To explain the syntax of "Twice two are four," what can be more rational than to say, "The sense is, 'Twice two units, or things, are four?'" Is it not plain, that twice two things, of any sort, are ...
— The Grammar of English Grammars • Goold Brown
... at the present day is universally regarded as untenable. In our opinion the mighty Newton won the greatest honours in the development of the science of optics, inasmuch as he was the first to connect and explain the vast mass of objective optical facts by a subjective and pregnant hypothesis. But, according to Virchow's view, Newton on the contrary transgressed greatly by teaching this erroneous hypothesis; ...
— Freedom in Science and Teaching. - from the German of Ernst Haeckel • Ernst Haeckel
... husband. But as I am not willing to comply, they remain in my house and destroy my property. I am not able to drive them out, and do not know how to help myself. Listen to a dream I had the other night. Perhaps thou canst explain it to me. ...
— Odysseus, the Hero of Ithaca - Adapted from the Third Book of the Primary Schools of Athens, Greece • Homer
... explain myself more fully. As I doubt not but you are both excellent classics, suppose, for the good of your own memories, and the entertainment and surprise of the company, the thousand pounds should fall to the share of him who can repeat by heart ...
— Evelina • Fanny Burney
... "But how will you explain?" he asked hurriedly. "Ah, madame, through those long, dreary years at Devil's Island I have thought of you, and wondered—and wondered what had become of you. I am so glad to know that you are rich and ...
— The White Lie • William Le Queux
... is not he who has done the best; it is he who suggests the most; he, not all of whose meaning is at first obvious, and who leaves you much to desire, to explain, to study; much to complete ...
— Ralph Waldo Emerson • Oliver Wendell Holmes
... empty basket, and continued on his way. There was nothing for it but to take the cheese and the pot of jelly to Mrs. Stewart, explain matters to her, and return another day with another hen, if his mother so decided, as it was probable she would. He walked on ...
— Little Folks (Septemeber 1884) - A Magazine for the Young • Various
... fears that Christ will not receive thee may arise from THOSE DECAYS THAT THOU FINDEST IN THY-SOUL, even while thou art coming to him. Some, even as they are coming to Jesus Christ, do find themselves grow worse and worse. To explain myself: there is such a one coming to Jesus Christ, who, when he first began to look out after him, was sensible, affectionate, and broken in spirit, but now is grown dark, senseless, hard-hearted, and inclining to neglect ...
— The Riches of Bunyan • Jeremiah Rev. Chaplin
... emotion, not deep enough indeed to cause suffering, and slumbering in every-day life in the recesses of the poet's soul, awakes in the hour of inspiration and spreads a gentle shadow over his habitual sunshine. The peculiar melancholy resignation of Slavic lovers we have already attempted to explain. Indeed, it is to their love songs, principally, that the general remark on the pensiveness of Russian songs and ...
— Historical View of the Languages and Literature of the Slavic - Nations • Therese Albertine Louise von Jacob Robinson
... ascertained. Bryant was a strong Pro-Rowleian and argues cleverly against the possibility of Chatterton's having written the poems. He shows that Chatterton in his notes often misses Rowley's meaning and insists that he neglected to explain obvious difficulties because he could not understand them. Bryant is the least absurd ...
— The Rowley Poems • Thomas Chatterton
... he had a displeasing smile, he had borne himself to the lawyer with a sort of murderous mixture of timidity and boldness, and he spoke with a husky, whispering and somewhat broken voice; all these were points against him, but not all of these together could explain the hitherto unknown disgust, loathing, and fear with which Mr. Utterson regarded him. "There ...
— Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde • ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
... to me, Grandmother, she belongs to me!" she didn't understand for some time what he meant. But Moni couldn't explain to her yet; he ran to the shed, and there right next to Brownie, so that it wouldn't be afraid, he made Maggerli a fine, soft bed of fresh straw, and laid it ...
— Moni the Goat-Boy • Johanna Spyri et al
... just one hour by the clock, sitting there on the pile of steamer wraps with the small Pierre in the hollow of my arm, to explain and translate the sense of that letter to old Nannette, and I feel sure she would have been sitting upon that spot yet immovable rather than let me depart from her if I had not put all of my time and force upon the picturing to her of a Pierre who could come down with her later to me in a condition ...
— The Daredevil • Maria Thompson Daviess
... hope to make a puncture, even at the forty-five-mile-per-second speed that is the theoretical maximum for meteors. And if one did, the selfsealing stuff would stop the leak immediately. Joe could explain the protection of the metal skins. ...
— Space Platform • Murray Leinster
... eyes wide. "Why, you are a courageous person!" she said and laughed, but did not explain what she meant, and he did not like ...
— Maurice Guest • Henry Handel Richardson
... been made to explain these names of kings as symbols of a race or class. The early history of Rome has been reconstructed in a variety of ways, but the greater the labor applied to it, the less the agreement among students with ...
— History Of Ancient Civilization • Charles Seignobos
... any replies from her more intelligible than these. Attributing their confusion to the nervous agitation which more or less affected her when she spoke on any subject, I soon ceased making any efforts to induce her to explain herself; and determined to search for the clue to Mr. Mannion's character, without seeking assistance ...
— Basil • Wilkie Collins
... large. "How could I consult you? My darling, precious uncle, don't you realize that you had vanished into thin air, leaving me penniless? I had to do something. And, now that we are on the subject, perhaps you will explain your movements. Why did you write to me from that place on Fifty-Seventh Street ...
— The Little Warrior - (U.K. Title: Jill the Reckless) • P. G. Wodehouse
... people—the courage of the coward greater than all others—she had presented herself at the old Englishman's half-open door, and, when he had not heeded her knock, had pushed it open, and at last, after all these years, stood upon the threshold of his room. She had found courage enough to explain her intrusion. ...
— McTeague • Frank Norris
... February the question of the repeal of this silver purchasing clause was incidentally brought to the attention of the Senate by Mr. Teller, who announced that it was not among the possibilities that it would be repealed at that session. I took this occasion to explain that the reason why I had not previously moved to take this bill up was that I was not satisfied there was a majority in favor of its passage. The question why it was not taken up had been frequently discussed in the newspapers, but I did not consider it my duty to make such a motion ...
— Recollections of Forty Years in the House, Senate and Cabinet - An Autobiography. • John Sherman
... know you are? Don't you know in your heart that you have said the very thing that I in my heart found no words to explain?" ...
— Iole • Robert W. Chambers
... jets of water by seats where lovers sit, and in unsuspected places where the public congregate, even in the middle of a walk, it is a wonderful and delightful exhibition. This garden was thronged by the holiday folks of Salzburg. There was an official to explain the curious display, and nothing but innocent gaiety was to ...
— A Tramp's Wallet - stored by an English goldsmith during his wanderings in Germany and France • William Duthie
... to explain how things stood when out of the library came leaping Uncle Willoughby looking as braced as a two-year-old. The old boy was a ...
— A Wodehouse Miscellany - Articles & Stories • P. G. Wodehouse
... don't know whether that's enough to explain it," I commented. "And did your mother's ...
— The Jervaise Comedy • J. D. Beresford
... actual existence of the disturbance, makes this youaltepuztli one of the quaintest things in the province of the folklorist. But, whatever the cause of the noise, or of the beliefs connected with the noise, may be, no one would explain them as the result of community of race between Cingalese and Aztecs. Nor would this explanation be offered to account for the Aztec and English belief that the creaking of furniture is an omen of death in a house. Obviously, these opinions are the expression of a common state of superstitious ...
— Custom and Myth • Andrew Lang
... steps into a beer shop. Being instantly followed, the beer shopkeeper is seen to take down a pot (pewter pot) and is heard to say: "Well, old chap, come for your beer as usual, have you?" Upon which he draws a pint and puts it down and the dog drinks it. Being required to explain how this comes to pass the man says: "Yes, ma'am. I know he's your dog, ma'am, but I didn't when he first came. He looked in, ma'am, as a brick-maker might, and then he come in, as a brickmaker might, and he wagged his tail at the pots, ...
— My Father as I Recall Him • Mamie Dickens
... eyebrows doubtingly. "Perhaps your perceptions are so keen that you can explain how Jewel managed to telegraph to Chicago to-day," she said. "It reminded me of Dooley's comments on Christian Science. Do you remember what he said about 'rejucin' a swellin' over a long ...
— Jewel - A Chapter In Her Life • Clara Louise Burnham
... superannuated, and too old to learn new lessons, I only hear what passes, pretend to understand nothing, and wait patiently for events as they present themselves. I listen enough to be able to acquaint you with facts of public notoriety; but attempt to explain none of them, if they do not carry ...
— Letters of Horace Walpole - Volume II • Horace Walpole
... time only, you will be a special agent in the service of the ministry of war. Come, I will take you to the gentleman who will be your chief. He can explain the duties better than I, and then you will be in a position to judge if you wish ...
— The Return of Tarzan • Edgar Rice Burroughs
... on the turf beside the fountain. From afar came the whoop and the laugh of the children in their sports or their dance. At the distance their joy did not sadden him—he marveled why; and thus, in musing reverie, thought to explain ...
— Library Of The World's Best Literature, Ancient And Modern, Vol 6 • Various
... done in such a manner as not to create any general alarm among them, it will probably turn out to be the kindest piece of violence that could be used. Whenever it shall be practicable, by any means, to explain to them the friendly disposition of Governor Phillip and his people towards them, and to make them understand, that the men from whom they receive occasional injuries, are already a disgraced class, and liable to severe punishment for such proceedings, they will then perhaps acquire sufficient ...
— The Voyage Of Governor Phillip To Botany Bay • Arthur Phillip
... Archie two dollars in cash and a lot of embarrassment when he asked for it at the store. To buy a treatise of that name would automatically seem to argue that you haven't a winning personality already, and Archie was at some pains to explain to the girl behind the counter that he wanted it for a friend. The girl seemed more interested in his English accent than in his explanation, and Archie was uncomfortably aware, as he receded, that she was practising it in an undertone for the benefit of her colleagues and fellow-workers. ...
— Indiscretions of Archie • P. G. Wodehouse
... Catholic clergy were prepared and widely circulated among priests, educators and laymen. Space was secured in the Catholic press. Letters without number were written. A delegation was received by Cardinal Gibbons in Baltimore to explain the desire of its members for the vote. Many of the clergy looked with favor on their work, which encouraged Catholic women to take part in it, and 500 marched under the banner of the association in the last suffrage parade in New York in October, ...
— The History of Woman Suffrage, Volume VI • Various
... obviously he could not explain what she felt to be a rebuff. To make full disclosure of certain transactions would have stripped Eben Tollman of disguise and brought results as parlous as those he had feared on the afternoon when he left his strong box ...
— The Tyranny of Weakness • Charles Neville Buck
... took with him all the documents which were necessary to lay before government to explain the state of the different settlements under his command; such as the commissary's accounts, returns of stock, remains of provisions, etc, etc.; vouchers, in fact, of that true spirit of liberality which had marked the whole ...
— An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales, Vol. 1 • David Collins
... scintillation is the vital manifestation of an invisible animal world. So varied are the sources of terrestrial light! Must we still suppose this light to be latent, and combined in vapors, in order to explain 'Moser's images produced at a distance' — a discovery in which reality has hitherto manifested itself like a mere phantom ...
— COSMOS: A Sketch of the Physical Description of the Universe, Vol. 1 • Alexander von Humboldt
... stutters and turns red and her chin begins to quiver, so I gentled her down and tried to explain, though seeing quick that I must tell her everything but the truth. I reckon nothing in this world can look funnier than a woman wearing them things that had never ought to for one reason or another. There ...
— Somewhere in Red Gap • Harry Leon Wilson
... and systematic understanding, and who at that time was a member of the House of Commons, made the same objection to the proceeding. The statutes, as they now stand, are, without doubt, perfectly absurd. But I beg leave to explain the cause of this gross imperfection in the tolerating plan, as well and as shortly as I am able. It was universally thought that the session ought not to pass over without doing something in this business. To revise the whole ...
— The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. II. (of 12) • Edmund Burke
... and obedient servant, Frank Byrne, alias, myself, alias, the ship's cousin, alias, the son of the ship's owner. Supposing, of course, that you believe in Mesmerism and clairvoyance, I shall not stop to explain how I have been able to point out the Gentile to you, while you were standing on the bastion of St. Elmo, and I all the while in the cabin of the good ship, dressing for the theatre, and eating my supper, but shall immediately proceed to ...
— Graham's Magazine Vol XXXII. No. 3. March 1848 • Various
... comtesse," I began saucily, but went on seriously. "Permit me, I beg, to seem rude, though it is farthest from my desire to appear so. It is more than the whim of my aunt that is at stake. Some day I will explain to you." ...
— The Rose of Old St. Louis • Mary Dillon
... Darwinian theory of natural selection, supplemented as it was by the adoption of the Lamarkian factors,—the effect of use and disuse and the assumed transmissibility of acquired character,—merely attempted to explain the mode in which the changes in organic life have taken place upon the earth, the evolutionary hypothesis put forth by Mr. Spencer professed to be applicable to the whole sphere of the knowable. It is further to be borne in ...
— Beacon Lights of History, Volume XIV • John Lord
... maid of Mana, At the time her clothes was washing, And her clothes she there was beating, 170 At the river dark of Tuoni, And in Manala's deep waters. And she answered him in thiswise, And she spoke the words which follow: "Hence a boat shall come to fetch you, When you shall explain the reason Why to Manala you travel. Though disease has not subdued you. Nor has death thus overcome you, Nor some other ...
— Kalevala, Volume I (of 2) - The Land of the Heroes • Anonymous
... door opened to our Colony towards the conversion of the Indians. I have had many conversations with their chief men, the whole tenor of which shews that there is nothing wanting to their conversion but one who understands their language well, to explain to them the mysteries of religion; for, as to the moral part of Christianity, they understand it, and do assent to it. They abhor adultery, and do not approve of a plurality of wives. Theft is a thing not known ...
— Biographical Memorials of James Oglethorpe • Thaddeus Mason Harris
... could never explain how—he had reached out his hand, at the moment they took these positions, and grasped that of Rosa Minturn. It seemed to have been one of those instinctive actions that are natural under certain peculiar circumstances. And so, during ...
— The Wilderness Fugitives • Edward S. Ellis
... He was attired in simple fisherman's garb of rough blue homespun, and when he was within a few paces of the King, he raised his cap from his curly silver hair with an old-world grace and deferential courtesy. Sir Roger de Launay went forward to meet him and to explain the situation. ...
— Temporal Power • Marie Corelli
... electoral meeting. There is no more "holding aloof." Everybody has convictions and is ready to avow the party that upholds them. All are ignorant of Halfdan Rein's death, until the editor arrives, utterly broken in spirit and asks Evje's pardon. He wishes to explain, but no one wishes to listen. When Evje wavers and is on the point of accepting his proffered hand, his wife ...
— Essays on Scandinavian Literature • Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen
... his possession he went down, and, standing at the door, tried to explain why he had closed it, and why he could not bear to see its frequenters spending their wages on degrading themselves and making their homes miserable. In no mood for a temperance harangue, the men drowned, or would have drowned aught but ...
— My Young Alcides - A Faded Photograph • Charlotte M. Yonge
... "You are mistaken," he said harshly. "I am conscious of no place where my spirit and that of Mr. Rand may touch. I cannot explain; we are enemies: you must let us fight ...
— Lewis Rand • Mary Johnston
... provision of pepper, decreased in comparison with preceding years, and which was not satisfactorily accounted for by unfavourable seasons. To obviate such charges it became necessary for those who superintended the business to pay attention to and explain the efficient causes which unavoidably occasioned this fluctuation, and to establish general principles of calculation by which to determine at any time the probable future produce of the different residencies. These will depend upon a knowledge of the medium ...
— The History of Sumatra - Containing An Account Of The Government, Laws, Customs And - Manners Of The Native Inhabitants • William Marsden
... comprehension of the whole system of things, which we manifestly have not, and mere faith grounded on probability. Is it unreasonable to suppose that in a revealed system there should be the same superiority to our intelligence? If we cannot explain or foretell by reason what the exact course of events in nature will be, is it to be expected that we can do so with regard to the wider scheme of God's revealed providence? Is it not probable that there will be many things not explicable by us? From our experience of the course of nature ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 4 - "Bulgaria" to "Calgary" • Various
... Robert Ellins. Yes, I know such a person. That's right—Clifford. He's my cousin. No, is that so? Why, there must be some mistake. Oh, there must be! I'll come up and explain. Yes, I'll sign the ...
— Torchy • Sewell Ford
... proceeded to explain to him all about the litters. He had to crouch down and come close to the wire netting, whilst she gave him minute details. The mother does, with big restless ears, eyed him askance, panting and motionless with fear. Then, in one hutch, he saw a hairy cavity wherein crawled a living heap, an ...
— Abbe Mouret's Transgression - La Faute De L'abbe Mouret • Emile Zola
... could reach, stretches the chessboard landscape—an expanse oceanic in its vastness of green and brown, fields of corn and clover alternating with land prepared for beetroot and potatoes. The extent and elevation of this plateau, formerly covered with forests, explain the excessive dryness of the climate. Bitter indeed must be the wintry blast, torrid the rays of summer here. As we proceed we see little breaks in the level uniformity, plains of apple-green and chocolate-brown; the land dips here and there, ...
— In the Heart of the Vosges - And Other Sketches by a "Devious Traveller" • Matilda Betham-Edwards
... And sometimes he'd explain to her, which charmed her very much, How famous operators vary very much in touch, And then, perhaps, he'd show how he himself performed the trick, And illustrate his meaning with a poppy ...
— Fifty Bab Ballads • William S. Gilbert
... cried Jack, "and I will explain to you why the villain makes this strange and revolting proposal. He well knows that but two lives—those of Thames Darrell and Sir Rowland Trenchard,—stand between you and the vast possessions of the family. Those lives removed,—and Sir Rowland is completely in his ...
— Jack Sheppard - A Romance • William Harrison Ainsworth
... become obscure. Many critics, writing with their eyes fixed on the masterpieces of past literature, have ascribed this tendency to wilfulness and to affectation. Its origin is rather to be found in the complexity of the new problems, and in the fact that self-consciousness is not yet adequate to explain the contents of the Ego. In Mr. Browning's poems, as in life itself which has suggested, or rather necessitated, the new method, thought seems to proceed not on logical lines, but on lines of passion. The unity of the individual is being expressed through its inconsistencies ...
— Reviews • Oscar Wilde
... the vessel, and were getting her in sailing condition again, and that it might not be prudent to come too near. Could I confirm this impression, a great point would be gained. Under the pretence of making more sail, in order to get the ship's head round, a difficulty I had to explain to Smudge by means of signs some six or eight times, I placed the savages at the main-top-mast mast-rope, and told them to drag. This was a task likely to keep them occupied, and what was more, it kept them all looking forward, leaving me affecting ...
— Afloat And Ashore • James Fenimore Cooper
... he treats with beef, pudding, and potatoes, port, punch, and Calvert's entire butt beer. He has fixed upon the first day of the week for the exercise of his hospitality, because some of his guests could not enjoy it on any other, for reasons that I need not explain. I was civilly received in a plain, yet decent habitation, which opened backwards into a very pleasant garden, kept in excellent order; and, indeed, I saw none of the outward signs of authorship, either in the house or the landlord, who is one of those few writers of the age that stand upon ...
— The Expedition of Humphry Clinker • Tobias Smollett
... himself and apologized that we should have been kept waiting. "I regret," he added, "that I was not aware of your arrival until the kellnerin pointed you out through the window; otherwise I should have taken the liberty to explain to you that my brother may be a little late. He brought me and two friends over earlier in the day, and had then to attend to a little business. Mein compliment;" and with a low bow ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. XII, No. 28. July, 1873. • Various
... me," I asserted. "But not as myself. I am sure she knows me! But she confuses me with the child she lost! I cannot explain to you, madame, how positive I am that she recognizes me; any more than I can explain why she will call me Paul. I think I ought to tell you, so you will see the position in which I am placed, that this lady is the lady ...
— Lazarre • Mary Hartwell Catherwood
... pay—I was a poor lawyer in those days, Judy—so I said we would think it over, and we went home. All the way there your grandmother was very quiet and very white, but when we reached home and I tried to explain, she simply would not listen. She would not go to the Governor's, she said, unless she could have that gown. You can imagine the embarrassment it caused me—it was as much as my career was worth to stay away from that dinner, and ...
— Judy • Temple Bailey
... and conscious purpose, some Logos steering the mighty movement. We have outgrown crude arguments from "design," and we cannot think of God as a foreign and external Creator, working as a Potter on his clay; but it is irrational to "explain" a steadily unfolding movement, an ever-heightening procession of life, by "fortuitous variations," by "accidental" shifts of level, or even by a blind elan vital. If there is an increasing purpose and a clearly culminating drama unfolding in this moving ...
— Spiritual Reformers in the 16th & 17th Centuries • Rufus M. Jones
... officer, Bolkhovitinov, was chosen, who was to explain the whole affair by word of mouth, besides delivering a written report. Toward midnight Bolkhovitinov, having received the dispatch and verbal instructions, galloped off to the General Staff accompanied by a ...
— War and Peace • Leo Tolstoy
... seat in the parish church. Lenny still went to church,—a church a long way off in another parish,—but the sermons did not do him the same good as Parson Dale's had done; and the clergyman, who had his own flock to attend to, did not condescend, as Parson Dale would have done, to explain what seemed obscure, and enforce what was profitable, in private talk, with that stray lamb ...
— My Novel, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton
... the sons of men)—nevertheless, he would not turn away from this crushed fellow-mortal whose aid he had used, and make a pitiful effort to get acquittal for himself by howling against another. "I shall do as I think right, and explain to nobody. They will try to starve me out, but—" he was going on with an obstinate resolve, but he was getting near home, and the thought of Rosamond urged itself again into that chief place from ...
— Middlemarch • George Eliot
... one to us, sir," said Isaac Shelby, looking me up and down with that heavy-lidded right eye of his. "Explain your rank and standing, ...
— The Master of Appleby • Francis Lynde
... a theory yet; just that cultural and evolutionary patterns should be more or less homogeneous within galaxies. Until it can explain why so many out-galaxies are just alike it doesn't amount to much. By the way, I'm glad you people insisted on organization and rank and uniforms. The Brass is going to take a certain amount of convincing. Take over, Brownie—this is ...
— The Galaxy Primes • Edward Elmer Smith
... put in Mrs. Morley, much distressed, "you cannot take up this attitude. You know I am your friend, that I have always done my best for you, and for my sake, if not for Daisy's, you must explain." ...
— A Coin of Edward VII - A Detective Story • Fergus Hume
... panels, intended to decorate the Congo Free State department in the Brussels Exposition. These panels represent the "Triumph of Civilization over Barbarism," and are now in the Museum at Tervueren. They are curious in their symbols of fetichism, and have an attraction that one can scarcely explain. The above are but a part of her important works, and naturally, when not absorbed by these, Mme. de Rudder executes some smaller pieces which are marvels of ...
— Women in the fine arts, from the Seventh Century B.C. to the Twentieth Century A.D. • Clara Erskine Clement |
