"Lessen" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... to say something, but she did not know how. It was a moment of embarrassment to her, intensely painful, and the presence of Mr. Carlyle did not tend to lessen it. The latter had no idea his absence ...
— East Lynne • Mrs. Henry Wood
... community center. This means that such a route is forty percent longer from the corners of the community than it would be by a straight line. This was bad enough with dirt roads, and if all the roads could be hard-surfaced, the automobile would, of course, lessen the time required for travel. It is, however, economically impossible to improve all minor roads and with the high cost of macadam, concrete, brick, or other hard-surface, not only for original cost but for upkeep, it seems absurd to continue to build the main roads on rectangular ...
— The Farmer and His Community • Dwight Sanderson
... something. Lone was impressed somehow with Swan's perfect control of his speech, his thoughts, his actions. But he was puzzled rather than anything else, and when Swan turned, facing him, Lone's bewilderment did not lessen. ...
— Sawtooth Ranch • B. M. Bower
... favours upon him. But this king had a grand vizier that was avaricious, envious, and naturally capable of all sorts of mischief; he could not see, without envy, the presents that were given to the physician, whose other merits had begun to make him jealous, and therefore he resolved to lessen him in the king's esteem. To effect this, he went to the king, and told him in private that he had some advice to give him which was of the greatest concernment. The king having asked what it was, Sir, said ...
— The Arabian Nights Entertainments Volume 1 • Anonymous
... reached Normanton we were reduced to three horses, and the rains having been heavier, we were continually digging the coach out of bogs. At dark one evening I walked on to lessen the load, and on crossing a plain I saw a log on the side of the road on which I decided to have a rest. I sat on it in the dark, and feeling something move, I put my hand down on the cold, clammy tail of a snake. His lordship evidently had his head in a hole, or ...
— Reminiscences of Queensland - 1862-1869 • William Henry Corfield
... it becomes necessary to crop the hair, measures are taken to lessen the dangers which are supposed to attend the operation. The chief of Namosi in Fiji always ate a man by way of precaution when he had had his hair cut. "There was a certain clan that had to provide the victim, ...
— The Golden Bough - A study of magic and religion • Sir James George Frazer
... mistress of Storm had much to do; and while this fact did not apparently lessen the neighborhood's attitude of critical animosity toward her, it gave the girl a keen pleasure to know that she was helping her friend. She began to understand the secret of the strong hold his profession has upon ...
— Kildares of Storm • Eleanor Mercein Kelly
... and endurance are the prime essentials of a good horse. But as man has lessened the vigor and endurance of the hog, ox, and sheep, so he has of the horse. This is the invariable result of human art. Whenever man tampers with the work of nature he is certain to lessen bodily vigor. It could not be otherwise. For the course of nature, undisturbed and undeflected, is always towards the greatest health. Man changes the course of nature and the result is lessened vigor ...
— The Prairie Farmer, Vol. 56, No. 2, January 12, 1884 - A Weekly Journal for the Farm, Orchard and Fireside • Various
... father. And I hold it a good example, for the benefitt of the Commonwealth, that matters of discouragement should be put upon such marriages, being assured that their parents will not disinheritt or lessen them, especially if they have but one son, and that which Solomon saith is to be considered—an understanding servant shall have rule over a son that maketh ashamed, and both that[1], and his son, and his son in Scotland have both made ashamed, the one in his match, the other by ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 237, May 13, 1854 • Various
... escaped from it by night, within a few hours of the time when he had been ordered for execution, and who in the meantime had been an exile. There is no reason to suppose that he was aware of the secret understanding with England to which his brother had set his seal, so that there was nothing to lessen the intensity of the coals of fire thus heaped upon his head. No doubt all Edinburgh was in the streets to watch that strange sight, as the King rode from the castle gates, past the great Church of St. Giles, and down the long line of the Canongate to Holyrood, making his emancipation ...
— Royal Edinburgh - Her Saints, Kings, Prophets and Poets • Margaret Oliphant
... the exploiting class, but the working class recognizes, and vaguely and instinctively feels where it does not clearly recognize, that it has no interest in these quarrels. All that interests it vitally is how to lessen the extent of the exploitation to which it is subjected, and how ultimately to end that exploitation altogether. That is the objective of the movement for the socialization of ...
— Socialism - A Summary and Interpretation of Socialist Principles • John Spargo
... they would change now and then an Ounce of Gold, and could get for it no more than 10 or 11 Dollars for a Mindanao Ounce, which they would not part with again under 18 Dollars. Yet this, and the great prices the Mindanaians set on their Goods, were not the only way to lessen their stocks; for their Pagallies and Comrades would often be begging somewhat of them, and our Men were generous enough, and would bestow half an Ounce of Gold at a time, in a Ring for their Pagallies, or in a Silver Wrist-band, or Hoop to come about their Arms, in hopes to get ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898—Volume 39 of 55 • Various
... that that would be likely to mend matters," the doctor said dryly; "in fact it would lessen the one chance that exists of ever setting the matter straight. As I have told him, though these children are very much alike at present—and indeed most babies are—it is probable that as they grow up there will no longer be any resemblance whatever, and that his own child will develop a likeness ...
— The Dash for Khartoum - A Tale of Nile Expedition • George Alfred Henty
... to tell the truth on my account. I can more easily bear to hear you relate your crafty tricks than to see them played before my eyes, though none of them could lessen ...
— The Tales Of The Heptameron, Vol. I. (of V.) • Margaret, Queen Of Navarre
... hour—speed having been meanwhile reduced so as to lessen the danger of their running aground—the San-chau arrived abreast of the other craft, which proved indeed to be a cruiser, and laid off at a distance of about half a cable's length, her screw revolving slowly, so as to keep her from drifting down upon the wreck. Then, seizing a megaphone, Wong-lih ...
— A Chinese Command - A Story of Adventure in Eastern Seas • Harry Collingwood
... shrinking and understood it. What was more, he heeded it as many men would not have done. Perhaps there was something selfish in his self-denial, for the purity and girlishness which it indicated were very dear to him, and he hated to lessen them by anything he did. He stood quietly by her, and merely said, "I needn't tell you how ...
— The Honorable Peter Stirling and What People Thought of Him • Paul Leicester Ford
... ahead of the teachers of American history. They must not inculcate suspicion and fear, but they must not present our security in a false light. They must not inspire the war-like spirit and imperialistic ambitions, but they must do nothing to lessen our seriousness of purpose and enthusiasm for the future. They must not teach national vanity, but they must not on the other hand encourage a spirit which is in any way over-critical and cynical or supercilious. There ...
— The Psychology of Nations - A Contribution to the Philosophy of History • G.E. Partridge
... inevitable result of democracy is to sap the foundations of personal independence, to weaken the principle of authority, to lessen the respect due to eminence, whether in station, virtue, or genius. If these things were so, society could not hold together. Perhaps the best forcing-house of robust individuality would be where ...
— Harvard Classics Volume 28 - Essays English and American • Various
... sleep—they could not. There is that in their minds that would keep them wakeful if they had not slept for a week. Time passing does not lessen their suspense. On the contrary, it grows keener, becoming ...
— The Lone Ranche • Captain Mayne Reid
... grinding out our little day, wearing out the body and cramping up the soul in field, factory, office or behind the counter. Life is meant to be enjoyed, and whatever tends to enlarge our children's perspective, which will give them a love for the beautiful, will lessen the drudgery of life, and develop their characters. The Creator who made human beings in His own image, and endowed them with powers above the brute creation, surely intended that these divine faculties should be used and not allowed ...
— The Fourth Watch • H. A. Cody
... a membrane it may be broad and oblong, ovate and obtuse, or lanceolate and acute. (See fig. 13.) The function of the ligule is probably to facilitate the shedding of water which may run down the leaf, and thus lessen the danger of rotting of the stem which is sure to follow, if the water were to find its way into the interior of the sheath. Sometimes, in addition to the ligule, other appendages may be present in grass leaves as in Oryza sativa. Such outgrowths ...
— A Handbook of Some South Indian Grasses • Rai Bahadur K. Ranga Achariyar
... green heart of the broad land broad streams are flowing; in the very heart of the green woods there is cool, silent shade; by the borders of the sea, where the waves break with a low, musical murmur, there is a cooling breeze; but here in London on this bright June afternoon there is nothing to lessen the white, intense heat, and even the flowers exposed for sale in the streets are drooping, the crimson roses look thirsting for dew, the white lilies are fading, the bunches of mignonette give forth a fragrance ...
— Marion Arleigh's Penance - Everyday Life Library No. 5 • Charlotte M. Braeme
... moment they are capable of articulating their words, and their instruction must be pursued with unrelenting diligence. So long as they continue too young to work, they may be kept constantly in the school; as they grow fit to labour, their attendance on the CATECHIST must gradually lessen, till at length they take their full share of work with ...
— The Education Of The Negro Prior To 1861 • Carter Godwin Woodson
... discomfited England, which was as yet tottering in India, and whose affairs there had for a long while been ill managed, but which remained ever vigorous, active, animated by the indomitable ardor of a free people. At Versailles attempts were made to lessen the conquests of Dupleix, prudence was recommended to him, delay was shown in sending him the troops he demanded. In India England had at last found a man still young and unknown, but worthy of being ...
— A Popular History of France From The Earliest Times - Volume VI. of VI. • Francois Pierre Guillaume Guizot
... then the chances are that they will always remain. The moment, however, that we come into a realization of our true selves, and so of the tremendous powers and forces within,—the powers and forces of the mind and spirit,—hereditary traits and influences that are harmful in nature will begin to lessen, and will disappear with a rapidity directly in proportion to the completeness of ...
— In Tune with the Infinite - or, Fullness of Peace, Power, and Plenty • Ralph Waldo Trine
... Wedlock chiefly lies, A Single Life all Honest Men despise, What greater Comfort can on Earth be found, When two True Hearts are both together Crown'd. All other Pleasures are but Pains to this, A Married Couple only, finds the Bliss. The Frowns of Fate, and other Worldly Cares, Are daily lessen'd by divided Shares. The mutual Love of Man and Wife dispense, With all the Chances of dark Providence; Nay, If in Prison he shou'd chance to lie, A Loving Wife brings Comforts and Supply. She pays ...
— The Fifteen Comforts of Matrimony: Responses from Men • Various
... are indebted for the sparkling vintage known under the now familiar name. The chalky slopes that border the Marne were early recognised as offering special advantages for the culture of the vine. The priests and monks, whose vows of sobriety certainly did not lessen their appreciation of the good things of this life, and the produce of whose vineyards usually enjoyed a higher reputation than that of their lay neighbours, were clever enough to seize upon the most eligible sites, and quick to spread abroad the fame of their wines. St. Remi, ...
— Facts About Champagne and Other Sparkling Wines • Henry Vizetelly
... care of the good monks who were stanch to the cause of the saintly Henry, was the one aim and object of his thoughts. He had known all along that the last miles of the journey would be those most fraught with peril, and to lessen this peril had been the main purpose on his mind. Having seen the prince start off on the direct path, so disguised that it was impossible to anticipate detection, he felt as though his life's work for the moment were ended, and heaving a great sigh of relief, he sank down upon a heap of dead ...
— In the Wars of the Roses - A Story for the Young • Evelyn Everett-Green
... reserve. He increased it in regard to such things as might have done me harm, and dispelled it in contrary cases. Moreover, he was careful to provide me with sufficient reasonable distractions, which while they could not take the place of the joys of love, served at least to lessen the smart of its wounds. As to temptations to debauchery, I felt none. I had too much pride to yearn for any woman in which I had not seen, as in Edmee, the ...
— Mauprat • George Sand
... chemical sequences, as so many late biochemists do, is still to put it where our science cannot unlock the mystery. If we should ever succeed in producing living matter in our laboratories, it would not lessen the mystery any more than the birth of a baby in the household lessens the mystery of generation. It only brings it ...
— The Breath of Life • John Burroughs
... that no one should be allowed to shoot on their land, but at the same time they asked that they might be assessed at lower rates than their neighbours, on the ground that the antelope, being thus left undisturbed, did more damage to their crops; but I told them that this would lessen the merit (pun) of their actions in protecting the animals, and they must be treated just as the surrounding villages were. They consider it a good deed to scatter grain to pigeons and other birds, and often have a ...
— The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India - Volume II • R. V. Russell
... blue eye was shining with the fire of other days, his manner had the self-possession and quiet sedateness of triumph that bespeak a man always more ready to do than to say. Perhaps the contemplation of the noble Roman-like old figure before him did not tend to lessen the feeling, even the sigh, of regret with which ...
— Queechy, Volume I • Elizabeth Wetherell
... been closely connected! Was it not natural that Robert Bolton should turn against him? If Hester had been his sister and there had come such an interloper what would he have felt? Was it not his duty to be gentle and to give way, if by any giving way he could lessen the evil which he had occasioned. 'I am sorry to have to leave your presence like this,' he said, turning ...
— John Caldigate • Anthony Trollope
... and receive the reward of your judicious choice; you are going to be a great Queen. I hope the throne will not lessen your virtue, nor make you forget yourself. As for you, ladies," said the fairy to Beauty's two sisters, "I know your hearts and all the malice they contain. Become two statues: but under this transformation, still retain your reason. You shall stand before your sister's palace gate, and be it your ...
— Children's Rhymes, Children's Games, Children's Songs, Children's Stories - A Book for Bairns and Big Folk • Robert Ford
... love, madam; the same passion that has prompted me to pursue you for years, now happily conducts me hither;—I come to lessen your ...
— The Dramatist; or Stop Him Who Can! - A Comedy, in Five Acts • Frederick Reynolds
... are determined to try the game as they stand, and will meet Parliament without change. The Whigs and Radicals are both fearful of the Grenville party joining the Government; and Cobbett has been attacking you violently in his last number, which I do not think will lessen you in public opinion.—I did not go up to-day, for Lord Shaftesbury told me it was determined, if possible, to prevent any discussion.—I hope you continue to mend. You shall have ...
— Memoirs of the Court of George IV. 1820-1830 (Vol 1) - From the Original Family Documents • Duke of Buckingham and Chandos
... long, long time he wept upon her shoulder, unable to speak. And it was fortunate that he did not speak, for he would have told her all, all. The unhappy man felt the need of pouring out his heart—an irresistible longing to accuse himself, to ask forgiveness, to lessen the weight of the ...
— Fromont and Risler, Complete • Alphonse Daudet
... the causes that hinder worm-like motion are also likely to lessen the normal secretions of the bowel. Some kinds of liver diseases tend to lessen the secretions of the bowel, because the amount of bile emptied into the bowel is lessened. Sometimes the glands of the intestine are rendered less active ...
— Mother's Remedies - Over One Thousand Tried and Tested Remedies from Mothers - of the United States and Canada • T. J. Ritter
... alone in the mellow moonlight of early morning, within a few miles of the greatest river of the Punjab, not even the pain of recent parting could lessen the thrill of independence and adventure, that quickened her pulses, and stirred the deep waters ...
— Captain Desmond, V.C. • Maud Diver
... of self-indulgence, and though they are doubtless very excusable and are often practised by splendid men, they are of no virtue in themselves. Further, they are open to the fundamental objection that they lessen the measure of a man's self-mastery. Women should set a high standard in ...
— Woman and Womanhood - A Search for Principles • C. W. Saleeby
... the least) with which Mrs. Maverick will be met by these friends of the daughter, he trusts that the mother's interviews with the Doctor, and a knowledge of the kindly influences under which Adele has grown up, may lessen the danger of a religious altercation between mother and child, which has been his great bugbear in view of ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 17, No. 103, May, 1866 • Various
... a passenger train and several persons were killed. The railroad company produced the weather records to show that a storm of such violence was outside the common run of events, seeking thereby to lessen the amounts awarded ...
— The Boy with the U. S. Weather Men • Francis William Rolt-Wheeler
... firmly, Nyoda refused permission. "The girls have come up here for a summer all by themselves; to learn the joys of camping out and of doing things together. Such an interruption would break up the unity of their activities and lessen the influence of camp." ...
— The Camp Fire Girls in the Maine Woods - Or, The Winnebagos Go Camping • Hildegard G. Frey
... has been found that a person with a freckly face can have as fine, fair, and clear an impression as the most perfect complexion; this may be done by the subject rubbing the face until it is very red. The effect is to lessen the contrast, by giving the freckles and skin the same color and the photogenic intensity of the red and yellow being nearly the same, an impression can ...
— American Handbook of the Daguerrotype • Samuel D. Humphrey
... introduced; one of these is the clearing of soup with albumen of meat instead of egg. The advantages of this method are that the soup is strengthened and the flavor improved, while clearing with whites of eggs in the usual way, though greatly improving the appearance, tends to lessen the flavor of soup. ...
— Choice Cookery • Catherine Owen
... east end is not seen at all, and the lantern, with all its height and vastness, is seen at once. Even as viewed from the west end, the choir is shut off from the rest of the church by a heavy screen, and the view eastward is broken and ineffective. But those very qualities of the interior which lessen the beauties of the nave increase the grandeur of the transept view. The great width of the church has enabled the lantern to be so large as almost to give it the effect of a dome. And the opening of the lantern is so lofty, 180 feet indeed from the floor to the vault, ...
— The Cathedral Church of York - Bell's Cathedrals: A Description of Its Fabric and A Brief - History of the Archi-Episcopal See • A. Clutton-Brock
... of keep moving," Stephan explained. "Of course, it might be possible for us to join forces, but then we should greatly lessen our effectiveness." ...
— The Boy Allies with the Cossacks - Or, A Wild Dash over the Carpathians • Clair W. Hayes
... has been given already, says, speaking of the dwellings of the slaves, "Too many individuals of both sexes are crowded into one house, and the proper separation of apartments cannot be observed. That the slaves are insensible to the evils arising from it, does not in the least lessen the unhappy consequences." Clay's Address before the ...
— The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Omnibus • American Anti-Slavery Society
... so much rely, and about which so much is said. To a certain extent, indeed, a faith in progress is perfectly rational and well grounded. There are many imperfections in life, which the course of events tends manifestly to lessen if not to do away with, and so far as these are concerned, improvements may go on indefinitely. But the things that this progress touches are, as has been said before, not happiness, but the negative conditions of it. A belief in this kind of progress is not peculiar to positivism. It is common ...
— Is Life Worth Living? • William Hurrell Mallock
... this strain, but all he said seemed to have little influence in pacifying the lady. At length, however, her sobs began to lessen in vehemence and frequency. He exhorted her to seek for some repose. Apparently she prepared to comply, and conversation was, for a few ...
— Arthur Mervyn - Or, Memoirs of the Year 1793 • Charles Brockden Brown
... helpless group, pale, feeble, and careworn though she was, had already shown herself eager to lessen, so far as possible, the burden she had brought upon the family of her husband, and sat peeling potatoes from a huge basket on the one side, while a pan of apples, duly pared and quartered, stood awaiting the oven upon the other. Plainly Matilda Jane ...
— Uncle Rutherford's Nieces - A Story for Girls • Joanna H. Mathews
... and the shock of his including accusation, his 'Thou art the man,' sent a throb of pain to my heart. That I had already seen my false position and changed front did not lessen the shock, for I was only the more sensitive ...
— Danger - or Wounded in the House of a Friend • T. S. Arthur
... clearer lesson than that the right to pass "Money Bills," without interference from the House of Lords, has been claimed and exercised by the House of Commons for several generations. The public was not slow to take the alarm. To be sure, several causes conspired to lessen somewhat the popular indignation. Among these were the inevitable expenses of the Chinese War, the certainty of an increased income tax, if the bill became a law, and the very small majority which the measure finally received in the House ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 8, No. 50, December, 1861 • Various
... "That doesn't lessen my obligation," said she. And she thought she meant it, though, in fact, his generous and plausible statement of the case had immediately lessened not a little her ...
— The Price She Paid • David Graham Phillips
... now an effect to lessen the sphere of sculpture. This art was always preferred by the Christians, as has been shown before, and now, when it had reached most satisfactory heights, it was used in many places where sculpture had before been placed. One important example of this is seen in ...
— A History of Art for Beginners and Students - Painting, Sculpture, Architecture • Clara Erskine Clement
... took to do this, the officer not so much dismounted as tumbled from his horse, and he now walked stiffly into the public room, stamping his feet to lessen their numbness. ...
— Janice Meredith • Paul Leicester Ford
... who enters, after selecting her trade, is given a typewritten paper showing the possible steps of advance in her chosen course. She takes this home in order that the family may know what is before her. She can by special effort or by outside study lessen the length of her training. The first month in the school is a test time. If the girl shows the needed qualities she is allowed ...
— The Making of a Trade School • Mary Schenck Woolman
... and that the natural sexual impulse can be kept under control by avoiding associations, conversations, and thoughts of a lewd character. However, persons who will not exercise self-control in this matter can greatly lessen the risks of indulgence by the prompt use, immediately upon return to camp or garrison, of the prophylaxis prescribed by War Department orders and which all soldiers are required to take after exposing ...
— Manual of Military Training - Second, Revised Edition • James A. Moss
... delivered in, and sworn to his qualification as aforesaid, and taken his seat in the house of commons, yet at any time after should, during the continuance of such parliament, sell, dispose of, alien, or any otherwise incumber the estate, or any part thereof comprised in the schedule, so as to lessen or reduce the same under the value of the qualification by law directed, every such person, under a certain penalty, must deliver in a new or further qualification, according to the true intent and meaning of this act, and swear to the same, in manner before directed, before ...
— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.II. - From William and Mary to George II. • Tobias Smollett
... creatures, and you will not lean on a broken reed. Father O'Rourke, you, too, witness my disgrace, but not my punishment. It is pleasant, no doubt, to have a topic for conversation at your Conferences; enjoy it. As for you, Margaret, if society lessen misery, we may be less miserable. But the band of your order, and the remembrance of your vow is on your forehead, like the mark of Cain—tear it off, and let it not blast a man who is the victim of prejudice still, nay, of superstition, as well as of guilt; tear it from my sight." ...
— The Haunters & The Haunted - Ghost Stories And Tales Of The Supernatural • Various
... something to lessen the dense ignorance of those around me; but for such work as that a man should be able to extend himself over a larger surface than that which I can influence. My dream of happiness now carries me away from ...
— Orley Farm • Anthony Trollope
... outrageous conduct of France toward the United States, and at the inimitable conduct of those partisans who aid and abet her measures. You may believe further, from assurances equally sincere, that if there was anything in my power to be done consistently to avert or lessen the danger of the crisis, it should be ...
— Life And Times Of Washington, Volume 2 • John Frederick Schroeder and Benson John Lossing
... My organs were bereaved of their activity. My eye-lids were half-closed, and my hands withdrawn from the balustrade. A nameless fear chilled my veins, and I stood motionless. This irradiation did not retire or lessen. It seemed as if some powerful effulgence covered me like ...
— Wieland; or The Transformation - An American Tale • Charles Brockden Brown
... of the Tudors upon the system of land-holding can hardly be exaggerated. An impulse of self-defence led them to lessen the physical force of the oligarchy by relieving the land from the support of the army, and enabling them to convert to their own use the income previously applied to the defence of the realm. This was a bribe, but it brought ...
— Landholding In England • Joseph Fisher
... to explain this mystery to me. He showed me the book of nature, and I understood that every flower created by Him is beautiful, that the brilliance of the rose and the whiteness of the lily do not lessen the perfume of the violet or the sweet simplicity of the daisy. I understood that if all the lowly flowers wished to be roses, nature would lose its springtide beauty, and the fields would no longer be enamelled with lovely hues. And so it is in the ...
— The Story of a Soul (L'Histoire d'une Ame): The Autobiography of St. Therese of Lisieux • Therese Martin (of Lisieux)
... long as he insisted upon keeping up an establishment of a hundred knights; that this establishment was useless and expensive and only served to fill her court with riot and feasting; and she prayed him that he would lessen their number and keep none but old men about him, such as himself, ...
— Tales from Shakespeare • Charles and Mary Lamb
... became necessary therefore to lessen the charge, a resolution was taken to begin with the salaries of the actors; and what seem'd to make this resolution more necessary at this time was the loss of Nokes, Montfort and Leigh, who all dy'd about the same year. No wonder then, if when these great pillars ...
— The Palmy Days of Nance Oldfield • Edward Robins
... upon her bosom. She felt the rigor lessen. The moaning ceased, and the tortured heart began to leap and strain against her own, as though some invisible hand lashed it with an ...
— The Dop Doctor • Clotilde Inez Mary Graves
... which can lessen the impression which Jenny Lind's greatness on the stage makes, except her own personal character at home. An intelligent and child-like disposition exercises here its astonishing power; she is happy; belonging, as it were, no longer to the world, a peaceful, quiet home, ...
— The True Story of My Life • Hans Christian Andersen
... horses, colors, and condition of pack. The next day nothing of importance developed, and the posse hugged the shelter of the hills skirting the mountain range, crossing into New Mexico. It was late that night when they went into camp on the trail. They had pushed forward with every energy, hoping to lessen the intervening distance between them and the robbers. The following morning on awakening, to the surprise and mortification of everybody, the old dog was unable to stand upon his feet. While this was felt to be a serious drawback, it did not ...
— Cattle Brands - A Collection of Western Camp-fire Stories • Andy Adams
... totted up the trifling totals, there flitted before him something more that refused to be set down upon the paper. The Ledger had no lines for it. What was it? Why was it pleasant, even flattering? Why did it mitigate his discontent and lessen the dissatisfied feeling? It passed hovering in and about his thoughts, though uncaught by actual words; and as his mind played with it, he felt more hopeful. He searched in vain for a definition, but, though fruitless, the search brought comfort somehow. Something had been accomplished ...
— A Prisoner in Fairyland • Algernon Blackwood
... morning the wind had shifted to north-east, and blew, if possible, harder than before, accompanied by a much heavier swell of the sea; it was therefore judged advisable to pay out more cable, in order to lessen the ...
— The Lighthouse • R.M. Ballantyne
... but as for me, I believe that this is not his feeling, and that he would wish the farm out of the question, for he is too fond of hunting and his pleasure to quit it.... He does his utmost to remove me from your service, insinuating many things against me which are not true; but this does not lessen ...
— The Makers of Canada: Bishop Laval • A. Leblond de Brumath
... capability of conforming to them in many instances, but never to deviate from them in English must pinion both thought and diction, and, (mastery once proved) a series gains rather than loses by such varieties as do not lessen the only absolute aim—that of beauty. The English sonnet too much tampered with becomes a sort of bastard madrigal. Too much, invariably restricted, it ...
— Recollections of Dante Gabriel Rossetti - 1883 • T. Hall Caine
... conclusion, "the path to both of us remains the same. To Alice is our first duty. The discovery I have made of your real parentage does not diminish the claims which Alice has on me, does not lessen the grateful affection that is due to her from yourself. Yes, Evelyn, we are not the less separated forever. But when I learned the wilful falsehood which the unhappy man, now hurried to his last account, to whom your birth was known, had imposed upon me,—namely, ...
— Alice, or The Mysteries, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton
... Now for our Mountaine sport, vp to yond hill Your legges are yong: Ile tread these Flats. Consider, When you aboue perceiue me like a Crow, That it is Place, which lessen's, and sets off, And you may then reuolue what Tales, I haue told you, Of Courts, of Princes; of the Tricks in Warre. This Seruice, is not Seruice; so being done, But being so allowed. To apprehend ...
— The First Folio [35 Plays] • William Shakespeare
... two horses began slowly to lessen, and Warburton understood, in a nebulous way, what the girl had meant when she said that Dick could outrun Pirate. If Pirate kept to the road, Dick would bring him down; but if Pirate took it into his head to vault a fence! Warburton shuddered. Faster, faster, over this roll of earth, ...
— The Man on the Box • Harold MacGrath
... expectations, and uninfluenced by promises from me, he behaved as if the case had been his own, and proved the sincerity of his professions by doing everything in his power to serve me. On perceiving how much he was engaged in my favor, I did not choose to lessen the appearance of its being disinterested by promises of rewards. But after the bills were protested, and he could be of no further use, I sent him a gold piece of sixteen dollars, as an acknowledgment for the trouble I had given him. He returned it with an assurance, that he wished to serve me ...
— The Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution, Vol. VIII • Various
... dressed in some rustling brown taffeta stuff and carried her hat in a carefully pinned page of newspaper. Her face was sunken and lined and rouged to lessen the ravages of age, and her hair was palpably mismatched. Moreover, instinct warned that his offer would be refused, for she was one of the tall, skinny folks. Nevertheless, he ...
— A Son of the City - A Story of Boy Life • Herman Gastrell Seely
... midst of which a shout was heard from the road. The farmer and his family instinctively started. Red Jim alone remained unmoved,—a fact which did not lessen the admiration of his feminine audience. The host rose quickly, and went out. The figure of a horseman had halted in the road, but after a few moments' conversation with the farmer they both moved towards the house and disappeared. When ...
— Susy, A Story of the Plains • Bret Harte
... former, and so consequently strikes us less. Add to this, that there may a Suspicion arise, that the Passion of Love in a direct Manner may be more sensual than in those Branches which I have mention'd; which Suspicion is sufficient to take from its Dignity, and lessen our Veneration for it. Of all Shakespeare's Tragedies, none can surpass this, as to the noble Passions which it naturally raises in us. That the Reader may see what our Poet had to work upon, I shall insert the Plan of it as abridged from Saxo-Grammaticus's ...
— Some Remarks on the Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, Written by Mr. William Shakespeare (1736) • Anonymous
... gardening, which last process they had to superintend and to direct. Besides, they erected and kept in repair their own dwellings, cultivated their own gardens, fabricated tools for themselves, and used every exertion to lessen the demand for, or supply the deficiency of their European food. They had also to collect and bring home firewood for their domestic purposes—no small labour; and to fell timber and build boats for the purposes of barter, as they took nothing gratuitous from the natives, ...
— The Moravians in Labrador • Anonymous
... the weary travellers into a region of open leads, [Footnote: Open leads: open ways in an ice-field.] bearing north and south. Resting here for a few hours, Peary and his companions resumed their march at midnight, pushing on with feverish haste to lessen the distance between them and the goal that was luring them on. Travelling as fast as they could till noon of the 21st, they then ...
— Short Stories and Selections for Use in the Secondary Schools • Emilie Kip Baker
... with the jury in estimating damages. An action may be commenced although the gentleman is not married. The length of time which must elapse before action must be reasonable. A lapse of three years, or even half that time, without any attempt by the gentleman to renew the acquaintance, would lessen the damages very considerably—perhaps do away with all chance of success, unless the delay could ...
— Enquire Within Upon Everything - The Great Victorian Domestic Standby • Anonymous
... doubted, then, that the plan I propose, if adopted, would shorten the war, and thus lessen its expenditure of money and of blood? Is it doubted that it would restore the national authority and national prosperity, and perpetuate both indefinitely? Is it doubted that we here—Congress and Executive—can secure its adoption? Will not the good people respond to a united ...
— Abraham Lincoln, Vol. II • John T. Morse
... former foes we will work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat, and roll back the ...
— Inaugural Presidential Address - Contributed Transcripts • Barack Hussein Obama
... promoted the diminution of their own powers and the enlargement of those of the General Government in the way in which they might be most adequate and efficient. It is believed that no other example can be found of a Government exerting its influence to lessen its own powers, of a policy so enlightened, of a patriotism so pure and disinterested. The credit, however, is more especially due to the people of each State, in obedience to whose will and under whose control the State ...
— A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents - Section 1 (of 3) of Volume 2: James Monroe • James D. Richardson
... all do they expect, that any future parliament will lessen its own powers, or communicate to the people that authority ...
— The Works of Samuel Johnson, Vol. 6 - Reviews, Political Tracts, and Lives of Eminent Persons • Samuel Johnson
... at his feet, it was a mere matter of a couple of blows for him to utterly destroy both, and so lessen the number of his enemies. But Jack could not strike fallen men. He returned to his own end of the tunnel, and allowed them to creep back to the outer cave, the wounded man crawling ...
— Jack Haydon's Quest • John Finnemore
... instant she was noosed. She continued to tug and pull at the rope. But she was at such a disadvantage that she could not put her full weight into her struggles. Nevertheless the strain on Charley's arm was terrific. To lessen the tension would give the bear more leeway and so make the strain still greater. And to hold the bear with one hand, while he cast his rope and got it in with the other, Charley at ...
— The Young Wireless Operator—As a Fire Patrol - The Story of a Young Wireless Amateur Who Made Good as a Fire Patrol • Lewis E. Theiss
... two were taken to a room, where Don Quixote, alone with his squire, undressed and put on the shirt, while he gave Sancho admonitions galore, as to how to behave, begging him never again to have any quarrels with any duennas, for that only tended to lessen the respect for the master, who was always judged by his squire's ...
— The Story of Don Quixote • Arvid Paulson, Clayton Edwards, and Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
... he exclaimed, in a loud, determined voice—"no, I shall not do it! I shall not be such a fool as to lessen my own power. No; the blank charters are mine, I shall know ...
— The Youth of the Great Elector • L. Muhlbach
... unimportant under Hojo; Fujiwara, then Imperial princes, appointed; Ashikaga in Northern Court; powers transferred to kwanryo; under Tokugawa; minister gets power; separated from ministerial council; Chinese classics lessen power; court of last appeal; Imperial rescript to; power ...
— A History of the Japanese People - From the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era • Frank Brinkley and Dairoku Kikuchi
... All experience proves that while it is a terrible injury to a new country to be settled by convicts, it is a real injury also to the people from whom they are sent, to shovel out of sight all their failures, and neither try to lessen their numbers nor to reclaim them to orderly civil life. It was not till Australia refused any longer to receive convicts, as Virginia had previously done, that serious efforts were made to amend the criminal code of England, or to use reformatory methods first with young and afterwards ...
— An Autobiography • Catherine Helen Spence
... a dozen others were on a shelf beside it. For the custom on the frontier was that each rider from the range should deposit his weapons at the first saloon he entered. They were returned to him when he called for them just before leaving town. This tended to lessen the number ...
— Oh, You Tex! • William Macleod Raine
... accommodate ourselves to the lessons of this new science, even as we have accommodated ourselves to those of history. We should soon make allowance for the evils we could not escape and for inevitable evils. The wiser among us, for themselves, would lessen the sum total of the latter; and the others would meet them half-way, even as now they go to meet many certain disasters which are easily foretold. The amount of our vexations would be somewhat decreased, but less than we hope; for already our reason ...
— The Life Radiant • Lilian Whiting
... to which erudition had given force and fluency without culture; his learning had not educated his perceptions: it was an implement serving to slash others rather than to polish himself. I have said that at first sight he was immense; but as I studied him he began to lessen under my scrutiny. His depth was a false perspective ...
— The Greater Inclination • Edith Wharton
... do confess, I was surpriz'd at the sight of Monsieur Henault, and much more than ever you have observ'd me to be at the sight of his Person, because there is scarce a day wherein I do not see that, and know beforehand I shall see him; I am prepar'd for the Encounter, and have lessen'd my Concern, or rather Confusion, by that time I come to the Grate, so much Mistress I am of my Passions, when they give me warning of their approach, and sure I can withstand the greatest assaults of Fate, if I can but foresee it; but if it surprize me, I find I am as ...
— The Works of Aphra Behn - Volume V • Aphra Behn
... by itself, it may yet be made a good use of, by making it serve the purpose of a detached 'torre campanile' to the new church which is required for the station; to this last it would save the necessity of a steeple or cupola, and would much lessen the ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction - Vol. XIX. No. 554, Saturday, June 30, 1832 • Various
... wholly cover the articles fried, but the pan must not be too full, or there is danger of overflow when heavy articles are put in. After each frying, drain the fat or oil, put it into a receptacle kept for the purpose, and use it over and over again as long as it lasts. As the quantity begins to lessen, add sufficient fresh fat or oil to ...
— The International Jewish Cook Book • Florence Kreisler Greenbaum
... there can be no data outside those furnished by the government-owned railways of the British colonies, and such data negative these assertions; and the advocates of national ownership are justified in asserting that such ownership would materially lessen the cost, as any expert can readily point out many ways in which the enormous costs of corporate management would be lessened. With those familiar with present methods, and not interested in their perpetuation, this objection has no ...
— The Railroad Question - A historical and practical treatise on railroads, and - remedies for their abuses • William Larrabee
... am I driven to make a virtue of necessity; And, seeing God almighty will have it so, I embrace it thankfully, Desiring God to mollify and lessen[212] Usury's hard heart, That the poor people feel not the like penury and smart. But Usury is made tolerable amongst Christians, as a necessary thing, So that, going beyond the limits of our law, ...
— A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Vol. VI • Robert Dodsley
... portion of the Christmas beef which has been slaughtered for their special benefit, and we prepare for service at the parish church, which stands among the shadows of the old forest oaks an easy walk from the house. There the solemn services temper and soften, but do not check or lessen, the joy and good-will which so well become the season, and which find their appropriate manifestation in all kinds of innocent amusement. The religious and the social observances of the day react each upon the other, and harmonize most admirably ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science - February, 1876, Vol. XVII, No. 98. • Various
... spoken; as also of the Latin poem which the Anglo-Saxon poet followed. It is rather an adaptation than a translation, and it has a second part in which the allegory is explained. At the close there is a playful alternation of Latin and Saxon half-lines, which does not at all lessen the probability that the poet may have been ...
— Anglo-Saxon Literature • John Earle
... surface, and the next rain carried the debris down the hill, forming in time a deep depression, between banks at the sides, often many feet deep, and giving the impression of the track having been purposely dug out to lessen the gradient. In places where the road became impassable from long use and wet, deviations on either side were made, so that ten or a dozen disused tracks can be seen side by side, often extending laterally quite a long distance from the existing ...
— Grain and Chaff from an English Manor • Arthur H. Savory
... my love for her. And my desperate need of doing something; getting to her; seeing her, being with her; having her near my own size again as though the blessed normality of that would rationalize and lessen her danger. If only I had been less rash! If only back there in that tunnel I had stopped to see what it was ...
— Astounding Stories, March, 1931 • Various
... for a drink of water. Tonia brought it from the red jar hanging under the brush shelter. Sandridge considered it necessary to dismount so as to lessen the trouble of ...
— Heart of the West • O. Henry
... of these affections in a just and reasonable manner and degree would upon the whole increase the satisfactions and lessen the miseries ...
— Human Nature - and Other Sermons • Joseph Butler
... particular denomination is always provided with a separate school of its own. Of late, indeed, opinion has begun to agitate for associating the laity with the clergy in the management of schools; but this does not indicate any desire to lessen the importance given to the part played by ...
— Irish Books and Irish People • Stephen Gwynn
... changed the guard that afternoon he had grown weary of his own company and of fruitless speculation and was pacing up and down. The second guard proved even less communicative than the first, up to the point when, to lessen his ennui, King began to whistle. Because a Secret Service man must be consistent, the tune was not English, but a weird minor one to which the "Hills" have set their favorite love song (that is, all about ...
— King—of the Khyber Rifles • Talbot Mundy
... did not find the Indian trade entirely to their liking and after a few years experience wrote (under date June 20, 1767), "The Indian debts we cannot lessen being obliged to give them new credit as a condition of their paying their old debts. They are very numerous at this time but have made bad hunts; we have got a share of their peltry, as much as all the others put together, and hope soon to collect ...
— Glimpses of the Past - History of the River St. John, A.D. 1604-1784 • W. O. Raymond
... of their Religion; what they call Religion is nothing but a blind attachment to unknown opinions and mysterious practices. In fact, to deprive people of Religion is to deprive them of nothing. By overthrowing their prejudices, we should only lessen or annihilate the dangerous confidence they put in interested guides, and should teach them to mistrust those, who, under the pretext of Religion, often lead ...
— Good Sense - 1772 • Paul Henri Thiry, Baron D'Holbach
... honest servants. Of that they can well judge; and I wish that they always exercised their judgment; but of the particular merits of a measure I have other standards. That the frequency of elections proposed by this bill has a tendency to increase the power and consideration of the electors, not lessen corruptibility, I do most readily allow; so far as it is desirable, this is what it has; I will tell you now what it has not: 1st. It has no sort of tendency to increase their integrity and public spirit, unless an increase of power has an operation upon voters in ...
— Thoughts on the Present Discontents - and Speeches • Edmund Burke
... my account," said Frank. "And what troubles she may have,—as life will be troublesome, I trust that I may share and lessen." ...
— The Eustace Diamonds • Anthony Trollope
... feels a desire, involuntarily generated, of flying to his relief. Thus impulses, feelings, and dispositions have been implanted in our nature, for the purpose of preventing and rectifying the evils of life. And as these have operated, so as to stimulate some men to lessen them by the exercise of an amiable charity, so they have operated to stimulate others in various other ways to the same end. Hence the philosopher has left moral precepts behind him in favour of benevolence, and the legislator has endeavoured to prevent barbarous ...
— The History of the Rise, Progress and Accomplishment of the - Abolition of the African Slave-Trade, by the British Parliament (1839) • Thomas Clarkson
... won't you see, that, if you leave the one great sin all uncovered, open to the continual attrition of a life of goodness, God will let it wear away? It will lessen and lessen, until at the last, when the Ocean of Eternity beats against it, it shall go down, down into the deeps of love that no mortal line can fathom. Oh, Herbert, come out with me!—come out into this Infinity ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 10, No. 58, August, 1862 • Various |
