"Perfect" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... see your back parlor, my dear, this next Christmas afternoon. It has always been a sight for sore eyes; but this Christmas it will be a perfect wonder, for I do declare everybody in town is going to send you ...
— Mrs. Budlong's Chrismas Presents • Rupert Hughes
... hurry through the crowded streets, shrinking away from their bustle and throng toward Reuben, the one person she had to turn to for sympathy, advice, assistance and consolation? With that spirit of perfect trust which her own large heart gave her the certain assurance of receiving, Joan placed implicit reliance in all Reuben said and did; and seeing this, and receiving an inward satisfaction from the ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. XXVI., December, 1880. • Various
... ever completes the world, for it is no future of higher achievement, no expectation of greater joy. It lives for ever in a present made perfect by itself. Love can dream of no greater blessedness than itself, of no heaven but its own. God himself could have added no touch of happiness to our happy hearts that grave and sunny morning. You philosophers who go searching for the meaning of ...
— The Quest of the Golden Girl • Richard le Gallienne
... discharge of water, is capable of producing an effect superior to that of similar apparatus. On account of its simplicity and plain character, there is no need of precision in the installation of this apparatus, and horizontality, even, is not a sine qua non for its perfect operation. ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 664, September 22,1888 • Various
... That sort of little creature has no duty—the word doesn't apply to it. Evie is the most skilful mixture of irresponsible impulse and shrewd calculation you'll find in New York. She'll use both her gifts with perfect heartlessness, and yet in such a way that even her guardian angel won't know just where to ...
— The Wild Olive • Basil King
... boats, with their rounded sterns, gilded bows, and gayly-painted sides, are unlike any others under the sun; a Dutch wagon with its funny little crooked pole is a perfect mystery ...
— New National Fourth Reader • Charles J. Barnes and J. Marshall Hawkes
... of all Vishnuite sects alike is a modified monotheism, the worship of the Supreme Being under some such name as Rama or Vasudeva. But the monotheism is not perfect. On the one hand it passes into pantheism: on the other it is not completely disengaged from mythology and in all sects the consort and attendants of the deity receive great respect, even if this respect is theoretically distinguished from adoration. ...
— Hinduism And Buddhism, Volume II. (of 3) - An Historical Sketch • Charles Eliot
... delicious home-cooked food,—oysters and salads and cold chicken; fresh salmon from Lake Superior; a big Virginia ham baked to perfection, red and translucent to its savory centre; hot coffee, and quantities of Debby's perfect rolls. There were strawberries, also, and ice-cream, and the best of home-made cake and jellies, and everywhere vases of fresh roses to perfume the feast. When all was arranged, there was still time for Katy to make Cousin Helen a visit, and then go to her room for a quiet rest before dressing; ...
— Clover • Susan Coolidge
... advice of a veterinary surgeon, immediately went to the white witch (a gentleman who drives a flourishing trade in this neighbourhood). He received his directions, and went home and implicitly followed them. In perfect silence, he went to the pigsty; and lancing each foot and both ears of the pig, he allowed the blood to run into a piece of common dowlas. Then taking two large pins, he pierced the dowlas in opposite directions; ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 191, June 25, 1853 • Various
... so masterly in their exact keeping, their harmonious consistency, their nice, natural truth, their pure exemption from exaggeration. No second-rate imitator can write in that way; no coarse scene-painter can charm us with an allusion so delicate and perfect. But what bitter satire, what relentless dissection of diseased subjects! Well, and this, too, is right, or would be right, if the savage surgeon did not seem so fiercely pleased with his work. Thackeray likes to dissect an ulcer or an aneurism; ...
— The Life of Charlotte Bronte • Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
... led them to explore deeply the limitless land surrounding them. Even from the earliest times no struggle for existence, no doctrine of the survival of the fittest, hung over them as with us. No wild animals harassed them; no savages menaced them. A fertile boundless land, a perfect climate, nurtured ...
— The Girl in the Golden Atom • Raymond King Cummings
... upward soar Fair valleys lie afar, Where wakes no wind, no torrents roar Our perfect peace to mar, And many a mere to human eyes ...
— Welsh Lyrics of the Nineteenth Century • Edmund O. Jones
... Soul; it stood All beautiful in naked purity, The perfect semblance of its bodily frame. Instinct with inexpressible beauty and grace, Each stain of earthliness 135 Had passed away, it reassumed Its native dignity, ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley Volume I • Percy Bysshe Shelley
... the charge of a small flock, was allowed to wander with them into the mountains, while the shepherd returned to his village for a few days, having perfect confidence in the ability of the animal to protect them, but with a strange forgetfulness to provide the dog ...
— Minnie's Pet Lamb • Madeline Leslie
... pride taken in the spotless cleanliness of these canvas sleeping cots. The rings that the lanyards and clews were attached to were neatly grafted, and the art of hanging with accuracy so that the occupant lay in perfect comfort without fear of being lurched out was often the cause of mutual criticism and heated controversy. It looks a very simple matter, but there is an art that has to be learned in slinging a hammock ...
— The Shellback's Progress - In the Nineteenth Century • Walter Runciman
... in a glass, dear. No, dear uncle, I will tell you. Mr. Talboys has seen the world, has kept good society, is at his ease (a great point), and is perfect in externals. But his good manners are—what shall I say?—coat deep. His politeness is not proof against temptation, however petty. The reason is, it is only a spurious politeness. Real politeness is founded ...
— Love Me Little, Love Me Long • Charles Reade
... hauing perfect knowledge, that earle Goodwine had refused to come to the court in such order as he had prescribed him, and that [Sidenote: Goodwine and his sonnes proclaimed outlawes.] he was departed the realme with his sonnes: he proclaimed ...
— Chronicles (1 of 6): The Historie of England (8 of 8) - The Eight Booke of the Historie of England • Raphael Holinshed
... to run down to Cowes, anchor the yacht in the night; and an hour before daylight have you in my boat with all my men. I will take care that you are in perfect safety, depend upon it, even if I run a risk. I should, indeed, be miserable, if, through my wild freaks, any accident should happen to Mrs ...
— Peter Simple and The Three Cutters, Vol. 1-2 • Frederick Marryat
... who the wicked one was that put her into it," returned Robin, in a low whisper; and there was something so wild in the man's tone as to make Lionel doubt his perfect sanity. "Many a time do I hear her voice a-calling to me. It comes at all hours, abroad and at home; in the full sunshine, and in the dark night. 'Robin!' it says, 'Robin!' But it ...
— Verner's Pride • Mrs. Henry Wood
... in perfect accord with the Japanese programme. A force of nearly two hundred thousand men had been carried over the sea and had overrun practically the whole of Korea. "At this point, however, the invasion suffered a check owing to a cause which in modern times has received much attention, though ...
— A History of the Japanese People - From the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era • Frank Brinkley and Dairoku Kikuchi
... ambassadors under huge old chestnut-trees, or beneath the olives on the greensward by some gurgling spring. A view like that of a narrowing gorge, with a bridge arched boldly over it, awakens at once his artistic sense. Even the smallest details give him delight through something beautiful, or perfect, or characteristic in them—the blue fields of waving flax, the yellow gorge which covers the hills, even tangled thickets, or single trees, or springs, which seem to him ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 07 • Various
... sculpturing the mountain with stern, resistless energy. How many caves and fountains that no eye has yet seen lie with all their fine furniture deep down in the darkness, and how many shy wild creatures are at home beneath the grateful lights and shadows of the woods, rejoicing in their fullness of perfect life! ...
— Steep Trails • John Muir
... there, with psalms and hymns (ymnis) and chantings (canticis), honourably buried him, where flourish his merits, and the virtues of his merits unto this day—to the glory and honour of the Omnipotent God, who in the Perfect Trinity liveth and reigneth through endless ...
— Chronicles of Strathearn • Various
... form of government. Every adult man and woman of sound mind is permitted to vote. We adopted a system of voting that we believed would insure perfect secrecy and prevent bribery—something like that which had already been in vogue, in some countries, before ...
— Caesar's Column • Ignatius Donnelly
... of justice attributed to him, that it would be only fair to let each half take their turn—the men expressing the public sense a part of the time, then the women—thus alternating between the two, in order to balance the scales of justice with perfect equilibrium. ...
— History of Woman Suffrage, Volume II • Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Matilda Joslyn Gage
... library, and after listening a moment at the kitchen door, we ascended a rear staircase to the upper floor. I had, it will be remembered, fallen from a chair on a table in the dressing room, and had left them thus overturned when I charged the third floor. The room, however, was now in perfect order, and when I held my candle to the ceiling, I perceived that the bullet hole had again been repaired, and this time with such skill that I ...
— Sight Unseen • Mary Roberts Rinehart
... better below, the groaning of the timbers there, as of a lost soul crying out in its last agony, with the rattling of crockery and other mess gear, adding to the tumult without, made a perfect ...
— Crown and Anchor - Under the Pen'ant • John Conroy Hutcheson
... she turned and went slowly down the stairs. But as she closed the green gate after her, she told herself that she must be alone for a little, and with a sudden impulse she turned into the courtyard that led to the school-house and chapel. There was one spot where she would be in perfect seclusion, and that was the school library; even if some stray boy were to make his appearance in search of a book—a very unlikely thing at this time in the afternoon—her presence there would attract no notice: she had several ...
— Lover or Friend • Rosa Nouchette Carey
... surgery in the kingdom it was decreed that no surgeon should be admitted to practise unless he should bring testimonials from the masters teaching in the medical faculty, that he was 'learned in the anatomy of human bodies, and had become perfect in that part of medicine without which neither incisions could safely ...
— Old-Time Makers of Medicine • James J. Walsh
... herded their horses thereabout, and from time to time the Sage tried those two if they were perfect in the lore of the road; and he found that they had ...
— The Well at the World's End • William Morris
... physicians had pronounced the case one of apoplexy (a conclusion most natural under the circumstances), and the excitement which had held together the various groups of uneasy guests had begun to subside, it was with perfect confidence I saw him approach and address Gilbertine. She was standing fully dressed at the stair-head, where she had stopped to hold some conversation with the retiring physicians; and the look she gave him in return, and the way she moved off in obedience to ...
— Room Number 3 - and Other Detective Stories • Anna Katharine Green
... river had risen so near the school-house that the desks and benches were moved up between the tracks and the school dismissed; therefore there was perfect freedom to enjoy the excitement of the occasion. It was as good as a move or ...
— Connor Magan's Luck and Other Stories • M. T. W.
... only approximately. The rule of life is to live as "nature" directs. Nature has its laws, which you cannot disobey with impunity. The law of nature is the mind of God. The material universe is the body, God is its soul, and He directs the workings of nature with foreknowledge and perfect wisdom. If man can only be brought to act in strict accordance with the mind of God—or law of nature—he is sure of perfect well-being, because he can do nothing as it should not be done. If he can only arrive at such perfect operation ...
— Life in the Roman World of Nero and St. Paul • T. G. Tucker
... being your host, or about your being a perfect gentleman, or anything like that. Cut out the Manners for Men, and tell me what you think of Mark, and how you like staying with him, and how many rows your little house-party has had this week, and how you get on with Cayley, and all ...
— The Red House Mystery • A. A. Milne
... spring of 1863 Hooker had command of the Army of the Potomac. Like McClellan, he was able to perfect the discipline of his forces and to organize them, and as a division commander he was better than McClellan, but he failed even more signally when given a great independent command. He had under him 120,000 men when, toward the end of April, he prepared to attack ...
— Hero Tales From American History • Henry Cabot Lodge, and Theodore Roosevelt
... my head off. Of course Ned was a perfect shot—so would I be with a computer for a brain. He had holed one rear tire with each slug and the car flap-flapped to a stop a little ways down the road. I climbed out slowly while Ned sprinted there in seconds flat. They didn't even try to run this ...
— Arm of the Law • Harry Harrison
... when they were out in the dining-room, "you know that is a risky thing to do. You are all the time inviting all kinds of characters in here. We can't keep this man all night. Who ever heard of such a thing as a perfect stranger coming out with a request like that? I believe the man is crazy. It certainly will not do to let ...
— The Crucifixion of Philip Strong • Charles M. Sheldon
... an elbow and looked back along the fuselage to the tail, his eyes dwelling fondly on the clean lines of her, the perfect symmetry, the glossy, unharmed covering. His glance went farther, to where the brother of Tomaso plodded toward the basin's rim, peering here and there, pausing to look under a bush, swerving to make sure the lost fuselage was not ...
— Skyrider • B. M. Bower
... thing I would recommend," he said, "and that is a perfect discretion. Speak of this to no one, especially to no servants. You remember your own mutiny in India. Gott! what wonderful people you English are—men and women alike! You remember how the ladies kept up ...
— The Sowers • Henry Seton Merriman
... Jack mused, as he lay in perfect peace with the world, for he had eaten his fill, "how he knew we had joined the Lafayette Escadrille. But then those German spies learn a lot of things, and he may have been keeping tabs on Tom and ...
— Air Service Boys Over The Enemy's Lines - The German Spy's Secret • Charles Amory Beach
... all her strength, on the breast of Felicite, raising her hands and then stabbing with the utmost eagerness, just as an assassin who wished to murder some one would plunge two daggers repeatedly into his breast. Felicite received the strokes with perfect tranquillity, and without evincing the slightest emotion. Then, taking two similar daggers, she did the very same to Madeleine, who, with her arms crossed, received the thrusts as tranquilly as the other had done. Immediately afterwards, these two convulsionists attacked one another with daggers, ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 13, No. 77, March, 1864 • Various
... given to stimulate research, and interest a wider circle of readers. It is the writer's hope that many may be led, even by these scattered and disjointed specimens, to undertake such studies as may render more perfect his slight contribution and rescue from oblivion the heroes of a ...
— Babylonian and Assyrian Laws, Contracts and Letters • C. H. W. Johns
... came toward him, saying, "Perhaps this burr will suggest better meanings. You see it is wide open. That means perfect frankness. There are three chestnuts here instead of one. We must be willing to share the regard of others. One of these nuts has the central place. As we come to know people well, we usually find some one occupying the supreme place in their esteem, and ...
— Opening a Chestnut Burr • Edward Payson Roe
... proper scourges of wrong-doing and meanness, and which should continually feed the wholesome restraining power of public opinion. I respect the horsewhip when applied to the back of Cruelty, and think that he who applies it is a more perfect human being because his outleap of indignation is not checked by a too curious reflection on the nature of guilt—a more perfect human being because he more completely incorporates the best social life of the race, which can never be ...
— Impressions of Theophrastus Such • George Eliot
... arrogance and folly; that true piety is most laudably expressed by silence and submission; that man, ignorant of his own nature, should not presume to scrutinize the nature of his God; and that it is sufficient for us to know, that power and benevolence are the perfect attributes of ...
— The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Volume 4 • Edward Gibbon
... and fairly educated, should have willingly submitted to live along with such people. At first I was startled,—I won't say shocked,—but then I thought it fine and manly, and soon got not only accustomed to hear such language, but to use it with perfect indifference myself. ...
— Will Weatherhelm - The Yarn of an Old Sailor • W.H.G. Kingston
... the young man attentively. "And yet," said he, in a gentler voice, "you, young man, are, by your account, a perfect stranger to her, or were so when you undertook to bring her to London. You have a good heart, always keep it. Very healthy thing, sir, a good heart,—that is, when not carried to excess. But you have friends of ...
— My Novel, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton
... beautifully cut and brushed, his thick blonde mustache curled in the most approved fashion. In his buttonhole he wore the decoration of the 1866 war medal, and when he saw himself in the glass he could say with perfect self-satisfaction, that he looked just as much like an officer as the men in uniform, not even excepting those of the Guard. Since the campaign of 1866, in which Paul had served in the same company as Wilhelm, they had been firm friends, and on this evening he ...
— The Malady of the Century • Max Nordau
... Next there was perfect silence; the spectators rose and bent forward out of their places, the terrified Hiram grew pale and crossed his hands. Down to the arena, from the boxes of dignitaries, sprang two men, Prince Ramses, with a drawn sword, and Sargon, with ...
— The Pharaoh and the Priest - An Historical Novel of Ancient Egypt • Boleslaw Prus
... - firing Martini-Henry bullets which cut up the ground a hundred yards in front of the leading company. Over that pock-marked ground the Regiment had to pass, and it opened the ball with a general and profound courtesy to the piping pickets; ducking in perfect time, as though it had been brazed on a rod. Being half capable of thinking for itself, it fired a volley by the simple process of pitching its rifle into its shoulder and pulling the trigger. The bullets may have accounted for some of the watchers on ...
— This is "Part II" of Soldiers Three, we don't have "Part I" • Rudyard Kipling
... heard the story of the Captain's loss in perfect silence. Mary told it craftily, with a smile on her face, as though she were but slightly affected by it, and did not think very much on the change it might effect in her plans and those of her lover. "He has been ill-treated; has ...
— The Vicar of Bullhampton • Anthony Trollope
... story.... I note that you have cut out certain paragraphs of description with the fear, no doubt, that the editor would object to them. I hope you will restore the manuscript to its original form and return it. When I ask a man to write for me, I want him to utter his mind with perfect freedom. My magazine is not one that is afraid of ...
— A Son of the Middle Border • Hamlin Garland
... fourteenth by the merry ringing of church bells, and the perpetual firing and popping off of guns and pistols. But all this was over by the time I was up and dressed, and seated at breakfast in my partitioned room. It was a perfect October day; the dew not yet off the blades of grass, glistening on the delicate gossamer webs, which stretched from flower to flower in the garden, lying in the morning shadow of the house. But beyond the garden, on the sunny hill-side, ...
— The Grey Woman and other Tales • Mrs. (Elizabeth) Gaskell
... farthest remove from the traditional mesmerist in appearance, being a brisk, blond man of exceeding neatness and taste in dress. He wore the most fashionable clothing, his hair and beard were in perfect order, and his hands were very beautiful. He was, indeed, vain of his slender fingers and gesticulated overmuch. His voice also was a little over-assertive, but his eyes were clear, steady, ...
— The Tyranny of the Dark • Hamlin Garland
... event in the long dreamed dreams of the two men whom she frankly admitted to herself were nearest and dearest to her. Why should she not admit it? Her father? Ah, yes, her father was the most perfect, kindly, sympathetic father that ever lived. And Jeff? A warm thrill swept through her heart and set it beating tumultuously. Jeff was her whole sum ...
— The Forfeit • Ridgwell Cullum
... eyes met. Not a muscle in either face moved. It was as if they were perfect strangers. She turned and murmured something to her partner. Ogleby leaned over, without the least confusion, and made a witty remark to his partner. It was over in a minute. The acting of both could not have been better if they had deliberately practised their parts. ...
— The Ear in the Wall • Arthur B. Reeve
... it, Ned. Command my interest, if ever I have any—my money—what I have, and the house, whether it belongs to me or my father—as far as you are concerned at least, I adhere to my notions of perfect equality." ...
— Mr. Midshipman Easy • Captain Frederick Marryat
... would have to deplore his treachery till the end of her days. The prince's departure was utterly unexpected, for only the evening before his coachman, so my man assured me, had not the slightest suspicion of his master's intentions. This piece of news threw me into a perfect fever. I at once dressed, and was on the point of hastening to the Ozhogins', but on thinking the matter over I considered it more seemly to wait till the next day. I lost nothing, however, by remaining at home. The same evening, there came to see me in all ...
— The Diary of a Superfluous Man and Other Stories • Ivan Turgenev
... air. His behaviour was the scandal of the town, yet the greater his sins, the intenser grew Jane's sweetness, the more twining her hold. "Nobody will ever think of blaming you, darling," said Mrs. Carr consolingly. "You have behaved beautifully from the beginning. We all know what a perfect wife you ...
— Life and Gabriella - The Story of a Woman's Courage • Ellen Glasgow
... suffered she concealed. She saw shrewdly that the world is quickly bored by the recital of misfortune, and willingly avoids the sight of distress. Whenever she went out — and compassion for her misadventure made her friends eager to entertain her — she bore a demeanour that was perfect. She was brave, but not too obviously; cheerful, but not brazenly; and she seemed more anxious to listen to the troubles of others than to discuss her own. Whenever she spoke of her husband it was with pity. Her attitude towards him at first perplexed me. ...
— The Moon and Sixpence • W. Somerset Maugham
... into the position of the Royal Academy: 'When we wish not to be interfered with we are private, when we want anything of the public we are public;' and then he goes on to say: 'The Academy is distinctly a private institution, and, admitting it is not perfect, doing great public good all for nothing,' i.e., without charge. Mr. Westmacott was unconsciously pleading guilty to Haydon's accusation that 'the academicians constituted in truth a private society, which they always put forward when you wish ...
— Art in England - Notes and Studies • Dutton Cook
... Michael O'Brien, set down in the list above given as Michael Gould. Standing in the dock, he seemed the impersonation of vigorous manhood. Frank, fearless, and resolute, with courage and truth imprinted on every feature, he presented to the eye a perfect type of the brave soldier. He was tall and well-proportioned, and his broad shoulders and well-developed limbs told of physical strength in keeping with the firmness reflected in his face. His gaze, when it rested on the unfriendly countenances ...
— The Dock and the Scaffold • Unknown
... drying it, and so constructed that it may receive all the advantages of an open and free air, without being exposed to the sun, which is very pernicious to the dye. For here indigo placed in the sun, in a few hours will be burnt up to a perfect cinder. While the indigo remains in the drying house, it must be carefully turned three or four times in a day, to prevent its rotting. Flies should likewise be carefully kept from it, which at this season ...
— An Historical Account Of The Rise And Progress Of The Colonies Of South Carolina And Georgia, Volume 2 • Alexander Hewatt
... tables drawn wi' care For an insurance company; Her chance o' life was stated there, Wi' perfect perspicuity. But tables here or tables there, She's lived ten years beyond her share, An' 's like to live a dozen mair, To ca' ...
— The Book of Humorous Verse • Various
... A happy home and a perfect day; what more could one desire? 'The Lord hath done great things for us already, whereof ...
— The Unknown Wrestler • H. A. (Hiram Alfred) Cody
... after the recuperation following upon the war of 1870, an elaborate and very perfect system of fortification along their German frontier—that is, along the new frontier which divided the annexed territory of Alsace-Lorraine from the rest of the country. They had taken it for granted that the next German attempt ...
— A General Sketch of the European War - The First Phase • Hilaire Belloc
... abruptly and, feeling with his hand over the surface of the summer-house table, picked up a small volume lying there. It struck me that his temper for the moment was not under perfect control. ...
— The Adventures of Harry Revel • Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
... 'poor old Tom,' who brought a smile to the lips of all. He was passionate, too, if rubbed up the wrong way; but it needed the malevolence and ingenuity of human beings to annoy him—with his beasts he never lost his temper, so that they had perfect confidence in him. He resembled indeed herdsmen of the Alps, whom one may see in dumb communion with their creatures up in those high solitudes; for he too dwelt in a high solitude cut off from real fellowship with men and women by lack of knowledge, and by the supercilious pity in them. ...
— Tatterdemalion • John Galsworthy
... indeed, the second dentition seemed often to cure the complaint. The greater number of cases occurred between 2 and 5 years of age, but some as late as 8 or 10. In several instances, the ulcer destroyed a portion of the enamel capsule; and the teeth were then cut, with very perfect enamel upon the lower part, while the bone was entirely bare at the ulcerated portion of the capsule. This singular fact proves that no inflammation of the capsule, sufficient to interrupt the function of its remaining ...
— North American Medical and Surgical Journal, Vol. 2, No. 3, July, 1826 • Various
... it cleared up during the forenoon; in the afternoon rain commenced with a perfect calm; for the last three days easterly winds have prevailed, often ...
— Journal of an Overland Expedition in Australia • Ludwig Leichhardt
... my perfect confidence in the truth of your communication, however strange it may be," replied Lord Woodville; "I know your firmness of disposition too well, to suspect you could be made the object of imposition, and am aware that your ...
— Waverley Volume XII • Sir Walter Scott
... when I was telling him how I had taken him for my pattern, and how closely I watched his conduct and ways, trying thereon to model my own, and that he must be careful not to do anything less perfect, for if he did, I should certainly imitate it as a most exalted virtue, he said: "It is unfortunate that friendship, like love, should have its eyes bandaged and hinder us from distinguishing between the defects and the good qualities of ...
— The Spirit of St. Francis de Sales • Jean Pierre Camus
... farm was a perfect beauty of a little place, on which lived the Widow Lundy. Her husband had bought the farm, and borrowed money of Jack Grip to pay for it. It was about half paid for when poor Lundy was killed by a falling tree. There was ...
— Queer Stories for Boys and Girls • Edward Eggleston
... full of life and movement, and all the details of army life are described with that perfect knowledge which carries conviction ...
— An Apache Princess - A Tale of the Indian Frontier • Charles King
... a beggar maid. It will be great fun. I'd go with you only I promised Bellamant faithfully that I'd be home to lunch.' And off she went in her mother-of-pearl coach, leaving Aura to look through the bound volumes of The Perfect Lady in the palace library, to find out the proper costume for ...
— The Magic World • Edith Nesbit
... instead of increasing the voids that can be filled with cement, there is an absolute loss in the volume of available voids. This is due to the space occupied by the water necessary to bring the sand to the consistency of mortar; furthermore, there is seldom a perfect mixture of the sand and cement in practice, thus reducing the available voids. It is safe to call this reduction in available voids ...
— Concrete Construction - Methods and Costs • Halbert P. Gillette
... logic in what she said. And yet how could he leave her? now that he had found this perfect woman—this realisation of his highest ideals, how could he go and leave her in this awful Paris, with brutes like Heron forcing their hideous personality into her sacred presence, threatening that very life he would gladly give his ...
— El Dorado • Baroness Orczy
... on the way from the imperfect to the perfect; some day, in this life or some other, we shall reach our destiny. It is as much the part of folly to waste time and cripple our forces in vain, unproductive regrets in regard to the occurences of the past as it ...
— Thoughts I Met on the Highway • Ralph Waldo Trine
... great moment to the immediate parties concerned. By invitation of the Belthorpes, Rosebel Greene had made her home at Lyndhall, and here she was united for life to the young soldier whom she had so tenderly nursed back from death's door to perfect health. At the same time that this occurred Kate Belthorpe became Mrs. Dexter Lyon. All belonging to the several families were present, and among them Margie Gadbury, who in the early spring had changed her ...
— An Undivided Union • Oliver Optic
... princes were engaged in endless wars, and that a fearful gloom was settling upon everything pertaining to education and peace and order; that even the clergy were ignorant, and the people superstitious; that everything was in confusion, tending to a worse confusion, to perfect anarchy and barbaric license; that provincial councils were no longer held; that bishops and abbots were abdicating their noblest functions,—we feel that the spiritual supremacy which Leo aimed to establish had many things ...
— Beacon Lights of History, Volume IV • John Lord
... of Algeria, and the colonies of Martinique, Guadeloupe, Reunion, and the French West Indies, which return one each. From having long been viewed by republicans with suspicion, the Senate has come to be regarded by Frenchmen generally as perhaps the most perfect work of the Republic.[475] In these days its membership is recruited very largely from the Deputies, so that it includes not only many men of distinction in letters and science but an unusual proportion of experienced debaters ...
— The Governments of Europe • Frederic Austin Ogg
... very humble incidents, but they illustrate the man's perfect conscientiousness—his sensitive honesty—better, perhaps, than they would if they ...
— Lincoln's Yarns and Stories • Alexander K. McClure
... else occurred which cannot fail to strike us as being almost a phenomenon—at all events, a thing altogether extraordinary under the circumstances. What, through the vista of a third of a century, looks like a perfect furore for education took complete possession of the ex-slaves, and, what made this the more singular, the burning desire for school teaching extended to aspirants of all ages. Before philanthropists came forward to help them the coloured people were ...
— From Slave to College President - Being the Life Story of Booker T. Washington • Godfrey Holden Pike
... occasion declaim against the utter vileness of the city:—do you think that there is any difference between one and the other? My good friend, the sophist and the rhetorician, as I was saying to Polus, are the same, or nearly the same; but you ignorantly fancy that rhetoric is a perfect thing, and sophistry a thing to be despised; whereas the truth is, that sophistry is as much superior to rhetoric as legislation is to the practice of law, or gymnastic to medicine. The orators and sophists, as I am inclined to think, are the only class who cannot complain of ...
— Gorgias • Plato
... long withstand the fairy. 'Madam,' said he, 'God prolong the sultan my father's life, and bless him to the end of his days. I left him alive, and in perfect health: therefore that is not the cause of the melancholy you perceive in me. The sultan has imposed upon me the disagreeable task of worrying you. You know the care I have taken, with your approbation, to conceal from him my happiness at home with you. How he has been informed ...
— Fairy Tales From The Arabian Nights • E. Dixon
... to say so, but there are some women who love to be miserable, who have a perfect genius for martyrdom, who take a delight in seeing how badly they can be treated, who seek out hard ways for their feet, who court tears rather than laughter. Such a one is hard to live with, for they glory in their cross, and simply revel in their burdens, ...
— In Times Like These • Nellie L. McClung
... him in its alembic with its severest tests and that he had emerged safely. He was not joyous but he seemed content. Life was no longer a game. It was a study. Bitter as experience had been, it had made him. Perfect he might not be but sound, sane, wholesome. Jerry had grown to be ...
— Paradise Garden - The Satirical Narrative of a Great Experiment • George Gibbs
... change, from the endless variety of hypothesis and opinion; and remember especially that for the efficient management of your common interest in a country so extensive as ours, a government of as much vigor as is consistent with the perfect security of liberty is indispensable. Liberty itself will find in such a government, with powers properly distributed and adjusted, its surest guardian. It is, indeed, little else than a name where the government is too feeble to withstand the enterprises of faction, to confine ...
— Elson Grammer School Literature, Book Four. • William H. Elson and Christine Keck
... lantern at a jeweller's shop door over night, the magistrate before whom he is brought the next morning, reasons from those effects to their causes in the fellow's "burglarious" ideas and volitions, with perfect confidence, and punishes him accordingly. And it is quite clear that such a proceeding would be grossly unjust, if the links of the logical process were other than necessarily connected together. The advocate who should attempt to get the man off ...
— Hume - (English Men of Letters Series) • T.H. Huxley
... became so rapid that Vivian, surprised at the mere mechanical action, rose from his chair in order better to examine the player's management and motion of his bow. Exquisite as were the tones, enchanting as were the originality of his variations and the perfect harmony of his composition, it was nevertheless extremely difficult to resist smiling at the contortions of his face and figure. Now, his body bending to the strain, he was at one moment with his violin raised ...
— Vivian Grey • The Earl of Beaconsfield
... given rise to the panicky impulses to avoid contacts. It was the mandate of his instinct that that head must be free. And now, with the love-master, his snuggling was the deliberate act of putting himself into a position of hopeless helplessness. It was an expression of perfect confidence, of absolute self-surrender, as though he said: "I put myself into thy hands. Work thou thy will ...
— White Fang • Jack London
... will," answered Richard, with a faint smile. "It is a matter of perfect indifference to me, and only costs me a journey to Plymouth. If you will be so good as to let me have some vehicle to take me as far as Turlock, I will pack my ...
— Bred in the Bone • James Payn
... livelier, more facile nature; she came of a wealthy family, and had never known the hard discipline from which his father had suffered. She was a good many years younger than her husband; they were united by the intensest affection; but while she devoted herself to him with a perfect understanding of, and sympathy with, his somewhat jealous and puritanical nature, she did not escape the severity of his sense of responsibility, and his natural instinct for attempting to draw those nearest to him into the circle of his high, if rigid, standards. Long afterwards, Hugh ...
— Beside Still Waters • Arthur Christopher Benson
... that of a perfect day on the coast of Normandy—a warm, still Sunday in the early part of August. From my pillow, on waking, I could look at a strip of blue sea and a section of white cliff. I observed that the sea had never been so brilliant, ...
— The Galaxy - Vol. 23, No. 1 • Various
... storm for years untroubled. Yes, Jackson's old bones rattled in their grave when that infamous disunion convention met in Nashville, and its members turned pale and fled aghast. Yes, Tennessee, in her mighty million, feels secure; and, in her perfect preparation to discuss this question, politically, ecclesiastically, morally, metaphysically, or physically, with the extreme North or South, she is willing and able to persuade others to be calm. In this connection, I wish to say, for the South to the North, and to the world, that we have no ...
— Slavery Ordained of God • Rev. Fred. A. Ross, D.D.
... chivalry romances. Gothic architecture was the expression of Teutonic genius, which is realistic and stands for the reason, while Italian sacred painting was idealistic and stands for the imagination. In the most perfect art, as in the highest type of religion, reason and imagination are in balance. Hence, the influence of Van Eyck, Memling, and Duerer on Italian painters was wholesome; and the Reformation, the work of the reasoning Teutonic mind, is not to ...
— A History of English Romanticism in the Nineteenth Century • Henry A. Beers
... I cut a model of it from a large carrot; then I made a mould with crumb of bread and potatoes. We wanted fire, and we procured it by making a lamp with a piece of fat and the rags of a cotton cap. The key was at last made of pewter, but it was not yet perfect; and it was only after many trials and various alterations that it fitted at last. Thus masters of the doors, we were compelled to work a hole in the wall, near the barns of the town-hall. Sallambier, who was in the dungeons below, found a way to ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. - Volume XII, No. 347, Saturday, December 20, 1828. • Various
... little "punt" very quietly. The night was warm, but fortunately obscure. They unmoored, and dropped down the stream in perfect silence, listening to the bell ...
— The Rival Heirs being the Third and Last Chronicle of Aescendune • A. D. Crake
... has quite died away her will remains supreme. In presence of overwhelming horror and danger, in the murder scene and the banquet scene, her self-control is perfect. When the truth of what she has done dawns on her, no word of complaint, scarcely a word of her own suffering, not a single word of her own as apart from his, escapes her when others are by. She helps him, but never asks his help. She leans on nothing but herself. And from the beginning to the ...
— Shakespearean Tragedy - Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth • A. C. Bradley
... for hour after hour through a perfect wilderness of such streets we saw not a single white person; it seemed as though I were the only Caucasian among the more than a million Asiatics, though this, of course, ...
— Wanderings in the Orient • Albert M. Reese
... a quarter to four. They had been looking round saying it was perfect at intervals since the morning. Each time they finished getting another of the little tables ready, each time they brought in and set down another bowl of flowers they stood back and gazed a moment in silence, and then said ...
— Christopher and Columbus • Countess Elizabeth Von Arnim
... isn't that. Still——" He named a round sum, a sum so perfect in its roundness that it took her breath away. With such a sum she could do all that she wanted for her sister Effy at once, and secure herself against gross ...
— The Creators - A Comedy • May Sinclair
... precedence in the ceremony of union. The two friends having thus agreed, the vizier's daughter regained her cheerfulness, and means were taken to convince her father, mother, and friends of the consummation of the nuptials. From this time they lived in perfect happiness together, one exercising the authority of sultan to the satisfaction of the subject, and the other acting the part of a satisfied and obedient wife; but still both were anxious to meet their mutual husband. As ...
— The Arabian Nights Entertainments vol. 4 • Anon.
... all are dreamers like the seven; The morning rises from her silver throne And smiles upon the hours we call our own. The minutes brim like drops of golden wine O'er Life's o'erflowing cup; we see the shine Of perfect day on every path we scan; And Fame's fair vaulted Temple on the span Of rainbow arches is upheld—and gleams In every future of our boyhood dreams. But while we follow every promise sweet, With buoyant hearts and lightly springing feet, To where some joy untasted ...
— Across the Sea and Other Poems. • Thomas S. Chard
... first vision of him in the lighted doorway of his father's shop. Her present vision confirmed that sympathetic vision. She liked the feel of his faithful hand, and the glance of his timid and yet bellicose eye. And she reposed on his very apparent honesty as on a bed. She knew, with the assurance of perfect faith, that he had nothing dubious to conceal, and that no test could strain his magnanimity. And, while she so reflected, she was thinking, too, of Janet's fine dress, and her elegance and jewels, and wishing that she had changed the old black frock in which she travelled. The perception ...
— Hilda Lessways • Arnold Bennett
... de Narbon's daughter (with whose fame the king was well acquainted), and she offered the precious medicine as the darling treasure which contained the essence of all her father's long experience and skill, and she boldly engaged to forfeit her life, if it failed to restore his majesty to perfect health in the space of two days. The king at length consented to try it, and in two days time Helena was to lose her life if the king did not recover; but if she succeeded, he promised to give her the choice of any man throughout all France (the princes ...
— Books for Children - The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb, Vol. 3 • Charles and Mary Lamb
... day, some hours afterwards, upon Hannah's return from the city, I received from her, and heard with perfect calmness, the whole sum of evil which awaited me. Little Francis—she took up her tale at that point—'was with God:' so she expressed herself. He had died of the same fever which had attacked me—had died ...
— The Uncollected Writings of Thomas de Quincey, Vol. 2 - With a Preface and Annotations by James Hogg • Thomas de Quincey
... perfect condition a modern fleet requires dockyards and machine shops of large capacity, and great metallurgical industries always in operation within the country which maintains the fleet. No small nation can create a powerful fleet; and no nation which lives chiefly by agriculture can maintain one. ...
— New York Times Current History; The European War, Vol 2, No. 5, August, 1915 • Various
... Ghost is the "bond" (copula) of the Trinity, joining in perfect love the Father and the Son. Victorinus is the first to use this idea, which afterwards became common. It is based on the Neoplatonic triad of status, progressio, regressus ([Greek: mone, proodos, epistrophe]). In another place ...
— Christian Mysticism • William Ralph Inge
... would willingly have seen the beautiful country, had it been possible to make a landing under the protection of our guns, for which however the wind was not favourable: a longer stay might besides have rendered our situation critical. We had a perfect calm, and were driven by a strong current towards the land; I therefore took advantage of the first puff of wind to make as much sail as I could, amidst the loud lamentations of the islanders, who expressed their regret in a mournful ...
— A New Voyage Round the World in the Years 1823, 24, 25, and 26. Vol. 1 • Otto von Kotzebue
... abroad or in the company of other powers shun him as if he were a venomous thing and deadly. Again, if thou sittest at table with a man at the house of a friend and laughest and talkest with him and playest pleasant, if he be not perfect in respect of externals see thou pass him the next day without a smile, even though he may have prepared his countenance for a thousand grins; but if in the house of the same friend or another thou shouldst happen to stumble upon him, deal with him as though thy previous conversation ...
— Samuel Butler's Cambridge Pieces • Samuel Butler
... all this means? I am in a perfect maze of doubt and difficulty, and cannot comprehend a ...
— Charles O'Malley, The Irish Dragoon, Volume 2 (of 2) • Charles Lever
... being then late. When they arrived at the tents of Shumse ad Deen Mahummud, Agib's grandmother received him with transports of joy: her son ran always in her mind, and in embracing Agib, the remembrance of him drew tears from her eyes. "Ah, my child!" said she, "my joy would be perfect, if I had the pleasure of embracing your father as I now embrace you." She made Agib sit by her, and put several questions to him, relating to the walk he had been taking with the eunuch; and when he complained of being hungry, she gave him a piece of cream-tart, which she ...
— The Arabian Nights Entertainments vol. 1 • Anon.
... capable of judging it when served. If she distrusts her own power of arranging a menu, and seeing it properly carried out, the dinner should be ordered from the best of caterers. Then, with full assurance of perfect cookery, and faultless service, one may prepare one's list of favored guests with a peaceful conscience and a ...
— Social Life - or, The Manners and Customs of Polite Society • Maud C. Cooke
... round their heads, declaring they would continue doing so till the children died, if the police did not leave the camp. Sometimes also the women of a gang have been known to throw off all their clothing and appear in a perfect state of nudity, declaring they would charge the police with violating their modesty. Men of this tribe are expert cattle-lifters, but confine themselves chiefly to buffaloes, which they steal while out grazing and very dexterously disguise ...
— The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India - Volume IV of IV - Kumhar-Yemkala • R.V. Russell
... social differences which divide them, acted as became the occasion, that of honoring the monarch whose virtues are an example to the world. The racing was not so successful as last year, but, nevertheless, was good, and under the management of Mr. Hastings and Mr. Kelly gave perfect satisfaction. ...
— Some Reminiscences of old Victoria • Edgar Fawcett
... principles of our Church. To be the instruments, then, of dividing the Church, which God has gathered by their hands, may be to sin against their consciences. They may therefore ask the Board to appoint other agents to carry out the decision of Synod. This would not be insubordination, but perfect subordination both to the authority of Synod and also to that authority which all Protestant Christians acknowledge to be supreme. This, I suppose, would be the most natural course for the brethren to take, except for one consideration; that is, their love for the Churches gathered by them, ...
— History and Ecclesiastical Relations of the Churches of the Presbyterial Order at Amoy, China • J. V. N. Talmage
... his larger experience and more frequent intercourse with our sex had taught him to do justice to us; and it was pleasant to hear him often defer to the judgment of ladies. But this he did more, perhaps, in theory than in practice; yet it made all the ladies declare to one another that he was a perfect gentleman. And so he was, though he had his faults; but his faults were such as ...
— Erema - My Father's Sin • R. D. Blackmore
... developing a specific design cannot be overestimated. No machine on the market, of any type, is one hundred per cent perfect and none on the market should, therefore, be taken as a standard to be met by the new manufacturer. It is a patchwork, only, that is obtained by one common method used to obtain a newly designed machine. Namely, the manufacturer purchases ...
— The Consumer Viewpoint • Mildred Maddocks
... wide enough for four horsemen to travel abreast, their sides being protected by high balustrades. One of these, one hundred and fifty yards long, and thrown over a valley more than five hundred feet deep, is said to be still in perfect condition. These suspension bridges were built nearly two thousand years before a work of this character was attempted in Europe. In truth, the period in question, including several centuries before Christ, was the culminating age of Chinese civilization, in ...
— Historic Tales, Vol. 12 (of 15) - The Romance of Reality • Charles Morris
... a perfect right to see the petty-cash account," said Mr Merrett, looking, however, ...
— My Friend Smith - A Story of School and City Life • Talbot Baines Reed
... surrounded by a symmetrically oval space of shallow water, of a bright grass-green colour, enclosed by a ring of glittering surf as white as snow; immediately outside of which is the rich dark blue of deep water. All the sea is perfectly clear from any mixture of sand or mud. It is this perfect clearness of the water which renders navigation among coral reefs at all practicable; as a shoal with even five fathoms water on it, can be discerned at a mile distance from a ship's mast-head, in consequence of its greenish hue contrasting with the blue of deep water. In seven fathoms ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 62, Number 385. November, 1847. • Various
... rairai! (Good!) of approval from the listening natives, and then in perfect silence and intuitive discipline the paddles struck the water, and the boat and canoes, with their naked, savage crews, sped away on their mission ...
— The Ebbing Of The Tide - South Sea Stories - 1896 • Louis Becke
... expect anything, my dear. That is quite understood. It would be unreasonable. And we won't stop long and tire him. But this girl of mine will never be happy if he goes away without our—well!—becoming acquainted, I might almost say. Because really we are perfect strangers. And when one has shot a man, even by accident...." Her ladyship did not finish, but went on to hope ...
— When Ghost Meets Ghost • William Frend De Morgan
... such numbers that I was much incommoded by the heat, which being observed they immediately drew back. Among the crowd I saw a man who had lost his arm just above the elbow; the stump was well covered and the cure seemed as perfect as could be expected from the greatest ...
— A Voyage to the South Sea • William Bligh
... effort on the part of the young man to open the door of the cottage, and he stood for some time with his hand on the latch, looking about. There was perfect silence without and within, no trace of feet or hands anywhere. All was as peaceful and unbroken as ...
— A Little Norsk; Or, Ol' Pap's Flaxen • Hamlin Garland
... for a bodice of this kind should be of such a shape that in each part the woof threads will go as straight around the waist as possible. This makes the warp threads perpendicular and will give almost a perfect bias on the current seams in the back. Do not cut the side forms out of any piece that is big enough, without regard to the warp and woof threads. If this is done, the threads in each will run differently and all ways but the right ...
— Textiles and Clothing • Kate Heintz Watson
... in 1784. He died a general. My grandfather, James Black's father, the Rev. James Black, was chaplain of the fort. He remembered the birth of the baby girl who was to become his wife. He was a noble stalwart—a perfect type of the hunters of Kentucky—who could bring down a squirrel from the highest bough and hit a bull's eye at a hundred yards after he was ...
— Marse Henry, Complete - An Autobiography • Henry Watterson
... this stern joy in danger, this perfect equanimity, made Burr especially attractive to women, who love courage, the more so when it is coupled ...
— Famous Affinities of History, Vol 1-4, Complete - The Romance of Devotion • Lyndon Orr
... wife keeps on asking me to dinner. It's a perfect nuisance. I never get an evening to myself in ...
— The Garden Party • Katherine Mansfield
... digging. He, however, followed after Billy and myself. On reaching the sand-patch we saw the place where water could be procured by digging; we also found sufficient to satisfy our horses on some sandstone flats. We were soon joined by the party, who were overjoyed to be in perfect safety once more, and we were all thankful to that Providence which had guarded us over 150 miles without finding permanent water. We soon pitched camp, and took the horses to the feed, which was excellent. ...
— Explorations in Australia • John Forrest
... have been perfect darkness but for artificial light. On a table was a large student's lamp, and in a niche in the wall was another. Besides this, there was a lantern hanging from the roof of the chamber, ...
— The Young Bank Messenger • Horatio Alger
... as the must that lies upon a vat of new-made wine: The seas could not insapphirine the perfect azure of his eyes. ...
— Poems • Oscar Wilde
... expect Coleridge here in a week or ten days. He has promised to spend two or three months with me. I trust this air will re-establish his health, and that I shall restore him to his family and his friends a perfect man." ...
— Reminiscences of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey • Joseph Cottle
... and thus give notice of a prize or warning of an enemy. Moreover the land produced all that was needed to content the heart of man. Below the mountains where the Berbers dwelt and the steppes where Arab shepherds roamed, fertile valleys spread to the seashore. Jerba was a perfect garden of corn and fruit, vines, olives, almonds, apricots, and figs; Tunis stood in the midst of green fields, and deserved the title of "the White, the Odoriferous, the Flowery Bride of the West,"—though, indeed, the ...
— The Story of the Barbary Corsairs • Stanley Lane-Poole
... folding his doily, is the mate of the ship, Mr. Stewart. You would hardly suppose him to be a sailor at the first glance; and yet he is a perfect specimen of what an officer in the merchant service should be, notwithstanding his fashionably-cut broadcloth coat, white vest, black gaiter-pants, and jeweled fingers. He is dressed for the theatre. Mr. Stewart ...
— Graham's Magazine Vol XXXII. No. 3. March 1848 • Various
... their hammocks on the berth—deck—, in place of at the bottom of the sea, with each a shot at his feet. We weighed, and began to work up, tack and tack, towards the island of Ireland, where the arsenal is, amongst a perfect labyrinth of shoals, through which the Mudian pilot conned the ship with great skill, taking his stand, to our no small wonderment, not at the gangway or poop, as usual, but on the bowsprit end, so that he ...
— Tom Cringle's Log • Michael Scott
... threads; common linen from coarse and irregular tow yarns. Linen is no more subject to weak places in weaving than cotton, although it is harder to bleach and may be weakened in this process. If each operation is not perfect the linen ...
— Textiles • William H. Dooley
... characteristics which have been dwelt upon above. The Slavophils declared not only that the Russians were a great and admirable nation, which few who really know them will be disposed to deny, but that their institutions—and in particular, of course, autocracy and bureaucracy—were a perfect expression of the national genius which could hardly be improved upon. Furthermore, it was maintained that, since all other countries but Russia had taken a wrong turn and fallen into decadence and libertinism, it was Russia's mission to bring the world back into ...
— The War and Democracy • R.W. Seton-Watson, J. Dover Wilson, Alfred E. Zimmern, |
