"Obstruct" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... it must be remembered, in common justice to him, that he was playing a very difficult part The Japanese were making his life as uncomfortable as they possibly could, and were doing everything to obstruct his work. His mails were constantly tampered with; his servants were threatened or arrested on various excuses, and his household was subjected to the closest espionage. He displayed surprising tenacity, and held on month after month without showing any sign of yielding. The complaint ...
— Korea's Fight for Freedom • F.A. McKenzie
... add lustre to your perfections! but, on the contrary, it may, and nine times in ten, will, make the former more glaring and the latter obscure. If you are silent upon your own subject, neither envy, indignation, nor ridicule, will obstruct or allay the applause which you may really deserve; but if you publish your own panegyric upon any occasion, or in any shape whatsoever, and however artfully dressed or disguised, they will all conspire against you, and you will be disappointed of the very ...
— The PG Edition of Chesterfield's Letters to His Son • The Earl of Chesterfield
... its landed aristocracy, that their mothers shall not breed another race of traitors. This is not vengeance. It is justice, it is patriotism, it is the highest wisdom and humanity. Nature, at times, blots out whole communities and races that obstruct progress. Such is the political genius of these people that, unless you make the negro the ruler, the South will yet reconquer the North and undo the ...
— The Clansman - An Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan • Thomas Dixon
... and that the King, in constant fear of the Duke's departure to join the Huguenots,—which event would show the King's inability to prevent sedition even in the royal family, and would give the Guise party another pretext to complain of his incompetence,—would forcibly obstruct the Duke's going. ...
— An Enemy To The King • Robert Neilson Stephens
... mountains much cooler than that of the interior plains. There was much Callitris in the woods passed through this day; and the soil, although well covered with grass, was sandy. I ascended Mount Pluto by the N. W. side, where the loose fragments of trap, on a very steep slope, obstruct the growth of a thorny scrub, covering other parts of the mountain sides. The view from the summit was very favourable for my purpose, and I passed an hour and a half in taking angles on all distant points. Mount Owen and Mount ...
— Journal of an Expedition into the Interior of Tropical Australia • Thomas Mitchell
... lurking sand-bar and distinguish it from the almost identical ripple that a brisk breeze would raise. Most perplexing of the perils that beset river navigation are the "snags," or sunken logs that often obstruct the channel. Some towering oak or pine, growing in lusty strength for its half-century or more by the brink of the upper reaches of one of the Mississippi system would, in time, be undermined by the flood and fall into the rushing tide. For weeks it would ...
— American Merchant Ships and Sailors • Willis J. Abbot
... abstaining from the gratification of his desires, reach the end of a certain period during which those particles which composed the man of vice, and which were given a bad predisposition, will have departed. At the same time, the disuse of such functions will tend to obstruct the entry, in place of the old particles, of new particles having a tendency to repeat the said acts. And while this is the particular result as regards certain "vices," the general result of an abstention from "gross" acts will be (by a modification of the well-known Darwinian ...
— Five Years Of Theosophy • Various
... world is, to see that it is gently but thoroughly washed, in moderately warm soft water, with fine soap. Special attention should be paid to the folds of the joints, the neck, the arm pits, &c. For rubbing the body, in order to disengage anything which might obstruct the pores, or irritate or fret the skin, nothing can be preferable to a piece of soft sponge or flannel. Though the operation should be thorough, and also as rapid as the nature of circumstances will permit, all harshness should be avoided. When finished, the child should be wiped perfectly ...
— The Young Mother - Management of Children in Regard to Health • William A. Alcott
... there is certainly no cause for doubt. Under the Anglo-French Agreement of 1904 the French Government specifically declared that "they will not obstruct the action of government in Egypt by asking that a limit of time be fixed for the British occupation, or in any other manner." Moreover, one of the last acts that I performed before I left Egypt in 1907 was to communicate to the British Chamber of Commerce at Alexandria a letter from Sir Edward ...
— Political and Literary essays, 1908-1913 • Evelyn Baring
... do well to heed the advice of a distinguished writer on parliamentary law, and recollect that—"The great purpose of all rules and forms, is to subserve the will of the assembly, rather than to restrain it; to facilitate, and not to obstruct, the expression ...
— Robert's Rules of Order - Pocket Manual of Rules Of Order For Deliberative Assemblies • Henry M. Robert
... late been, I know not how, propagated among us, that libraries are filled only with useless lumber; that men of parts stand in need of no assistance; and that to spend life in poring upon books, is only to imbibe prejudices, to obstruct and embarrass the powers of nature, to cultivate memory at the expense of judgment, and to bury reason under a ...
— The Works of Samuel Johnson in Nine Volumes - Volume IV: The Adventurer; The Idler • Samuel Johnson
... prospect of such powerful succours, and communicated his intentions of immediately resuming his enterprise against Goa, but was overruled in the council by Sequeira, on which Albuquerque went to Cochin, and obtained a victory over the Malabars of Calicut, who endeavoured to obstruct the Portuguese from loading pepper. Having dispatched Sequeira with the homeward bound ships, and soon afterwards Lemos with four more, he determined to resume the enterprise upon Goa. As Diego Mendez, who had formerly been favourable to this design, ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume VI - Early English Voyages Of Discovery To America • Robert Kerr
... trial."[644] That trial has had, as far as the Socialists and the Labour party are concerned, an unsatisfactory result. Before the general election Socialists asked themselves: "Will the Liberal party come into power with a clear mandate for reform which even the House of Lords will not dare entirely to obstruct, or will it shuffle into power on the misdoings of its predecessors and carry out a halfhearted policy in the hope of not estranging any of its moderate followers? If it takes the latter course, it will win the undying contempt of all real reformers; ...
— British Socialism - An Examination of Its Doctrines, Policy, Aims and Practical Proposals • J. Ellis Barker
... under the silent but powerful strokes of the Sauk, and with its light load, skimmed over the surface like a swallow. Hay-uta ran as close in as he could, without allowing the overhanging limbs to obstruct his speed. Twenty rods were passed in this manner, when he turned the head of the boat toward shore, refraining, however, from letting it run against it. One bound carried him out, and Jack was at his heels. Then a gentle shove ...
— Footprints in the Forest • Edward Sylvester Ellis
... or four abreast, men should be careful not to obstruct the thoroughfare, but should quickly fall ...
— The Book of Good Manners • W. C. Green
... swift of wing, and capable of extended flight, cannot remain long in the air. They grow weary and need rest, which they take, perching themselves upon some tree. It may be observed, moreover, that they choose dead trees that overlook an open space. They do so, in order that the leaves may not obstruct their vision—thus giving them a wider range, and, consequently, a better chance of espying their prey. But even with this advantage their chances of seeing their prey are circumscribed, when compared with that of hawks upon the wing; and they are frequently compelled to take ...
— The Boy Hunters • Captain Mayne Reid
... help of his excellent wife to promote all that was good. At Vepery, close at hand, the Bishop found, nearly finished, the first church built in the Gothic style in India. He was greatly delighted with it, and especially that the desk and pulpit had not been allowed to obstruct the view of the altar, which had more dignity than was usual in the churches of 1826. A monstrous pulpit in another little church at Poonamalee, a depot for recruits, and an asylum for pensioners and soldiers' children, he caused to be removed. He had a confirmation ...
— Pioneers and Founders - or, Recent Workers in the Mission field • Charlotte Mary Yonge
... of any split either in the Party, or in the League, or in the country. There will be a perfectly free field for the development of any alternative policy; and I will not use my retirement in any way whatever to criticise or obstruct; neither, I am certain, will anybody in the country who has any regard ...
— Ireland Since Parnell • Daniel Desmond Sheehan
... as heartily as those of the Unitarians. Standing in the forefront of Calvinism, he did not hesitate to say, "It is my deliberate opinion that the false philosophy which has been employed for the exposition of the Calvinistic system has done more to obstruct the march of Christianity, and to paralyze the saving power of the Gospel, and to raise up and organize around the Church the unnumbered multitude to behold and wonder and despise and perish, than all other causes beside.... Who ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 15, No. 91, May, 1865 • Various
... of these representations is to familiarise during life the devout Buddhists with the awful aspect of the many demons that will obstruct their souls after death and try to lead them astray when they are searching for the right path to the next world in which they are ...
— The Jungle Girl • Gordon Casserly
... present from young Craggs of some South Sea stock, and once supposed himself to be master of twenty thousand pounds. His friends persuaded him to sell his share, but he dreamed of dignity and splendour, and could not bear to obstruct his own fortune. He was then importuned to sell as much as would purchase a hundred a year for life, "which," says Fenton, "will make you sure of a clean shirt and a shoulder of mutton every day." This counsel was rejected; ...
— Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions - Vol. I • Charles Mackay
... (xi. 831.) "push'd by the horned flood," he seems rather to mean, as Newton explains him, that "rivers, when they meet with anything to obstruct their passage, divide themselves and become horned as it were, and hence the ancients have ...
— Notes & Queries, No. 26. Saturday, April 27, 1850 • Various
... body of ice, which was farther distant from the eastern shore of the inlet than I ever saw it. Being assisted by a fine working breeze, which at the same time prevented the formation of any more ice to obstruct us, we made considerable progress along the land, and at noon were nearly abreast of Jackson Inlet, which we now saw to be considerably larger than our distant view of it on the former voyage had led us to suppose. We found also that what at a distance appeared an island in the entrance ...
— Journal of the Third Voyage for the Discovery of a North-West Passage • William Edward Parry
... needful in every province containing large cities and much population, to maintain garrisons. These are stationed four or five miles from the cities, and the latter are not allowed to have walls or gates by which they might obstruct the entrance of the troops at their pleasure. These garrisons as well as their commanders the Great Khan causes to be relieved every two years; and bridled in this way the people are kept quiet, and can make no disturbance. The troops are maintained ...
— The Travels of Marco Polo Volume 1 • Marco Polo and Rustichello of Pisa
... deaths were caused by the bubonic plague alone, and that the mortality from that pestilence was small in comparison with that caused by cholera, fever and famine. The effects of those epidemics had been to hamper trade, to alarm and demoralize the people, to obstruct foreign commerce, prevent investments and the development of material resources. Yet during the years 1902 and 1903 throughout all India there was abundant prosperity. This restoration of prosperity is most noticeable ...
— Modern India • William Eleroy Curtis
... injury to the leaf-buds in the 'Bulletin of the Botanical Society of France,' vol. ix, p. 146. It appears that during the war of the French against the Arabs in Algiers, the latter planted several hundreds of Agaves with a view to obstruct the passage of the French cavalry. The soldiers hacked these plants with their sabres, and cut out the central tuft of leaves, or the heart, as gardeners call it. The following season almost every one of these Agaves sent up their large handsome ...
— Vegetable Teratology - An Account of the Principal Deviations from the Usual Construction of Plants • Maxwell T. Masters
... not if I could, dwarf myself to mere sectionality. My first allegiance is to the State of which I am a citizen, and to which by affection and association I am personally bound; but this does not obstruct the perception of your greatness, or admiration for much which I have found ...
— Speeches of the Honorable Jefferson Davis 1858 • Hon. Jefferson Davis
... as to his real meaning; and when Carrier heard that his letter had been applauded by the National Assembly, he felt himself encouraged to break down all barriers of mere legality that might obstruct his path. And, after all, what the Revolutionary Committee as a body—intimidated by Phelippes—dared not do could be done by his faithful and less punctilious ...
— The Historical Nights' Entertainment • Rafael Sabatini
... you of Gray. The woodland walk still remains round the adjoining field, and the summer-house on its summit, though now much cracked by time, and only held together by iron cramps. The trees are now so lofty that they completely obstruct the view, and shut out ...
— Select Poems of Thomas Gray • Thomas Gray
... editor and managing editor—until, when I was nearly thirty years of age, I hit the Kentucky trail and set up for a journalist. I did this, however, with a big "J," nursing for a while some faint ambitions of statesmanship—even office—but in the end discarding everything that might obstruct my entire freedom, for I came into the world an insurgent, or, as I have sometimes described myself in the Kentucky vernacular, "a free nigger and not a ...
— Marse Henry, Complete - An Autobiography • Henry Watterson
... is astonishing. In Guatemala, for instance, the coast is bordered by thick jungle which quickly gives place to magnificent rain forest a few miles inland. This continues two or three score miles from the coast until a point is reached where mountains begin to obstruct the rain-bearing trade-winds. At once the rain forest gives place to jungle; in a few miles jungle in its turn is replaced by scrub; and shortly the scrub degenerates to mere desert bush. Then in another ...
— The Red Man's Continent - A Chronicle of Aboriginal America, Volume 1 In The - Chronicles Of America Series • Ellsworth Huntington
... to warrant this unparalleled audacity? But that you are as stupid as you are impertinent, brutal, and ugly, you must, long ago, sir, have seen how I dislike you. How dare you, sir? Don't presume to obstruct me; I'm ...
— Uncle Silas - A Tale of Bartram-Haugh • J.S. Le Fanu
... with strictest caution locked the door of the room in which the child was hid, and covered each crevice, and every aperture through which sound might more easily proceed; though she had surrounded the infant's head with pillows, to obstruct all noise from his crying; yet one unlucky night, the strength of his voice increasing with his age, he was heard by the maid, who slept the nearest to that part ...
— Nature and Art • Mrs. Inchbald
... obstipation[obs3]; blind alley, blind corner; keddah[obs3]; cul-de-sac, caecum; imperforation[obs3], imperviousness &c. adj.; impermeability; stopper &c. 263. V. close, occlude, plug; block up, stop up, fill up, bung up, cork up, button up, stuff up, shut up, dam up; blockade, obstruct &c. (hinder) 706; bar, bolt, stop, seal, plumb; choke, throttle; ram down, dam, cram; trap, clinch; put to the door, shut the door. Adj. closed &c. v.; shut, operculated[obs3]; unopened. unpierced[obs3], imporous[obs3], caecal[Med]; closable; imperforate, impervious, impermeable; impenetrable; ...
— Roget's Thesaurus
... Isaac Pettit impressively, "we're all a contemptible lot of cowards, that's what's the matter with us. Was Thomas Jefferson engaged in manipulating legislatures? Did he obstruct the will of the people? Not by a long shot he did not! And that grand old patriot, Andrew Jackson, wasn't he satisfied to take his licker or let it alone without being like a heathen in his blindness, bowing down to wood and stone carved ...
— A Hoosier Chronicle • Meredith Nicholson
... houses are built on a low sandy beach, at the bottom of the large bay of Seven Islands. The trees around are thinly scattered, and very small. In the background, rugged hills stretch as far as the eye can see; and in front, seven lofty islands, from which the bay and post derive their name, obstruct the view, affording only a partial glimpse of the open sea beyond. No human habitations exist within seventy miles of the place. Being out of the line of sailing, no vessels ever visit it, except when driven to the bay for shelter; and the bay is so large, that many ...
— Hudson Bay • R.M. Ballantyne
... companion who did not obstruct thought, but encouraged it; and as Agatha sat resting on the stone with Danny close by, in that quiet yard full of the noiseless ghosts of the past, her thoughts went back to James. His unnatural eyes and restless spirit haunted her. She thought of that other night on the water, full of ...
— The Stolen Singer • Martha Idell Fletcher Bellinger
... Opportunity, gave her the Letter, which held so much Love, and so much Truth, as ought to have preserved him in the Empire of her Heart. It contained, besides, a Discovery of his whole Design upon her Father, for the compleating of their Happiness; which nothing then could obstruct but her self. But Henrique had seen her; he had gaz'd, and swallowed all her Beauties at his Eyes. How greedily his Soul drank the strong Poison in! But yet his Honour and his Friendship were strong as ever, and bravely ...
— The Works of Aphra Behn - Volume V • Aphra Behn
... smart new one; the names of the proprietors, I need hardly tell you, were Italian, Foresta and Calpigi. The Toby dog was there, as I had been led to expect. All B—— turned out, but did not obstruct my view, for I was at the large first-floor window ...
— A Thin Ghost and Others • M. R. (Montague Rhodes) James
... asked. "Why should I harm you? None can say that I ever injured any one for any cause but my own advantage, and to injure your Holiness now would be to obstruct a design which I have ...
— The Twilight of the Gods, and Other Tales • Richard Garnett
... will not obstruct Japan in any colonization intention Japan entertained as regards the Far East, and would not obstruct the acquiring of coaling stations in the South Seas other than New Guinea and the Bismarck Archipelago. Germany ...
— The Secrets of the German War Office • Dr. Armgaard Karl Graves
... leisurely progress. No trains may run at night, not only on account of native incompetence, but from dangers caused by constant geographical changes on this volcanic soil, where rivers suddenly alter their course, and earthquakes obstruct the way with yawning chasms or heaps of debris. A paternal Government provides the traveller with a half-way house, erecting a large hotel at Maos, with uniform rates, entirely for the benefit of the passenger by rail. Trains are built on the American plan, stations are spacious and airy, ...
— Through the Malay Archipelago • Emily Richings
... the dirty trick of putting down a notice to suspend the twelve o'clock rule at a shorter notice than usual. The suspension of the twelve o'clock rule simply means that the Tories shall not be allowed to obstruct by the mere fact that the House is compelled automatically to close at midnight under the existing rules. Joe appeared in his place swelling with visibly virtuous indignation; evidently he had come, ready to bear down on Sir William and the Government generally with the cyclone of attack. ...
— Sketches In The House (1893) • T. P. O'Connor
... physiognomy of writing; general rules only can be laid down. Yet the vital principle must be true that the handwriting bears an analogy to the character of the writer, as all voluntary actions are characteristic of the individual. But many causes operate to counteract or obstruct this result. I am intimately acquainted with the handwritings of five of our great poets. The first in early life acquired among Scottish advocates a handwriting which cannot be distinguished from that of his ordinary brothers; ...
— Curiosities of Literature, Vol. 3 (of 3) • Isaac D'Israeli
... progress from regions physical to regions psychological on its own inductive and deductive foundation. "Otherwise," they thought, "psychology will be unable to move forward a single step, and may even obstruct every other branch of Natural History." Instances have not been wanting of physiology poaching on the preserves of purely metaphysical and abstract knowledge, all the time feigning to ignore the latter absolutely, ...
— From the Caves and Jungles of Hindostan • Helena Pretrovna Blavatsky
... under of soothing his Parliament, was a constant, designed, systematical opposition to the interest of his people. His brother, though more sensible to the honour of England, was by his Popery and desire of arbitrary power constrained to lean upon France, and do nothing to obstruct her designs on the Continent or lessen her greatness. It was therefore necessary to place the British Crown on your head, not only with a view to preserve the religious and civil rights of the people from internal oppressions, but to rescue the whole State from that servile ...
— Dialogues of the Dead • Lord Lyttelton
... he steps over it, if a large one, he walks round it. Time is no object, so the length of the road is immaterial. No attempt is made to form bridges, for the streams are not deep and are easily fordable, nor even to break off the branches of trees which obstruct the way. It is easier to stoop and pass beneath. The forest paths have indeed been made simply by the pressure of bare feet on the soil and undergrowth. A few monkeys and parrots chatter overhead and an occasional pigeon coos, but the chief forms of animal life here, ...
— A Journal of a Tour in the Congo Free State • Marcus Dorman
... used is that of grinding. The machine is run at about one-third speed and the step-water shut off for 15 or 20 seconds. This causes grooves and ridges on the faces of the step-bearing blocks, due to their grinding on each other, which obstruct the flow of water between the faces and thus raises the pressure. It seems a brutal way of getting a scientific result, if the result desired can be called scientific. The grooving and cutting of the step-blocks will not do any harm, and in fact they will aid in keeping the revolving parts ...
— Steam Turbines - A Book of Instruction for the Adjustment and Operation of - the Principal Types of this Class of Prime Movers • Hubert E. Collins
... appeared a strange optical effect. When he stood between me and the flame he did not obstruct it, for I could see its ghostly flicker all the same. This startled me, but as the effect was only momentary, I took it that my eyes deceived me straining through the darkness. Then for a time there were no blue flames, and we sped ...
— Dracula • Bram Stoker
... devious track, To thee will Memory lead the wanderer back. Whether in Arno's polish'd vales I stray, Or where "Oswego's" swamps obstruct the day; Or wander lone, where, wildering and wide, The tumbling torrent laves St. Gothard's side; Or by old Tejo's classic margent muse, Or stand entranced with Pyrenean views; Still, still to thee, where'er my footsteps roam, My heart shall point, and lead the wanderer home. When ...
— The Poetical Works of Henry Kirke White - With a Memoir by Sir Harris Nicolas • Henry Kirke White
... it to the full extent of their power. If, therefore, the Chiefs of the Spanish Nation be men of wise and strong minds, they will bring both the forces, those of the Government and of the people, into their utmost action; tempering them in such a manner that neither shall impair or obstruct the other, but rather that they shall strengthen and direct each other for ...
— The Prose Works of William Wordsworth • William Wordsworth
... doctrinising ecclesiastics, for whose portraits we are indebted to Mosheim and Beausobre, shall have the teaching of them, fools they are sure to remain. Men who dare not be 'mentally faithful' to themselves may obstruct, but cannot advance, the interests of truth. In legislation, in law, in all the relations of life, we want honesty not piety. There is plenty of piety, and to spare, but of honesty—sterling, bold, uncompromising honesty—even the ...
— Superstition Unveiled • Charles Southwell
... allowed his legal studies to obstruct his comfort and pleasures, or interfere with his precious health. Madam Esmond had pointed out to him in her letters that though he wore a student's gown, and sate down with a crowd of nameless people to hall-commons, he had himself a name, and ...
— The Virginians • William Makepeace Thackeray
... aid those small farmers who are neither capitalists nor employers on a sufficient scale to classify them with those elements, but they neither wish to perpetuate the system of small farms nor to obstruct the development of the more productive large-scale farming and the normal increase of an agricultural working class ready for cooeperative or governmental employment. They point to the universal law that large-scale production is more economical, and show that this applies to agriculture. Small ...
— Socialism As It Is - A Survey of The World-Wide Revolutionary Movement • William English Walling
... this Gothic casement's height, We view'd the lake, the park, the dell, And still, though tears obstruct our sight, We lingering look a ...
— Byron's Poetical Works, Vol. 1 • Byron
... many excellent and pious persons amongst the English at St. Petersburg are directed to unveiling to them the cheering splendour of the lamp of the Gospel; and it is the sincere prayer of the humble individual who now addresses you that the difficulties which at present much obstruct their efforts may be speedily removed, and that from the boundless champains of Russia may soon resound the Jubilee hymn of millions, who having long groped their way in the darkness of the shadow of death, are at once ...
— Letters of George Borrow - to the British and Foreign Bible Society • George Borrow
... always been so sorry for Lindau, and admired his courage and generosity so much, that he had never fairly considered this question. "Why, yes," he answered; "he died in the cause of disorder; he was trying to obstruct the law. No doubt there was a wrong there, an inconsistency and an injustice that he felt keenly; but it could not be reached in his ...
— Henry James, Jr. • William Dean Howells
... trouble than any work I ever wrote; and, my labour having been so far crowned with success, I trust that I shall have "done the State some service." [See Note 1.] The review in the Edinburgh will neither defeat nor obstruct my purpose, as that publication circulates chiefly among those classes who have already formed their opinions; and I have this advantage over it, that, as for one that reads the Edinburgh Review, fifty will read my work, ...
— Diary in America, Series Two • Frederick Marryat (AKA Captain Marryat)
... by any previous possession; a body of colonists, occupying for the first time an uninhabited country. (1.) If private property were adopted, we must presume that it would be accompanied by none of the initial inequalities and injustice which obstruct the beneficial operation of the principle in old society. Every full-grown man or woman, we must suppose, would be secured in the unfettered use and disposal of his or her bodily and mental faculties; and the instruments of production, the land and tools, would be divided fairly ...
— Principles Of Political Economy • John Stuart Mill
... people, obstacles seen from a distance take on the most attractive appearance; they would be readily disposed to enjoy them and only consent to allow them a certain importance if they absolutely obstruct ...
— Common Sense - - Subtitle: How To Exercise It • Yoritomo-Tashi
... that, as is well known, as soon as the Portuguese of Macan knew of the post which we took in the island of Hermosa, they tried to obstruct that trade, by sending a religious of their nation to one of the commercial ports of China, in order that he might direct those Chinese not to take any merchandise to the said island. They have persisted and are still persisting in ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume XXV, 1635-36 • Various
... reached the Pennsylvania border he turned back the horse, and proceeded on his way through a land where as yet there was no Fugitive-Slave Law, and those who sought to obstruct the progress of the negro-hunter were, as ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 15, No. 90, April, 1865 • Various
... trouble than Amy in getting rid of the self-asserting self in her, which closes the door against heaven's divinest gifts. In Hester it was no doubt associated with a loftier nature, and the harder victory would have its greater reward, but until finally conquered it must continue to obstruct her walk in the true way. So Hester learned from the sweetness of Amy, as Amy from ...
— Weighed and Wanting • George MacDonald
... concluded in March last, and, having been ratified by the Belgian Government, will be duly laid before the Senate. It is a subject of congratulation that it provides for the satisfactory adjustment of a long-standing question of controversy, thus removing the only obstacle which could obstruct the friendly and mutually advantageous intercourse between the two nations. A messenger has been dispatched with the Hanoverian treaty to Berlin, where, according to stipulation, the ratifications are to be exchanged. ...
— Complete State of the Union Addresses from 1790 to the Present • Various
... conduct electricity; and that it is not capable, by its own expansive power, of extending itself into spaces void of all matter, as has generally been supposed, on the idea of there being nothing to obstruct its passage. ...
— Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air • Joseph Priestley
... fluttering down as the train pulled out of Washington; and as it raced across the Maryland fields and through the hills which grace that State the snow blew faster and faster and thicker and thicker. But even in midwinter snow storms do not much obstruct traffic so far south, and the gay party from Fairfields had no suspicion that it was being borne into any peril or trouble. What was a little snow which scarcely, at first, caught upon ...
— Betty Gordon at Mountain Camp • Alice B. Emerson
... In the ice stream, owing to its slow movement and to the detritus which it forces along the bottom, a vastly greater part of the energy which impels it down the slope is applied to rock cutting. None of the boulders, even if they are yards in diameter, obstruct its motion; small and great alike are to it good instruments wherewith to attack the bed rocks. The fragments are never left to waste by atmospheric decay, but are to a very great extent used up in mechanical work, while the most of the detritus which ...
— Outlines of the Earth's History - A Popular Study in Physiography • Nathaniel Southgate Shaler
... Savary, and the Prefect of Police, Pasquier. "Napoleon," says Rapp, "was not surprised that these wretches (he means the agents of the police) who crowd the salons and the taverns, who insinuate themselves everywhere and obstruct everything, should not have found out the plot, but he could not understand the weakness of the Duc de Rovigo. The very police which professed to divine everything had let themselves be taken by surprise." ...
— Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte, Complete • Louis Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne
... umbrella. Most people have hooked umbrellas—or, if this statement be offensive to any one, we will say that most people have had umbrellas hooked. The chance resemblance of this expression to one signifying to obstruct illegally that which properly belongs to another, reminds us to speak of the singular fact that the umbrella is not property. This is important. It rests on judicial decision, and becomes more important when we remember that by similar decision the negro is property, and that, therefore, until ...
— Punchinello, Vol. 1, No. 2, April 9, 1870 • Various
... as something known by others, and requiring only to be studied and learned by the child, rules out such conditions of fulfilment. It condemns the fact to be a hieroglyph: it would mean something if one only had the key. The clue being lacking, it remains an idle curiosity, to fret and obstruct the mind, a dead ...
— The Child and the Curriculum • John Dewey
... hindrances obstruct thy way, Thy magnanimity display, And let thy strength be seen; But oh! if Fortune fill thy sail With more than a propitious gale, ...
— Museum of Antiquity - A Description of Ancient Life • L. W. Yaggy
... most effectual means of strengthening it? I often think how plainly the Lord declares, 'Believe only, and thou shalt be saved. Only have faith; all things are possible to him that has it.' How I wish that we could remove all those mountains that hinder and obstruct the light of his grace; so that, having full access unto God through that ever-blessed Spirit, we might lovingly commune with him as with the dearest of friends. What favour does God bestow on worms! And yet we love to murmur and complain. He may well say, 'What should I have done more, that I have ...
— The Annals of the Poor • Legh Richmond
... obvious that, under these circumstances, the true policy of General Pope was to obstruct Thoroughfare Gap, the only road by which Lee could approach promptly, and then crush Jackson. On the night of the 27th, General McDowell was accordingly sent thither with forty thousand men; but General Pope ordered him, on the next morning, to Manassas, ...
— A Life of Gen. Robert E. Lee • John Esten Cooke
... now to obstruct the coronation of your Majesty," said an officer of the court to ...
— Historical Tales, Vol. 6 (of 15) - The Romance of Reality. French. • Charles Morris
... monarchs and their servants, the dynastic wars, the solemn treaties; the Ossa upon Pelion of diplomatic and legislative rubbish by which, in the course of centuries, a few individuals or combinations of individuals have been able to obstruct the march of humanity, and have essayed to suspend the operation of elemental laws—all this contains but little solid food for grown human beings. The condition of the brave and quickwitted Spanish people in the latter half of the sixteenth century gives ...
— The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-1566 • John Lothrop Motley
... means of a river which does not break itself into any great number of branches or canals, and which runs into another territory before it reaches the sea, can never be very considerable, because it is always in the power of the nations who possess that other territory to obstruct the communication between the upper country and the sea. The navigation of the Danube is of very little use to the different states of Bavaria, Austria, and Hungary, in comparison of what it would be, if any of them possessed the whole of its course, ...
— An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations • Adam Smith
... and the same quickness of parts and vigour of imagination which united with prudence, or accompanied by judgment, might have raised him to the head of his profession, being unhappily associated with fickleness and caprice, served only to impede his improvement, and obstruct his preferment. And now, with little business, and that little neglected, a small fortune, and that fortune daily becoming less, the admiration of the world, but that admiration ending simply in civility, he lived an ...
— Cecilia Volume 1 • Frances Burney
... cried, "thy little breast Ne'er knew the heartfelt woes of men; No pain or care disturb thy rest, Or jarring scenes obstruct ...
— Withered Leaves from Memory's Garland • Abigail Stanley Hanna
... Germany you must not hang your bed out of window. He might begin with that. By waving his bed out of window he could get into trouble before he had his breakfast. At home he might hang himself out of window, and nobody would mind much, provided he did not obstruct anybody's ancient lights or break away and injure ...
— Three Men on the Bummel • Jerome K. Jerome
... still to feel their way up the winding reaches of the James. Their progress was very slow; there was time to obstruct the passage, and batteries were hastily improvised. The people made a mighty effort; and on the commanding heights of Drewry's Bluff, six miles below the city, might be seen senators and merchants, bankers and clergymen, digging parapets and hauling timber, in company with parties ...
— Stonewall Jackson And The American Civil War • G. F. R. Henderson
... is not possible to give a fair verdict by which he will not stand acquitted. But pleading is not our present business. His plea or his traverse may be allowed as an answer to a charge, when a charge is made. But if he puts himself in the way to obstruct reformation, then the faults of his office instantly become his own. Instead of a public officer in an abusive department, whose province is an object to be regulated, he becomes a criminal who is to be punished. I do most seriously put it to administration, ...
— Selections from the Speeches and Writings of Edmund Burke. • Edmund Burke
... music, the record of a game of chess—anything—and it is there. This is the immortal mind—nothing is beyond its reach. Nothing can obstruct my vision; the rocks are transparent to me, and darkness is daylight. I do not need to open a book; I take the whole of its contents into my mind at a single glance, through the cover; and in a million years ...
— The Mysterious Stranger and Other Stories • Mark Twain
... rarely form themselves into any picturesque acclivity. Hardly is there on the whole course of the river one bold bluff or headland to obstruct the sight; and the scenery might even be thought tame and uninteresting, but for a home-born feeling that comes over the kind heart as it approaches so close to the mowers on the meadow-field as ...
— The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine, April 1844 - Volume 23, Number 4 • Various
... absolutely necessary, and we protested against enacting for Ireland a criminal code which was not to be applied to Great Britain. Our resistance might have been more successful but for the manner in which the Nationalist members conducted their opposition. When they began to obstruct—not that under the circumstances we felt entitled to censure them for obstructing a Bill dealing so harshly with their countrymen—we were obliged to desist, and our experience of the stormy scenes of the summer of 1882 deepened our sense of the passionate bitterness with which ...
— Handbook of Home Rule (1887) • W. E. Gladstone et al.
... the Nepalese on the west, the Bhutan people on the east, and the Tibetans on the north; and though the terms of the treaty stipulated for free intercourse, mutual protection, and friendship; the Sikkim authorities had hitherto been allowed to obstruct all intercourse, and in every way to treat the Governor-General's agent and the East India Company with contempt. An affectation of timidity, mistrust, and ignorance was assumed for the purpose of deception, and as a cloak for every insult and resistance to ...
— Himalayan Journals (Complete) • J. D. Hooker
... to swallow the brains. He is most valiant and influential who has cut off most heads. No woman will marry any one who has not cut off some heads. They are so inhuman and churlish a race that they do not care whether those whom they kill are women, children, or men. They obstruct the most needed road in the island, and occupy the best land. They are near the province of La Pampanga, which is inhabited by an agricultural people, who support Manila. They prevent the latter from cultivating their fields, for seldom ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898: Volume XVIII, 1617-1620 • Various
... is very convenient, as they understand French, and can make themselves understood thro' a great part of Spain: from which kingdom not a day passes but mules and carriages arrive, except when the heavy rains or snow obstruct the communication.—The mules and asses of Spain, and this part of France, are not only very useful but valuable beasts: the only way to get a valuable one of either sort from Spain, is, to fix ...
— A Year's Journey through France and Part of Spain, 1777 - Volume 1 (of 2) • Philip Thicknesse
... for years pursued, in Peking as in Washington, a policy of his own, never disguised, and as little in harmony with his chief as with Hay; he made his opposition on fixed lines for notorious objects; but Senators could seldom give a reason for obstruction. In every hundred men, a certain number obstruct by instinct, and try to invent reasons to explain it afterwards. The Senate was no worse than the board of a university; but incorporators as a rule have not made this class of men dictators on purpose to prevent action. In the Senate, a single vote commonly ...
— The Education of Henry Adams • Henry Adams
... to dismantle whatever transports may attempt to sail from Bahia under convoy of the ships of war. That I have the means of performing this duty, in defiance of the ships of war which may endeavour to obstruct my operations, is a fact which no naval officer will doubt—but which to you as a military man may not be so apparent. If, after this warning, I am compelled to have recourse to the measures alluded to, and if numerous lives should be sacrificed thereby, I shall stand acquitted ...
— Narrative of Services in the Liberation of Chili, Peru and Brazil, - from Spanish and Portuguese Domination, Volume 2 • Thomas Cochrane, Tenth Earl of Dundonald
... ships, which from the inequality of their rates of sailing cannot readily keep their stations in the line, are not to obstruct the compliance with the intent of the signal in others; nor to hazard throwing the fleet into disorder by persisting too long in their endeavours to preserve their stations under such circumstances; but they are to fall astern and ...
— Fighting Instructions, 1530-1816 - Publications Of The Navy Records Society Vol. XXIX. • Julian S. Corbett
... leaned over on their hard clay beds, and there was a neat curtain and a mosquito netting on each window. But right against the window that overlooked the Cassidys' yard, Mrs. Cassidy had piled all the old boards, boxes and rubbish she could find, to obstruct the view to the town, of her too ambitious neighbour. "Now, what do you think of that?" cried Madame. "Isn't ...
— The End of the Rainbow • Marian Keith
... literary labour which blindness cannot obstruct, and, therefore, he naturally solaced his solitude by the indulgence of his fancy, and the melody of his numbers. He had done what he knew to be necessary previous to poetical excellence; he had made himself acquainted with "seemly arts and affairs;" his comprehension was extended by various knowledge, ...
— Lives of the Poets, Vol. 1 • Samuel Johnson
... countrymen, and which, while inefficient for the purpose of revenue, curtailed our trade relations and impeded our entrance to the markets of the world, has been superseded by a tariff policy which in principle is based upon a denial of the right of the Government to obstruct the avenues to our people's cheap living or lessen their comfort and contentment for the sake of according especial advantages to favorites, and which, while encouraging our intercourse and trade with other nations, recognizes the fact that American self-reliance, thrift, ...
— Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents - Volume 8, Section 2 (of 2): Grover Cleveland • Grover Cleveland
... I am well assured, that so firm is his conviction of my intending the good of his throne and of his people, that to preserve me his minister is the first wish of his heart. I am confident that without hesitation he would dismiss from his councils any who should obstruct my views, or be ...
— Tales and Novels, Vol. VII - Patronage • Maria Edgeworth
... law decides that a quart of corn per day is sufficient. But, if the slave does not receive this poor allowance, who can prove the fact. The withholding of proper sustenance is absolutely incapable of proof, unless the evidence of the sufferer himself be allowed; and the law, as if determined to obstruct the administration of justice, permits the master to exculpate himself by an oath that the charges against him are false. Clothing may, indeed, be ascertained by inspection; but who is likely to involve himself in quarrels with a white master because a poor negro receives a few rags less than ...
— An Appeal in Favor of that Class of Americans Called Africans • Lydia Maria Child
... indeed the people began to think their demand was eluded, and the redress of their grievances delayed; that such of the senators as had absented themselves did so not through chance or fear, but on purpose to obstruct the business. That the consuls themselves trifled with them, that their miseries were now a mere subject of mockery. By this time the sedition was come to such a height, that the majesty of the consuls could hardly restrain the violence of the people. Wherefore, ...
— The History of Rome, Books 01 to 08 • Titus Livius
... rich among his congregation. Thought plays but a trivial part in Hodder's evolution. Had he done any real thinking or were he capable of it he must long before have freed himself from the dogmas that obstruct him. Instead he has drifted with the general stream and learns not from the leaders but from the slower followers of opinion. Like the politician he absorbs through his skin, gathering premonitions as to which way the crowd is going ...
— Contemporary American Novelists (1900-1920) • Carl Van Doren
... followers in unmeasured terms, and soon the bonzes began to intrigue with corresponding vehemence for the expulsion of the foreign propagandists. But the shogun extended his protection to Vilela, by issuing a decree which made it a capital punishment to injure the missionaries or obstruct their work. The times, however, were very troublous, so that Vilela and his fellow workers had to encounter much difficulty and no little danger. Nothing, however, damped their ardour, and five years after ...
— A History of the Japanese People - From the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era • Frank Brinkley and Dairoku Kikuchi
... this head of yours shall be off. This cavalier manner of Henry's succeeded; for next day the bill passed. Another instance of arbitrary power is worth relating. In Strype's life of Stow we find, a garden house belonging to an honest citizen of London, (which chanced to obstruct the improvement of a powerful favourite. Thomas Cromwell,) "loosed from the foundation, borne on rollers, and replaced two and twenty feet within the garden," without the owner's leave being required; nay without his knowledge. The persons ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 10, - Issue 269, August 18, 1827 • Various
... air of Aix is disagreeably cold in the winter, it is rendered quite insufferable in the summer, from excessive heat, occasioned by the reflexion from the rocks and mountains, which at the same time obstruct the circulation of air: for it must be observed, that the same mountains which serve as funnels and canals, to collect and discharge the keen blasts of winter, will provide screens to intercept intirely the faint breezes of summer. ...
— Travels Through France and Italy • Tobias Smollett
... of Sagasta, who, in the exposition to the Queen Regent, which accompanied the project of autonomy, stated: That the inhabitants of the Antilles frequently complained of, and lamented the irritating inequalities which alone were enough to obstruct or entirely prevent the exercise of constitutional privileges, and he concludes with these remarkable words: " ... So that, if by arbitrary dispositions without appeal, by penalties imposed by proclamations of the governors-general, or by simply ignoring the laws ...
— The History of Puerto Rico - From the Spanish Discovery to the American Occupation • R.A. Van Middeldyk
... you obstruct the King's highroad, You saucy varlet, get out of my way." Then he gave the fool a cut with his whip And leaving ...
— A Dome of Many-Coloured Glass • Amy Lowell
... whose force can make The solid globe's eternal basis shake: "Against the might of man, so feeble known, Why should celestial powers exert their own? Suffice from yonder mount to view the scene, And leave to war the fates of mortal men. But if the armipotent, or god of light, Obstruct Achilles, or commence the fight. Thence on the gods of Troy we swift descend: Full soon, I doubt not, shall the conflict end; And these, in ruin and confusion hurl'd, Yield to our conquering arms ...
— The Iliad of Homer • Homer
... banks of a beautiful brook, called the Buttermilk Creek, in the immediate vicinity of the city of Albany, N. Y. Though there is no poetry in the name of this little stream, there is sweet music made by its rippling waters, as they rush rapidly along the shallow channel, fretting at the rocks that obstruct its course, and racing toward a precipice, down which it plunges, some thirty or forty feet, forming a light, feathery cascade; and then, as if exhausted by the leap, creeping sluggishly its little distance toward the broad Hudson. The white spray, churned out by the friction against ...
— The Runaway - The Adventures of Rodney Roverton • Unknown
... which it hung. But these tales were deemed unworthy of credit, all professing to believe that the search had been baffled by want of sagacity or perseverance in the adventurers, or such other causes as might naturally obstruct the passage to any given point among the intricacies of forest, ...
— The Great Stone Face - And Other Tales Of The White Mountains • Nathaniel Hawthorne
... greater distance cannot be obtained at reasonable cost. To secure suitable sight distance, the curves must be of long radii, and where possible the right-of-way on the inside of the curve should be cleared of trees or brush that will obstruct the view. Where the topography will not permit a long radius curve and the view is obstructed by an embankment or by growing crops or other growth, it is desirable to separate the tracks around the curve to eliminate the possibility of accidents on the curve. This is readily accomplished ...
— American Rural Highways • T. R. Agg
... and obstruct peace of mind so much as one sin: therefore, if you would walk cheerfully, be most careful to walk holily. All the winds about the earth make not an earthquake, but only ...
— Many Thoughts of Many Minds - A Treasury of Quotations from the Literature of Every Land and Every Age • Various
... other garden refuse, a condition of atmosphere very injurious to health, and answerable for much of the neuralgia of a malarious kind, of which we have heard so much lately. A very slight belt of trees suffices to obstruct the lateral circulation of the air, and if the sun be also excluded the natural upward currents are ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 611, September 17, 1887 • Various
... effort and opportunity. The sun and the air are God's free gifts to all we say, but are they so? In yonder city's dingy alleys the sun shines not, and the air is foul. Oh, man, how dost thou forget and obstruct thy brother man, and say, "Give us this day our daily bread," when he has none! Oh, would that men would leave the city, its splendour and its tumult and its gold, and return to wood and field and simple, honest living! Then would their children ...
— Story of My Life • Helen Keller
... assailed or glorified. He becomes the personification of an evil thing that must be destroyed or of a good thing that must be protected. It is a result of such reasoning that men ignorant of underlying social, political, or industrial forces seek to obstruct the processes of evolution by removing the individual. On this ground the anarchists have been led to remove hundreds of police officials, capitalists, royalties, and others. They have been poisoned, shot, and dynamited, in the belief that their removal would benefit humanity. Yet nothing ...
— Violence and the Labor Movement • Robert Hunter
... French people really feel. We know that a deep- seated determination to obstruct every step in the Axis plan extends from occupied France through Vichy France all the way to the people of their colonies in every ocean ...
— The Fireside Chats of Franklin Delano Roosevelt • Franklin Delano Roosevelt
... hospitals and the good treatment of the wounded have been sanctioned by international agreement. The distinction between the civil population and combatants has been increasingly observed. As a general rule non-combatants, if they do not obstruct the enemy, are subjected to no further injury than that of paying war contributions and in other ways providing for the subsistence of the invaders. The wanton destruction of private property has been more and more avoided. Such an ...
— The Map of Life - Conduct and Character • William Edward Hartpole Lecky
... if all the dirt is removed. The branch should be well fitted into the run of the pipe so that no solder will get into the bore of the pipe. The branch should not extend into the run of pipe enough to obstruct the bore of it. If the instructions for preparing the pipe are not carried out as detailed, the wiper will experience some trouble that he ...
— Elements of Plumbing • Samuel Dibble
... valley. On the side of the Green that led towards the church, the broken line of thatched cottages was continued nearly to the churchyard gate; but on the opposite northwestern side, there was nothing to obstruct the view of gently swelling meadow, and wooded valley, and dark masses of distant hill. That rich undulating district of Loamshire to which Hayslope belonged lies close to a grim outskirt of Stonyshire, overlooked by its barren hills as ...
— Adam Bede • George Eliot
... the nave and transept within, it is difficult now to obtain a correct idea, the floor intervening to obstruct a general view.—High arches, encircled with the embattled moulding below; above these, a wide billeted string-course, forming a basis for a row of smaller arches, without side-pillars or decoration of any kind; then another string-course of different and ...
— Account of a Tour in Normandy, Vol. II. (of 2) • Dawson Turner
... enough expostulated upon my obstinacy, in refusing a submission, which promised to give me freedom. He observed, that the rest of my family was not to be sacrificed to the peace of one child alone, and she the only one who had offended me. 'Beside,' added he, 'I don't know if it be just thus to obstruct the union of man and wife, which you do at present, by refusing to consent to a match which you cannot hinder, but ...
— The Vicar of Wakefield • Oliver Goldsmith
... sense of gratitude the favour of your last letter, and was overjoy'd to hear from yourself that your long confinement has not been able hitherto to obstruct the lively flow of your spirits. A little more patience and you'll reach the end of all your misfortunes, that have been faithfully partaken by your friends in England and abroad, for my own part I wish most sincerely that everything for the future ...
— Baron d'Holbach • Max Pearson Cushing
... Redistribution, why agitate for Woman's Suffrage, if trifles like these are to obstruct a girl's path ...
— Much Darker Days • Andrew Lang (AKA A. Huge Longway)
... water below, here pause and wait. There is a hush whose voice is more eloquent than any human appeal. The low gurgling music of the little waves that creep techily over and under the hanging boughs that teaze and obstruct them in their onward passage, the crowded leaves, rubbing their swaying heads affectionately together; the gentle wind resting in sighs of relief upon the graceful tree tops, and sending its messages of love from bough to bough, until it spends itself upon the quiet bosom of the waters ...
— Honor Edgeworth • Vera
... two and he knocked them down; they came three by three and he knocked them down. Between his feats of strength he frequently put his long hair back with his hand, so that it should fall behind and not hinder his movements or obstruct his sight. When he had done, the curtain fell on about thirty soldiers, heaps upon heaps, writhing in their ...
— Diversions in Sicily • H. Festing Jones
... act may be better enforced, and that nothing may arise to obstruct or hinder its fulfilment (inasmuch as it has been ordered, by other acts, that all the natives shall raise the said fowls and swine, under certain penalties), the said alcaldes-mayor are again charged to exert all care in this matter, so that the natives may easily furnish what is assigned to and ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 - Volume X, 1597-1599 • E. H. Blair
... face—the disguise of a wandering minstrel?" he demanded impetuously. "It was to free myself from his infernal spying—to afford myself the opportunity of gaining your friendship without his knowledge! Why did he follow—always follow? Because at the command of his chief, he must needs obstruct my plan of winning you. There was always Princess Phaedra! Why did he watch by night in the forest. To spy! Can you ...
— Diane of the Green Van • Leona Dalrymple
... the part of a man, Monsieur, and cease your grumbling. The very life of Mademoiselle may hang upon our venture; and if you ever interfere or obstruct my purpose, I will kill you as I would a dog. You understand that, Monsieur de Croix; now, ...
— When Wilderness Was King - A Tale of the Illinois Country • Randall Parrish
... consequently the world was transformed. All her previous hesitations in surrendering to her incipient love for Perigal were forgotten; the full, flowing current of her passion disregarded the trifling obstacles which had once sought to obstruct its progress. Life, nature, the aspect of things took on the abnormally adorable hues of those who love and are beloved. Such was the rapture in her heart, that days, hours, moments were all too fleeting for the enjoyment of her newborn felicity. The radiant happiness which welled ...
— Sparrows - The Story of an Unprotected Girl • Horace W. C. Newte |
