"Variable" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... changes from the northward to the eastward. On the very rare occasions when it may do so, the wind being very variable, it never stands there but quickly returns to ...
— Three Years in Tristan da Cunha • K. M. Barrow
... turned this way and that. "It must be alive," thought I; "is it a fish or a bird?" As I watched the vessel, the sun was going down and there was not more than an hour's daylight. The wind was very light and variable, which accounted for the vessel so often altering her course. My companion came out with his hands full of smoking tinder, and putting it under the wood, was busy blowing it into a flame. The wood was soon set fire to, and the smoke ...
— The Little Savage • Captain Marryat
... Variable passions throng her constant woe, As striving who should best become her grief; 968 All entertain'd, each passion labours so, That every present sorrow seemeth chief, But none is best; then join they all together, Like many clouds consulting ...
— Venus and Adonis • William Shakespeare
... however, and in a definite problem, the number of factors can be kept down by assuming average conditions of weather, using the fairly well-known enemy force that would appear in practice, and playing games in which the only important variable is the kind of vessel in question. For instance, in the endeavor to ascertain the value of the battle cruiser, games can be played in which battle cruisers are only on one side, or in which they are more ...
— The Navy as a Fighting Machine • Bradley A. Fiske
... Leigh Hunt, in his autobiography, writes, "I will not dwell upon the moment." From Leghorn he drove with the Hunts to Pisa, and established them in the ground-floor of Byron's Palazzo Lanfranchi, as comfortably as was consistent with his lordship's variable moods. The negotiations which had preceded Hunt's visit to Italy, raised forebodings in Shelley's mind as to the reception he would meet from Byron; nor were these destined to be unfulfilled. Trelawny tells us how irksome the poet found ...
— Percy Bysshe Shelley • John Addington Symonds
... keeping the advantage with which he had started, despite Howe's skill. At nightfall both fleets were still steering to the southward, on the port tack, the French five or six miles in the rear of the British, with the wind variable at east. The same course was maintained throughout the night, the French gradually overhauling the British, and becoming visible at 3 A.M. of the 11th. By Howe's dispatch, they bore in the morning, at an hour not specified, east-north-east, ...
— The Major Operations of the Navies in the War of American Independence • A. T. Mahan
... increasing disagreement as to whether various forms shall be held to be original species or strong varieties. Moreover, the degree to which the descendants of the same stock, varying in different directions, may at length diverge, is unknown. All we know is, that varieties are themselves variable, and that very diverse forms have ...
— Evolution and Ethics and Other Essays • Thomas H. Huxley
... the creature should not be raised on some self-glorifying pinnacle merely because the fickle variable heart at lasts learns the exercise of Fidelity. Do we not see a very ordinary dog practising this same fidelity as he waits, so eager that he trembles, outside his master's door, having put on one side every desire save his desire to his master whom, not seeing, he continues to await; and this ...
— The Romance of the Soul • Lilian Staveley
... different judgments formed by different classes of Rationalists as to the how much they shall receive of the revelation they might generally admit, a very shifting one—a measure which has no linear unit; it is to employ, as mathematicians say, a variable as if it were a constant quantity; or, rather, it is to attempt to find the value of an unknown quantity by another ...
— Reason and Faith; Their Claims and Conflicts • Henry Rogers
... Cradles of mankind. If indeed monuments and languages of various parts of the earth were quite different, and the features or colors of men likewise distinct there, we might suppose there could have been several species and cradles of men: but it is not so, features and languages are so variable and mingling in our own times, and so diversified every where, as to baffle and preclude complete insulation. Monuments are also after all so much alike in many remote parts, that although divisible into styles of various ages and stages of improvement, they do evince a great ...
— The Ancient Monuments of North and South America, 2nd ed. • C. S. Rafinesque
... were upon the coast we had more calms than storms, and the winds so variable, that I question if a passage might not have been made from east to west in as short a time as from west to east; nor did we experience any cold weather. The mercury in the thermometer at noon was never below 46 deg.; and while we lay in Christmas Sound it was generally above temperate. ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 15 (of 18) • Robert Kerr
... they do not live by cultivating the land," returned the Professor. "The seasons are too variable, and the changes of temperature are far too sudden to permit raising ...
— Doctor Jones' Picnic • S. E. Chapman
... would wander, selfcompelled, to the extreme limit of his cometary orbit, beyond the fixed stars and variable suns and telescopic planets, astronomical waifs and strays, to the extreme boundary of space, passing from land to land, among peoples, amid events. Somewhere imperceptibly he would hear and somehow reluctantly, suncompelled, obey the summons ...
— Ulysses • James Joyce
... going to waste, that the fellows who got up the terms for radio work couldn't have used words like 'grid,' for instance. They could have called a variocoupler a 'gol,' a potentiometer a 'dit,' an induction coil a 'lim,' (l-i-m) and a variable condenser would look just as pretty if it were written out as a 'sos'—but no! They forgot the good example set by the grid, the volt and the ohm and they went and ...
— Radio Boys Loyalty - Bill Brown Listens In • Wayne Whipple
... be ascertained quickly, if the constant of the brake is ascertained; then it will be simply necessary to multiply the number of revolutions and the weight at the end of the lever by such a constant, and the product gives the horse power, because, with a given Prony brake, the only variable quantities are the weight and the speed. All the observations, electrical and mechanical, are made simultaneously. The electrical horse power put into the motor is found by the well known formula C x E / 746; this simple multiplication and division becomes very tedious ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 430, March 29, 1884 • Various
... the most important things to be considered in judging the nature of the raw materials used in the preparation of a beer are the quantities of protein, phosphoric acid, and ash; as the other constituents present in the finished beer are more or less variable, the quantities present depending upon the ...
— A Study Of American Beers and Ales • L.M. Tolman
... with religion. The early faith of the Slavs, the Celts, and the Teutons is now generally regarded as best representing that of the Aryans. It was a religion in which rite and belief were indefinite and variable compared with those of the later Aryan faiths of India and of Southern Europe, there being neither a regular priesthood nor the use of writing to impart fixity to religious forms. The river, the fountain, and the aged oak, each had its legend ...
— History of Religion - A Sketch of Primitive Religious Beliefs and Practices, and of the Origin and Character of the Great Systems • Allan Menzies
... nations was more tremendous, more feared and less beloved, than the Jupiter of the Greeks and Romans; he was worshipped accordingly with more bloody sacrifices. But in all Europe, Western Asia and the northwestern coast of Africa, where the earth is uneven and the climate variable, their religion was more gloomy and their gods more ferocious than among ...
— The Columbiad • Joel Barlow
... how slowly, how painfully, we approach the expression of truth. We are so variable, so anxious to be polite, and alternately swayed by caution or anger. Our mind oscillates like a pendulum: it takes some time for it to come to rest. And then, the proper allowance and correction has to be made for our ...
— Mince Pie • Christopher Darlington Morley
... the two variable cranks, constructed as specified, and applied in the manner shown, to the shaft or axis of the boring machine, as and ...
— Scientific American, Vol. 17, No. 26 December 28, 1867 • Various
... to the Hawaiian mythology, presides over Kilauea, is, as some say all her sex are, variable, changeable, mutable. What I shall tell you about the appearance of the crater and lake is true of that time; it may not have been correct a week later; it was certainly not true of a month before. We climbed into the deep pit, and then stood upon a vast floor ...
— Northern California, Oregon, and the Sandwich Islands • Charles Nordhoff
... impetuous as himself. The open frankness and social nature of Colquitt won him many friends, and of that description most useful to politicians—friends who were devoted, who felt for, and preferred him to any other man. His features were versatile, and variable as an April day, betraying every emotion of his mind—especially his eyes, which were soft or fierce, as the passion of the heart sprang to view in them, and spoke his soul's sensations. His oratory was playful, awakening wild ...
— The Memories of Fifty Years • William H. Sparks
... progress eastward we were still governed by the line of the Crawford; and the tortuous direction of the ravines connected with it required constant attention, while the very variable character of the swamps at the head of them was still more perplexing. We succeeded in finding a passage between all this day also and, on again crossing a small mountain torrent by filling up the ...
— Three Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia, Vol 2 (of 2) • Thomas Mitchell
... Lady Montbarry's variable humour changed again. With a low groan of misery, she threw herself back in the cab. Lost in her own dark thoughts, as careless of the woman whom she had bent to her iron will as if no such person sat by her side, she preserved a sinister silence, until they reached ...
— The Haunted Hotel - A Mystery of Modern Venice • Wilkie Collins
... aujourd'hui l'enonce du fait general, je rappellerai que les corps, doue des fonctions accomplies dans les tissus des plantes, sont formes des elements qui constituent, en proportion peu variable, les organismes animaux; qu'ainsi l'on est conduit a reconnaitre une immense unite de composition elementaire dans tous les corps ...
— Critiques and Addresses • Thomas Henry Huxley
... which names mean not so much usefulness as dominion. The most of our windows open toward the exchange, toward the salon of fashion, toward the god of this world. In olden times the length of the English yard was fixed by the length of the arm of King Henry I., and we are apt to measure things by a variable standard and by the human arm that in the great crises of life can give us no help. We need, like Daniel, to open our ...
— New Tabernacle Sermons • Thomas De Witt Talmage
... preceptors, both very impatient, as you can well believe; and good instruction was given to them. How? I cannot say, because everyone has his own method and practice, and of all sciences this is the most variable in principle. You may be sure that never did scholars receive more gayly the precepts of any language, grammar, or lessons whatsoever. And the two spouses returned to their nest, delighted at being ...
— Droll Stories, Volume 2 • Honore de Balzac
... and for at least two or three years subsequently to, his marriage Coleridge's feeling towards his wife was one of profound and indeed of ardent attachment. It is of course quite possible that the passion of so variable, impulsive, and irresolute a temperament as his may have had its hot and cold fits, and that during one of the latter phases Southey may have imagined that his friend needed some such remonstrance as that referred to. But this is not nearly enough to support ...
— English Men of Letters: Coleridge • H. D. Traill
... Plants have definite ways of acting. A vine turns around a support. A leaf turns its upper surface to the light. But one cannot teach plants different ways of acting. The lower forms of animals are somewhat like plants and inanimate objects. But to a very slight extent they are variable and can form habits. Among the higher animals, such as dogs and other domestic animals, there is a greater possibility of forming habits. In man there are the greatest possibilities of habit-formation. In man the learned acts or habits are many as compared to the unlearned acts or ...
— The Science of Human Nature - A Psychology for Beginners • William Henry Pyle
... in water may be purchased in gutta-percha or lead bottles. It is of variable strength and doubtful purity. It must always be examined quantitatively for the residue left on evaporation. It is used occasionally for the examination of silicates. It attacks silica, forming fluoride of silicon, which is a gas. When the introduction ...
— A Textbook of Assaying: For the Use of Those Connected with Mines. • Cornelius Beringer and John Jacob Beringer
... like those of the advocate, the preacher, the journalist, which must be pursued continuously, well or ill, and in spite of such variations of feeling. In these labors men doubtless learn to disregard in some degree these moods of mind; but the variable quality of the productions of one man on different days confirms what testimony we have ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 20, No. 121, November, 1867 • Various
... biotite and phlogopite. The name is from the Latin vermiculor, "to breed worms," because when heated before the blowpipe these minerals exfoliate into long worm-like threads. They have the same chemical constituents as the chlorites, but the composition is variable and indefinite, varying with that of the original mineral and the extent of its alteration. Several indistinct varieties have been named, the most important of which is jeffersonite. ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 6, Slice 3 - "Chitral" to "Cincinnati" • Various
... variable spelling, as well as inconsistency in hyphenation, has been preserved as printed in the original book ...
— The Web of the Golden Spider • Frederick Orin Bartlett
... radio receiving set includes various devices, such as variable condensers, variocouplers, loose-couplers, variometers, the purpose of which is to "tune" or adjust the receiving set to be capable of receiving the radio waves. An explanation of such devices is not within the scope of this book, but there are numerous reasonably priced books and pamphlets on ...
— The Automobile Storage Battery - Its Care And Repair • O. A. Witte
... without making ten miles; the boat was kept under the jib, as they dared not hoist the mainsail, and the wind was so variable that much time was lost ...
— CELEBRATED CRIMES, COMPLETE - MURAT—1815 • ALEXANDRE DUMAS, PERE
... we left the abominable but so-called wagon road, and took a short cut over the mountains. It would be but vain repetition to describe our "ups and downs" for the next few hours. The agony was just as exquisite, the scenery was just as grand and variable, but as far as I know it the English language contains no words of sufficient intensity to express more than I have already iterated ...
— Six Days on the Hurricane Deck of a Mule - An account of a journey made on mule back in Honduras, - C.A. in August, 1891 • Almira Stillwell Cole
... did, my father would punish me;"—"I will not go with these boys; because I would be ashamed to be seen in their company." In this latter example, we have the same lessons, and the same application, although these lessons have been derived from a more questionable, and a much more variable source. In both cases, however, it is the same operation of Nature, and which we ought always to imitate therefore ...
— A Practical Enquiry into the Philosophy of Education • James Gall
... of words that have a variable accentuation: first, those in which an unaccented weak vowel is followed by an accented strong vowel, e.g. majestu^oso, majestu|oso; second, those in which an accented strong vowel is followed by an unaccented ...
— Legends, Tales and Poems • Gustavo Adolfo Becquer
... the island must also be taken into consideration. Let it be well borne in mind that if its destructive power surpasses anything ever conceived or dreamed of, it extends over a zone not exceeding a mile in extent. The distance of this dangerous zone is variable, but once the engines have been set, the modification of the distance occupies some time, and a warship that succeeds in passing the zone has nothing further ...
— Facing the Flag • Jules Verne
... omission of nothing hereafter important, to add that he seems well bred to the manege—and rode with that ease and air of indolence, which are characteristic of the gentry of the south. His garments were strictly suited to the condition and custom of the country—a variable climate, rough roads, and rude accommodations. They consisted of a dark blue frock, of stuff not so fine as strong, with pantaloons of the same material, all fitting well, happily adjusted to the figure of the wearer, yet sufficiently ...
— Guy Rivers: A Tale of Georgia • William Gilmore Simms
... confess, altogether participate in this true seaman-like taste: on my voyages, the mere sight of land has always been my great source of pleasure. The conduct of a vessel through distant seas, and through its conflicts with the variable element, is not indeed an uninteresting occupation; but the object which has always chiefly attracted my inclinations, is an intimate knowledge of various countries and their inhabitants; and I have always considered ...
— A New Voyage Round the World, in the years 1823, 24, 25, and 26, Vol. 2 • Otto von Kotzebue
... now became very intense, the thermometer registering 30 degrees F. below zero. The mercury, however, never exhibited any of those fluctuations that are ever and again to be observed in variable climates, but continued slowly and steadily to fall, and in all probability would continue to do so until it reached the normal temperature of the regions ...
— Off on a Comet • Jules Verne
... serenity of the Misses Stone's domain, far from restoring Rose's composure, seemed to smite her by contrast with an intolerable sense of personal reproach, and to goad her into rebellion. Rose was conscious of her variable spirits—the heritage of her years—getting more and more uncertain, and of being wrought up to a perilously high-strung pitch. She felt as if she were panting for liberty to breathe, to express her discordant mood in some ...
— A Houseful of Girls • Sarah Tytler
... XIII) is a general name for a group of tissues of very variable character. It is usually described as consisting typically in the mammals of three chief elements felted together; of comparatively unmodified corpuscles (c.c.), more or less amoeboid, and of fibres which are elongated, altered, and distorted ...
— Text Book of Biology, Part 1: Vertebrata • H. G. Wells
... each, according to either specification, is such a variable quantity that nothing can be determined satisfactorily. According to one officer's statement, about one in every five is considered an employee.[20] In the winter of 1903-4, 209 men were sent to Hadleigh and supported there by a special fund, ...
— The Social Work of the Salvation Army • Edwin Gifford Lamb
... few episodes in life which break off finally. Life is now so variable, travel so easy, there are no continuing cities and no lasting interests, and we ask ourselves involuntarily, "What will the sequence be?" When I left Yorkshire, I was too young and too ignorant of the ever-changing ...
— The Measure of a Man • Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr
... terrors, or I might strive to appall thee," he added faintly smiling, "with a description of the gloom and discomfort of thine unknown northern mansion; but if thou art willing to bear with its scanty means of accommodation, as well as with thy husband's variable temper, come with him to ...
— Theresa Marchmont • Mrs Charles Gore
... he needs for his immediate use, he puts it by to keep in 'cold storage' by hanging it on the frozen twigs of a tree or thorn bush. Heart of Nature has doubtless taught him this habit through hard experience. Where the Shrike spends his winters, the food-supply is variable; it may snow for days and days, when he can find nothing to eat; so he has learned to store up provisions when the hunting is good, and of course such a thrifty bird may sometimes save up more ...
— Citizen Bird • Mabel Osgood Wright and Elliott Coues
... defaulting cashier purifies the firm he robs. "As fact or experience proves that certain familiar changes always happen in the same sequence, there begins to fade from the mind the conception of a special personality to whose variable will they were before ascribed." This process of annexation is, says Spencer, science teaching religion its true function. As a matter of fact, science has given religion no instruction, it has merely issued prohibitions. It has ...
— Theism or Atheism - The Great Alternative • Chapman Cohen
... section through the plane 750 of figure 6A. The oesophagus, oe, is seen as a small, circular opening between two much larger openings, the lungs, lu. The epithelium of the oesophagus is the same here as in the more anterior regions described above; that of the lung rudiments is very variable in thickness, even in different parts of the same section, being in some places composed of a single layer of cuboidal or even flattened cells, in other places consisting of four or five layers of cells (not well shown in the figure). Surrounding the epithelium of the lung rudiments ...
— Development of the Digestive Canal of the American Alligator • Albert M. Reese
... of sea and sky and variable weather, I was bound to have dreams, hints, imaginings. It was no more than this, perhaps: that the world as I knew it was not large enough to contain all that I saw and felt; that the thoughts that flashed through ...
— Modern Prose And Poetry; For Secondary Schools - Edited With Notes, Study Helps, And Reading Lists • Various
... my dear Augusta, [1] that your opinion of my meek mamma would coincide with mine; Her temper is so variable, and, when inflamed, so furious, that I dread our meeting; not but I dare say, that I am troublesome enough, but I always endeavour to be as dutiful as possible. She is so very strenuous, and so tormenting in her entreaties and commands, with ...
— The Works Of Lord Byron, Letters and Journals, Vol. 1 • Lord Byron, Edited by Rowland E. Prothero
... Kwannon was the second planet of the Gettler Beta system, 23,000 miles in circumference, rotating on its axis once in 22.8 Galactic Standard hours and making an orbital circuit around Gettler Beta once in 372.06 axial days, and that Alpha was an M-class pulsating variable with an average period of four hundred days, and that Beta orbited around it in a long elipse every ninety years. He didn't believe there was going to be a Last Hot Time. He was an ...
— Oomphel in the Sky • Henry Beam Piper
... (during twilight) with light, variable, westerly breezes. All around hangs a heavy curtain of haze, and, although very light snow is falling, overhead is black and clear with stars shining. As soon as the faint noon light fades away the heavy low haze intensifies the darkness and makes ...
— South! • Sir Ernest Shackleton
... Heavy thunder storms set in at three A.M. Showers followed until one o'clock; cloudy afternoon with variable wind. Thermometer at five P.M. ...
— Paris War Days - Diary of an American • Charles Inman Barnard
... some doubt as to the precise place of his retirement, because Arabia is a word of vague and variable significance. But most probably it denotes the Arabia of the Wanderings, the principal feature of which was Mount Sinai. This was a spot hallowed by great memories and by the presence of other great men of revelation. Here Moses had ...
— The Life of St. Paul • James Stalker
... 3/13 At anchor in Cape Cod harbor. The fourth Sunday here. Scarce any of those aboard free from vehement coughs, some very ill. Weather very variable. ...
— The Mayflower and Her Log, Complete • Azel Ames
... army) antauxgvardio. Vane ventoflago. Vanguard antauxgvardio. Vanilla vanilo. Vanish neniigxi. Vanity vaneco. Vanquish venki. Vanquisher venkanto. Vapid sengusta. Vaporisation vaporigo. Vaporise vaporigi. Vapour vaporo. Vapour-bath (place) sxvitbanejo. Vapourous vapora. Variable sxangxebla. Variance, to set at malpacigi. Variation diverseco, sxangxo. Varicose vein vejnego. Variegate multkolorigi. Variegated multkolora. Variety diverseco. Variola variolo. Various ...
— English-Esperanto Dictionary • John Charles O'Connor and Charles Frederic Hayes
... can distinctly hear single words, can grasp the purport of them, and divine correctly a whole sentence from the looks and gestures of the speaker, although the child himself makes audible no articulate utterance except his own, for the most part meaningless, variable babble of ...
— The Mind of the Child, Part II • W. Preyer
... of 1915 comparative calm reigned over the Austro-Russian theatre of war, so far as actual hostilities were concerned. But it was not altogether the variable climatic conditions of alternate frost and thaw—the latter converting road and valley into impassable quagmires—that caused the lull. It was a short winter pause during which the opposing forces—on one side at least—were ...
— The Story of the Great War, Volume III (of VIII) - History of the European War from Official Sources • Various
... between each town as the local did its variable thirty-five miles an hour across the southern end of New Mexico. It was Pete's first experience in traveling by rail, and true to himself he made the most of it. He used his eyes, and came to the conclusion that they were aboard a very fast train—a ...
— The Ridin' Kid from Powder River • Henry Herbert Knibbs
... too variable for this purpose, but I found that radite B, one form of my new explosive, can be used for propelling the shells from a gun. The ordinary gun will last only two or three rounds, due to the erosive action of the radite charge on the barrel, and ...
— Astounding Stories, February, 1931 • Various
... the father of Greek speculation. The step he took was small but decisive. He opened the physiological inquiry into the constitution of the universe. Seeing around him constant transformations—birth and death, change of shape, of size, and of mode of being, he could not regard any one of these variable states of existence as existence itself. He therefore asked, What is the beginning of things? Finding that all things were nourished by moisture, he declared that moisture was the principle of everything. He was mistaken, of course, but he was the ...
— The World's Greatest Books—Volume 14—Philosophy and Economics • Various
... mind he was in when he wrote, but so well did I know the unhappy moods to which he was subject, that a desponding letter now and then gave me no surprise. In fact, had the style of his letters been uniformly gay and lively, I should have been more surprised, so well did I understand his variable temper. But we both looked forward to our anticipated meeting with all the eagerness and impatience of youthful expectation. For, as I said near the opening of my story, I loved Charley as a brother, and so agreeable ...
— Walter Harland - Or, Memories of the Past • Harriet S. Caswell
... ancient histories which have been preserved and yet remain among us; and withal of so many tragical poets, as in the persons of powerful princes and other mighty men have complained against {13} infidelity, time, destiny, and most of all against the variable success of worldly things and instability of fortune. To these undertakings these great lords of the world have been stirred up, rather by the desire of fame, which plougheth up the air and soweth in the wind, than by the ...
— A Book of English Prose - Part II, Arranged for Secondary and High Schools • Percy Lubbock
... and lithe. He made great use of his lips in talking, and whatever he said seemed a little overdone in emphasis. His expression was eager, amiable, and sensitive, and it changed like the complexion of water in variable weather. He was a bit of a dandy in his way, too. His clothes showed his slim and elastic figure to the best advantage, and a bright-coloured neckerchief with loose flying ends helped out a certain air of festal rural opera which belonged ...
— Bulldog And Butterfly - From "Schwartz" by David Christie Murray • David Christie Murray
... and colorless, as long as it does not come in contact with matter. When in apposition with any body, it suffers variable degrees of decomposition, resulting in color, as by reflection, dispersion, refraction, and ...
— American Handbook of the Daguerrotype • Samuel D. Humphrey
... was burning close beside the two detectives, rendering it easy for any one within to have shot them dead. This observed, the light was cautiously removed, and everybody took care to keep out of its reflection. By this time the crisis of the position was at hand, the cavalry exhibited very variable inclinations, some to run away, others to shoot Booth without a summons, but all excited and fitfully silent. At the house near by the female folks were seen collected in the doorway, and the necessities of the case provoked prompt conclusions. The boy was placed at a remote ...
— The Life, Crime and Capture of John Wilkes Booth • George Alfred Townsend
... our hours of ease, Uncertain, coy, and hard to please, And variable as the shade By the light, quivering aspen made, When pain and anguish wring the brow, A ministering ...
— How to Get on in the World - A Ladder to Practical Success • Major A.R. Calhoon
... ever tending to increase and to appear where it is absent," as Dr. Wallace believes, then we ought to find it varying in the direction of greater brightness in some species in a family so numerous and variable as the Dendrocolaptidae, however feeble and in need of a protective colouring these birds may be in a majority of pases. And this in effect we do find. In many of the dark-plumaged species that live ...
— The Naturalist in La Plata • W. H. Hudson
... touch of animation. She was a good vocalist; and, even in speech, her voice commanded a great range of changes, the low notes rich with tenor quality, the upper ringing, on the brink of laughter, into music. A gem of many facets, and variable hues of fire; a woman who withheld the better portion of her beauty, and then, in a caressing second, flashed it like a weapon full on the beholder; now merely a tall figure and a sallow handsome face, ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 7 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson
... me. I never saw another woman so exquisitely feminine. Her movements were features. Her strength and her weakness alike lay in her affections. Her gladness was like a burst of sunlight; and if, in her depression, she resembled night, it was night wearing her stars. She was a muse, a grace, a variable child, a dependent woman, the Italy of human beings." Miss Jewsbury married, and went to India, where she soon died. Mrs. Hemans paid a heartfelt tribute to her memory, in the course of which she says, "There was a strong chain of interest between ...
— The Friendships of Women • William Rounseville Alger
... W. by N. and Saint Anne's Point S. by E. 1/2 E. The French ship still steered after us, and we imagined that she was either from Falkland's Islands, where the French had then a settlement, to get wood, or upon a survey of the strait. The remaining part of this day, and the next morning, we had variable winds with calms; in the afternoon therefore I hoisted out the boats, and towed round Saint Anne's Point into Port Famine; at six in the evening we anchored, and soon after the French ship passed ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 12 • Robert Kerr
... medical experts proved as dubious and uncertain as if the court had confined itself to the original witness. It seemed to be generally agreed that the data for determining the time of death of any body were too complex and variable to admit of very precise inference; rigor mortis and other symptoms setting in within very wide limits and differing largely in different persons. All agreed that death from such a cut must have been practically ...
— The Grey Wig: Stories and Novelettes • Israel Zangwill
... that has never felt the pangs of separation." "Have you then forgot the precepts," said Rasselas, "which you so powerfully enforced? Has wisdom no strength to arm the heart against calamity? Consider, that external things are naturally variable, but truth and reason are always the same." "What comfort," said the mourner, "can truth and reason afford me? Of what effect are they now, but to tell me, that my ...
— Dr. Johnson's Works: Life, Poems, and Tales, Volume 1 - The Works Of Samuel Johnson, Ll.D., In Nine Volumes • Samuel Johnson
... there must be a reason for it. You evidently do not understand the cause which will produce the effect. That is the reason why singers possessing really beautiful voices produce uneven effects and variable results. They may sing a phrase quite perfectly at one moment. A short time after they may repeat the same phrase in quite a different way and not at all perfectly. One night they will sing very beautifully; the next night you might hardly recognize the voice, ...
— Vocal Mastery - Talks with Master Singers and Teachers • Harriette Brower
... the animal economy, and cause diseases among the greater number of those who breathe the infected air. But numerous experiments prove that, as a rule, the air contains free ozone, though in very variable proportions; from which we may conclude that no oxidizable miasm—sulphuretted hydrogen, for example—can exist in such an atmosphere, any more than it could exist in air containing but a ...
— Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 455 - Volume 18, New Series, September 18, 1852 • Various
... the moon, the inconstant moon, That monthly changes in her circled orb, Lest that thy love prove likewise variable. ...
— Familiar Quotations • Various
... of the utmost importance to secure them from a reliable source, or varieties may be planted which will in a few weeks send up flower-stems instead of forming tender hearts. At every season of the year vacant plots should be kept going with a few breadths of Cabbage. With our variable climate they may be acceptable, even in the height of summer, if there has been a hard run upon other vegetables, or some important crop has ...
— The Culture of Vegetables and Flowers From Seeds and Roots, 16th Edition • Sutton and Sons
... resistance of bottles and of classifying them according to the degree of such resistance. After numerous experiments, it has been found that first class bottles easily support a pressure of twelve atmospheres without distortion, while in those of an inferior quality the resistance is very variable. The champagne wine industry should therefore ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 613, October 1, 1887 • Various
... 50' north latitude, at breakfast. Approaching the equator on a long slant. Those of us who have never seen the equator are a good deal excited. I think I would rather see it than any other thing in the world. We entered the "doldrums" last night—variable winds, bursts of rain, intervals of calm, with chopping seas and a wobbly and drunken motion to the ship—a condition of things findable in other regions sometimes, but present in the doldrums always. The globe-girdling belt called the doldrums is 20 degrees wide, ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain
... co-operate towards the success of his selfish and dangerous purposes. A prince of greater abilities and vigour than Henry, might have directed the talents of this nobleman either to the exaltation of his throne, or to the good of his people: but the advantages given to Leicester by the weak and variable administration of the king, brought on the ruin of royal authority, and produced great confusions in the kingdom, which however, in the end, preserved and extremely improved national liberty and the constitution. His popularity, even after his death, ...
— The History of England, Volume I • David Hume
... several times, each time with a carefully-framed remark ready; each time I found her gaze on me—and I could say nothing, could only look away in a sort of panic. Her eyes were strangely variable. I have seen them of a gray, so pale that it was almost silver—like the steely light of the snow-line at the edge of the horizon; again, and they were so that evening, they shone with the deepest, softest blue, and made one think, as one looked at her, of a fresh ...
— The Deluge • David Graham Phillips
... not so cold as the day before. The thermometer had risen twenty-five degrees during the night—a great change, but not unusual in our variable climate. Phil rather enjoyed this walk, notwithstanding his back ...
— Phil the Fiddler • Horatio Alger, Jr.
... carriage has a movement of 80 mm., is made of gun metal and fitted exactly to the guides; it is also provided with a second or top carriage with 40 mm. motion. The top carriage can be moved by hand and accurately set by means of a micrometer screw. The microscope is of variable magnifying power, focused by rack and pinion. Illumination for transparent objects is given from below by means of a plane mirror. The instrument is mounted on heavy supports, under an angle to make it convenient for the observer. The instrument is finished in first-class ...
— Astronomical Instruments and Accessories • Wm. Gaertner & Co.
... the Marquis de Montespan upon me as a husband; and albeit he was far from possessing those mental perfections and that cultured charm which alone make an indefinite period of companionship endurable, I was not slow to reconcile myself to a temperament which, fortunately, was very variable, and which thus served to console me on the morrow for what ...
— The Memoirs of Madame de Montespan, Complete • Madame La Marquise De Montespan
... this, owing to its short duration. On any vertical the mid-depth velocity was greater than the mean, and the bed velocity was the least. The details showed that the mid-depth velocity was nearly as variable from instant to instant as any other, instead of being nearly constant, as suggested ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 365, December 30, 1882 • Various
... exceptionally up to 0.2 per cent., but generally below 0.1 per cent., and with less than 0.1 per cent. of phosphorus and sulphur. On the other hand, rails with a tendency to break or split are low in carbon, with variable proportions of manganese, but contain much silicon, 0.3 to 0.9 per cent., and often above 0.1 per cent. of phosphorus. Another series of experiments upon rails for the Finland lines made by the author ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 492, June 6, 1885 • Various
... apart from the variableness of seasons-because the seasons have always been variable-and taking the state of Shetland now and twenty or thirty years ago, do you think there has been an improvement for the better?-I cannot say there has been much in the way of improvement. Perhaps there has ...
— Second Shetland Truck System Report • William Guthrie
... beginning of May, yet the weather was temperate, variable, and cool enough, and people had still some hopes. That which encouraged them was that the city was healthy: the whole ninety-seven parishes buried but fifty-four, and we began to hope that, as it was chiefly among the ...
— A Journal of the Plague Year • Daniel Defoe
... Females were made out of the Sea. These are Women of variable uneven Tempers, sometimes all Storm and Tempest, sometimes all Calm and Sunshine. The Stranger who sees one of these in her Smiles and Smoothness would cry her up for a Miracle of good Humour; but on a sudden her Looks and her ...
— The Spectator, Volume 2. • Addison and Steele
... Cats," says that "Mme. Ronner excels all other cat painters, living or dead. She not only infuses a wonderful degree of life into her little figures, but reproduces the shades of expression, shifting and variable as the sands of the sea, as no other artist of the brush has done. Asleep or awake, her cats look to the" felinarian "like cats with whom he or she is familiar. Curiosity, drowsiness, indifference, alertness, love, hate, anxiety, temper, innocence, ...
— Women in the fine arts, from the Seventh Century B.C. to the Twentieth Century A.D. • Clara Erskine Clement
... thickly covered with tree jungle. The first pits, which are old, occur about one mile within the hills. Those now worked occupy the brow of a low hill, and on this spot they are very numerous; the pits are square, about four feet in diameter, and of very variable depth; steps, or rather holes, are cut in two of the faces of the square by which the workmen ascend and descend. The instruments used are wooden-lipped with iron crowbars, by which the soil is displaced; this answers ...
— Journals of Travels in Assam, Burma, Bhootan, Afghanistan and The - Neighbouring Countries • William Griffith
... appealed to her school friends for help; addressing herself in the first instance (by the secretary's advice) to Francine, as the eldest. They all noticed another change in this variable young person. She was silent and subdued; and she said wearily, "I don't care what we do—shall ...
— I Say No • Wilkie Collins
... which still doe fly away Like empty shadows, did afflict my brayne,) Walkt forth to ease my payne 10 Along the shoare of silver streaming Themmes; Whose rutty** bank, the which his river hemmes, Was paynted all with variable flowers, And all the meades adornd with dainty gemmes, Fit to decke maydens bowres, 15 And crowne their paramours Against the brydale day, which is not long@: Sweet Themmes! runne softly, till I end my song. [* Delay, allay.] [** Rutty, rooty.] ...
— The Poetical Works of Edmund Spenser, Volume 5 • Edmund Spenser
... He had talked of being absent for a week—he remained away for a month. We heard of him, leading a wild life, among a vicious set of men. It was reported that a frantic restlessness possessed him which nobody could understand. He came back as suddenly as he had left us. His variable nature had swung round, in the interval, to the opposite extreme. He was full of repentance for his reckless conduct; he was in a state of depression which defied rousing; he despaired of himself and his future. Sometimes he talked of going back to ...
— Poor Miss Finch • Wilkie Collins
... made in due legal form, and the papers will be sent to me in London for signature. I hope to get away the week after next at latest,—spite of the weather in England which to-day's letters report as 'atrocious',—and ours, though variable, is in the main very tolerable and sometimes perfect; for all that, I yearn to be at home in poor Warwick Crescent, which must do its best to make me forget my new abode. I forget you don't know Venice. Well then, the Palazzo Manzoni is situate on the Grand ...
— Life and Letters of Robert Browning • Mrs. Sutherland Orr
... boast His knowledge of good lost, and evil got; Happier! had it sufficed him to have known Good by itself, and evil not at all. He sorrows now, repents, and prays contrite, My motions in him; longer than they move, His heart I know, how variable and vain, Self-left. Lest therefore his now bolder hand Reach also of the tree of life, and eat, And live for ever, dream at least to live For ever, to remove him I decree, And send him from the garden forth to till The ground whence he was taken, ...
— Paradise Lost • John Milton
... has destroyed the sailor. The age of discovery is closing with this century. Up to the limits of the ice-fields, every shore is mapped out, every shoal sounded. Not only does Science give the fixed, but she is even transferring to her charts the variable features of the deep,—the sliding current, ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 3, Issue 15, January, 1859 • Various
... We're not wanting these changes, and to be up-to-date, and all that. I'm happy as I am, and so's David. He has his hope of the council, and the bribes and them things. And I've my guild and my friends, with their odd clothes and variable accents. That's the life I want, and I won't change it. ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 152, April 11, 1917 • Various
... that a bone in its stonelike hardness is essentially the same as the infinitely tender tissues of the eye? This difference is due to and accounted for by the adaptation of certain portions of the immense accumulation of cells to diverse functions, which has necessitated the variable conformity of the supporting elements. But all of these elements are in the blood, which carries them in the necessary quantities to the different organs to which they belong and where they are utilized to ...
— Valere Aude - Dare to Be Healthy, Or, The Light of Physical Regeneration • Louis Dechmann
... of reform has been to divide the general term of "ore in sight" into classes, and give them names which will indicate the variable amount of risk of continuity in different parts of the mine. As the frequency of sample points, and consequently the risk of continuity, will depend upon the detail with which the mine is cut into blocks by the development openings, and upon the number of sides of such blocks ...
— Principles of Mining - Valuation, Organization and Administration • Herbert C. Hoover
... of the variable winds. How can we penetrate the law of our shifting moods and susceptibility? Yet they differ as all and nothing. Instead of the firmament of yesterday, which our eyes require, it is to-day an eggshell which coops us ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. I, No. 1, Nov. 1857 • Various
... and very variable, and this day was a calm, so that they could advance very little in their voyage. In the evening the wind grew fresh, and increased till three o'clock the next morning, so that they made good way in their course; but these deep seas began to rise, and the ship ...
— A Journal of the Swedish Embassy in the Years 1653 and 1654, Vol II. • Bulstrode Whitelocke
... she whispered, and drew from her bosom the opal, as lovely and as variable as the human spirit. "With the other three stones you may, if you will, buy back your father's kingdom. But this, which contains all qualities in one, let us keep for ever, for our children and theirs, that they may know there is nothing a King and a Queen ...
— Martin Pippin in the Apple Orchard • Eleanor Farjeon
... about the feast of St. Bartholomew, grew a great discord betwixt the Duke of Hereford and Mowbery, Duke of Norfolk, the beginning thereof being as followeth: The two Dukes riding from the Parliament towards their lodgings, the Duke of Norfolk said to the other, Sir, you see how variable the King is in his words, and (reflecting upon what had past) how without mercy he putteth his Lords and kinsfolks to death, imprisoning some and exciting others. Therefore it behoveth us not too much to trust to his fair and smooth language, for doubtless in time he will bring even to us the like ...
— The History of Sir Richard Whittington • T. H.
... of the new cuts were easily navigable, being from 140 to 200 feet wide at bottom, whereas the old outlets had been variable and were often choked with shifting sand. The district was thus effectually opened up for navigation, and a convenient transit afforded for coals and other articles of consumption. Wisbeach became accessible to vessels of much larger burden, and in the course of a few years after ...
— The Life of Thomas Telford by Smiles • Samuel Smiles
... respiration. The evolution of the chick was rendered slower by a temperature below that of the normal heat of incubation. Finally, eggs were warmed only at one point, so that the young animal, during development, was submitted at different parts to variable temperatures. ...
— Was Man Created? • Henry A. Mott
... of transferableness are variable, (some documents passing only in certain places, and others passing, if at all, for less than their inscribed value), both the mass, and, so to speak, fluidity, of the currency, are variable. True or perfect currency flows freely, like a pure stream; it becomes sluggish or stagnant in proportion ...
— The Crown of Wild Olive • John Ruskin
... comparatively small. It is centered mainly in the Willamette Valley of Oregon and to some extent in a narrow strip running north towards Seattle. The best informed are planting only in fertile, moist, properly drained soils so situated that air drainage is good. The local soils are much more variable than would be suggested by casual observation. Also, greater attention is being paid to air drainage in that part of the country than in the East. Several years ago there was a sudden drop in temperature from 32 degrees above to 24 degrees below zero, at McMinnville, Oregon. ...
— Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the Fifteenth Annual Meeting • Various
... is directly in the course of both the West Indian and homeward-bound South American packets; and it may be said with equal accuracy, in the outward direct course of these packets also. Although a little further removed into the variable winds than Madeira, still it is well known that Fayal once made, the greatest difficulties in the voyages of the outward-bound packets are overcome. The distance, also, from Falmouth to either of these islands is not materially different: from Falmouth to Madeira direct, is ...
— A General Plan for a Mail Communication by Steam, Between Great Britain and the Eastern and Western Parts of the World • James MacQueen
... shock. The enemies of Republican government laughed their little laugh, and said that the end of the republic had come. British bankers brought out into the light Confederate bonds; while stocks in the United States went through an experience as variable as the weather in the Mississippi valley. The public press was intemperate in its utterances, and the political passions of the people were inflamed every hour. The national House of Representatives was a vast whirlpool of excitement,—or, ...
— History of the Negro Race in America from 1619 to 1880. Vol. 2 (of 2) - Negroes as Slaves, as Soldiers, and as Citizens • George Washington Williams
... truly, as Froebel puts it, "the finest and most variable material that can be offered a boy for purposes of representation." The little boxes associated with the Kindergarten were originally planned for the use of nursery children two to three years ...
— The Child Under Eight • E.R. Murray and Henrietta Brown Smith
... do not feel at all satisfied with the arrangement, but it was the best I could do. Juliet is good-hearted, over-affectionate, and will be kind to the child; but she is rather simple-minded, frivolous, and variable. Her husband is a kind, sensible man, but he was raised a Roman Catholic. Juliet tells me that he is not much of anything now; but I doubt it, for he insisted on being married by the priest, before the ceremony at St. ...
— Hubert's Wife - A Story for You • Minnie Mary Lee
... they are in general distinguished by some sort of peculiarity, and whilst the abdominal feet are reproduced in wearisome uniformity throughout the entire order, the caudal feet are, as is well-known, amongst the most variable parts of ...
— Facts and Arguments for Darwin • Fritz Muller
... Climate: variable, with mostly westerly winds throughout the year interspersed with periods of calm; nearly all precipitation falls ...
— The 2005 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency
... have been exhausted. Their general form, which may be regarded as the primitive form of the implement, is well exhibited in the accompanying sketch. They are always carved from a single piece, and consist of a flat carved bore of variable length and width, with the bowl rising from the centre of the convex side. From one of the ends, and communicating with the hollow of the bowl, is drilled a small hole, which answers the purpose of a ...
— Tobacco; Its History, Varieties, Culture, Manufacture and Commerce • E. R. Billings
... of this species is quite variable and more or less buried in the ground, where careful observation will ...
— The Mushroom, Edible and Otherwise - Its Habitat and its Time of Growth • M. E. Hard
... matter of human intuition against mechanical logic. The advantage lay with MacMaine, for, while the computer could not logically fathom the intuitive processes of its human opponent, MacMaine could and did have an intuitive grasp of the machine's logic. MacMaine didn't need to know every variable in the pattern; he only needed to know ...
— The Highest Treason • Randall Garrett
... (retardation) of the carriage. He might also interpret his experience thus: " My body of reference (the carriage) remains permanently at rest. With reference to it, however, there exists (during the period of application of the brakes) a gravitational field which is directed forwards and which is variable with respect to time. Under the influence of this field, the embankment together with the earth moves non-uniformly in such a manner that their original velocity in the backwards direction ...
— Relativity: The Special and General Theory • Albert Einstein
... some inclination towards exterior acts and ritual observances. Ideas not represented by sensible objects are fleeting, variable, and evanescent. We are not able to judge of the degree of conviction which operated at any particular time upon our own thoughts, but as it is recorded by some certain and definite effect. He that reviews his life in order to determine the probability of his acceptance with God, if ...
— The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D, In Nine Volumes - Volume the Third: The Rambler, Vol. II • Samuel Johnson
... lor signuri" (to your worships), or the story about to be told is qualified as "stu bellissimu cuntu" (this very fine story). Ordinarily they begin, as do our own, with the formula, "once upon a time there was." The ending is also a variable formula, often a couplet referring to the happy termination of the tale and the relatively unenviable condition of the listeners. ...
— Italian Popular Tales • Thomas Frederick Crane
... rise from the tubers, are as thin as fine twine. One such shoot revolved in a course opposed to the sun, at an average rate, judging from three revolutions, of 1 hr. 23 m.; but no doubt the direction of the revolving movement is variable. When the plants have grown tall and are branched, all the many lateral shoots revolve. The stem, whilst young, twines regularly round a thin vertical stick, and in one case I counted eight spiral turns in the same direction; but when grown older, the stem often runs straight up for a space, and, ...
— The Movements and Habits of Climbing Plants • Charles Darwin
... states, though terrified at the prospect of having their frontier exposed to so formidable a foe, saw no resource, no means of safety. England indeed seemed disposed to make opposition to the French; but the variable and impolitic conduct of Charles kept that republic from making him any open advances, by which she might lose the friendship of France, without acquiring any new ally. And though Lewis, dreading a combination of all Europe, had offered terms of accommodation, ...
— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.I., Part F. - From Charles II. to James II. • David Hume
... even more striking examples of crop adaptation, although the areas are much smaller, as in the case of tobacco, potatoes, celery, onions, apples, peaches and other fruits. Regions containing residual soils are more variable in crop adaptation than drift soils and require more careful watchfulness on the part of those who ...
— The Young Farmer: Some Things He Should Know • Thomas Forsyth Hunt
... call for help. "You see, I talk into this transmitter. The simplest transmitter for this purpose is a plane mirror of flexible material, silvered mica or microscope glass. Against the back of this mirror my voice is directed. In the carbon transmitter of the telephone a variable electrical resistance is produced by the pressure on the diaphragm, based on the fact that carbon is not as good a conductor of electricity under pressure as when not. Here, the mouthpiece is just a shell supporting a thin metal ...
— Guy Garrick • Arthur B. Reeve
... interpose between her thought and the paper the mind and vision of a man. The outcome is astonishing. I have said that the construction of the novel is solid; but no man could have built it up in that way. It moves to a definite goal by a sure path; yet its style is variable like the ways of every woman, even if she be completely mistress of herself.... Thus her flights of thought, like carrier-pigeons, never fail to reach their end, although at times they circle and hover as though troubled by some mysterious hesitancy or temptation to turn ...
— The Dangerous Age • Karin Michaelis
... carry to my daughter, as a souvenir," said Gotzkowsky, folding it up carefully, and then added thoughtfully: "Who knows but what the time may come when it will be necessary to remind the merchants of Leipsic of this document? The opinions and destinies of men are very variable." ...
— The Merchant of Berlin - An Historical Novel • L. Muhlbach
... every direction from under their shaggy brows, sparkled like the intermittent light of fire-flies; in the nose there was nothing remarkable, except that it was crested by a huge wart with a small grove of black hairs; but the mouth made ample amends, being altogether indescribable, for it was so variable in its expression, that I could not tell whether it had most of the sardonic, the benevolent, or the sanguinary, appearing to exhibit them all in succession with equal vividness. My attention, however, was mainly fixed by the sanguinary; it came across me like an east wind, and I felt ...
— Lectures on Art • Washington Allston
... departure, by the Austrian General Bucheim; so that, in the course of the following year, the Austrian frontier was again cleared of the enemy, and Vienna escaped with mere alarm. In Bohemia and Silesia too, the Swedes maintained themselves only with a very variable fortune; they traversed both countries, without being able to hold their ground in either. But if the designs of Torstensohn were not crowned with all the success which they were promised at the commencement, they were, nevertheless, productive of the most important consequences to the ...
— The Works of Frederich Schiller in English • Frederich Schiller
... matter: I count the world well lost for her. She had, I pledge you my word, the most magnificent head of hair I ever saw. She had humor; she had intellect; she could cook to perfection; and her highly strung temperament made her uncertain, incalculable, variable, capricious, ...
— Man And Superman • George Bernard Shaw
... for Miss King," said Jasmine, trying to suppress a smile. "As you wisely remark, a young lady is a sealed book to me, but I have always been told that their fancies are as variable as the shadow of the bamboo; and probably, therefore, though Miss King's sky may be overcast just now, the gloom will only make her enjoy to-morrow's ...
— Stories by English Authors: Orient • Various
... of means, and the diversity of matter, it then works but one or the like work; neither can it but work, matter being present." Now if Nature made choice of diversity of matter, to work all these variable works of heaven and earth, it had then both understanding and will; it had counsel to begin; reason to dispose; virtue and knowledge to finish, and power to govern: without which all things had been but one and the same: all of the matter of heaven; or all of the matter of earth. And ...
— Prefaces and Prologues to Famous Books - with Introductions, Notes and Illustrations • Charles W. Eliot
... hundred roots which remain, the insoluble residuum (so thought by Professor Mueller) of Language, after eliminating the immense mass of variable and soluble material, he says: 1. That 'they are phonetic types produced by a power inherent in human nature;' 2. 'Man, in his primitive and perfect state, was not only endowed like the brute with the power of expressing his sensations by interjections, ...
— The Continental Monthly, Vol. 6, No 4, October, 1864 - Devoted To Literature And National Policy • Various
... generally, to petroleum in respect of impurities, though the sulphur present in petroleum oils, such as are sold in this country for household use, though very variable, is often quite small in amount, and seldom is responsible for serious ...
— Acetylene, The Principles Of Its Generation And Use • F. H. Leeds and W. J. Atkinson Butterfield
... to leave the port. "On the 12th, we got into a clean berth for getting under weigh, but in the morning the wind being variable and light we were prevented sailing. I went on shore with Mr. Barrallier to make a survey of the cove we were lying in. When preparing to return to the vessel we were joined by several natives who appeared anxious to go on board with us. Two of these were strangers who signified that they had come ...
— The Logbooks of the Lady Nelson - With The Journal Of Her First Commander Lieutenant James Grant, R.N • Ida Lee
... rock shaft and its attendant joints, usually weighing from three hundred to five hundred pounds, which have been found so objectionable in many other movements. The feed is continuous, and is made variable from 1/4 to 11/4 inch to each stroke, controllable by the sawyer. Power is applied to the press rolls in the double screw form with pivot point, also operated by the same hand. A special feature of this machine is the spreading of the lower ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 401, September 8, 1883 • Various
... farther than this in the advocacy of such violations, or abrogations, of the law of veracity, as would undermine the very foundations of social life, and as would render the law against falsehood little more than a variable personal rule for limited and selected applications,—after the fashion of the American humorist who "believed in universal salvation if he could pick his men." Rothe teaches that falsehood is a duty, not only when it is needful in dealing with public ...
— A Lie Never Justifiable • H. Clay Trumbull
... Arcot made his way towards the control room, which was now above, now below, and now to one side of him as the wildly variable acceleration shook the ship. Doggedly, he worked his way up, frequently getting severe burns ...
— Islands of Space • John W Campbell
... relatively powerful, open and shut their talons. I can scarcely think of any more curious spectacle than that of this tiny gymnast hanging by its tail, swinging to the faintest breath, and preparing in the air for its entry into the world. It hangs there for a variable period; some larvae let themselves fall at the end of half an hour; others spend hours in their long-stemmed cup; some even remain suspended until ...
— Social Life in the Insect World • J. H. Fabre
... in the first or second stages of behaviour; for his violent love puzzled and frightened her. Her uncle neither helped nor hindered the love affair, though it was going on under his own eyes. Frank's stepmother had such a variable temper, that there was no knowing whether what she liked one day she would like the next, or not. At length she went to such extremes of crossness that Alice was only too glad to shut her eyes and rush blindly at the chance of escape from domestic tyranny offered her by a marriage with ...
— Victorian Short Stories, - Stories Of Successful Marriages • Elizabeth Gaskell, et al.
... An English garden, adorned at every turn with statues of the heathen deities (although they were all but personifications of the various attributes of nature,) would be ridiculous. Setting aside the injury they must sustain from our damp, variable climate, they would be out of keeping with all around; here it is altogether different; the very air of Italy is embued with the spirit of ancient mythology; and though "the fair humanities of old religion," the Nymphs, the Fauns, the ...
— The Diary of an Ennuyee • Anna Brownell Jameson
... stagnant water beneath him, and took up a favourable position for our next shot. This was again successful, breaking his left fore-arm. Moving slowly on after him, for at least three-quarters of an hour, we fired shot after shot with variable success, until a bullet from L.'s rifle caught him full in the neck, and brought him crashing through the branches to ...
— On the Equator • Harry de Windt
... authority and claim of service of the master.[263] The manner in which men are brought into this condition; its continuance, and the means adopted for securing the authority and claim of masters, are all incidental and variable. They may be reasonable or unreasonable, just or unjust, at different times and places. The question, therefore, which the abolitionists have undertaken to decide, is not whether the laws enacted in the slaveholding States in relation to this subject are just or not, but whether ...
— Cotton is King and The Pro-Slavery Arguments • Various
... changed from its calm. Variable emotions shot over it. Prescott, as he stood there before her, was conscious of admiration. What vagary had sent a girl who looked like this ...
— Before the Dawn - A Story of the Fall of Richmond • Joseph Alexander Altsheler
... with the necessities of the existing time, by such fictions as best suited the nature of the case. In what legislation do we not find these fictions, which even yet exist, absurd and ridiculous as they are, among the ancient laws of modern nations? These always variable edicts at length comprehended the whole of the Roman legislature, and became the subject of the commentaries of the most celebrated lawyers. They must therefore be considered as the basis of all the Roman jurisprudence comprehended in the Digest of Justinian. ...
— The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Volume 4 • Edward Gibbon
... as printed. Variable spelling, hyphenation and use of accents has been made consistent where there was a clear prevalence of one form over the other, or with reference to reliable sources; otherwise, these are preserved as printed. Typographic errors, e.g. omitted, ...
— Needlework As Art • Marian Alford
... of September [1609], faire weather, the wind variable betweene east and south; we steered away north northwest. At noone we found our height to bee 39 degrees, 3 minutes. The second, in the morning, close weather, the winde at south in the morning; from twelve untill two of the clocke we steered north northwest, and had sounding one and twentie fathoms: ...
— Great Epochs in American History, Volume I. - Voyages Of Discovery And Early Explorations: 1000 A.D.-1682 • Various
... oxide is an olive-green or dark brown powder, containing variable quantities of water. Decomposed at 530 deg., it ...
— A System of Instruction in the Practical Use of the Blowpipe • Anonymous
... is to be found in the world than the coast of Texas. From near the mouth of the Rio Grande a continuous sand reef draws its even curve for a hundred miles to Corpus Christi Pass, and the reefs are but seldom interrupted by inlets as far north as Galveston Harbor. On this coast the tides are variable and exceptionally weak, being less than one foot in height, while the amount of waste swept along the shore is large. The lagoon is extremely shallow, and much of it is a mud flat too shoal for even small boats. On the coast of New Jersey strong tides are able ...
— The Elements of Geology • William Harmon Norton
... length his icy heart would thaw. Always more intent upon making cages[6], Lady Augusta bent her mind upon captivating a new admirer. Mr. Mountague she saw was displeased, but she now really felt and showed herself indifferent to his opinion. How variable, how wretched, is the life of a coquette! The next day Lord George's heart froze again as hard as ever, and Lady Augusta lightened upon the impassive ice in vain. She was mortified beyond measure, for her grand object was conquest. That ...
— Tales And Novels, Volume 1 • Maria Edgeworth
... abstract ethics. They have their Peace Societies, so dear to the sentimentalists, and their proposals for unarmed International Arbitration, so popular among those who have never read history. But mere emotional sympathy will not do. It is too variable, and too closely connected with the passions; and a board of arbitrators who, for the general welfare of the race, are to be deprived of the power of putting their decisions into execution, will not be of much avail. There is only one thing worse ...
— Intentions • Oscar Wilde
... profile as at b); or with one side horizontal (5, and profile c). Of these three conditions, 3 and 5 are exactly the same in reality, only differently placed; but in 4 the pyramid is obtuse, and the inclination of its base variable, the upper side of it being always kept vertical. It is comparatively rare. Of the three, the last, 5, is far the most brilliant in effect, giving in the distance a zigzag form to the high light on it, and a full sharp shadow below. The use of this shadow is sufficiently seen by fig. 7 ...
— The Stones of Venice, Volume I (of 3) • John Ruskin
... the Mertz Glacier on the east and delimited on the west by more or less compact ice, has been named the D'Urville Sea. We found subsequently that its freedom from obstruction by ice is due to the persistent gales which set off the land in that locality. To the north, pack-ice in variable amount is encountered before reaching ...
— The Home of the Blizzard • Douglas Mawson
... "and seldom, sincerely, to give a true account of these gifts of reason to the benefit and use of men; as if there were sought in knowledge a couch whereupon to rest a searching and restless spirit; or a terrace for a wandering and variable mind to walk up and down, with a fair prospect; or a tower of state for a proud mind to raise itself upon; or a fort or commanding ground for strife and contention; or a shop for profit or sale—and not a rich storehouse for the glory of the Creator, and ...
— Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Volume 2, No. 12, May, 1851. • Various
... intelligible, and, perhaps, necessary cause of variation: the fact, that there are two sexes sharing in the production of the offspring, and that the share taken by each is different and variable, not only for each combination, but also for different members ...
— The Perpetuation Of Living Beings, Hereditary Transmission And Variation • Thomas H. Huxley
... mass of information on which to base selections for better parent trees than any available at the present time. If the pecan behaves like the citrus fruits of California, we will be able in the future to have strains and varieties which will be very much less variable than those at ...
— Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the Fourteenth Annual Meeting • Various
... legends of Guidericus and Alured however have been omitted. The legend of Edricus is also omitted in the Table but appears in the text. Baldwin's portion begins at sig. S 6 with a separate titlepage 'The variable Fortunes and vnhappie Falles of such Princes as hath happened since the Conquest', bearing the same imprint except for the date 1609. For Baldwin's address is substituted a note to the reader signed with the editor's initials, ...
— Catalogue of the Books Presented by Edward Capell to the Library of Trinity College in Cambridge • W. W. Greg
... at her every "once in so often" you couldn't keep up with the progress of events; she might flash a dozen telegrams to somebody, about something, while your head was turned away. Kathleen could be safely left unwatched for an hour or so without fear of change; her moods were less variable, her temper evener; her interest in the passing moment less keen, her absorption in the particular subject less intense. Walt Whitman might have been thinking of ...
— Mother Carey's Chickens • Kate Douglas Wiggin
... mounds of slag, and cottage gardens overgrown with foxglove and bramble cast shade upon her mind. Arrived at the summit, she stopped the carriage. The pale hills were round her, each scattered with ancient stones; beneath was the sea, variable as a southern sea; she herself sat there looking from hill to sea, upright, aquiline, equally poised between gloom and laughter. Suddenly she flicked the ponies so that the boy Curnow had to swing himself up by the ...
— Jacob's Room • Virginia Woolf
... oxygen, and a proportion of only two tenths of one per cent may produce heart derangement. While we are wondering that we are alive in the face of such dreadful facts, we may note further that gas is rather variable in its qualities as an illuminant. We have mentioned the suspicious gas meter, whose vagaries doubtless have caused more virtuous indignation with less impression upon its object than anything ever devised. An open flame is always a ...
— The Complete Home • Various |
