"Erroneous" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... while it involves the same intellectual presuppositions, the same confusions, the same erroneous arguments, the same short-sighted ambitions, as the imperialism of other countries, exhibits them all in an extreme degree. All peoples admire themselves. But the self-adoration of Germans is so naive, so frank, so unqualified, as to seem sheerly ridiculous to more experienced ...
— The European Anarchy • G. Lowes Dickinson
... frank with me so I must be frank with you—even though it hurts. I'm distressed to have been such a bungler, such a miserable bungler, such a blind fool, indeed. The false impression must be due to me; assuredly, without the most justifiable cause you would not have drawn the erroneous inference. And a man who is responsible for that inference with a woman of your experience and ability, Madeline, must be more or less a fool, even though his ...
— The Cab of the Sleeping Horse • John Reed Scott
... we found little difficulty. For what was the professed object of this Address? It was to meet and to overthrow two notions here represented as great popular errors. But why at this time? Wherefore all this heat at the present moment? Grant that the propositions denounced as erroneous were so in very deed, why should criminals standing under the shadow of public vengeance ready to descend, so childishly misuse the interval, mercifully allowed for their own defence, in reading lectures ...
— The Posthumous Works of Thomas De Quincey, Vol. 1 (2 vols) • Thomas De Quincey
... kept a common-place book[1060]; and we find she noted, at one time or other, in a very lively manner, specimens of the conversation of Dr. Johnson, and of those who talked with him; but had she done it recently, they probably would have been less erroneous; and we should have been relieved from those disagreeable doubts of their authenticity, with which we must now ...
— Life Of Johnson, Volume 4 (of 6) • Boswell
... to her relations to my son. Too much was assumed by me on insufficient evidence,—a case where the wish, perhaps, was father to the thought. She hesitated at that sore time to rob me of an illusion which she saw was precious to me; she allowed me to retain my erroneous belief that my son, had he lived, would have enjoyed the blessing of her affection. As a fact, she had not given it to him,—could not have given it,—though she owns that her mind, not her heart, was wavering. Had she ...
— A Touch Of Sun And Other Stories • Mary Hallock Foote
... request, to the Essex Institute, of Massachusetts. Some confusion has of late arisen in the public mind regarding the identity of the two flags, it having been generally believed that the original Old Glory was the flag in the Massachusetts Institute. This impression is, however, doubtless erroneous. ...
— How the Flag Became Old Glory • Emma Look Scott
... disposition, by which all who conversed with him were engaged to love and esteem his character. He was naturally eloquent, both in illustrating and proving the reasonableness of his own opinions, and in converting others from their erroneous preconceived notions. Above all, he possessed that steady and persevering resolution, which not only enabled him to vanquish the greatest difficulties, but gave such appearance of success to every thing be promised or undertook, as secured the confidence of all who were under ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume X • Robert Kerr
... not deny it, for, by the strangest blunder, it is the presence of evil which has made them fatalists. Now, I say that the presence of evil, far from giving evidence of fatality, breaks fatality, does violence to destiny, and supposes a cause whose erroneous but voluntary initiative is in discordance with the law. This cause I call liberty; and I have proved, in the fourth chapter, that liberty, like reason which serves man as a torch, is as much greater and more perfect as it harmonizes ...
— The Philosophy of Misery • Joseph-Pierre Proudhon
... then," he answered. "But I'm not sure I regard as erroneous the convictions I have heard ...
— The Cardinal's Snuff-Box • Henry Harland
... Miss Olive Omlett, the meek, elderly lady, appeared to have come with a totally erroneous conception of the role of that inoffensive character. He delivered his speeches in a voice similar to that in which boys call the evening papers at a London railway station, and lost no opportunity of clutching ...
— The Master of the Shell • Talbot Baines Reed
... to an extreme, and there were many in high place who resented his efforts to dictate the doctrine of the Church. Thus Gilbert de la Porree, Bishop of Poictiers, a pupil of Abailard, was accused at the Council of Rheims (1148) of erroneous doctrines regarding the being of God and the Sacraments. Bernard tried to use his influence over Pope Eugenius in order to procure the bishop's condemnation, and stirred up the French clergy to assist him. The ...
— The Church and the Empire - Being an Outline of the History of the Church - from A.D. 1003 to A.D. 1304 • D. J. Medley
... conquest of the Blue Goose, Hartwell acted on an erroneous concept of the foibles of humanity. The greatness of others is of small importance in comparison with one's own. The one who ignores this truth is continually pulling a cat by the tail, and this is proverbially a hard task. Hartwell's plan was first to create an impression of ...
— Blue Goose • Frank Lewis Nason
... painted another Doelen or Regent picture which, under the erroneous title of The Night Watch, is to-day the chief attraction of the Ryks Museum at Amsterdam. This time it was not a group of surgeons, but a company of Amsterdam musketeers marching out under the leadership of their captain, Frans Banning Cocq. In all these civic or military Regent pictures, each ...
— Rembrandt • Mortimer Menpes
... involving in its fall some other important ingredients in the accepted American tradition. Not only was it dependent on economic conditions which prevailed until comparatively recent times, but it has been associated with certain erroneous but highly cherished political theories. It has been wrought into the fabric of our popular economic and political ideas to such an extent that its overthrow necessitates a partial revision of some of the most important articles in the ...
— The Promise Of American Life • Herbert David Croly
... beginning, by itself alone, those to whom its subject is entirely strange: in other words, it is and ought to be the general rule, that the Church teaches, and the Scripture confirms that teaching: or, if it be in any part erroneous, reproves it. For some appear to think, that by calling the Scripture the sole authority in matters of faith, we mean to exclude the Church altogether; and to call upon every man,—nay, upon every child,—to make ...
— The Christian Life - Its Course, Its Hindrances, And Its Helps • Thomas Arnold
... some have gone so far as to say it would have been for the Benefit of Mankind if it had never been reckoned in the Catalogue of Virtues. It is certain, where it is once Laudable and Prudential, it is an hundred times Criminal and Erroneous; nor can it be otherwise, if we consider that it operates with equal Violence in all Religions, however opposite they may be to one another, and in all the Subdivisions of each ...
— The Spectator, Volumes 1, 2 and 3 - With Translations and Index for the Series • Joseph Addison and Richard Steele
... so-called attributes, is a self-destroying error. When a so-called material sense is lost, and Truth restores that lost sense,—on the basis that all consciousness is Mind and eternal,—the former position, that sense is organic and material, is proven erroneous. ...
— No and Yes • Mary Baker Eddy
... bones had been interred there.[35-1] This is strong negative evidence. So in every other example where an unbiased and competent geologist has made the examination, the alleged discoveries of human remains in the older strata have proved erroneous. ...
— The Myths of the New World - A Treatise on the Symbolism and Mythology of the Red Race of America • Daniel G. Brinton
... years; which done, he casts him into the bottomless pit, and there shuts him up, to the end he should deceive the nations no more (Rev 20:1-3). The effect of which will be not only a delivering of the saints from outward persecution, but also from being any more assailed with either wicked and erroneous doctrine, or fierce and fiery darts from the prince of darkness, which now many of them are so much annoyed and afflicted with; now the church will be free from those hellish suggestions to blaspheme, to despair, and the like, that her members do yet most dreadfully and sadly meet with. For observe, ...
— The Works of John Bunyan • John Bunyan
... needed, as the Malvern light was not only seen there, but still away on at Bardon Hill, Leicester.—Many persons imagine that Barr Beacon is the highest spot in the Midland Counties, but the idea is erroneous, Turners Hill, near Lye Cross, Rowley Regis, which is 893 ft. above mean sea level, being considerably higher, while the Clee Hills reach ...
— Showell's Dictionary of Birmingham - A History And Guide Arranged Alphabetically • Thomas T. Harman and Walter Showell
... not have happened! I transcribe the passage from his thirteenth book: "Caesar (the Emperor Charles the Fifth), after he had given an hearing in the Diet of Worms to Martin Luther, and caused his opinions to be examined by a number of divines, who reported that his doctrine was erroneous and pernicious to the Christian religion, had, to gratify the pontiff, put him under the ban of the empire, which so terrified Martin, that, if the injurious and threatening words which were given him by Cardinal San Sisto, the apostolical legate, had not thrown him into the utmost despair, it ...
— Curiosities of Literature, Vol. II (of 3) - Edited, With Memoir And Notes, By His Son, The Earl Of Beaconsfield • Isaac D'Israeli
... the rules drawn up by Sir Ralph Verney in 1695) "three poor men—widowers,—to be called Brothers, and three poor women—widows,—to be called Sisters." Very strict were these rules for the government of the almshouses, as to erroneous opinions in any principle of religion, the rector of Quainton being the judge, the visiting of alehouses, the good conduct of the inmates, who were to be "no whisperers, ...
— Vanishing England • P. H. Ditchfield
... of the realm of physical science, our text books have been controversial rather than impartial, especially in economics and history; resulting in erroneous and distorted and prejudiced ideas of events, such for instance, as our American Revolution. The day of the controversialist is happily coming to an end, and of the writer who twists the facts of science to suit a world of his own making, ...
— The Crossing • Winston Churchill
... our own homes. William endeavoured to make it appear not so very foolish, by informing them that it was a place much celebrated in England, though perhaps little thought of by them, and that we only differed from many of our countrymen in having come the wrong way in consequence of an erroneous direction. ...
— Recollections of a Tour Made in Scotland A.D. 1803 • Dorothy Wordsworth
... the necessity of the case of an arrest on shore and of an arrest at sea. In the former instance the officer may apply to witnesses;—he has the man before him, and compares him with the description of the criminal; and, should he make an erroneous arrest, under misleading circumstances, his punishment would be merely nominal—in many cases, nothing. But the common law, whilst it gives the subject this protection, does not deny the right of the officer to arrest. It only punishes the abuse ...
— Miles Wallingford - Sequel to "Afloat and Ashore" • James Fenimore Cooper
... each name. Which prejudice seems to have taken its rise from not rightly understanding the common language of men, speaking of several distinct ideas as united into one thing by the mind. And, indeed, there is cause to suspect several erroneous conceits of the philosophers are owing to the same original: while they began to build their schemes not so much on notions as on words, which were framed by the vulgar, merely for conveniency and dispatch in the common actions of life, without any ...
— Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous in Opposition to Sceptics and Atheists • George Berkeley
... is in advance of that of the most intelligent animal. He gives numerous examples to prove that a high level of reason is attained by infants shortly before they begin to speak, and therefore that the doctrine which ascribes all thought to language is erroneous. ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 358, November 11, 1882 • Various
... right; and of course he must expect that the public would view it in the same light. Captain Ball judged rightly of the public, whose first impulses, though, from want of sufficient information, they must frequently be erroneous, are generally founded upon just feelings. But the public are easily misled, and there are always persons ready to mislead them. Nelson had not yet attained that fame which compels envy to be silent; and when it was known ...
— The Life of Horatio Lord Nelson • Robert Southey
... the association recognised each other. This sign has remained unknown; and nothing, even in the deeds of the Vehmic archives, leads one even to guess what it was, and every hypothesis on this subject must be looked upon as uncertain or erroneous. By one of the fundamental statutes of the Terre Rouge, a member convicted of betraying the secrets of the order was condemned to the most cruel punishment; but we have every reason for asserting that this sentence was never carried out, or even ...
— Manners, Custom and Dress During the Middle Ages and During the Renaissance Period • Paul Lacroix
... Collar of SS.—Though ARMIGER (Vol. ii., p. 194.) has not adduced any facts on this subject that were previously unknown to me, he has advanced some misstatements and advocated some erroneous notions, which it may be desirable at once to oppose and contradict; inasmuch as they are calculated to envelope in fresh obscurity certain particulars, which it was the object of my former researches to set forth in their true light. And first, I ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 46, Saturday, September 14, 1850 • Various
... was an idea without practical consequence, strange and erroneous even when tested by the very theories of evolution which inspired him. His conception offered no help in overcoming the ills of humanity; rather was it as a chain binding man to earth, there to seek ...
— Spontaneous Activity in Education • Maria Montessori
... and dissipated every melancholy fancy. Alas! such delightful proofs of Hartfield's attraction, as those sort of visits conveyed, might shortly be over. The picture which she had then drawn of the privations of the approaching winter, had proved erroneous; no friends had deserted them, no pleasures had been lost.—But her present forebodings she feared would experience no similar contradiction. The prospect before her now, was threatening to a degree that ...
— Persuasion • Jane Austen
... political circumstances. Fanaticism is an evil, but it is not the greatest of evils. It is good that a people should be roused by any means from a state of utter torpor;—that their minds should be diverted from objects merely sensual, to meditations, however erroneous, on the mysteries of the moral and intellectual world; and from interests which are immediately selfish to those which relate to the past, the future, and the remote. These effects have sometimes been produced by the worst ...
— The Miscellaneous Writings and Speeches of Lord Macaulay, Vol. 1 (of 4) - Contibutions to Knight's Quarterly Magazine] • Thomas Babington Macaulay
... an account of the battle, as stated in previous note, and having corrected several erroneous statements, makes the following correction of what had been often written and generally believed respecting ...
— The Loyalists of America and Their Times, Vol. 2 of 2 - From 1620-1816 • Edgerton Ryerson
... right if it is the right kind, but the pride that prompts a man to kill his mother, because she at last refuses to black his boots any more, is an erroneous pride. The pride that induces a man to muss up the carpet with his brains because there is nothing left for him to do but to labor, is the kind that Lucifer had when he bolted the action of the convention and went over to ...
— Remarks • Bill Nye
... seen his face!—such emotion and such despair! I could not learn from him what had passed. He escaped from me and rushed away. All that I could gather was from a few broken words, and from those words I formed the conjecture (it may be erroneous) that the obstacle to his happiness was not in Helen's heart, my Lord, but seemed to me as if it were in yourself. Therefore, when he had vanished from my sight, I took courage, and came at, once to you. If he be your son, and Helen Digby be your ward,—she herself ...
— My Novel, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton
... to press the subject," he continued; "but if you think my life erroneous, would you have me neglect the means of grace? Because you consider me in the wrong on one point, would you have me place myself in the wrong in all? Surely, sir, the church is for ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 13 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson
... priests." Las Casas displays his usual acuteness when he says that the great difficulty of Columbus was, not that of teaching, but that of unteaching: not of promulgating his own theory, but of eradicating the erroneous convictions of the judges before whom he had to plead his cause. In fine, the junta decided that the project was "vain and impossible, and that it did not belong to the majesty of such great princes to determine anything upon such weak ...
— The Life of Columbus • Arthur Helps
... and to abstain from making use of such conceptions, he is thereby necessarily reduced to others of an inferior order. Mr. H. Spencer says,[253] "Those who espouse this {248} alternative position, make the erroneous assumption that the choice is between personality and something lower than personality; whereas the choice is rather between personality and something higher. Is it not just possible that there is a mode of being as much transcending intelligence and will, ...
— On the Genesis of Species • St. George Mivart
... expressed himself in regard to Adelaide Merton, was named Charles Fenwick. He possessed a brilliant mind, which had been well stored. But his views of life were altogether perverted and erroneous, and his ends deeply tinctured with the love of distinction, for its own sake. A few tolerably successful literary efforts, had been met by injudicious over praise, leading him to the vain conclusion that his abilities were of so high a character, that ...
— Home Lights and Shadows • T. S. Arthur
... that the legend of their having no wings or feet had arisen. The beautiful flowing plumage appeared to great advantage, but the body, by this process, was greatly reduced and shortened, and gave a very erroneous idea of the real shape of the bird. While speaking of the birds of paradise, I should like to describe the great variety which exists. Those I have described are very different from the ordinary bird of paradise, with which ladies were accustomed to ornament their hats ...
— In the Eastern Seas • W.H.G. Kingston
... promptly fitted out for a pioneering voyage as far as the Cape of Good Hope. Salem knew her as "the great ship" and yet her hull was not quite one hundred feet long. Safely Captain Jonathan Ingersoll took her out over the long road, his navigating equipment consisting of a few erroneous maps and charts, a sextant, and Guthrie's Geographical Grammar. In Table Bay he sold his cargo of provisions and then visited the coast of Guinea to dispose of his rum for ivory and gold dust but brought not a single slave ...
— The Old Merchant Marine - A Chronicle of American Ships and Sailors, Volume 36 in - the Chronicles Of America Series • Ralph D. Paine
... to them: in this he appears to be carrying out in a confused manner the Socratic doctrine, that virtue is knowledge, vice ignorance. He will allow of no distinction between the pleasures and the erroneous opinions on which they are founded, whether arising out of the illusion of distance or not. But to this we naturally reply with Protarchus, that the pleasure is what it is, although the calculation may be false, or the after-effects painful. It is difficult to acquit Plato, ...
— Philebus • Plato
... technical students, but to come forward and tell us what conclusions they have formed. The work of the trained specialist is essentially, in religion and philosophy, a negative work. He can show us how erroneous beliefs, which coloured the minds of men at certain ages and eras, grew up. He can show us what can be disregarded, as being only the conventional belief of the time; he can indicate, for instance, how a false conception of supernatural interference ...
— At Large • Arthur Christopher Benson
... Shakespeare's reference. I have likewise suggested a reason why Burd Ellen fell into his power, chiefly in order to introduce a definition of "widershins." "All the rest is the original horse," even including the erroneous description of the youngest son as the Childe or heir (cf. "Childe Harold" and Childe Wynd, infra, No. xxxiii.), unless this is some "survival" of Junior Right or "Borough English," the archaic custom of letting the heirship pass to the youngest son. I should add that, on ...
— English Fairy Tales • Joseph Jacobs (coll. & ed.)
... point regarding this identification. The public mind has formed an entirely erroneous impression regarding the qualities of the so-called "Negative" pole of electrified or magnetized Matter. The terms Positive and Negative are very wrongly applied to this phenomenon by science. The word Positive means something real and strong, as compared with a Negative unreality or ...
— The Kybalion - A Study of The Hermetic Philosophy of Ancient Egypt and Greece • Three Initiates
... a great deal about tone placement in these days; the world seems to have gone mad over the idea. But it is an erroneous idea. How futile to attempt to place the tone in any particular spot in the anatomy. You can focus the tone, but you cannot place it. There is but one place for it to come from and no other place. It is either emitted with artistic ...
— Vocal Mastery - Talks with Master Singers and Teachers • Harriette Brower
... about his son-in-law, Richard Burton. As he was slow and very prolix, he would never have sat down again, and God only knows what he would have said." The combined efforts of the Arundell family however, prevented so terrible a denouement, Burton easily proved his enemies' statements to be erroneous, and the order was ...
— The Life of Sir Richard Burton • Thomas Wright
... constitutions of the Church without conceding a single point to their adversaries; he blamed the Calvinists as seditious and unruly people, yet nevertheless had a horror for the imperial edicts which condemned them to death; he said it was a cruel thing to take a man's life for sustaining an erroneous opinion; in short, he fantasied in his imagination a kind of religion, half Catholic, half Reformed, in order to content all persons; a system which would have been adopted could he have had his way." This picture, drawn by one of his most brilliant and bitter enemies, excites ...
— The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-1566 • John Lothrop Motley
... and leading a hole-and-corner sort of life when, as I have said, there was not the slightest necessity for it. Little by little I was beginning to derive the impression that the first notion of Mr. Hayle was an erroneous one, and that there was more in him than I supposed. This sentiment was destined to be strengthened and in the very near future, by ...
— My Strangest Case • Guy Boothby
... to have been convinced by Livingstone's reasoning and observations, that the Nile sources were in the Bangweolo watershed—a supposition now ascertained to have been erroneous. But what chiefly attracted and delighted the great naturalist was the many interesting notices of plants and animals scattered over the Last Journals. These Journals contain important contributions ...
— The Personal Life Of David Livingstone • William Garden Blaikie
... foreseen by some of our brethren. This indeed (as in all other spiritual cases with this set of people) was his only reason against believing me; and, as he was fully persuaded that the prediction was erroneous, he in a very neighbourly manner admonished me against selling my stock at the present low price, which, he said, beyond dispute, must have a rise before Monday, when this unreasonable consternation ...
— The Prose Works of Jonathan Swift, D. D., Volume IV: - Swift's Writings on Religion and the Church, Volume II • Jonathan Swift
... sensitive as it is to mere trifles. From the number of persons attending on her, and asking her commands, her sister's match, I suppose, appeared to her to be a fortunate one, and she repined at her own, according to that erroneous feeling, by which every one is most annoyed at being outstripped by those nearest to him. When her father happened to see her disappointed after the recent mortification, by kindly inquiring he prevailed on her, who was dissembling ...
— The History of Rome, Books 01 to 08 • Titus Livius
... and when they came North and visited the Perkins Institution, Helen Keller was never a regular student there or subject to the discipline of the Institution. The impression that Miss Sullivan educated Helen Keller "under the direction of Mr. Anagnos" is erroneous. In the three years during which at various times Miss Keller and Miss Sullivan were guests of the Perkins Institution, the teachers there did not help Miss Sullivan, and Mr. Anagnos did not even ...
— Story of My Life • Helen Keller
... leaves the American coast and begins to pick up the line of the British warships—England's far-flung battle line—until he returns to the dock, but thorough investigation would convince a trained news man that most of this war gossip is erroneous. ...
— The Audacious War • Clarence W. Barron
... is the case, what shall be said of marking the fingering on all the notes—which often makes good playing impossible. Liszt taught hundreds of pupils according to the best principles, yet such erroneous principles have prevailed! ...
— Musical Memories • Camille Saint-Saens
... whom was given the name of "Ishbel." This subject has been already discussed, and the suggestion thrown out that the phantasm was an erroneous mental picture of the late Rev. Mother Frances Helen, evolved from the imagination of a half-educated person who had never seen the lady in question, and knew little about her. This figure was seen ...
— The Alleged Haunting of B—— House • Various
... situation and wishes ought to prevent his prolonging those attentions into exclusive intimacy. And it was intimated, that; while his political principles were endangered by communicating with laymen of this description, he might also receive erroneous impressions in religion from the prelatic clergy, who so perversely laboured to set up the royal prerogative in ...
— Waverley • Sir Walter Scott
... late passage in the Talmud, on the other hand, says that all abuse is forbidden save of idolatry.[1] With Philo again, he inserts into the code a law prohibiting the possession of poison on pain of death,[2] which is based on an erroneous interpretation of the law against witchcraft. Josephus follows the Hellenistic school also when he deduces from the prohibition against removing boundary stones the lesson that no infraction of the law ...
— Josephus • Norman Bentwich
... classes, tasks, were then lightened. Gard had quickly become aware in Germany that the Sabbath is considerably a day of work as well as pleasure. The usual impression in America that the Germans are religious, not to speak of being moral, was dispelled. This had been a fragment of his erroneous idea that they are active Protestants in the sense that carries ...
— Villa Elsa - A Story of German Family Life • Stuart Henry
... apparently because Kautsky believes that all such reforms would inevitably strengthen labor relatively to capital, and will therefore not be allowed. Similarly, he feels that the capitalists will refuse all concessions to political democracy (on the same erroneous supposition, that they will inevitably ...
— Socialism As It Is - A Survey of The World-Wide Revolutionary Movement • William English Walling
... his capacious and acute understanding was gradually unfolding new resources, supplying the defects, and overcoming the disadvantages of his imperfect education and desultory and irregular studies, while his matured and enlightened judgment had abandoned and discarded the fanatical pravities and erroneous tenets, which his ardent enthusiasm had too hastily imbibed. When he again became a candidate for the honours of authorship, it was evident that he knew well how to apply those quarries of learning into which, during his long recess, he had been digging so ...
— Discovery of Witches - The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster • Thomas Potts
... Hampton had given freely of his admiration to Bayne Trevors. For Trevors had taken the time, his own purpose in mind, to look in upon Hampton some months ago in San Francisco. Further, he had created the impression which he sought to make. An impression, by the way, not entirely erroneous. ...
— Judith of Blue Lake Ranch • Jackson Gregory
... common belief is, that women, even when studious, are rather literary than scientific. Statistics prove either that they are changing in this regard, or that the notion is erroneous. The great majority of women at the universities of Zurich and Geneva study not letters, but science and medicine. M. Ernest Legouve reported in a recent competition for fellowships in the University of France, 'The papers of the scientific candidates were greatly superior ...
— Hold Up Your Heads, Girls! • Annie H. Ryder
... Batta character is written neither from right to left, nor from left to right, nor from top to bottom, but in a manner directly opposite to that of the Chinese, from the bottom to the top of the line, and that I have conveyed an erroneous idea of their natural form by arranging the characters horizontally instead of placing them in a perpendicular line. Not having now the opportunity of verifying by ocular proof what I understood to be the practical order of their writing, namely, from left to right (in the manner ...
— The History of Sumatra - Containing An Account Of The Government, Laws, Customs And - Manners Of The Native Inhabitants • William Marsden
... decisions must be binding in any case upon the parties to a suit as to the object of that suit, while they are also entitled to very high respect and consideration in all parallel cases by all other departments of the Government. And while it is obviously possible that such decision may be erroneous in any given case, still the evil effect following it, being limited to that particular case, with the chance that it may be overruled and never become a precedent for other cases, can better be borne than could the evils of a different practice. At the same ...
— A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents: Lincoln - Section 1 (of 2) of Volume 6: Abraham Lincoln • Compiled by James D. Richardson
... social equality, this fear of social contact with the negro that precludes many well-meaning people from securing accurate information in regard to the aims, and purposes, and capabilities of those whom they desire to help. But there is light ahead, dark as at times it now may seem, and erroneous as are the views in regard to the negro's relation to ...
— The Arena - Volume 4, No. 20, July, 1891 • Various
... with people; he always reproved them. "You make a great mistake—and an extremely feminine one—Miss Farringdon, in invariably deducting general rules from individual instances. Believe me, this is a most illogical form of reasoning, and leads to erroneous, ...
— The Farringdons • Ellen Thorneycroft Fowler
... the evil day Warded in stationary fight alone. At him retiring, therefore, step by step Deiphobus, who had with bitterest hate Long time pursued him, hurl'd his splendid lance, 630 But yet again erroneous, for he pierced Ascalaphus instead, offspring of Mars; Right through his shoulder flew the spear; he fell Incontinent, and dying, clench'd the dust. But tidings none the brazen-throated Mars 635 Tempestuous yet received, that his own son In bloody fight had fallen, ...
— The Iliad of Homer - Translated into English Blank Verse • Homer
... incongruous or absurd that man, lord of the central domain in the universe, should regard himself as the most important cosmic creature. This is the view, implicit in the Christian scheme, which had been constructed on the old erroneous cosmology. When the true place of the earth was shown and man found himself in a tiny planet attached to one of innumerable solar worlds, his cosmic importance could no longer be maintained. He was reduced to the condition of an insect creeping on a "tas ...
— The Idea of Progress - An Inquiry Into Its Origin And Growth • J. B. Bury
... butter no parsnips, Chevalier La Corne," replied the Acadian, whom no eloquence could soften. "Bigot sold Louisbourg!" This was a common but erroneous ...
— The Golden Dog - Le Chien d'Or • William Kirby
... defense; of an oratorical effusion, instead of a vigorous, and, if possible, damaging commentary upon the evidence arrayed against him. It was a labored, and in part eloquent, exposition of the necessary fallibility of human judgment, illustrated by numerous examples of erroneous verdicts. His peroration I jotted down at the time:—"Thus, my lord and gentlemen of the jury, is it abundantly manifest, not only by these examples, but by the testimony which every man bears in his own breast, that God could not have willed, ...
— The Experiences of a Barrister, and Confessions of an Attorney • Samuel Warren
... shocked to find how easily I am muddled, for I had before thought over the subject much, and concluded my way was fair. It is dreadfully erroneous. ...
— The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, Volume I • Francis Darwin
... ministers exhibit a still greater extent of gullibility, if they really, as they affect to do, believe in the statements made by the Radical members and their organs of the press, after the repeated instances in which those statements have been proved to be erroneous. On the 20th November, the Mansion-house Committee proclaimed to all the inhabitants of the British empire, and in the presence of an all-seeing Providence, "That in Ireland famine of a most hideous description must be immediate and pressing, and pestilence of the most frightfull ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 59, No. 367, May 1846 • Various
... version, tempered by Percy's version, with additions from a modern imagination. We have merely to read Professor Child's edition of Otterburne, with Hogg's letter covering his MS. copy of Otterburne from recitation, to see that this is a wholly erroneous view of the matter. We have all the materials for forming a judgment accessible to us in print, and have no excuse ...
— Sir Walter Scott and the Border Minstrelsy • Andrew Lang
... the world supposes every man to have, and which therefore are properly enough termed worldly; but the world is apt to make an erroneous estimate: ignorant of the dispositions which constitute our happiness or misery, they bring to an undistinguished scale the means of the one, as connected with power, wealth, or grandeur, and of the other with their contraries. Philosophers ...
— The Man of Feeling • Henry Mackenzie
... and that he preferred to remain a plain country parson in his little parish, of which, at the time of his death, he had been Rector for fifty-six years. All of which only goes to show what absurdly erroneous ideas a child, anxious to learn, may pick up from listening to the conversation of his elders, even when one of those elders happened to ...
— The Days Before Yesterday • Lord Frederick Hamilton
... increased, in a degree detrimental to the patient, by allowing the consumption of any considerable amount of food, and following this doctrine, the patient was permitted to go hungry. This, however, is absolutely erroneous. No one would feed a feverish person in a forcible manner, but it is absolutely imperative to take care that he receives food productive of ...
— Valere Aude - Dare to Be Healthy, Or, The Light of Physical Regeneration • Louis Dechmann
... realize the idea, formed from all time, of surpassing loveliness, of gentleness with passion," justly observes Monsieur Nisard—he who, in his very clever sketch of the illustrious poet, so often forms erroneous judgments of Lord Byron. For he also accepted him as he was presented—namely, as the victim of calumny and prejudice; or else he considered him after a system, examining only some passages and one single period of the man's and the poet's life, instead of taking the whole ...
— My Recollections of Lord Byron • Teresa Guiccioli
... hardly room for mistake. I speak merely of those honours which are bestowed on a man at the outset of his career, before he has come to be known by continued proof, or is found to have passed from one kind of conduct to another and dissimilar kind, and I maintain that in such cases, so far as erroneous judgments or corrupt motives are concerned, a people will always commit fewer ...
— Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius • Niccolo Machiavelli
... spoken as I have thought. I may be wrong in regard to any or all of them; but holding it a sound maxim that it is better only sometimes to be right than at all times wrong, so soon as I discover my opinions to be erroneous I shall be ready to renounce them.... Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition. Whether it be true or not, I can say for one, that I have no other so great as that of being truly esteemed ...
— Abraham Lincoln: A History V1 • John G. Nicolay and John Hay
... who was the partner of his life during the most stormy events of his glorious career. It was ascribed to his ambition to connect himself with royal blood; and malevolence has delighted in spreading the report that to this consideration he had sacrificed every other. This opinion was quite erroneous, and he was as unfairly dealt with, upon the subject, as all persons are who happen to be placed above the level ...
— Hortense, Makers of History Series • John S. C. Abbott
... labors with energy along the path he has himself chosen; and when at length he becomes conscious of his one-sidedness and his error, he changes just as violently, enters upon another perhaps equally erroneous course, and clings to principles equally faulty. Not until late in life does he become aware of his own history and realize how much further a constant development in accordance with well tested ...
— The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Vol. II • Editor-in-Chief: Kuno Francke
... of intelligence, and should beware of exercising his intellect, the idea seeming to be that under these conditions the mental path will be freer and clearer for the spirit control. All of the aforesaid notions are erroneous, as will appear as we progress in the statements in this book ...
— Genuine Mediumship or The Invisible Powers • Bhakta Vishita
... boys is from Cape Chidley itself; others come from as far south and west as Bay of Islands in South Newfoundland. So many erroneous opinions seem to persist regarding the difference between Newfoundland and Labrador that I am constantly asked: "But why do you have a Children's Home in Newfoundland? Can't the Newfoundlanders look out for themselves ...
— A Labrador Doctor - The Autobiography of Wilfred Thomason Grenfell • Wilfred Thomason Grenfell
... not perfectly understand. Many children are so foolish as to be ashamed to let those they converse with discover that they do not comprehend every thing said to them, by which means they often imbibe erroneous ideas, and perhaps remain in a state of ignorance on many essential subjects, when, by questioning their relatives or friends, they might easily have obtained ...
— The Eskdale Herd-boy • Mrs Blackford
... theology compared with Christian.] The conception of a purely immaterial Being, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, which is that of the Bible regarding God, is entirely foreign to the Hindu books. Their doctrine is various, but, in every case, erroneous. It is absolute pantheism, or polytheism, or an inconsistent blending of polytheism ...
— Two Old Faiths - Essays on the Religions of the Hindus and the Mohammedans • J. Murray Mitchell and William Muir
... far. I won't depend upon Ward's judgment, or anybody's else—I want to see with my own eyes, and form my own opinion. But you know what Orion is. When he gets a notion into his head, and more especially if it is an erroneous one, the Devil can't get it out again. So I know better than to combat his arguments long, but apparently yielded, inwardly determined to go clear through. Ma knows my determination, but even she counsels ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain
... better." She knew well enough that if she was never brought to love any man, she never ought to marry any man; but she was not quite sure whether Janet was not right in telling her that she had formed erroneous notions of the sort of love she ought to feel for the man whom she should resolve to accept. Perhaps it was true that that kind of adoration which Janet entertained for her husband was a feeling which came after marriage—a feeling which would spring ...
— The Vicar of Bullhampton • Anthony Trollope
... is manifest that the argument of which who would make oblivion the cause of nobility is false and erroneous. ...
— The Best of the World's Classics, Restricted to Prose, Vol. VIII (of X) - Continental Europe II. • Various
... sustains their higher natures, but, I conscientiously believe, gratifies and pleases their lower ones. Why should you deny them this opportunity of indulging their twofold organisms, and beguiling the tedium of the voyage, merely because of some erroneous exhibition of fact?" ...
— The Crusade of the Excelsior • Bret Harte
... Irish landlord having made the subject of property, or the principles upon which it ought to be administered, his study? By this we do not mean to say that they did not occasionally bestow a thought upon their own interests; but, in doing so, they were guided by erroneous principles that led them to place these interests in antagonism with those of the people. They forgot that poverty is the most fertile source of population, and that in every neglected and ill-regulated state of society, they invariably reproduce each other; but the landlords kept ...
— The Emigrants Of Ahadarra - The Works of William Carleton, Volume Two • William Carleton
... way, through the Oaks, into the Susquehanna, descending that river until they reached the Unadilla, which stream they ascended until they came to the small river, known in the parlance of the country, by the erroneous name of a creek, that ran through the captain's new estate. The labour of this ascent was exceedingly severe; but the whole journey was completed by the end of April, and while the streams were high. Snow still lay in the woods; ...
— Wyandotte • James Fenimore Cooper
... the sixth head,—the emperors; by one of whom the apostle was now subjected to banishment in the desert isle of Patmos. This wound is supposed by some to be the change from paganism to Christianity in the empire. No; this view is many ways erroneous: but it is enough to remark that the Roman empire, according to both prophets, Daniel and John, is to continue bestial under all changes, during the whole period of 1260 years. The deadly wound was inflicted by the northern ...
— Notes On The Apocalypse • David Steele
... formation is igneous, prehistoric and erroneous. If I were you I would sink a prospect shaft below the vertical slide where the old red brimstone and preadamite slag cross-cut the malachite and intersect the schist. I think that would be schist about as good as anything you could do. Then send ...
— Remarks • Bill Nye
... I will quote what he has said on the subject:—"In the evidence taken before the Select Committee during the last season of Parliament, and appearing in the report, there are several statements of a somewhat imposing kind, which, as they appear to me to be erroneous and apt to mislead, I shall here take the liberty of opposing." He then enumerates several opinions expressed before the Select Committee, one of which is, that Salmon enter and leave rivers for other purposes than those connected ...
— Essays in Natural History and Agriculture • Thomas Garnett
... before, yet was she forever to be at the mercy of this torturing realisation of empty years and eternal loss? Did Christopher love her or not? The assured "yes" and the positive "no" were as two shuttlecocks tossed over her strained mind by the breath of circumstance. Her own erroneous idea that her still unconquered passion kept them apart was breeding morbid misery for her, as all false beliefs must do. She had kept herself under control to-day by dint of isolation, and the inadequacy of that course filled her with self-contempt. ...
— Christopher Hibbault, Roadmaker • Marguerite Bryant
... by the time that the sun had sunk out of sight, the first faint breathings reached us. We had by this time arrived at the conclusion that my surmise relative to the movements of the brigantine of suspicious character was erroneous, and that she had steered in some other direction. As soon, therefore, as our canvas filled and the schooner gathered steerage-way, a course was shaped for the south-west; the skipper and I having made up our minds that the West Indian waters ...
— The Log of a Privateersman • Harry Collingwood
... several of my friends were under such apprehensions, which caused my being urgent on you not to alter as above mentioned."... "Nor have the public received the real history of General Marion. You have carved and mutilated it with so many erroneous statements your embellishments, observation and remarks, must necessarily be erroneous as proceeding from false grounds. Most certainly 'tis not my history, but your romance."... "Can you suppose I can be pleased with reading particulars (though so elevated, by you) of Marion and myself, when ...
— A Sketch of the Life of Brig. Gen. Francis Marion • William Dobein James
... pretend to be masters in physiognomy, seeing that they declared the picture of Moses, the holy, divine man, to be the picture of a villain. They defended themselves by accusing the painter in turn of not having produced a true portrait of Moses, else they would not have fallen into the erroneous judgment they had expressed. But the artist insisted that his work ...
— The Legends of the Jews Volume 1 • Louis Ginzberg
... Heaven of Heavens I have presumed, An earthly guest, and drawn empyreal air, (Thy tempering;) with like safety guided down Return me to my native element; Lest from this flying steed unreined, (as once Bellerophon, though from a lower sphere,) Dismounted on the Aleian field I fall, Erroneous there ...
— TITLE • AUTHOR
... megalithic roof is not uncommon, and the sepulchral pottery bears a close resemblance to that of the Yamato tombs. It was at one time supposed that the highly specialized form of dolmen found in Japan had no counterpart anywhere on the continent of Asia, but that supposition has proved erroneous. ...
— A History of the Japanese People - From the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era • Frank Brinkley and Dairoku Kikuchi
... person and then falsely charged Buddha with the crime. Outside the east gate of the Jetavana, at a distance of seventy paces to the north, on the west of the road, Buddha held a discussion with the advocates of the ninety-six schemes of erroneous doctrine, when the king and his great officers, the householders, and people were all assembled in crowds to hear it. Then a woman belonging to one of the erroneous systems, by name Chanchamana, prompted ...
— Chinese Literature • Anonymous
... versification. Much as at the bottom of a flight of stairs, a step more or less than we counted upon gives us a shock; so, too, does a misplaced accent or a supernumerary syllable. In the one case, we know that there is an erroneous preadjustment; and we can scarcely doubt that there is one in the other. But if we habitually preadjust our perceptions to the measured movement of verse, the physical analogy above given renders it probable that by so doing we economize attention; and hence that metrical language is more effective ...
— The Philosophy of Style • Herbert Spencer
... chances of error, he acquires the fixed habit of doubting about one-half of whatever his fellow-creatures tell him in ordinary conversation, without for a single moment venturing to suspect them of deliberate untruthfulness. Children and servants, if they find that anything they have been told is erroneous, immediately jump at the conclusion that the person who told them meant deliberately to deceive them; in their own simple and categorical fashion they answer plumply, 'That's a lie.' But the man of science ...
— Falling in Love - With Other Essays on More Exact Branches of Science • Grant Allen
... prospective mother's imagination is so apt to be unusually active, often picturing absurd conditions as responsible for one symptom or another. Those who give free play to the imagination in regard to the formation and progress of the embryo are pretty certain to arrive at erroneous if not grotesque conclusions; for example, they may attribute a protracted pregnancy to the child's having grown fast to the mother, a situation that ...
— The Prospective Mother - A Handbook for Women During Pregnancy • J. Morris Slemons
... say finally whether sociology will pronounce the theoretical assumptions of socialism correct or incorrect; but so far as we can see it seems probable that the theories of social evolution advocated by the Marxian socialists at least will be pronounced erroneous. In any case, there is no logical connection between sociology as a science and socialism as a program for ...
— Sociology and Modern Social Problems • Charles A. Ellwood
... affairs of life can be equally clear. A man's work takes him out into the world, and throws him into sharp collision with other men. He learns, as a consequence, to think carefully and with deliberation, and to decide with caution, knowing that action, based on erroneous conclusions, may ruin his prospects in an hour. Thus, like the oak, which, grows up exposed to all elemental changes, his judgment gains strength, while his perceptions, constantly trained, acquire clearness. But a woman's duties lie almost ...
— After the Storm • T. S. Arthur
... say, with a beloved co-laborer on Mount Lebanon, "To the Scriptures we give increased attention; they do more to unfold and expand the intellectual powers, and to create careful and honest thinkers, than all the sciences we teach." It is also most efficient in freeing mind and heart from those erroneous views that are opposed to its teachings; and actual trial developed a richness and fulness of practical adaptation to the work that astonished even those who already knew something of its value. Its precepts and instructions were also ...
— Woman And Her Saviour In Persia • A Returned Missionary
... investigators that in his passage from one finger to the next, the savage would invariably bend down, or close, the last finger used; that is, that the count began with the fingers open and outspread. This opinion is, however, erroneous. Several of the Indian tribes of the West[17] begin with the hand clenched, and open the fingers one by one as they proceed. This method is much less common than the other, but that it exists ...
— The Number Concept - Its Origin and Development • Levi Leonard Conant
... negotiation rests with Jay; that Adams has the credit belonging to one who accepts a correct view when presented to him; and that Franklin did more wisely than he knew in twice assenting to a course which seemed to him based upon erroneous beliefs. ...
— Benjamin Franklin • John Torrey Morse, Jr.
... difficulty in naming his pictures when they were done as he did in painting them. It is a prevalent, but quite erroneous, impression that his habit was to select a subject from some literary work, and then attempt to paint it in the light of the author's ideas. His practice exactly reversed this method: he painted his picture first, and then tried to evolve or find ...
— The Bay State Monthly, Volume I. No. VI. June, 1884 - A Massachusetts Magazine • Various
... going nearer we discovered that there were five of them, and that they did not at all answer the description of that given by Captain Carteret, I should have concluded that it was so, although the longitude of his island must have been very erroneous, had it been the case. Their latitude is 8 deg. 26' south, which is nearly the latitude of Carteret's; and their longitude, deduced from the preceding day's observations, is 163 deg. 18' east. We steered from ...
— An Historical Journal of the Transactions at Port Jackson and Norfolk Island • John Hunter
... the Address, tendering their submission, and asking for an amnesty. It has been stated in some publications referring to these proceedings, that the negotiations were opened by Government; but Lord Buckingham's official despatch, dated the 23rd of March, not only shows that statement to be erroneous, but establishes the fact that Lord Buckingham peremptorily refused to entertain the negotiation until he should have received a positive assurance that a certain defensive and hostile agreement, into which those gentlemen had entered, was to be considered as abandoned. This agreement, or association, ...
— Memoirs of the Court and Cabinets of George the Third, Volume 2 (of 2) - From the Original Family Documents • The Duke of Buckingham
... reformer he deliberately placed himself in opposition to religion. At a public meeting in London he declared in his bland, impressive way, without the least heat or ill-nature, that all the religions of the world, whether ancient or modern, Christian or pagan, were erroneous and hurtful. ...
— Captains of Industry - or, Men of Business Who Did Something Besides Making Money • James Parton
... intention of this is to enable an assembly to revise a decision found to be erroneous. The time within which a motion to reconsider may be entertained is generally fixed by a special rule; and the general rule is, that it must emanate from some member who voted with the majority. In Congress, a motion to reconsider takes precedence ...
— How To Behave: A Pocket Manual Of Republican Etiquette, And Guide To Correct Personal Habits • Samuel R Wells
... affected to unreasonable credulity. In the same spirit, it has been the wont of divines to characterize superstition and unbelief as opposite poles, between which lies the golden mean of discreet faith. But this view is inadequate and erroneous. ...
— Current Superstitions - Collected from the Oral Tradition of English Speaking Folk • Various
... Cla. Erroneous Vassals, the great King of Kings Hath in the Table of his Law commanded That thou shalt do no murther. Will you then Spurne at his Edict, and fulfill a Mans? Take heed: for he holds Vengeance in his hand, To hurle vpon their ...
— The First Folio [35 Plays] • William Shakespeare
... illustration; but nevertheless the conclusion to which they point is of the highest importance, and bears, with overwhelming force, on the theory of free trade as between an old and a young community. They demonstrate that that theory is not only practically pernicious, but on principle erroneous. It involves an oblivion of the fundamental law of nature as to the difference between the effect of wealth and civilization on the production of food and the raising of manufactures. It proceeds on insensibility to the difference in the age and advancement of nations, and the impossibility ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. 341, March, 1844, Vol. 55 • Various
... proved highly sensational. The fact that a good deal of evidence was given by a Bosnian journalist—one Nastitch—who was proved later in the Frledjung trial to be a discreditable witness, has led to the erroneous opinion in some quarters that the plot was a bogus affair. But the plot was a very genuine one, as I learnt beyond all doubt from my own observations, from details given me by relatives of some of the men implicated, and other Montenegrin sources. It was, in fact, the first ...
— Twenty Years Of Balkan Tangle • Durham M. Edith
... regulation of Indian elections, had a like bearing. It became law earlier, in May, 1863 [Ibid., 420, vi, 459]. In the Official Records, fourth ser. vol. in, 1189, footnote o, the statement is made that the name of Elias C. Boudinot appeared first on the roll, January 8, 1864; but it must be erroneous, since Boudinot, as the delegate from the Cherokee Nation, was very active in Congress all through the year 1863. His colleague from the Choctaw Nation was Robert M. Jones. On December 10, when Indian affairs had become exceedingly critical, Representative Hanly moved ...
— The American Indian as Participant in the Civil War • Annie Heloise Abel
... Diderot and his friends. As for invective, the supply is endless on both sides. The Archbishop of Paris condemns the "Emile" of Rousseau as containing a great many propositions that are "false, scandalous, full of hatred of the church and her ministers, erroneous, impious, blasphemous, and heretical." The same prelate argues as follows: "Who would not believe, my very dear brethren, from what this impostor says, that the authority of the church is proved only by her own decisions, and that she ...
— The Eve of the French Revolution • Edward J. Lowell
... An entirely erroneous belief in the marketable value of Danish ballads, Welsh triads, Russian folk-songs, and the like in rococo English translations after the Bowring pattern led Borrow to exchange an attorney's office for a garret in Grub-street. His immediate ambition ...
— George Borrow - Times Literary Supplement, 10th July 1903 • Thomas Seccombe
... closeness and unanswerable cogency he would maintain truth! and with what illusion and almost irrefutable sophistry he would disguise and metamorphose error! At the first sound of the trumpet he could draw a larger body of forces into the field in favor of an erroneous position than his adversaries could in favor of a correct one; and even when on the wrong side, which he seemed just as willing to be as he was to be on the right, he was generally astute enough to drive his adversaries into straits and ...
— Discourse of the Life and Character of the Hon. Littleton Waller Tazewell • Hugh Blair Grigsby
... tracing them out to some consequences as yet new to them. What gives him fame with futurity is, his having boldly resisted general delusions, and violently, and to the great vexation of his contemporaries, first demonstrated the erroneous nature of many of their opinions, which subsequent experience has shewn to be false. "Present and future time," says Sir Joshua Reynolds, "are rivals; he who pays court to the one, must lay his account with being discountenanced by the other." We ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 61, No. 379, May, 1847 • Various
... with which, whether they have the right or not, the public will concern itself. So at home is he on every subject that each appears to be his specialty. One asserts that he follows Galen: witness his mania on medicine. Certainly not, another replies; are not his principles erroneous, and second-hand at that? Does he not dredge the science with ridicule? No practitioner would gravely assert the feasibility of transfusion, an operation never yet performed with success, since the red ...
— Atlantic Monthly,Volume 14, No. 82, August, 1864 - A Magazine Of Literature, Art, And Politics • Various
... conduct of the French armies upon like occasions, and their known character, rendered it probable that a determined resistance would in the present instance be maintained. We need not fear to say that this conclusion, from reasons which have been adverted to, was erroneous. But, in the mind of him who had admitted it upon whatever ground, whether false or true, surely the first thought which followed, ought to have been, not that we should bend to the enemy, but that, if they were resolute in defence, ...
— The Prose Works of William Wordsworth • William Wordsworth
... some occasions, to get the better of his discretion; for, being a high churchman and of consequence a malcontent, his resentment was habituated into an insurmountable prejudice against the present disposition of affairs, which, by confounding the nation with the ministry, sometimes led him into erroneous, not to say absurd calculations; otherwise, a man of good morals, well versed in mathematics and school divinity, studies which had not at all contributed to sweeten and unbend the natural sourness ...
— The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle, Volume I • Tobias Smollett
... Another erroneous dogma pretty generally taught is, that the object of governments should be to confer the greatest benefit upon the greatest number of its constituent members. The true doctrine is, the object should be to confer the greatest possible good upon every member, without any detriment or ...
— Southern Literature From 1579-1895 • Louise Manly
... fraternal gallantry is not necessary, on the account you intimate, nor will our countrymen suffer, in my opinion, by any comparisons I can make here. Your ideas of French gallantry are, indeed, very erroneous— it may differ in the manner from that practised in England, but is far from having any claim to superiority. Perhaps I cannot define the pretensions of the two nations in this respect better than by saying, that the gallantry of an Englishman is a sentiment—that of a Frenchman a system. ...
— A Residence in France During the Years 1792, 1793, 1794 and 1795, • An English Lady
... to notice one other important erroneous conclusion that Mr. Downham publishes in his book, on page 105. ...
— Our Vanishing Wild Life - Its Extermination and Preservation • William T. Hornaday
... corrections with his own hand. The idea of a journal pleased him greatly. He fancied it would be a work of which the world could afford no other example. But there are passages in which the order of events is deranged; in others facts are misrepresented and erroneous assertions are made, ...
— Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte, Complete • Louis Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne
... method of interpretation are, therefore, fundamentally erroneous. Never, perhaps, has the progress of a nation been so manifestly an evolution as distinguished from a revolution. No foreign conquerors have come in with their armies, crushing down the old and building up a new civilization. No magician's wand has been waved over the land to make ...
— Evolution Of The Japanese, Social And Psychic • Sidney L. Gulick
... From an erroneous apprehension of violence, Dr Johnson had provided a pair of pistols, some gun-powder, and a quantity of bullets: but upon being assured we should run no risk of meeting any robbers, he left his arms and ammunition in an open drawer, of which ...
— The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson, LL.D. • James Boswell
... account of Hannibal's march, from which, wholly erroneous as it is, this description seems to have been taken; not that even Livy has made such a gross mistake about the Druentia, or Durance, which falls ...
— The Roman History of Ammianus Marcellinus • Ammianus Marcellinus
... now given of the religion of the Otaheitans is imperfect in point of information; and it must be held erroneous as to principle, by all who chuse to derive their knowledge on the subject of man's relation to his Maker, from the sacred Scriptures alone. The imperfections were the consequence of the very limited acquaintance with these islanders, which existed at the time, and may be readily filled up ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 13 • Robert Kerr
... opinion that saltpetre hardens meat, is entirely erroneous:—it tends greatly to prevent putrefaction, but will not make it hard; neither will laying in brine five or six weeks in cold weather, have that effect, but remaining in salt too long, will certainly draw off the juices, and harden it. Bacon should ...
— The Virginia Housewife • Mary Randolph
... hand swayed the imperial sceptre. Endowed with the qualities of a good sovereign, adorned with many of those virtues which ensure the happiness of a people, and by nature gentle and humane, we see him, from erroneous ideas of the monarch's duty, become at once the instrument and the victim of the evil passions of others; his benevolent intentions frustrated, and the friend of justice converted into the oppressor of mankind, the enemy of ...
— The History of the Thirty Years' War • Friedrich Schiller, Translated by Rev. A. J. W. Morrison, M.A.
... the first chapter of the Bhagavad Gita (vide, Verse 10, Chap. 25, of this Parvan, ante). There following the commentators, particularly Sreedhara, I have rendered Aparyaptam and Paryaptam as less than sufficient and sufficient. It would seem, however, that that is erroneous. ...
— The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 2 • Kisari Mohan Ganguli
... Tinman, Professor Knapp tells us, must have occurred about the end of June. The Professor's chronology, however, seems to me derived from a calculation—not in itself over-exact {0j}—based upon the erroneous idea that the fair took place on May 12. {0k} This is traceable to a statement in Thorpe {0l} that 'the fair lasted as a "hog" and pleasure fair, and was held on May 12 and October 11, till 1872'; but Thorpe here refers to a later period, and there is no doubt ...
— The Romany Rye - A Sequel to 'Lavengro' • George Borrow
... preceded him to have been the first which had visited those desolate islands since Captain Cook had been there, as he found the fragments of the bottle in which that officer had deposited a memorial of his having examined them. This was conjecture and might be erroneous, as the mere pieces of the bottle afforded no proof that it had ...
— An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales, Vol. 1 • David Collins
... I must explain that my friend's proud Highland spirit has been a little disturbed by some inquiries, made in all good faith by your father. No offence, I am certain, was intended; erroneous information—a little hastiness in jumping to conclusions—a sensitive nature wounded by the least insinuation—such were the unfortunate causes of Tulliwuddle's excusable reticence. Believe me, if you knew all, your opinion of him ...
— Count Bunker • J. Storer Clouston
... master of style and language, he seems not to pay equal attention to the office of an historian. His facts are coldly and carelessly stated. They neither inform the reader, nor interest him. Many of them are erroneous, and most of them defective and obscure. It is undoubtedly both an ornament, and a useful addition to history, to accompany it with maxims and reflections. They afford likewise an agreeable change to the style, and a more diversified manner of expression; but it is absolutely necessary that the ...
— A Letter Addressed to the Abbe Raynal, on the Affairs of North America, in Which the Mistakes in the Abbe's Account of the Revolution of America Are Corrected and Cleared Up • Thomas Paine
... a good deal in his mind that was erroneous and I had to explain myself literally and enlighten him, ere I could begin to teach him the truths of the Gospel. However, I had won his heart, and that was half of the battle. Now predisposed toward the truth, he and his wife gladly accepted it. They became sincere ...
— On the Indian Trail - Stories of Missionary Work among Cree and Salteaux Indians • Egerton Ryerson Young
... wholly erroneous accounts of the Guasimas fight published at the time, for the most part written by newspaper-men who were in the rear and utterly ignorant of what really occurred. Most of these accounts possess a value so purely ephemeral as to need no notice. Mr. Stephen ...
— Rough Riders • Theodore Roosevelt
... when I say that the entire concatenation is based on an erroneous observation of facts, and an erroneous deduction from that erroneous observation!—? No, no. Have confidence in me. I propose it to you in this instance, purely to save you from deception. You are cold, my ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith
... however, gives us three names, those of Borelli, Lana, and Robert Hooke, all of which take definite place in the history of flight. Borelli ranks as one of the great figures in the study of aeronautical problems, in spite of erroneous deductions through which he arrived at a purely negative conclusion with regard to the possibility ...
— A History of Aeronautics • E. Charles Vivian
... therefore, have done the cruel action mentioned. The mistake does not rest with me, as I disclaimed being responsible for the tradition while I quoted it, but with vulgar fame, which is always disposed to ascribe remarkable actions to a remarkable name.—See the erroneous passage, ROB ROY, Introduction; and so soft sleep the offended phantom of ...
— A Legend of Montrose • Sir Walter Scott
... that the house fly lives through the winter as an adult, hiding in cracks and crevices of buildings, etc., appears to be erroneous. Under outdoor conditions house flies are killed during the first really cold nights, that is, when the temperature falls to about 15 deg. or 10 deg. F. In rooms and similar places protected from winds and partially heated ...
— The House Fly and How to Suppress It - U. S. Department of Agriculture Farmers' Bulletin No. 1408 • L. O. Howard and F. C. Bishopp
... conditions, as in climate, in food, or the like, did not take place and had nothing to do with the matter. It was no case of what is commonly called adaptation to circumstances; but, to use a conveniently erroneous phrase, the variations arose spontaneously. The fruitless search after final causes leads their pursuers a long way; but even those hardy teleologists, who are ready to break through all the laws of physics in chase of their favourite will-o'-the-wisp, ...
— Darwiniana • Thomas Henry Huxley
... lagoon, until we had provided ourselves with a fresh stock of dried beef. Accordingly, on the 17th February, we killed Mr. Gilbert's bullock, which turned out a fine heavy beast, and gave us a large supply of fat meat and suet. We had formerly been under the erroneous impression that fat meat would not dry and keep; and, consequently, had carefully separated the fat from the meat. Some chance pieces, however, had shown us, that it not only dried and kept well, but that it was much finer than the lean meat. We therefore cut up the fat in slices, like ...
— Journal of an Overland Expedition in Australia • Ludwig Leichhardt
... the kindness of Mr. Sclater for having looked over these four chapters on birds, and the two following ones on mammals. In this way I have been saved from making mistakes about the names of the species, and from stating anything as a fact which is known to this distinguished naturalist to be erroneous. But, of course, he is not at all answerable for the accuracy of the statements quoted ...
— The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex • Charles Darwin
... the parts where the instincts, feelings, thoughts, talents, the affective qualities in general, and the moral and intellectual forces are exercised." The Paris Academy of Science appointed a commission of inquiry, May, 1808, which declared the doctrine of Gall to be erroneous. Gall moreover surmised that the faculty of language lay in the frontal lobes, and Bouillaud supported Gall's proposition by citing cases in which speech had been affected during life, and in which after death ...
— The Brain and the Voice in Speech and Song • F. W. Mott
... given in a modern astronomical treatise, would have appeared not merely absurd, but repulsive and impious." [206] What an amount of misunderstanding would be obviated if readers of the Bible would bear this in mind when they meet with erroneous conceptions in Hebrew cosmogony. Grote further says on the same page of his magnificent history: "Personifying fiction was blended by the Homeric Greeks with their conception of the physical phenomena before them, not simply in the way of poetical ornament, but as a genuine portion ...
— Moon Lore • Timothy Harley
... is fluent and pleasing, though a few slight crudities are to be discerned. On page 1, where the height of a large dam is mentioned, it is stated "that the water must raise that distance before it can fall". Of course, "rise" is the verb which should have been used. Another erroneous phrase is "nature tract". "Nature" is not an adjective, but a noun; "natural" is the correct word. However, this anomalous use of nouns for adjectives has only too much prevalence amongst all grades of writers today, and must not be too ...
— Writings in the United Amateur, 1915-1922 • Howard Phillips Lovecraft
... causes of the unsatisfactory state in which the population remains to this day, and to deliberate on the means fittest to be applied as remedies. The result of these enquiries was that the Israelites were represented to the Committee in very erroneous and unfavourable colours. Those who were characterised as rebellious and disobedient were therefore subjected to coercive measures as idlers who prove a burthen to the society of which they are members, and in order to be able to institute a just ...
— Diaries of Sir Moses and Lady Montefiore, Volume I • Sir Moses Montefiore
... wrong from erroneous thoughts about God and the importance of a right character. Too frequently those who have come to a saving knowledge of Christ are content to rest satisfied with it. No effort is made to instruct others in a belief which has helped them. The church ...
— Studies in the Life of the Christian • Henry T. Sell
... pursuits; that our military officers are not inferior in moral character to our civil officers, and that, as a class, they will compare favorably with any other class of professional men—with lawyers, for example. In justification of these opinions—which may, perhaps, be deemed singularly erroneous—they say, that in the many millions of public money expended during the last forty years, by military officers, for the army, for military defences, and for internal improvements, but a single graduate of West Point has proved ...
— Elements of Military Art and Science • Henry Wager Halleck
... the question of the Tiadaghton, demonstrating that Lycoming Creek, rather than Pine Creek, was the true eastern boundary of the Fair Play territory. The substantial destruction of an erroneous legend has been the main contribution of the geographic part of this study.[14] It is now clear that the Fair Play territory extended from Lycoming Creek, on the north side of the West Branch of the Susquehanna River, to the Great ...
— The Fair Play Settlers of the West Branch Valley, 1769-1784 - A Study of Frontier Ethnography • George D. Wolf
... our superiority is commonly very erroneous. Who hath not seen a general behave in this supercilious manner to an officer of lower rank, who hath been greatly his superior in that very art to his excellence in which the general ascribes all his merit? Parallel instances occur in every other ...
— Miscellanies, Volume 2 (from Works, Volume 12) • Henry Fielding
... by, or inoculated from, one that is rabid, three, perhaps, would display every symptom of the disease. Of four human beings, not more than one would become rabid. John Hunter used to say not more than one in twenty; but that is probably erroneous. Cattle appear to have a greater chance of escape, and sheep a still ...
— The Dog - A nineteenth-century dog-lovers' manual, - a combination of the essential and the esoteric. • William Youatt
... to revive Dick, for he moved, and with some difficulty sat up, to the dog's evident relief. There is no doubt whatever that Crusoe learned an erroneous lesson that day, and was firmly convinced thenceforth that the best cure for a fainting fit is a melancholy yell. So easy is it for the wisest of dogs as well as men ...
— The Dog Crusoe and His Master - A Story of Adventure in the Western Prairies • Robert Michael Ballantyne
... erroneous belief, that the red men of America are of austere and taciturn habit. The older ones may be at times, but even these not always. Instead, as a rule they are given to jocularity and fun; the youth brimful of it as the street boys of any European city. At least one half of their ...
— Gaspar the Gaucho - A Story of the Gran Chaco • Mayne Reid
... save by a single battery. McDowell, who had reached Front Royal with part of his Second Division in the morning, had endeavoured to push Shields forward upon Strasburg. But Shields, fearing attack, had dispersed his troops to guard the various roads; and when at last they were assembled, misled by erroneous information, he had directed them on Winchester. Before the mistake was discovered the day had passed away. It was not until the next morning that the Federal columns came into communication, and then Jackson ...
— Stonewall Jackson And The American Civil War • G. F. R. Henderson |
