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Gem   Listen
noun
Gem  n.  
1.
(Bot.) A bud. "From the joints of thy prolific stem A swelling knot is raised called a gem."
2.
A precious stone of any kind, as the ruby, emerald, topaz, sapphire, beryl, spinel, etc., especially when cut and polished for ornament; a jewel.
3.
Anything of small size, or expressed within brief limits, which is regarded as a gem on account of its beauty or value, as a small picture, a verse of poetry, a witty or wise saying.
Artificial gem, an imitation of a gem, made of glass colored with metallic oxide. Cf. Paste, and Strass.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Gem" Quotes from Famous Books



... my Diary.—"Poor Taber has such an awful part in the play, and mine is even worse. It is short enough, yet I feel I can't cut too much of it.... The gem of the whole play is my hair! Not waved at all, and very filmy and pale. Henry, I admit, is splendid; but oh, it is all such rubbish!... If 'Manfred' and a few such plays are to succeed this, I simply ...
— The Story of My Life - Recollections and Reflections • Ellen Terry

... command, and Major-General Burrell had the command of the military force. Previous to this an edict had been issued, warning all foreign vessels from anchoring near the devoted English ships, lest they should be involved in the destruction preparing for the latter—"lest the gem should be consumed with the common stone." The first arrival of this armament in the Canton river was her majesty's ship Alligator, Captain Kuper, on the 9th of June. Previous to this the Chinese authorities at ...
— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. - From George III. to Victoria • E. Farr and E. H. Nolan

... gentlemen, what I have no hesitation in regarding as the gem of the sale. It has by a highly unfortunate mischance lain hidden up to five minutes ago. It is nothing less, in fact, than an indisputably genuine Van Ruiter—(sensation)—which Colonel Allen has very nobly consented to sacrifice for—for the splendid cause which ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 146, January 28, 1914 • Various

... battled against hope, the comprehensive outlook, the sagacious purpose, the resolute will, the unhesitating self-sacrifice, the undaunted devotion which has made this heroic ground: cast these into your own glowing crucible, O gracious friend, and crystallize for yourself such a gem of days as shall worthily be set forever in ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. XII. July, 1863, No. LXIX. - A Magazine Of Literature, Art, And Politics • Various

... looked about fifteen, called to me: "Don't leave me, sir." I said, "I will come back for you, sonny," as I had a man on my back at the time. In that waste of dead one wounded man was like a gem in sawdust—just as hard to find. Four trips I made before I found him, then it was as if I had found my own young brother. Both his legs were broken, and he was only a schoolboy, one of those overgrown lads who had added ...
— "Over There" with the Australians • R. Hugh Knyvett

... its wide, tranquil rooms rich in art and ancient memories, every stone within them glowing, with everlasting beauty—a house enduring as the green plains and rushing rivers and solemn woods and world-old hills amid which it was set like a sacred gem! O sweet abode of love and peace and purity of heart! O bliss surpassing that of the angels! O rich heritage, must I lose you for ever! Save me from death, Yoletta, my love, my bride—save ...
— A Crystal Age • W. H. Hudson

... kindled into quick shafts and points of colour—violet, green, yellow, and fieriest red—lay the missing diamond among Roger's bones. As I clutched the gem a black shadow fell between the moon and me. I looked up. My companion was standing over me, with the twinkle still in his eye and the ...
— Noughts and Crosses • Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch

... Caerleon and Northgalis and at Joyeuse Garde might men behold me with delight, because, men said, to view me was to comprehend the power and kindliness of their Creator. Very beautiful was Iseult, and the face of Luned sparkled like a moving gem; Morgaine and Enid and Viviane and shrewd Nimue were lovely, too; and the comeliness of Ettarde exalted the beholder like a proud music: these, going statelily about Arthur's hall, seemed Heaven's finest craftsmanship until the Queen came to her dais, as the moon among glowing ...
— Jurgen - A Comedy of Justice • James Branch Cabell

... things left for May," says John Burroughs, "but nothing fairer, if as fair, as the first flower, the hepatica. I find I have never admired this little firstling half enough. When at the maturity of its charms, it is certainly the gem of the woods. What an individuality it has! No two clusters alike; all shades and sizes.... A solitary blue-purple one, fully expanded and rising over the brown leaves or the green moss, its cluster of minute ...
— Wild Flowers, An Aid to Knowledge of Our Wild Flowers and - Their Insect Visitors - - Title: Nature's Garden • Neltje Blanchan

... and flowers—of virtuous root; Gem yielding blossom, yielding fruit, Choice gums and precious balm; Bless ye the nosegay in the vale, And with the sweetness of the ...
— Specimens with Memoirs of the Less-known British Poets, Complete • George Gilfillan

... Mining accounts for 20% of GDP. Namibia is the fourth-largest exporter of nonfuel minerals in Africa and the world's fifth-largest producer of uranium. Rich alluvial diamond deposits make Namibia a primary source for gem-quality diamonds. Namibia also produces large quantities of lead, zinc, tin, silver, and tungsten. Half of the population depends on agriculture (largely subsistence agriculture) for its livelihood. Namibia must ...
— The 2000 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency.

... us from sinking into a habit of slothful, undiscriminating acquiescence, and on the other to provide a check against those presumptuous fanatics who would rend the URIM AND THUMMIM FROM THE BREASTPLATE OF JUDGMENT, and frame oracles by private divination from each letter of each disjointed gem, uninterpreted by the Priest, and deserted by the Spirit, which shines in the parts only as it ...
— Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit etc. • by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

... he cast about him to establish on the banks of the Loire a monastic colony such as he had founded at Liguge. He found a place where in later times rose the great abbey of Marmoutier, the wealthiest in France, and with a church that was called the Gem of Touraine. But then it was merely a chalk cliff rising above the Loire on its right bank, two miles above Tours, and on the summit had stood the old Gaulish city of Altionos. The Romans had transferred the capital ...
— Castles and Cave Dwellings of Europe • Sabine Baring-Gould

... they do so unctuously in the true Macaulayan style. We feel a natural wrath at all this, not unmingled with amusement and amazement. In studying the question we read much that rouses anger and contempt, but one must laugh out heartily in coming to this gem of Mill's, uttered with all Mill's solemnity: "Place-hunting is a form of ambition to which the English, considered nationally, are almost strangers." When the sincerest expression of the English mind can produce this we need to have our wits about ...
— Principles of Freedom • Terence J. MacSwiney

... float, Fraught with hale odors up the heavens afar To faint when twilight on her virginal throat Wears for a gem the tremulous vesper star. ...
— Songs from the Southland • Various

... them no truth; no goodness; the whole world was alike. Yet he had believed in her so implicitly—in her guileless purity, her truth, her freedom from every taint of the world. That fair, spirituelle form had seemed to him only as a beautiful casket hiding a precious gem. Nay, still more, though knowing and loving her, he had begun to care for everything good and pure that interested her. Now ...
— Dora Thorne • Charlotte M. Braeme

... of Art does not necessarily imply that one is an adequate critic. Miss Holland contemplated what was a veritable little gem ...
— From a Bench in Our Square • Samuel Hopkins Adams

... his last. Eadward died in 925, but the reign of his son AEthelstan, AElfred's golden-haired grandson whom the King had girded as a child with a sword set in a golden scabbard and a gem-studded belt, proved even more glorious than his own. In spite of its submission the North had still to be won. Dread of the northmen had drawn Scot and Cumbrian to their acknowledgement of Eadward's overlordship, but AEthelstan ...
— History of the English People, Volume I (of 8) - Early England, 449-1071; Foreign Kings, 1071-1204; The Charter, 1204-1216 • John Richard Green

... making a wonderful work of art does not toss his jewels together in any haphazard way. He often has to wait for months to get the right ruby, or the right pearl, or the right diamond to fit in the right place. Those who do not know might think one gem just like another, but the artist knows. He has been looking at gems, examining them under the microscope. There is a meaning in every facet, in every shade of color. He sees blemishes which the ordinary eye would ...
— Great Pianists on Piano Playing • James Francis Cooke

... satiny gloss and of a bluish-green tint, while from the back of the neck rose a shield—in form like that on the breast, but considerably larger and longer—of a rich black, tinged with purple and bronze. It would be difficult to do justice by a verbal description to the beauty of that little gem of a bird, when, animated, it expanded its shields and stood quivering on its perch. I often thought how much more beautiful must be the appearance of numbers collected together in their native woods in the interior of New Guinea, from whence this one was brought. The feet ...
— In the Eastern Seas • W.H.G. Kingston

... "Oh, 'Gem' is our protector, you see. Marty and I are alone at night sometimes, when Grandfather's away foresting; you are from the ...
— The Quest of Happy Hearts • Kathleen Hay

... girls arrived, that evening, they found Mrs. Chairwoman surrounded by a strew of theatrical properties, enjoying herself very much. All brought such contributions as they could muster, and all were eager about a certain tableau which was to be the gem of the whole, they thought. Jill, of course, was not expected to take any part, but her taste was good, so all consulted her as they showed their old silks, laces, and flowers, asking who should be this, and who that. All wanted to ...
— Jack and Jill • Louisa May Alcott

... dues by Mother Church, I pluck the cackler from the perch; Or, in its place, the shilling clasp From grumbling dame's slow opening grasp. But, Visitation Day! 'tis thine Best to deserve my native line. Great day! the purest, brightest gem That decks the fair year's diadem. Grand day! that sees me costless dine And costless quaff the rosy wine, Till seven churchwardens doubled seem, And doubled every taper's gleam; And I triumphant over time, And over tune, and over rhyme, Call'd by the gay ...
— The Parish Clerk (1907) • Peter Hampson Ditchfield

... ["As a gem shines enchased in yellow gold, or an ornament on the neck or head, or as ivory has lustre, set by art in boxwood ...
— The Essays of Montaigne, Complete • Michel de Montaigne

... the House of Bourbon, was very wise in council, simple in manners, and chivalric in the field. 2. Caesar defeated Pompey at Pharsalia. 3. The diamond is the most valuable gem. 4. The Greeks took Troy by stratagem. 5. The submarine cable unites the continent of America and the Old World. 6. The Gauls joined the army of Hannibal. 7. Columbus crossed the Atlantic with ninety men, and landed at San Salvador. 8. Vulcan made arms for Achilles. 9. Cromwell gained ...
— Graded Lessons in English • Alonzo Reed and Brainerd Kellogg

... barren being do we reap? Our senses narrow, and our reason frail, Life short, and truth a gem which loves the deep, And all things weighed in custom's falsest scale; Opinion an omnipotence, whose veil Mantles the earth with darkness, until right And wrong are accidents, and men grow pale Lest their own judgments should become ...
— Lady John Russell • Desmond MacCarthy and Agatha Russell

... of sark of shadowy black veil, sewn over with sparkling bits of gem. It was in truth but an effective ornament for the proud firm breasts, the narrow waist, the arch of the hips and the curves of her thighs. Inadvertently I let out a low whistle of approbation and astonishment. ...
— Valley of the Croen • Lee Tarbell

... marble, without any inscription; his wife and several other persons, including two later Emperors, are buried here also. As was quite the custom of the time, the tomb is surrounded by a garden of thirteen acres. Farther on, was the Tomb of a Saint, a perfect gem! It is built of white marble, is eighteen feet square, and is surrounded by a broad veranda. Around the covered grave there is a low marble rail, and over it a beautiful canopy, inlaid with mother-of-pearl; in the walls are finely pierced screens. Near this tomb is ...
— Travels in the Far East • Ellen Mary Hayes Peck

... glistens, must be lined with down! With outside show, and vain appearance caught, They look no further, and, by Folly taught, Prize high the toys of thrones, but never find One of the many cares which lurk behind. 110 The gem they worship which a crown adorns, Nor once suspect that crown is lined with thorns. Oh, might Reflection Folly's place supply, Would we one moment use her piercing eye, Then should we find what woe from grandeur springs, And learn to pity, not to envy kings! The ...
— Poetical Works • Charles Churchill

... all things, and he carried off La Colbrand from her cher ami, the Neapolitan director of San Carlo, and married her. It was a regular elopement, as if of a young miss from her papa. Do not look so shocked. Rossini could not help his changeability. You women always throw away a real gem, and receive, nine times out of ten, a mock one in return. But the fault lies not with us, but with you; you almost invariably select the wrong person. Now such men as Montresor and I knew how to return a real gem for ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 4, No. 24, Oct. 1859 • Various

... elegant and curious trifles—fans on the mantelshelf, an antique lamp upon a bracket, and on the table a silver-mounted bowl of cocoa-nut about half full of unset jewels. The fair Cuban, herself a gem of colour and the fit masterpiece for that rich frame, motioned Harry to a seat, and, sinking herself into another, thus ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 5 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson

... your love on my forehead, Its sweet links clasped with a kiss, And all the great monarchs of England Never wore such a gem as this. Give me your hand, little maiden, That sceptre so pearly white, And I'll envy not the kingliest wand That ...
— Poems • Marietta Holley

... lies low in the valley and the cottage is near the water, there are wild blooms, too, which almost rival those of the garden in beauty—water agrimony and comfrey with ivory-white and dim purple blossoms, purple and yellow loosestrife and gem-like, water forget-me-not; all these mixed with reeds and sedges and water-grasses, forming a fringe or border to the potato or cabbage patch, ...
— A Shepherd's Life • W. H. Hudson

... Spirit of the Lord spake by me, and His word was in my tongue," he meant something more than the prayer which forms the gem of Paradise Lost. When Isaiah and his brethren said, "Thus saith the Lord," they claimed something higher than that they were speaking under the stirrings of poetic rapture. When Paul said to the Corinthians, "Which things also we ...
— The Great Doctrines of the Bible • Rev. William Evans

... was quite dazzling to the eyes, that elated the spirits, and caused man and beast to tread with a more elastic step than usual. Although the sun looked down upon the scene with an unclouded face, and found a mirror in every icicle and in every gem of hoar-frost with which the objects of nature were loaded, there was, however, no perceptible heat in his rays. They fell on the white earth with all the brightness of midsummer, but they fell powerless as moonbeams in ...
— The Young Fur Traders • R.M. Ballantyne

... wealth the casket held?... Perhaps the red gold nestled there, Loving and close as in the mine; Or diamonds lit the sunless air, Or rubies blushed like bridal wine. Some giant gem, like that which bought The half of a realm in Timour's day, Might here, beyond temptation's thought, Be hidden in safety; who ...
— Hunter's Marjory - A Story for Girls • Margaret Bruce Clarke

... avoid the scandal and the danger both, it is good, to take knowledge of the errors of an habit so excellent. Seek the good of other men, but be not in bondage to their faces or fancies; for that is but facility, or softness; which taketh an honest mind prisoner. Neither give thou AEsop's cock a gem, who would be better pleased, and happier, if he had had a barley-corn. The example of God, teacheth the lesson truly: He sendeth his rain, and maketh his sun to shine, upon the just and unjust; but he doth not rain wealth, ...
— Essays - The Essays Or Counsels, Civil And Moral, Of Francis Ld. - Verulam Viscount St. Albans • Francis Bacon

... name, with the brightness of fame, To shine upon history's pages; It shall be a gem in the diadem Of ...
— Two Knapsacks - A Novel of Canadian Summer Life • John Campbell

... From this little gem of a church the company were driven to the Chandi Chowk, which is a boulevard, planted with trees and lined with elegant buildings. The stores of the principal merchants of Delhi were here, and most of them were on the plan of an Oriental bazaar. The little square shops challenged ...
— Across India - Or, Live Boys in the Far East • Oliver Optic

... and the subordinate and collateral points of his system invested with a high degree of probability; the falsehood of a conclusion fairly drawn from such premises as we have pointed out would be nearer akin to a metaphysical impossibility; and so long as the light of every other gem that glitters in a nation's diadem is faint and feeble when compared with the splendour of intellectual glory, Spain will owe a debt of gratitude to him among her sons who has placed upon her brow the jewel which France (as if aggression for more material objects could not fill ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine - Volume 55, No. 344, June, 1844 • Various

... reading and studying the various Metaphysical "Sciences" which have sprung into such favor of late years, if one will but read, ponder, study and practice the precepts of this wonderful passage of the Sermon on the Mount. Every sentence is a gem—a crystal of the highest mystic and occult philosophy. Book after book could be written on this one passage, and even then the subject would be but merely approached. The doctrine of single-mindedness toward the Spirit and the things of the Spirit, is taught. The folly of being tied ...
— Mystic Christianity • Yogi Ramacharaka

... Garunda this week, you know, and three others of the best horses in my stable, just to raise money for immediate necessities. Wanted to buy a most interesting missal, quite unique in its way, offered me by Menotti and Cicolari, dirt cheap, for three thousand guineas. It's quite a gem of late miniaturist art—vellum folio, with borders and head-pieces by Giulio Clovio. A ...
— Philistia • Grant Allen

... setting nestles our much-talked-of "Gem City of Nevada"—the city of heart-throbs and dreams! Its chief industries, I would say, are gold and love.... One less poetic might ...
— Reno - A Book of Short Stories and Information • Lilyan Stratton

... many a gem of purest ray serene[9] The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear: Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, 55 And waste its ...
— Selections from Five English Poets • Various

... Ah, simple Hero, learn thyself to cherish. Lone women like to empty houses perish. Less sins the poor rich man that starves himself In heaping up a mass of drossy pelf, Than such as you. His golden earth remains Which, after his decease, some other gains. But this fair gem, sweet in the loss alone, When you fleet hence, can be bequeathed to none. Or, if it could, down from th'enameled sky All heaven would come to claim this legacy, And with intestine broils the world destroy, And quite confound nature's sweet harmony. Well therefore by the gods decreed it is We human ...
— Hero and Leander • Christopher Marlowe

... His mane is yellow, his tail is white; With little ears and tawny head, No steed like him was ever bred. The good archbishop spurs a-field, And smites Abyme upon the shield, His emir's shield, so thickly sown With many a gem and precious stone, Amethyst and topaz, crystals bright, And red carbuncles flashing light: The shield is shivered by the blow; No longer worth a doit, I trow; Stark dead the emir lies below. 'Ha! bravely struck!' ...
— A Popular History of France From The Earliest Times - Volume IV. of VI. • Francois Pierre Guillaume Guizot

... flute, held it in both hands, and drew it apart at the tuning-slide, held it sidewise, and then unscrewed the top plug, showing an opening, out of which he shook a magnificent gem of great size and ...
— A Dash from Diamond City • George Manville Fenn

... so forward, unless he was tipsie, To choose for a miss, such a masculine gipsie? A termagant dowdy, a nasty old maid; Who flights copulation, as if she was spay'd: Which makes me believe, that under her bodice, She wants the dear gem, that's the pride of a Goddess." Now Pallas, enrag'd at so high a reflection, Cry'd out, "I thank Jove, I am made in perfection, And ev'ry thing have, from a hole to a hair, Becoming the Goddess of Wisdom and War; As Paris well knew, when he took a survey, Of those parts where a Goddess's excellence ...
— The Power of Mesmerism - A Highly Erotic Narrative of Voluptuous Facts and Fancies • Anonymous

... are vain hopes?—The puffing gale of morn, That of its charms divests the dewy lawn, And robs each flow'ret of its gem,—and dies; A cobweb hiding disappointment's thorn, Which stings more keenly ...
— Life and Remains of John Clare - "The Northamptonshire Peasant Poet" • J. L. Cherry

... was the first of which we caught sight. It contrasts with the Maison Carree as a wild legend of the dark ages would with a letter of Pliny; and though rough in its fabric, and uncertain in its history, dwells as strongly on the recollection as that highly-finished gem. ...
— Itinerary of Provence and the Rhone - Made During the Year 1819 • John Hughes

... weakness for all sorts of glittering ornaments, especially in the way of numerous rings, huge ear-rings, and mighty necklaces. Indeed, it is not at all uncommon to see pearls (their favorite gem) of great value, rising and falling, and gleaming with incongruous lustre, upon their bare, black, and massive bosoms; whilst ear-rings of solid gold hang glittering from their large ears, in singular contrast to ...
— The Aldine, Vol. 5, No. 1., January, 1872 - A Typographic Art Journal • Various

... room for him beside her. "You dear old thing," she exclaimed at the sight of the powder-puff. "It's a gem. You couldn't have bettered it in Paris." She opened it, took out the little puff, and dabbed her open throat. Then, laughing, she dabbed at him: "Don't look so solemn," she ...
— Simon Called Peter • Robert Keable

... Indra's loud gift; Bhima the terrible— Wolf-bellied Bhima-blew a long reed-conch; And Yudhisthira, Kunti's blameless son, Winded a mighty shell, "Victory's Voice;" And Nakula blew shrill upon his conch Named the "Sweet-sounding," Sahadev on his Called"Gem-bedecked," and Kasi's Prince on his. Sikhandi on his car, Dhrishtadyumn, Virata, Satyaki the Unsubdued, Drupada, with his sons, (O Lord of Earth!) Long-armed Subhadra's children, all blew loud, So that the clangour ...
— The Bhagavad-Gita • Sir Edwin Arnold

... gem was completed about the same time as the Pacific Railroad, and yet how different. Here the eye of the beholder lingers fondly upon the scene, drinking in at every point new and inspiring beauties. I presume that the traveller upon the Union Pacific may drink at every point if he wants ...
— Punchinello, Vol. II., No. 39., Saturday, December 24, 1870. • Various

... satire. I could always tell which of them was talking without looking for his name. Naylor had a polished style and a happy knack at felicitous metaphor; Norris's style was wholly without ornament, but enviably compact, lucid, and strong. But after all, Calder was the gem. He never spoke when sober, he spoke continuously when he wasn't. And certainly they were the drunkest speeches that a man ever uttered. They were full of good things, but so incredibly mixed up and wandering ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain

... this instant his attention was drawn to the men again. The Russian had turned and handed the gem to Wo Cheng. Wo Cheng stepped to the ...
— Triple Spies • Roy J. Snell

... King Suddhodana wist not of this; The portents troubled, till his dream-readers Augured a Prince of earthly dominance, A Chakravartin, such as rise to rule Once in each thousand years; seven gifts he has The Chakra-ratna, disc divine; the gem; The horse, the Aswa-ratna, that proud steed Which tramps the clouds; a snow-white elephant, The Hasti-ratna, born to bear his King; The crafty Minister, the General Unconquered, and the wife of peerless grace, The Istri-ratna, lovelier than ...
— The Light of Asia • Sir Edwin Arnold

... preached: "My friends," said he, "How sweet a thing is charity, The choicest gem in virtue's casket!" "It is, indeed," sighed miser B., "And instantly ...
— The Jest Book - The Choicest Anecdotes and Sayings • Mark Lemon

... their rhymes. It is a bad substitute perhaps, but better than the total absence of form, favoured by the atomic character of our words, and the flat juxtaposition of our clauses. The art which was capable of making a gem of every prose sentence, — the art which, carried, perhaps, to, a pitch at which it became too conscious, made the phrases of Tacitus a series of cameos, — that art is inapplicable to our looser medium; we cannot give clay the finish and nicety of marble. Our poetry and speech ...
— The Sense of Beauty - Being the Outlines of Aesthetic Theory • George Santayana

... wear spectacles;—ah, hush!—you have already consented to wear them, for my sake. You shall accept the little toy which I now hold in my hand, and which, though admirable as an aid to vision, is really of no very immense value as a gem. You perceive that, by a trifling modification thus—or thus—it can be adapted to the eyes in the form of spectacles, or worn in the waistcoat pocket as an eye-glass. It is in the former mode, however, and habitually, ...
— The Works of Edgar Allan Poe - Volume 3 (of 5) of the Raven Edition • Edgar Allan Poe

... a remarkable ring; not a signet, but a large gem of great value, beautifully cut in many facets, and clear set in massive gold. This precious stone, said to be a chrysoprasus, had been given to the Bishop by a Russian prince, in acknowledgment of a ...
— The White Ladies of Worcester - A Romance of the Twelfth Century • Florence L. Barclay

... a portion of thyself. Thou must bleed for me. Therefore the poet brings his poem; the shepherd, his lamb; the farmer, corn; the miner, a gem; the sailor, coral and shells; the painter, his picture; the girl, a handkerchief of ...
— The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (The Physician and Poet not the Jurist)

... Protestant could in his district hope to be elected to any public position, the Board of Guardians for instance (he was a good Catholic). His answer was an unqualified No. Then he took time, and shortly proposed the following statement of the position, which I present on account of its gem-like finish:— ...
— Ireland as It Is - And as It Would be Under Home Rule • Robert John Buckley (AKA R.J.B.)

... than mine. Do you remember showing me my first glow-worm at Beauchastel? I used to think that the gem of my walks, before I knew better. It is a great treat to have poor Walter here in the holidays, so good and pleasant; but I must say one charm is the pleasure ...
— Dynevor Terrace (Vol. II) • Charlotte M. Yonge

... race and name, the lord of all these sunny acres, this noble Norman pile, the smiling village of Catheron below. The master of a stately park in Devon, a moor and "bothy" in the highlands, a villa on the Arno, a gem of a cottage in the Isle of Wight. "A darling of the gods," young, handsome, healthy; and best of all, with twenty thousand ...
— A Terrible Secret • May Agnes Fleming

... also have been in a very unsettled state; for, albeit "to her brow the ruby mounted," that first kiss seemed to her to lie there as softly as an invisible gem, and she did not withdraw her head, nor look up reproachfully, nor utter ...
— Fairy Fingers - A Novel • Anna Cora Mowatt Ritchie

... period of its execution. Often in the illumination we may detect these popular local industries. We see mosaic enamelling, wood-and stone-carving, and lacquer-work, and as we approach the Renaissance, even gem-cutting and the delicate craft of the medallist. In Venice and the Netherlands we have the local taste for flower-culture; in Germany we find sculpture in wood and stone; in France the productions of the enameller ...
— Illuminated Manuscripts • John W. Bradley

... nearest emotion to that divine solace is what we in our higher and better moments recognize as Love. And Love was lost to Helen Murray; the choice pearl had fallen in the vast gulf of Might- have-been, and not all the forces of Nature would ever restore to her that priceless gem. ...
— Ziska - The Problem of a Wicked Soul • Marie Corelli

... portion of the lake, a trail of a mile and a quarter leads to the Upper Ausable—the gem of the Adirondacks. This lake, over two thousand feet above the tide, is surrounded on all sides by lofty mountains. Our camp was on the eastern shore, and I can never forget the sunset view, as rosy tints lit up old Skylight, the Haystack ...
— The Hudson - Three Centuries of History, Romance and Invention • Wallace Bruce

... grew fast in the east; the primrose hue softened away, right and left, into a tint of warm grey with a faint suggestion of rose in it; the stars had all vanished save one solitary gem that hung low in the western sky like a silver lamp; the zenith was a rich, pure ultramarine, that was fast spreading toward the western horizon and chasing the last lingering shadow of night before it. Great spokes of radiant light were darting aloft from behind the island ...
— Overdue - The Story of a Missing Ship • Harry Collingwood

... last year, but Dad has leased another ten thousand on the other side of the river. Oh, Judy, my dear, if ever you come to the West I'll show you what real fun is! Sometimes I ride all day—and such riding! I've a gem of a little mare—Patsy's her name—she's as good a chum as I ever had until I came here last year. Aren't mothers bricks?" she added with a little catch in her voice. "Mother really needs me, but she just insisted on my coming—she taught me ...
— Judy of York Hill • Ethel Hume Patterson Bennett

... freight half-given to the world. To die He longed, nor feared to meet the great "I AM." Fret not. God's mystery is solved to him. He quarried Truth all rough-hewn from the earth, And chiselled it into a perfect gem— A rounded Absolute. Twain at a birth— Science with a celestial halo crowned, And Heavenly Truth—God's Works by His Word illumed— These twain he viewed in holiest concord bound. Reason outsoared itself. His mind consumed ...
— The Testimony of the Rocks - or, Geology in Its Bearings on the Two Theologies, Natural and Revealed • Hugh Miller

... aristocracy left no void that Miss Stackpole herself didn't fill, and that a more contented man was nowhere at that moment to be found. In this he spoke the truth, for the stale September days, in the huge half-empty town, had a charm wrapped in them as a coloured gem might be wrapped in a dusty cloth. When he went home at night to the empty house in Winchester Square, after a chain of hours with his comparatively ardent friends, he wandered into the big dusky dining-room, where the candle he took from the ...
— The Portrait of a Lady - Volume 1 (of 2) • Henry James

... and another negro, who was said to be related to him by marriage, came in first. They were padded up to the eyes, and evidently felt the importance of their position. Then a black umpire said: "Play, gem'men," and our Fourth Officer started with his world-famed, natural leg-break. He bowled three wides in succession as a preliminary. It is not easy to bowl wides underhand, but that Fourth Officer managed it; and I began to understand ...
— The Idler Magazine, Volume III, June 1893 - An Illustrated Monthly • Various

... into silence again, Min still leaning over the side of the boat and dipping her fingers in the limpid, silvery water, which sparkled with gem-like coruscations of light as she stirred it to ...
— She and I, Volume 1 • John Conroy Hutcheson

... February, 1173, he breathed his last. Archdall in his Monasticon calls him "St. Muredach;" but the old Annalists content themselves with saying that "he was the sun of science, the precious stone and resplendent gem of knowledge, the bright star and rich treasury of learning; and as in charity so, too, was he powerful in pilgrimage and prayer." The Masters add that "a great miracle was performed on the night of his death; the dark night was illumined from midnight to day-break; and the neighboring parts ...
— Donahoe's Magazine, Volume 15, No. 2, February 1886 • Various

... BARRIE's books, passim). His cousin is an Esoteric Buddhist. They love each other dearly, but Geoffrey, a rigid character, cannot marry any lady who does not burn, as an Auld Licht, "with a hard gem-like flame." Violet Blair, his cousin, is just as staunch an Esoteric Buddhist. Nothing stands between them but the differences ...
— Punch, Or The London Charivari, Volume 102, January 30, 1892 • Various

... their contents were meant to, and did, cause peals of laughter to the audience and much embarrassment to Katie. On the lines hung first an array of baby clothes, all diminutive size, marked, "For little Charlie." Such are the traditions. Also hung seven kitchen pans, a pail, an egg-beater and gem pans; a percolator, a double boiler and goodness knows what not. On the table stood six cake tins, more pots and pans, salt and pepper shakers, enough of kitchenware to start off two brides. Everybody was pleased and satisfied. Charlie, the groom-to-be, got a friend with a ...
— Working With the Working Woman • Cornelia Stratton Parker

... were drowned by howls of delighted laughter from round the traverse in front, and the next moment a perspiring soldier forced his way into the bay where the great ones were temporarily wedged. It was the special runner who was carrying the latest gem from the lips of Bendigo—at work a little farther up—to ...
— No Man's Land • H. C. McNeile

... steps are counted by centuries, and yet while countless millions stand almost at the same point where they stood, and some even have declined since America first emerged out of an unexplored darkness which had covered her for thousands of years, like the gem in the sea; while it is but yesterday a few pilgrims landed on the wild coast of Plymouth, flying from causeless oppression, seeking but for a place of refuge and of rest, and for a free spot in the wilderness to adore the Almighty in their own way; still, in such a ...
— Select Speeches of Kossuth • Kossuth

... eternal, O sea-throned, heaven-canopied Goddess, I prostrate my face before thee, I surrender myself wholly to thee. And whether I be to-morrow the censer in the hand of thy High Priest, or the incense in the censer,—whether I become a star-gem in thy cestus or a sun in thy diadem or even a firefly in thy fane, I am content. For I am certain that it ...
— The Book of Khalid • Ameen Rihani

... day and night! O day and night! this mountain island, This saintly shrine, this fort—I scarce know what 'tis yet— This sand, or sea-girt, rocky, town-clad, church-crown'd highland, This dull and rugged gem in golden deserts set, Has some delicious, unknown charm to hold me, To draw me to itself and keep me here; The old grey walls, it seems, with joy enfold me— Or is it I that make the dead stones dear, And send the throbbing summer in my ...
— Ideala • Sarah Grand

... I will keep you hidden in my eyes; I will thread your image like a gem on my joy and hang ...
— The Fugitive • Rabindranath Tagore

... season highly with salt, pepper and one-half teaspoonful finely chopped parsley. Fill prepared peppers (if too dry add one tablespoonful cream) with mixture, cover with buttered crumbs, set them in buttered gem pans and bake in oven until peppers are tender and crumbs ...
— Stevenson Memorial Cook Book • Various

... he found it, in fact, to be a beautiful gem, so lustrous and so clear that the traces of characters on the surface were distinctly visible. The characters inscribed consisted of the four "T'ung Ling Pao Yue," "Precious Gem of Spiritual Perception." On the obverse, ...
— Hung Lou Meng, Book I • Cao Xueqin

... morning early in August. The widow's cottage gleamed in the dark bosom of the wood like a gem in the tresses of beauty. Everything wore its brightest aspect. The windows of the little parlor were open, and the songs of birds and the perfume of flowers were wafted through them. But the little breakfast-table, with its snowy ...
— The Rector of St. Mark's • Mary J. Holmes

... which, through a little window, the diamond was presented for sight. It was fastened by a strong steel clasp to an iron chain, the other end of which was secured within the window through which it was handed to the spectator. Two policemen kept a vigilant watch on the momentary possessor of the gem, until, having held in his hand the value of twelve millions of francs, according to the estimate in the inventory of the crown jewels, he again took up his hook and basket at ...
— Harper's Young People, January 27, 1880 - An Illustrated Weekly • Various

... consisted of many excellent structures and was adorned with a gate-way of gold, and which abounded in wealth and was full of attendants of both sexes. The palace of Durmarshana was even superior to that of Dussasana. Looking like the mansion of Kuvera himself, it was adorned with gold and every kind of gem. King Yudhishthira gladly gave it to Nakula who deserved it best and who had been emaciated (with the miseries of a life) in the great forest. The foremost of palaces belonging to Durmukha was exceedingly beautiful and adorned with gold. It abounded in beds and beautiful women, with eyes like ...
— The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 3 - Books 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 • Unknown

... on the walls—and the miners, profiting by the slightest fissures, cut round it, and then with forcible blows detached the blocks, and reduced them to small fragments, which they crushed, and carefully sifted so as not to lose a particle of the gem. The oxides of copper and of manganese which they met with here and elsewhere in moderate quantities, were used in the manufacture of those beautiful blue enamels of various shades which the Egyptians esteemed so highly. The few hundreds of men of which the permanent population was composed, provided ...
— History Of Egypt, Chaldaea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 2 (of 12) • G. Maspero

... royal party, and at one time a member of Prince Rupert's famous troop. He married the daughter of the British ambassador in Paris, through whom he came into possession of Say's Court, which he made a gem of beauty. But in his later years he had the annoyance of seeing his fine parterres and shrubbery trampled down by that Northern boor, Peter the Great, who made his residence there while studying the mysteries of ship-building at Deptford, ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 12, No. 73, November, 1863 • Various

... table, stood a tall, thin-faced, elderly, clean-shaven man of sallow complexion, and very smartly dressed. In his black cravat he wore a splendid diamond pin, and on his finger, as he tossed a louis on the "noir," another fine gem glistened. That man, though so essentially a gentleman from his exterior appearance, was known to me as one of "us," as shrewd and clever an adventurer as ever trod those polished boards. He was Henri Regnier, known ...
— The Count's Chauffeur • William Le Queux

... Krak!" he cried encouragingly to the dog, who put his paws up on his chest, catching at his game bag. Stepan Arkadyevitch was dressed in rough leggings and spats, in torn trousers and a short coat. On his head there was a wreck of a hat of indefinite form, but his gun of a new patent was a perfect gem, and his game bag and cartridge belt, though worn, were of the ...
— Anna Karenina • Leo Tolstoy

... of the Generals of all the Naval Forces"; then the sermon itself in fifty-eight pages; and then an addition, in the shape of a directly political pamphlet, headed "The Samaritan Revived." The gem is the dedication to Monk. The substance ...
— The Life of John Milton, Volume 5 (of 7), 1654-1660 • David Masson

... polishing by contact with other and better natures, to bring out their full beauty and lustre. Some have but one side polished, sufficient only to show the delicate graining of the interior; but to bring out the full qualities of the gem, needs the discipline of experience, and contact with the best examples of character in ...
— Searchlights on Health - The Science of Eugenics • B. G. Jefferis and J. L. Nichols

... was Opal! How curiously the name suited the voice! The Boy, as he listened, felt that no other name could possibly have matched that voice—the opal, that glorious gem in which all the fires of the sun, the iridescent glories of the rainbow, and the cold brilliance of ice and frost and snow seemed to blend and crystallize. All this, and more, was ...
— One Day - A sequel to 'Three Weeks' • Anonymous

... vassals, row, for the pride of the Highlands! Stretch to your oars for the ever-green Pine! O that the rosebud that graces yon islands Were wreathed in a garland around him to twine! O that some seedling gem, Worthy such noble stem, Honored and blessed in their shadow might grow! Loud should Clan-Alpine then Ring from her deepmost glen, Roderigh Vich ...
— The Lady of the Lake • Sir Walter Scott

... Buds, where'er you be; The richest gem that decks a Wife; The charm of female modesty: And let sweet Music give ...
— Rural Tales, Ballads, and Songs • Robert Bloomfield

... gem indeed! no prince hath such a one. Good, good old man, as welcome unto me As cool fresh air ...
— A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Vol. VIII (4th edition) • Various

... by answering that which interested me most in it, which you will easily believe was what regarded my dear A—— and the person into whose hands she is about to be committed. In proportion to the value of the gem is the dread one feels of the flaws and injuries it may receive in the process of cutting and polishing; and this, of course, not in this case alone, but that of every child who still is parent to ...
— Records of a Girlhood • Frances Anne Kemble

... and immediate preparations were made to depart for the Isle of Cuba, that gem of the Antilles, whose sparkling lustre has won the admiration ...
— The Brother Clerks - A Tale of New-Orleans • Xariffa

... was soon followed by "Silas Marner," regarded by some as the gem of George Eliot's novels, and which certainly—though pathetic and sad, as all her novels are—does not leave on the mind so mournful an impression, since in its outcome we see redemption. The principal character—the poor, neglected, forlorn weaver—emerges at length from ...
— Beacon Lights of History, Volume VII • John Lord

... I did in New York was to go to a jeweler's for this ring, and since then I have guarded it day and night as dragonishly as if it had been the Koh-i-Noor diamond, or some inestimable gem which hundreds of envious persons were lying in wait to wrest from me. Walking the streets with this trinket in my possession, I have actually had a sense of personal insecurity. I seemed to invite general assault. That was being very sentimental, ...
— The Stillwater Tragedy • Thomas Bailey Aldrich

... extreme point of a pinnacle more than four thousand feet above the vast plain of rich fertility embosomed among the snow-clad mountains. The lake was a spot of beautiful blue, a gem in the center of this ...
— St. Nicholas, Vol. 5, No. 4, February 1878 • Various

... their invitations to join their walks or excursions, rather eagerly accepting Nelly's invitation to go with them to Sir William's Loughrigg cottage. She knew all about it apparently, and said it was 'a gem of a place!' Sir William kept an old butler and his wife there—pensioned off—who looked after him when he came. 'Everything's tiny,' said Bridget with emphasis—'but perfect! Sir William has the most exquisite taste. But he never ...
— Missing • Mrs. Humphry Ward

... delightful close springy turf covers the Downs with a velvet mantle, forming the most exhilarating of all earthly surfaces upon which to walk and the most restful on which to stretch the wearied body. Most delightful also are the miniature flowers which gem and embroider the velvet; gold of potentilla, blue of gentian, pink and white of milkwort, purple of the scabious and clustered bell-flower; the whole robe scented with the fragrance of sweet thyme. Several unfamiliar ...
— Seaward Sussex - The South Downs from End to End • Edric Holmes

... Francis—and perhaps the beautiful Diane de Poitiers and Duchesse d'Etampes—to critique plays in that tiny gem of a theatre at the palace, or to feed the carp in the pool; but also it gave him pleasure to wander into the rooms where the high-warp looms lifted their utilitarian lengths and artists played at magic with ...
— The Tapestry Book • Helen Churchill Candee

... that influenced me. My father-in-law Cantacuzene, whether from a feeling of gratitude or remorse, is always making us magnificent presents. I like to receive magnificent presents, but also to make them; and I presented him with a picture which is the gem of his gallery, and which, if he ever part with it, will in another generation be contended for by kings ...
— Lothair • Benjamin Disraeli

... cried my uncle. "Mine is only the hen bird. What a lovely little creature, to be sure! It is a gem." ...
— Nat the Naturalist - A Boy's Adventures in the Eastern Seas • G. Manville Fenn

... all the same in my own ability to keep my resolves when they are clear to me. I once prided myself in that ability as the one gem ...
— Robert Orange - Being a Continuation of the History of Robert Orange • John Oliver Hobbes

... altered their plans, and had gone to Sicily instead of to Egypt, first visiting Palermo and Syracuse, and were at the moment staying at the popular "San Domenico" at Taormina, amid that gem of Mediterranean scenery. Sir Hugh and his wife, much upset by Blanche's sudden arrival in London, had not gone abroad that winter, but had remained at Hill Street to comfort Paul's wife ...
— The Doctor of Pimlico - Being the Disclosure of a Great Crime • William Le Queux

... but please thy fancy. What is the sparkle of the gem to thee without thy fancy which it allures, and thy fancy is all a dream. Action and deeds and men are nought without dreams and do but fetter them, and only dreams are real, and where thou stayest when the worlds shall drift away there ...
— Time and the Gods • Lord Dunsany [Edward J. M. D. Plunkett]

... edifice of this kind. Erik did so; and the building appears to have been so ingenious that His Majesty was able to move about in it unseen and to disappear without a possibility of the trick's being discovered. When the Shah-in-Shah found himself the possessor of this gem, he ordered Erik's yellow eyes to be put out. But he reflected that, even when blind, Erik would still be able to build so remarkable a house for another sovereign; and also that, as long as Erik was alive, some one would ...
— The Phantom of the Opera • Gaston Leroux

... connoisseur, crowded the chimney-piece—which stood over an iron grate with bulging bars, and a tall brass fender. How still and solemn-quiet it all was in the middle of the great triumphant sunny day—like some far-down hollow in a rock, the matrix of a gem! It looked as if it had done with life—as much done with life as if it were a room in Egyptian rock, yet was it full of the memories of keenest life, and Cosmo knew there was treasure upon treasure of wonder and curiosity hid in those cabinets, some of which he had seen, and ...
— Warlock o' Glenwarlock • George MacDonald

... listen with an interest and sympathy that I never did before, to the patriotic effusions of the warm-hearted and eloquent Irishmen, whom I have recently heard, respecting "the first flower of the earth, the first gem ...
— The Story of My Life - Being Reminiscences of Sixty Years' Public Service in Canada • Egerton Ryerson

... human communion that he and I had ever known together, and Mr Randall's poem did more to make us friends and to break down the life-long shyness which had existed between us than anything else I can remember. I remember this gem from Randall's hand concerning a comrade who met death by his side in the mine ...
— Recollections • David Christie Murray

... she silent as the grave, O'er those we love but could not save; And she seemed calm as tropic sea, When its hushed waves from winds are free. Gonzalo wondered; why no word, Came from that lip that mocked the bird Of her own land, in melody, When warbling from his cocoa tree. But why, O gem of rich Peru, Thy silence strange, thy aspect new? What envious power has bound thy voice, Which erst could bid my soul rejoice. Oh! surely some malignant sprite From realms of most infernal night, Has taken thy angel voice away;— But speak, ...
— Lays of Ancient Virginia, and Other Poems • James Avis Bartley

... through mists that may not be dispelled, I see an old farm homestead, as in dreams, Where, like a gem in costly setting held, The old log ...
— Riley Farm-Rhymes • James Whitcomb Riley

... five hundred pounds in New York to-day. As I was saying, many are literally unique. This gem by Kimon is—here is his signature, you see; Peter is particularly good at lettering—and as I handled the genuine tetradrachm about two years ago, when Lord Seastoke exhibited it at a meeting of our society in Albemarle Street, there is nothing ...
— Four Max Carrados Detective Stories • Ernest Bramah

... tablets and discs (so far in Crete only), but nothing of more perishable nature, such as skin, papyrus, &c.; engraved gems and gem impressions; legends written with pigment on pottery (rare); characters incised on stone or pottery. These show two main systems of script (see ...
— Project Gutenberg Encyclopedia

... upon me; and, indeed, spite of my shyness, I found the greatest difficulty in resisting the acceptance of gifts which were offered in so delicate a manner: peace be to his soul! it was always a ring, a gem, ...
— Gomez Arias - The Moors of the Alpujarras, A Spanish Historical Romance. • Joaquin Telesforo de Trueba y Cosio

... will honor His grave; every tear is a gem, And their prayers round his brow in the heavens Will brighten his fair diadem. I kneel at his grave and remember, In love, I ...
— Poems: Patriotic, Religious, Miscellaneous • Abram J. Ryan, (Father Ryan)

... A new gem has been added to sacred literature, and this is the accidental discovery by Nicolas Notovich of a Buddhist history of a phase of Christ's life left blank in ...
— Violets and Other Tales • Alice Ruth Moore

... But the gem of her London collection of experiences was found in a most unexpected way, and not only gave her great pleasure, but made the young gadabouts regard her with sudden respect ...
— A Garland for Girls • Louisa May Alcott

... art also lends his unique piece of a walking lion, in silver, made in 1865 for a racing prize, and a plaster-proof of the little medallion of "Milo of Crotona attacked by a Lion," executed by Barye in 1819 for the Prix de Rome competition at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. This little gem, worthy of the antique, did not secure the prize, however, which went to a now-forgotten sculptor named Vatinelle. It had often been so before, it has often been so since down to our day (Comerre was preferred to Bastien Lepage in 1875) and doubtless it will be ...
— The American Architect and Building News, Vol. 27, Jan-Mar, 1890 • Various

... Burton and Norcross occupied four stories of a corner fronting two busy city streets and before its gem-filled windows a group of ...
— Christopher and the Clockmakers • Sara Ware Bassett

... crimson-tipped flow'r, Thou's met me in an evil hour; For I maun crush amang the stoure Thy slender stem; To spare thee now is past my power, Thou bonnie gem! ...
— The Continental Monthly, Vol. 4, No. 5, November, 1863 • Various

... liberty of thought, speech, press, and assemblage, based on democracy and national independence, religious freedom and equality being its most precious gem. Lutheranism, therefore, standing, as it does, for the complete separation of State and Church, as well as liberty and equal religious rights for all, is inherently American; while the Reformed confessions, inasmuch ...
— American Lutheranism - Volume 2: The United Lutheran Church (General Synod, General - Council, United Synod in the South) • Friedrich Bente

... well, and gave her beautiful gowns of silk and velvet. Her father, too, would bring her home many a sparkling jewel, many a brilliant gem. It seemed as though Lizzie Lindsay had all that her heart ...
— Stories from the Ballads - Told to the Children • Mary MacGregor

... Rackrent." A gentleman, much interested in improving the breed of Irish cattle, sent, on seeing the advertisement, for this work on Irish Bulls; he was rather confounded by the appearance of the classical bull at the top of the first page, which I had designed from a gem, and when he began to read the book he threw it away in disgust: he had purchased it as Secretary ...
— The Life And Letters Of Maria Edgeworth, Vol. 1 • Maria Edgeworth

... Oliver Cromwell finely says, 'to be a seeker is to be of the best sect next to a finder, and such an one shall every faithful humble seeker be at the end.' It always seems to me that the old Puritan's lovely letter to his daughter, the letter from which I have just quoted, is the gem of Carlyle's great volume. Bridget was twenty-two at the time. 'Your sister,' her father tells her, 'is exercised with some perplexed thoughts. She sees her own vanity and carnal mind, and, bewailing it, she seeks after what will satisfy. And thus to be a seeker is to be of the best sect ...
— Mushrooms on the Moor • Frank Boreham

... gem amid the trees, A cheery strain upon the breeze From tree-top sifting down; A leafy nest in covert low; When daisies come and brambles blow, A mate in ...
— Standard Selections • Various

... thus. The three foremost shall receive prizes, and have pale olive bound about their head. The first shall have a caparisoned horse as conqueror; the second an Amazonian quiver filled with arrows of Thrace, girt about by a broad belt of gold, and on the link of the clasp a polished gem; let the third depart with this Argolic helmet for recompense.' This said, they take their place, and the signal once heard, dart over the course and leave the line, pouring forth like a storm-cloud while they mark the goal. Nisus gets away ...
— The Aeneid of Virgil • Virgil

... the gem, or rather let him take it from the silk, which he re-fastened very neatly for one who seemed to be almost blind, and strode off swiftly towards ...
— Morning Star • H. Rider Haggard

... more vitreous, larger than usual. Not as in some clear nights when the larger stars entirely outshine the rest. Every little star or cluster just as distinctly visible and just as high. Berenice's hair showing every gem, and new ones. To the north-east and north the Sickle, the Goat and Kids, Cassiopeia, Castor and Pollux, and the two Dippers. While through the whole of this silent indescribable show, inclosing and bathing my whole receptivity, ran ...
— Adventures in Criticism • Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch

... shells of warehouses and the wooden frames of tenements on either side. The galley and covered gangway presented a mass of undefined shadow, against which the white deck shone brightly, stretching to the forecastle and bows, where the tiny glass roof of the photographer glistened like a gem in the Pontiac's crest. So peaceful and motionless she lay that she might have been some petrifaction of a past age now first exhumed and laid bare to the ...
— By Shore and Sedge • Bret Harte

... he first landed is so far from being identified, that many books have been written to prove the claims of this, that, or the other gem of the sea to be the true land-fall of Columbus. His treatment of the natives has been made the subject of unsparing denunciation and of undiscriminating eulogy. His conduct toward his own, often mutinous, crews is alternately lauded as ...
— Great Men and Famous Women. Vol. 5 of 8 • Various

... marshalled on the nightly plain The glitt'ring host bestud the sky, One star alone of all the train Can fix the sinner's wandering eye. Hark! hark! to God the chorus breaks From ev'ry host, from ev'ry gem; But one alone the Saviour speaks,— It is the Star ...
— In The Yule-Log Glow, Vol. IV (of IV) • Harrison S. Morris

... and abundant crop. It will be found in plot, incident, and management, to be a superior work. In the whole range of elegant moral fiction, there cannot be found any thing of more inestimable value, or superior to this work, and it is a gem that will well repay a careful perusal. The Publisher feels assured that it will give entire satisfaction to all readers, encourage good taste and good morals, and while away many leisure hours with great pleasure ...
— Helen and Arthur - or, Miss Thusa's Spinning Wheel • Caroline Lee Hentz

... professional tour in Germany. The last accounts leave her in Berlin. She has lately had built in Paris, not far in the rear of the Madelaine, a hotel for her private residence. It is not large, but is a perfect gem of taste, (as the French understand it) and luxury. She receives there a choice circle of gentlemen of all professions. The ladies who frequent her salons are rarer, if not more select. Of course ...
— International Miscellany of Literature, Art and Science, Vol. 1, - No. 3, Oct. 1, 1850 • Various

... also"—(continued applause). The M.P. who made this speech is one of the politicians now dominating the English Parliament at Westminster. It is in response to the clamour of him and his sort that the gag is put on men like Balfour, Goschen, Chamberlain. This little gem set in the silver sea, this isle, this realm, this England, is becoming a paltry concern, is fast being Gladstoned into drivelling imbecility. What does O'Connor mean by the 100,000 Irish arms? Does he mean 50,000 Irishmen? The point is obscure, as will be seen from the ...
— Ireland as It Is - And as It Would be Under Home Rule • Robert John Buckley (AKA R.J.B.)

... the deck, clasping the precious volume to his heart. Allusive or discursive speech scared him like indecency; and I had used his gem but as a peg whereon flauntingly to hang it. It took me three days to tame him and to induce him to show me another of his treasures, recently acquired in Athens. Ioannes Georgius Godelmann's Tractate de Lamiis, printed by Nicholas Bassaeus of Frankfurt. I ...
— The Morals of Marcus Ordeyne • William J. Locke

... braes were seen, By those whose eyes long closed in death have been: Two tiny imps, who scarcely stooped to gather The slender harebell, or the purple heather; No taller than the foxglove's spiky stem, That dew of morning studs with silvery gem. Then every butterfly that crossed our view With joyful shout was greeted as it flew, And moth and lady-bird and beetle bright In sheeny gold were each a wondrous sight. Then as we paddled barefoot, side by side, Among the sunny ...
— Library Of The World's Best Literature, Ancient And Modern, Vol 3 • Various

... though they're rolling in money, they say he can't pay for the coat on his back. Now our Mr. Augustus, unless it is that he won't come down to morning prayers and always keeps the dinner waiting, I don't think there's ever a black look between him and his papa. And as for Miss Madeline,—she's the gem of the four families. Everybody gives ...
— Orley Farm • Anthony Trollope

... case, strong and firm, with a smaller box of white velvet inside, in which lay a ruby ring—a gem for which men commit crimes and women sin; a gorgeous, sparkling, rosy stone, sending rainbow spots upon the wall, and rendering Nancy radiant and speechless as she slipped it on ...
— Nancy Stair - A Novel • Elinor Macartney Lane

... beginning all over again. Late in the afternoon he came to the window for the hundredth time, and brandishing the bludgeon so that the sunshine fell directly upon it, held it aloft for us to admire the great glittering gem that now sparkled deep-bedded in the ...
— The Long Day - The Story of a New York Working Girl As Told by Herself • Dorothy Richardson

... jelly-bag, which allows all that is pure to pass away, and retains only the refuse and the dregs. The fourth class may be compared to the slave in the diamond mines of Golconda, who, casting aside all that is worthless, preserves only the pure gem." Nat was a reader of the latter class, and, at the same time, saved every gem for use. He had no disposition to hoard knowledge, as the miser does his gold. He thought it was designed for use as really as a coat or hat—an idea that does not seem to have ...
— The Bobbin Boy - or, How Nat Got His learning • William M. Thayer

... Miss Bouverie, but the setting doesn't take me. It might with repetition. It seems lacking in go and simplicity; technically, I should say, a gem. But there can be no two opinions of your singing of such a song; that's the sort of arrow to go straight to the heart of the public—a world-wide public—and if I am the first to say it to you, I hope you will one day remember it in my favor. Meanwhile it is for ...
— Stingaree • E. W. (Ernest William) Hornung

... this principle in the construction of the first water organs. He also devised methods of raising water, automatic contrivances, and amusing things of many kinds, including among them the construction of water clocks. He began by making an orifice in a piece of gold, or by perforating a gem, because these substances are not worn by the action of water, and do not collect dirt so as to get ...
— Ten Books on Architecture • Vitruvius

... pride, The Persian flashing like a gem, Displayed her brilliants, glittering wide; The Grecian coldly looked at them: "Have you no jewelry at all, to wear? Your dress and person ...
— The Poets and Poetry of Cecil County, Maryland • Various

... its distinctive features with singular distinctness against a background of olive-green wall and velvet curtain. Its covering of glossy white damask, its ornaments of Venetian glass, the delicate yet vivid colours of the hothouse flowers and fruit in the dishes, the gem-like tints of the wines, the very texture and the hues of the Bulgarian embroidery upon the d'oyleys, formed a study in colour which an artist would have loved to paint. The faces and figures of the persons present ...
— Under False Pretences - A Novel • Adeline Sergeant

... brooding over the eggs, it stood on one leg and gazed thoughtfully down upon the city, whose shining red tiles gleamed spick and span from the green velvet carpet of the meadows. The bird had known beautiful Leyden, the gem of Holland, for many a year, and was familiar with all the branches of the Rhine that divided the stately city into numerous islands, and over which arched as many stone bridges as there are days in five months of the year; but surely many changes had occurred here since ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers

... outside the gate of the Fort, the packet had been slipped into the box, while the man was at the far end of his beat. It was quite dark when this was done, and the soldier confessed that he had not heard a sound, much less had he seen anyone. The person who had brought the glorious gem had watched his opportunity, and, soft-footed as a cat, had stolen forward in the darkness to drop the precious parcel on the floor of the sentry box. There the man had found it by the feel of his feet, when he stepped in some time later to escape a shower. But what time had elapsed ...
— The Green Mummy • Fergus Hume

... united in saying that the Bishop of Blanford was an exceedingly fortunate man. No one was possessed of an estate boasting fairer lawns or more noble beeches, and the palace was a singularly successful combination of ecclesiastical antiquity and nineteenth-century comfort. The cathedral was a gem, and its boy choir the despair of three neighbouring sees, while, owing to a certain amount of worldly wisdom on the part of former investors of the revenues, the bishopric was among the most handsomely endowed in England. Yet his Lordship ...
— His Lordship's Leopard - A Truthful Narration of Some Impossible Facts • David Dwight Wells

... many a gem in these billiard halls that only needs the way pointed out to fill their souls with ...
— Moody's Anecdotes And Illustrations - Related in his Revival Work by the Great Evangilist • Dwight L. Moody

... we need only direct attention to the Acropolis, which was crowded with the monuments of Athenian glory, and exhibited an amazing concentration of all that was most perfect in art, unsurpassed in excellence, and unrivalled in richness and splendor. It was "the peerless gem of Greece, the glory and pride of art, the wonder and envy of ...
— Christianity and Greek Philosophy • Benjamin Franklin Cocker

... move away. She turned over the leaves of the English volume rather hurriedly. The paper was superlatively fine and the print a gem of art. And then she ...
— The Reason Why • Elinor Glyn

... by the sight of a strange star outside the crown' (that is, outside the circlet of stars forming the diadem, not outside the constellation itself). The new star 'was then certainly quite as bright—I rather thought more so—as its neighbour Alphecca,' the chief gem of the crown. 'I was so much struck with its appearance, that I exclaimed to those indoors, "Why, here is a new comet!'" He made a diagram of the constellation, showing the place of the new star correctly. Unfortunately, Mr. Walter does not state why he is so confident, a year after ...
— Myths and Marvels of Astronomy • Richard A. Proctor

... still another, till here stand I, gentlemen and ladies, to serve you with my iron goblet. Drink and be refreshed. The water is as pure and cold as that which slaked the thirst of the red sagamore beneath the aged boughs, though now the gem of the wilderness is treasured under these hot stones, where no shadow falls but from the brick buildings. And be it the moral of my story that, as this wasted and long-lost fountain is now known and prized again, ...
— Twice Told Tales • Nathaniel Hawthorne

... some that sped cheerily onward, With white sails gallantly spread Yet ever there sat at the look-out, One, watching for danger ahead. No fragrant and song-haunted island, No golden and gem-studded coast Could win, with its ravishing beauty, The ...
— Friends and Neighbors - or Two Ways of Living in the World • Anonymous

... illustrations by Miss A. C. Tomlinson which catch the spirit of the text to perfection and with the harmonious print and paper and binding make the book a little gem. ...
— A Beautiful Alien • Julia Magruder

... its material aspect has a sensuous value, as the wealth of color of Venetian painting, the sumptuousness of Renaissance architecture, the melody of Mr. Swinburne's verse, the gem-like brilliance of Stevenson's prose, the all-inclusive sensuousness, touched with sensuality, of Wagner's music-dramas. Because of the charm of beautiful language there are many art-lovers who regard the sensuous ...
— The Gate of Appreciation - Studies in the Relation of Art to Life • Carleton Noyes

... the pole stood belonged to a real-estate man. He was pleasant and full of rosy dreams of a suburban villa resort, the gem of the Pacific Coast. That part was easy. He and I together visited the offices of the corporations owning the wires on that pole. As they had no legal right of way they had to promise to remove it and many others, to the tune of several hundred dollars. Nothing was left them ...
— The Smiling Hill-Top - And Other California Sketches • Julia M. Sloane



Words linked to "Gem" :   mortal, soul, ruby, cabochon, gemstone, crown jewel, art, sapphire, bran muffin, crystal, quick bread, fine art, solitaire, corn muffin, gem cutter, transparent gem, jewel, opaque gem



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