"Uncertain" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... travelling from Normandy to join his mother at Winchester. He landed in Kent, and was marching with his Normans along the Way, whether or not with the intention of eventually trying to recover his father's kingdom is uncertain; at all events, at Guildford he was seized and put to death. So much is history; legend supplies a dreadful embellishment. Early in the morning after their capture, Alfred's followers were led out into the street and condemned to death. ...
— Highways and Byways in Surrey • Eric Parker
... the quadrature of Mercury and Mars, is proved by the change of weather; for after a frost of some days, that very day became warmer, there was a thaw and a fall of rain." This alleged "proof" is interesting as it relies on the same principle which was held to justify the correction of an uncertain birth-time, by reference to illnesses, etc., met with later. Kepler however goes on to say, "If I am to speak of the results of my studies, what, I pray, can I find in the sky, even remotely alluding to it? ...
— Kepler • Walter W. Bryant
... much better with him than it was with either of those two wretched married beings? And why? He had not, at any rate as yet, sacrificed for money or social gains any of the instincts of his nature. He had been fickle, foolish, vain, uncertain, and perhaps covetous;—but as yet he had not been false. Then he took out Mary's last letter and ...
— Phineas Finn - The Irish Member • Anthony Trollope
... directory which constitutes the first part of the "Guide" might be improved in several respects. An alphabetical arrangement of the furnaces, forges, and rolling-mills, in each State, would be much more convenient for reference than the obscure and uncertain system which has been followed. If a State can be divided, like Pennsylvania, into two or three sections, by strongly marked geological features, it would, perhaps, be well to subdivide the list of its iron-works into corresponding sections, and then to make the arrangement of each ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. IV, No. 22, Aug., 1859 • Various
... you so. Post-travelling is very uncertain, and the Bath roads are not good. Have you ever visited Bath, ...
— John Halifax, Gentleman • Dinah Maria Mulock Craik
... secured the absence of this force, she would have sought to seize the northern ports of France. Small as the Expeditionary Force was, it was enough, when added to the French armies, to make them so formidable as to render the success of von Kluck uncertain if the troops could be concentrated to resist him swiftly enough. Again, Germany never really grasped the implications of our command of the sea. Had she done so, I do not think she would have adventured war. She may have counted ...
— Before the War • Viscount Richard Burton Haldane
... beginning of the method now carried through. That a process of alteration and improvement of the chronology was busily carried on in later times, we see from the added svnchronisms of the kings of Israel and Judah, from the uncertain statements in the Book of Judges, some of them parallel with each other (e.g., the interregna and minor judges, and the threefold counting of the time of the Philistines) and even from the ...
— Prolegomena to the History of Israel • Julius Wellhausen
... one to a man like Mr. Humiston, with limited funds and uncertain health. The building was unfinished and needed considerable expenditure to put it in shape for occupation. The location though very promising in the distant future, was then very inconvenient of access, and was therefore objectionable. But ...
— Cleveland Past and Present - Its Representative Men, etc. • Maurice Joblin
... from me. Can he cypher? Does he understand German, &c.? I suppose, by your recommending him, he does. My chief doubt is the insufficiency of pay, and the impossibility of holding out future expectation whatever. My route will probably be Berlin in about a fortnight; but nothing can be more uncertain than my stay. ...
— Memoirs of the Court and Cabinets of George the Third, Volume 2 (of 2) - From the Original Family Documents • The Duke of Buckingham
... sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain Thrilled me—filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before; So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating "'Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door, —Some late visitor entreating entrance ...
— The Golden Treasury of American Songs and Lyrics • Various
... to that. Our respected Phoenix, the Head of this ancient House, has at length done us the honour to come among us. I think I may say, gentlemen, that we are not insensible to this honour, and that we welcome with no uncertain voice one whom we have so long desired to see ...
— The Phoenix and the Carpet • E. Nesbit
... the official papers, Mitchell having offered to send the packet home with his despatches. Fergus was glad to get the documents sent off in this way—by which, indeed, he had sent the greater part of his letters to his mother—the post being so uncertain and insecure that there was no trusting it; and although his mother's replies were always sent to the care of the ambassador, a large number of them were lost in ...
— With Frederick the Great - A Story of the Seven Years' War • G. A. Henty
... and the good angel of certainty had made all the surrounding objects stand still, had set me down under my bedclothes, in my bedroom, and had fixed, approximately in their right places in the uncertain light, my chest of drawers, my writing-table, my fireplace, the window overlooking the street, and both the doors. But it was no good my knowing that I was not in any of those houses of which, in the stupid ...
— Swann's Way - (vol. 1 of Remembrance of Things Past) • Marcel Proust
... leaves and the young fruit be wetted by a violent shower, the fruit falls from the stem; for it appears that the vessels which absorb water break from being rendered turgid. Besides, the cacao-harvest is one of the most uncertain, on account of the fatal effects of inclement seasons, and the great number of worms, insects, birds, and quadrupeds,* (* Parrots, monkeys, agoutis, squirrels, and stags.) which devour the pod of the cacao-tree; and this branch of agriculture has the ...
— Equinoctial Regions of America V2 • Alexander von Humboldt
... reasons expressed in it. "Cavils and motions"; quibbles or quirks of special pleading, and moving a court of law to occasion delay and weary out an honest suitor; much of this nuisance has been abated, but enough remains to render a lawsuit uncertain, vexatious, ...
— The Works of John Bunyan • John Bunyan
... for saying. He would have preferred to pursue his solitary if uncertain way. But Nikky was no half Samaritan. Toward Peter Niburg's lodging, then, they made ...
— Long Live the King • Mary Roberts Rinehart
... Coffee-house haunts, but to settle his Brain. He laughs at dry Morals, and never does think, Unless 'tis to get the best Wenches and Drink. He dwells in a Tavern, and lies ev'ry where, And improving his hours, lives an Age in a Tear: For as Life is uncertain, he loves to make haste; And thus he lives longest, because he lives fast: Then a Leap in the dark to the Devil he takes. What Death can compare with the ...
— The Works of Aphra Behn - Volume IV. • Aphra Behn
... flutter of change grew vague and faint around it, so that although there was a soft uncertainty around the child and a half-visible smoke of growing forms arising from it, yet that small, dimpled shape remained, a little uncertain in outline as in a composite photograph, but steady and changeless as to the eyes—the clear, deep, ...
— The Forerunner, Volume 1 (1909-1910) • Charlotte Perkins Gilman
... a small rod of my own, but generally I preferred to sit on the grass some distance away. Then my reflections became really deep, and, without knowing what meditation meant, my soul was absorbed in prayer. Far-off sounds reached me, the murmuring of the wind, sometimes a few uncertain notes of music from a military band in the town a long way off; all this imparted a touch of melancholy to my thoughts. Earth seemed a place of exile, and I dreamed ...
— The Story of a Soul (L'Histoire d'une Ame): The Autobiography of St. Therese of Lisieux • Therese Martin (of Lisieux)
... railly Women of the Best Parts (Religiously Bred as they call it) out of their Duty: These not seeing (as they should have been early Taught to do) that what they have learn'd to be their Duty is not grounded upon the uncertain and variable Opinion of Men, but the unchangeable nature of things; and has an indissolvable Connection with their Happiness ...
— Occasional Thoughts in Reference to a Vertuous or Christian life • Lady Damaris Masham
... owner with no peculiar advantages, who can only set the general certainty of a market for second growth against his ability to carry a costly and uncertain investment for an ...
— Practical Forestry in the Pacific Northwest • Edward Tyson Allen
... of this note to the Haymarket, in case it should miss you out of town. For a few years I have been liable, at wholly uncertain and incalculable times, to a severe attack of neuralgia in the foot, about once in the course of a year. It began in an injury to the finer muscles or nerves, occasioned by over-walking in the deep snow. ...
— The Letters of Charles Dickens - Vol. 3 (of 3), 1836-1870 • Charles Dickens
... enjoyed the Guasimas fight at all, because I had been so uncertain as to what I ought to do. But the San Juan fight was entirely different. The Spaniards had a hard position to attack, it is true, but we could see them, and I knew exactly how to proceed. I kept on horseback, merely because ...
— Theodore Roosevelt - An Autobiography by Theodore Roosevelt • Theodore Roosevelt
... say, suggested to the Lacedemonians that they should watch the mother and see which of the children she washed and fed before the other; and if she was seen to do this always in the same order, then they would have all that they were seeking and desiring to find out, but if she too was uncertain and did it in a different order at different times, it would be plain to them that even she had no more knowledge than any other, and they must turn to some other way. Then the Spartans following the suggestion of the Messenian watched the mother of the sons of Aristodemos ...
— The History Of Herodotus - Volume 2 (of 2) • Herodotus
... difficulties, first on account of the nature of the country itself, its variable periods of drought, sometimes long-continued, when the parched earth yields little on the ranges for the stock, and makes the supply of water for irrigation purposes uncertain; then came flood periods, that time and again destroyed reservoir dams and washed out miles of irrigating canals. This was also the region of great cattle and sheep companies, occupying the public domain with their herds, sometimes ...
— Mormon Settlement in Arizona • James H. McClintock
... sky, however, which had hitherto been clear, had, unfortunately for us, become obscured, and it was difficult to decide which was the right direction. We pushed forward as fast as we could; but the old wrecker, our guide, seemed, as we thought, somewhat uncertain of the path we ought to take. We frequently looked back, and, as long as we could see the island, it assisted to guide us. Nothing of the Indians could be discovered; but that was no proof that they were not ...
— In the Wilds of Florida - A Tale of Warfare and Hunting • W.H.G. Kingston
... and brittle, both bold and unstable, Indecisive yet keen, Alfred Vargrave seem'd able To dazzle, but not to illumine mankind. A vigorous, various, versatile mind; A character wavering, fitful, uncertain, As the shadow that shakes o'er a luminous curtain, Vague, flitting, but on it forever impressing The shape of some substance at which you stand guessing: When you said, "All is worthless and weak here," behold! Into sight on a sudden there seem'd to unfold Great outlines of strenuous ...
— Lucile • Owen Meredith
... industry suffered from low world prices and rent disputes between farmers and landowners. Drought in 1998 further damaged the sugar industry, but its recovery in 1999 contributed to robust GDP growth. Long-term problems include low investment and uncertain property rights. ...
— The 2000 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency.
... apologetically, uncertain whether to address Mrs. Knapp or me, and including us both in the question, "but where did you want ...
— Blindfolded • Earle Ashley Walcott
... reaches the top is the gritty, plucky, hard worker and never the timid, uncertain, slow worker. An untried man is seldom put in a position of responsibility and power. The man selected is one that has done something, achieved results in some line, or taken the lead in his department. He is placed there because ...
— The Power of Concentration • Theron Q. Dumont
... vivid, her affections animated and unmixed, it would be strange, if she could suddenly relinquish primitive attachments founded on such premises, without a struggle. But remove her from your presence for one year, with only distant and uncertain prospects of seeing you again, admit me as the substitute in your absence, and she accepts my hand as freely as she would now receive yours. I had no design—it was never my wish to marry her without her consent. That I believe I shall ...
— Alonzo and Melissa - The Unfeeling Father • Daniel Jackson, Jr.
... [Arabic], with a copious spring near it. Our route lay through a stony plain, and the night now becoming very dark, with incessant rain, my guides lost their way, and we continued for three hours uncertain whether we should not be obliged to take up our night's quarters in the open plain. At length, however, we came to the bed of a Wady called Hameka, which we ascended for a short distance, and in half an hour after crossing it reached Kereye, about ...
— Travels in Syria and the Holy Land • John Burckhardt
... Tate residence, passing a startled footman without so much as a snort, and leading directly for the main stairs that led up to the ballroom. The beast walked with a peculiar gait which varied between an uncertain lockstep and a stampede—but can best be described by the word "halting." The camel had a halting gait—and as he walked he alternately elongated and contracted like ...
— O. Henry Memorial Award Prize Stories of 1920 • Various
... proposition—his old craving for drink was not by any means eradicated. The sight of the liquor and the smell roused an appetite that only an iron will had subdued. As he stood uncertain, debating, Lowe said, "Hold on; we're a glass short. Never mind, I'll find one"; and he hastened back into the lean-to kitchen and returned with a glass, which was partly concealed by his hand till it was filled with whiskey. Then he said, "If it was 'pizen juice' ...
— The Preacher of Cedar Mountain - A Tale of the Open Country • Ernest Thompson Seton
... given the signs, it becomes aesthetic in applying them. The semeiotic says: "Such a gesture reveals such a passion;" and gesture replies: "To such a passion I will apply such a sign." And without awaiting the aid of an inspiration often hazardous, deceitful and uncertain, it moulds the body to its will, and forces it to reproduce the passion the soul has conceived. The semeiotic is a science, the aesthetic an act ...
— Delsarte System of Oratory • Various
... the consequences of the discovery which must inevitably be soon made, Aveline would have flown back to her own room, but was deterred, from the strange noises and confusion she heard within it. Uncertain how to act, she at last resolved upon attempting an escape from the house, and was hurrying forward, in the hope of gaining the corridor unperceived, but the sound of voices outside again drove her back; and, in this ...
— The Star-Chamber, Volume 2 - An Historical Romance • W. Harrison Ainsworth
... truth was worse than I conceived. Had I known it all, I might well have yielded to despair. For not by the chance, uncertain sight of a passer-by, not by mere rumor which might have been sturdily denied, not by the evidence of one only or of two, was the king's presence in the city known. That day, by the witness of a crowd of ...
— Rupert of Hentzau - From The Memoirs of Fritz Von Tarlenheim: The Sequel to - The Prisoner of Zenda • Anthony Hope
... Nelson sent Collingwood what he called, in his diary, the Nelson-touch. "I send you," said he, "my plan of attack, as far as a man dare venture to guess at the very uncertain position the enemy may be found in; but it is to place you perfectly at ease respecting my intentions, and to give full scope to your judgment for carrying them into effect. We can, my dear Coll, have no little jealousies. We have only one ...
— The Life of Horatio Lord Nelson • Robert Southey
... this long enclosure, the pleasing features of the scene became less defined in character, and, uncertain of our way, we climbed up to a village called 'Ararah, where, after an hour's trouble, we got a guide at high price for the rest of the day's journey. The evening was then advancing, and the gnats from the trees and shrubs plagued the horses. Among these trees were ...
— Byeways in Palestine • James Finn
... perhaps the vulgar Roman phrase expressing In Capite Oeni. There are other etymologies, but all equally uncertain.] ...
— Account of the Romansh Language - In a Letter to Sir John Pringle, Bart. P. R. S. • Joseph Planta, Esq. F. R. S.
... our hands," muttered Baker exultingly; then, as the newcomer stepped almost in front of him, he sprang forward, and seized him in no uncertain grip. "I've got ...
— The Lost Despatch • Natalie Sumner Lincoln
... Weir, and Dr. Jim determined to transfer Olga to her home as soon as she was out of quarantine. With paternal kindliness, he insisted that Muriel must accompany her. Daisy's return was still uncertain, though it could not be long delayed; and Muriel had no urgent desire to return to the lonely life on ...
— The Way of an Eagle • Ethel M. Dell
... uncertain, for some very recent spectroscopic observations of Venus seem to show a rotation ...
— Astronomy of To-day - A Popular Introduction in Non-Technical Language • Cecil G. Dolmage
... were all marked with huge red crosses on the roof). During the same period the enemy shelled towns, camps and roads far back from the front line area, making life in the war area on the whole very uncertain and very uncomfortable. It was necessary to visit many places under cover of darkness, so accurate was the German observation and shell fire ...
— On the Fringe of the Great Fight • George G. Nasmith
... intention, as people said, was to act as manager of the solemn assembly and games in person. What the thought was that passed through his mind with reference to the sacred money, remains to this day uncertain; only, a tale is rife to the effect that in answer to the inquiry of the Delphians, "What ought we to do, if he takes any of the treasures of the god?" the god made answer, "He would see to that himself." This great man, his brain teeming ...
— Hellenica • Xenophon
... face grew ghastly pale in the uncertain light of the half-veiled moon. She moved a step and caught the girl's ...
— Innocent - Her Fancy and His Fact • Marie Corelli
... stood stock-still, then commenced pawing the ground, tossing his head and tail, bellowing, and eyeing Jack, who was leisurely moving towards him right in front. He had apparently grown tired of charging this figure that always eluded him, and was uncertain what to do next. So Dandy Jack walked on till he was within a yard or two of the bull's nose. Then the beast thought it was time to do something, and concluded to try the effect of one ...
— Brighter Britain! (Volume 1 of 2) - or Settler and Maori in Northern New Zealand • William Delisle Hay
... against his will that he returned to enjoyment, unable to avoid being amused, but feeling as if joy was not meant for him, and as if those around were walking 'in a world of light,' where he could scarcely hope to tread a few uncertain steps. In this despondency was Guy's chief danger, as it was likely to make him deem a struggle with temptation fruitless, while his high spirits and powers of keen enjoyment increased the peril of ...
— The Heir of Redclyffe • Charlotte M. Yonge
... appointment of a Faculty, though a resolution asking for a change in the University Act, giving them power to elect and prescribe the duties of a Chancellor of the University, suggests that they were uncertain of their powers in this matter. Four prospective professorships were established and though the report of the committee on the matter was not adopted as presented, the assignment of the subjects is suggestive; they included a Professor ...
— The University of Michigan • Wilfred Shaw
... the size of the bowl we hold, so is the quantity of the rice we eat. In your young days, you were dependent on the support of your old father, so that eating and drinking became quite a habit with you; that's how, at the present time, your resources are quite uncertain; when you had money, you looked ahead, and didn't mind behind; and now that you have no money, you blindly fly into huffs. A fine fellow and a capital hero you have made! Living though we now be away from the capital, ...
— Hung Lou Meng, Book I • Cao Xueqin
... here," he declined, as he spread a caribou skin upon the ground to protect himself from the damp earth. Then he produced a Hudson's Bay Company blanket, once white but now of uncertain shade, and rolling himself in the blanket, with his feet toward the ...
— Troop One of the Labrador • Dillon Wallace
... she only waited to restore her face with a flush of health (from Paris), modified by a sprinkling of pallor (from London). Benjulia's humour was essentially an uncertain humour. It might be necessary to fascinate ...
— Heart and Science - A Story of the Present Time • Wilkie Collins
... importance. Nevertheless, it gives no sure proof of the particular genius of a great captain. Whether, having forged his weapon, Pellew could also wield it; whether, having carefully sowed, he could also reap the harvest by large combinations on the battle-field, must remain uncertain, at least until probable demonstration of his conceptions is drawn from his papers. Nothing is as yet ...
— Types of Naval Officers - Drawn from the History of the British Navy • A. T. Mahan
... du Saulle has given to the disease in which there is a morbid doubt about everything done, the name folie de doute. Gray mentions a case in a patient who would go out of a door, close it, and then come back, uncertain as to whether he had closed it, close it again, go off a little way, again feel uncertain as to whether he had closed it properly, go back again, and so on for many times. Hammond relates the history ...
— Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine • George M. Gould
... aristocrat. But though she looked grimly at M. Villefort, M. Renard was uncomfortably uncertain that it was he ...
— "Le Monsieur De La Petite Dame" • Frances Hodgson Burnett
... is the generic term for snake, but the meaning of the prefix is uncertain. Perhaps it should read cuxcu, to move in spiral lines, as is described in the text. This miraculous form was ...
— The Annals of the Cakchiquels • Daniel G. Brinton
... service, and able to reserve all their resources for a short-range and final struggle. Moreover, the fences as yet partially hid them from each other, and would have rendered all aim for the present vague and uncertain. ...
— Short Story Classics (American) Vol. 2 • Various
... making a total wreck of the many years' study which he had already gone through to fit him for the goldsmith's trade; and he was, consequently, much displeased. He considered the question in the light of a positive loss for an uncertain gain, and somewhat rudely dismissed it from his mind. Like the majority of men, he could not bear that his son should shape himself a new course by the aid of the strong will of his own genius, when he considered the old course the best. He had rested on the hope of his son's aid, which he ...
— Rambles of an Archaeologist Among Old Books and in Old Places • Frederick William Fairholt
... It is, of course, uncertain to which of the several herons occurring in Central America these representations refer. Possibly the Great Blue heron (Ardea herodias) or the Louisiana heron (Hydranassa tricolor ruficollis) is intended. It seems not unlikely ...
— Animal Figures in the Maya Codices • Alfred M. Tozzer and Glover M. Allen
... the Parliament had almost lost all their spirit, and that I should be obliged to bow my neck under the most shameful and dangerous yoke of slavery, or be reduced to the dire necessity of setting up for tribune of the people, which is the most uncertain and meanest of all posts when it is not vested with ...
— Marguerite de Navarre - Memoirs of Marguerite de Valois Queen of Navarre • Marguerite de Navarre
... directions the horizon was unbroken and, as the trees of the Murray vanished at a point bearing 143 1/2 degrees from North on the border of a very extensive plain, I concluded that an important change took place there in the course of that river or the Goulburn (of Hovell and Hume); for it was uncertain then which river we were near. The granitic range of Mount Hope terminates in the plains, one or two bare rocks only projecting above ground on the flats westward of the hill. On its summit we found some plants quite new to us and, among the rocks on its sides, a species of anguillaria different ...
— Three Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia, Vol 2 (of 2) • Thomas Mitchell
... the total effect of a Wagner piece or a Beethoven symphony—not the noise of big drum, cymbals and so on; but the continuous slight discords caused by some of the players being various degrees in front and others various degrees behind; the scratching produced by uncertain bowing, or by an unfortunate fiddler finding himself a little behind the general body (as he does sometimes) and making a savage rush to catch it up; the hissing of panting flautists; and the barnyard noises produced by exhausted oboe-players. ...
— Old Scores and New Readings • John F. Runciman
... and absolutely ran to the shelter of the house, for the wheels were getting near—rumbling, jumping, uncertain. Now the rumbling and the jumping and the uncertainty got into the avenue, and came nearer and nearer; and finally the tumble-down pony cart drew up at the house. The pony printed his uncertain feet awkwardly but firmly on the weed-grown ...
— Girls of the Forest • L. T. Meade
... reins of the Administration of the Government, with its complex statesmanship, where a master had laid them down, President Roosevelt, heretofore known for his sterling worth as an administrator, and his imperial honesty as a man, has put forth no uncertain sound as to his intended course. The announcement that the foreign policy of his illustrious predecessor would be chiefly adhered to has struck a responsive chord in every patriotic heart. The appointment of ex-Gov. Jones, of Alabama, to a Federal judgeship was an appointment in unison ...
— Shadow and Light - An Autobiography with Reminiscences of the Last and Present Century • Mifflin Wistar Gibbs
... the same way. In many localities great numbers of muskrats are also captured by spearing, either through the ice or through the walls of their houses. In the latter case, two are often taken at once. This method is quite uncertain and unreliable, as the walls of the hut are often so firmly frozen as to defy the thrust of the hardest steel, and a fruitless attempt will drive the inmates from their house at once. The spear generally used consists of a single shaft of steel about eighteen ...
— Camp Life in the Woods and the Tricks of Trapping and Trap Making • William Hamilton Gibson
... on this passage; but the ambiguity of the Latin relative renders it uncertain, how far the Critick applies particularly to the Pisos, except by the Apostrophe taken notice of in the last note. His words are these. Nisi horum democriticorum opinionem horatius hoc in loco refutasset, frustra de poetica facultate in hac AD PISONES EPISTOLA praecepta ...
— The Art Of Poetry An Epistle To The Pisos - Q. Horatii Flacci Epistola Ad Pisones, De Arte Poetica. • Horace
... Haven then, and the faculty of the time-honored old college had on its roll names which will never die, Day, Silliman, Olmstead, and many others,—who were mighty in eloquence and theology, like Leonard Bacon and Dr. Taylor, proclaimed the truth with no uncertain sound in the churches on the "Green" from Sabbath to Sabbath. Grand old Noah Webster, standing in the doorway of his modest home on our road from school to church, was, to me, an embodiment of the spelling-book and dictionary, and I instinctively made ...
— 'Three Score Years and Ten' - Life-Long Memories of Fort Snelling, Minnesota, and Other - Parts of the West • Charlotte Ouisconsin Van Cleve
... on the summit of the cliffs above, anxiously expecting the signal that a school had been seen in the far distance. But whether it would approach the shore near enough to enable them to encircle it was uncertain. It might come towards them, but then it might suddenly sweep round to a different part of the coast or dart back again into deep water. Hour after hour ...
— Michael Penguyne - Fisher Life on the Cornish Coast • William H. G. Kingston
... can hardly be doubted that the Mexicans were acquainted with many scientifical instruments of strange invention;... whether the telescope may not have been of the number is uncertain; but the thirteenth plate of M. Dupaix's Monuments, which represents a man holding something of a similar nature to his eye, affords reason to suppose that they knew how to ...
— The Story of Extinct Civilizations of the West • Robert E. Anderson
... seven o'clock. Only one man who had received the notice was absent, and his son brought a message concerning his father's absence. The stranger arose in his place, but left it uncertain as to whether he was a Secret Service man, a banker or a patriot interested in his country. He ...
— The Blot on the Kaiser's 'Scutcheon • Newell Dwight Hillis
... the place, Crowned with that sacred pile, so vast, so high, That whether 'tis a part of earth or sky Uncertain seems, and may be thought a proud Aspiring mountain or descending cloud. Paul's, the late theme of such a muse, whose flight Has bravely reached and soared above thy height, Now shalt thou stand, though sword, or time, or fire, Or zeal more fierce than they, thy fall conspire; ...
— Old and New London - Volume I • Walter Thornbury
... them terrified the occupants of the studio with her insistence. She was a North American of uncertain age, somewhere between thirty-two and fifty-nine, with short skirts that whenever she sat down, seemed to fly up as if moved by a spring. Various dances with Desnoyers and a visit to the rue de la Pompe she seemed to consider as her sacred rights, and she pursued the master ...
— The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse • Vicente Blasco Ibanez
... a dark side street when they saw a score of men and women creep from the door of a squat, unpainted building. The little group remained on the sidewalk for a minute as if uncertain about the way they should go, then from the corner of the street came a cry of "Police!" and the twenty ...
— The Best Short Stories of 1915 - And the Yearbook of the American Short Story • Various
... mia, have I made you see this matter clearly? Can not you trust me to decide this weighty question for you? Is your heart so set on the quiet life of prayer, cut off from so much of the work, without which, Saint James tells us, faith is dead? Do not decide now," he added, as Apolinaria made an uncertain attempt to speak, "take plenty of time, daughter; think it over during the next week, and then come to see me ...
— Old Mission Stories of California • Charles Franklin Carter
... most highly-privileged imperial troops, who furnished officers for some of the most lucrative posts in the provinces. Though in the translation the usual meaning has been given to militia, it must be regarded as uncertain in the absence of more definite information regarding the ...
— The Hymns of Prudentius • Aurelius Clemens Prudentius
... on the death of her husband; of the six Kulhuns families of Chehdwara, two only preserve their daughters—Surnam Sing of Arta, and Jeskurn of Kumeear; but whether their sons or successors in the estates will do the same is uncertain." These bearers ...
— A Journey through the Kingdom of Oude, Volumes I & II • William Sleeman
... of the tensed nostrils, but that was all. He seemed to be dying on his feet, when the master whistled. The sound cut through the rushing of the Asper as a ray of light probes a dark room, shrill, harsh, like the hissing of some incredible snake, and Satan went an uncertain step forward, reeled, almost fell; but the shoulder of the master was at his side lifting up, and the arm of the master was under his chest, raising. He tried another step; he went on among the trees with his forelegs sprawling and his head drooped as though he were trying to crop ...
— The Seventh Man • Max Brand
... to peregrinations in the old bath-chair. According to his account the period had been one of much tribulation, when patience and forbearance had been tried to their limits by the unnatural conduct of Miss Mollie Farrell. Instead of behaving like the proverbial ministering angel, Mollie proved uncertain, coy, and hard to please, and so full of mischievous pranks that Jack declared that his hair was turning white, though, if the truth be told, he looked ...
— The Fortunes of the Farrells • Mrs. George de Horne Vaizey
... is exceedingly uncertain on all these North Carolina mountains; they are apt at any moment to be enveloped in mist; and it would rather rain on them than not. On the afternoon of our arrival there was fine air and fair weather, ...
— Baddeck and That Sort of Thing • Charles Dudley Warner
... attained their proper size and are beginning to lose their hairy covering which hangs from them in ragged filaments. The horns of the reindeer vary not only with its sex and age but are otherwise so uncertain in their growth that they are never alike in any two individuals. The old males shed theirs about the end of December; the females retain them until the disappearance of the snow enables them to frequent the barren grounds which may be stated to be about the middle or end ...
— The Journey to the Polar Sea • John Franklin
... Our word of honor, which we sincerely would have kept. However, this delicate question would have to be negotiated with the captain. But how would he receive our demands for freedom? At the very outset and in no uncertain terms, hadn't he declared that the secret of his life required that we be permanently imprisoned on board the Nautilus? Wouldn't he see my four-month silence as a tacit acceptance of this situation? Would my returning to this subject arouse suspicions that could jeopardize our escape plans, ...
— 20000 Leagues Under the Seas • Jules Verne
... moment. All he knew, all he desired, was to afford the girl that help and protection he felt she needed. His first thought was to keep her from a further sight of what had occurred. So he held her in his arms, limp and yielding, for one uncertain moment. Then, for the second time in his life, he bore her off toward ...
— The Golden Woman - A Story of the Montana Hills • Ridgwell Cullum
... as independent girders, the advantage of continuity being at that time imperfectly known. The vertical sides of the girders are stiffened so that they amount to 40% of the whole weight. This was partly necessary to meet the uncertain conditions in floating when the distribution of supporting forces was unknown and there ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 3 - "Brescia" to "Bulgaria" • Various
... "There's nothing very uncertain, in their own minds," laughed Harriet. "Just see how fast they're going. They've decided ...
— The Meadow-Brook Girls Afloat • Janet Aldridge
... Sun, effuse thy beams; for he was wont to pace the glade, To watch in pale uncertain gleams, The crimson-zoned horizon fade— Thy last, they setting radiance pour, Where he is set to ...
— The Poetical Works of Henry Kirke White - With a Memoir by Sir Harris Nicolas • Henry Kirke White
... lamp upon the table threw a weird, uncertain light over the old room, flickering upon the carved oak panelling, and casting strange, fantastic shadows from the high-elbowed, straight-backed furniture. My sister's white, anxious face stood out in the obscurity with a ...
— The Mystery of Cloomber • Arthur Conan Doyle
... most Unanimity is wonderful Uncertain, coy, and hard to please Uncle, O my prophetic soul I my Underneath this stone doth lie —sable hearse Uneasy lies the head Unfit, for all things Unfortunate, one more Unity, to dwell together in Universe, born for the Unknown, too early seen ...
— Familiar Quotations • Various
... now. He saw McGuire straighten again in his chair, his gaze shifting past Peter from left to right like a trapped animal. His fingers groped along the chair arms, along the table edge, trembling, eager but uncertain. But the sound of Peter's narrative seemed ...
— The Vagrant Duke • George Gibbs
... is a pleasing prospect of a permanent peace with that nation; but from all the communications of the governor it appears that the Creeks, in small parties, continue their depredations, and it is uncertain to what they ...
— A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents - Section 1 (of 4) of Volume 1: George Washington • James D. Richardson
... Mendoza was already well disposed to act the part of a loyal subject in the present situation of affairs, yet uncertain how best to conduct himself for that purpose; but by this message from Centeno, he was completely determined as to the regulation of his conduct on the present emergency, and immediately declared for his majesty. ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 5 • Robert Kerr
... about the whiteout conditions, the Commissioner and the Chief Inspector took quite different views as to whether the crew had been uncertain of their position and visibility. This disagreement is associated with a major difference as to the interpretation of the tape recovered from the cockpit voice recorder covering the conversation on the flight deck during the 30 minutes before ...
— Judgments of the Court of Appeal of New Zealand on Proceedings to Review Aspects of the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Mount Erebus Aircraft Disaster • Sir Owen Woodhouse, R. B. Cooke, Ivor L. M. Richardson, Duncan
... seeing our party, suddenly reined up and balanced for a moment in the stirrup, as if uncertain ...
— The Rifle Rangers • Captain Mayne Reid
... would come to pass; and nowhere more eagerly than in Ireland. Every one, English and Irish alike, stood agaze to "see how the game would be played." The great fleet, as it drew near, "worked wonderfully uncertain yet calm humours in the people, not daring to disclose their real intention." When all was decided, and the distressed ships were cast away on the western coast, the Irish showed as much zeal as ...
— Spenser - (English Men of Letters Series) • R. W. Church
... cloak and suit business has its dull spells between seasons, when profits occasionally turn to losses. Thus Louis could advance as a reason that he would feel safer if he be paid, say, twenty dollars a week the year round in lieu of his uncertain share ...
— Potash & Perlmutter - Their Copartnership Ventures and Adventures • Montague Glass
... 'Albion,'—'the silver- coasted isle,' as Tennyson so beautifully has called it,—which had this name from the white line of cliffs presented by it to those approaching it by the narrow seas. [Footnote: The derivation of the name Albion has not been discovered yet; it is even uncertain whether the word is Indo-European; see Rhys, Celtic Britain, p. 200.] 'Himalaya' is 'the abode of snow.' Often, too, shape and configuiation are incorporated in the name, as in 'Trinacria' or 'the three- promontoried land,' which was the Greek name ...
— On the Study of Words • Richard C Trench
... think he enjoyed much your and Mrs. Huxley's visit here. But my object in writing now is to tell you something, which I am very doubtful whether it is worth while for you to hear, because it is uncertain. My brother Erasmus has left me half his fortune, which is very considerable. Therefore, I thought myself bound to tell Mr. Rich of this, stating the large amount, as far as the executors as yet know it roughly. I then added that my wife and self thought ...
— More Letters of Charles Darwin Volume II - Volume II (of II) • Charles Darwin
... I can't enlighten you very much," said Minnie, with a look of comical dismay, "I am about as uncertain as yourself. I was just trusting to your general stupidity not to go any deeper into the subject, but simply to take my word ...
— Hollowmell - or, A Schoolgirl's Mission • E.R. Burden
... without the inevitable 'already' or 'like that,' translated from the language he was more at home in. He thought in French. 'I shall never marry myself (me marier) he decided, seeing his older sister's eyes upon him wonderingly. Then, uncertain whether he had said an awfully wise or an awfully foolish thing, he added no more. Anyhow, it was the way a man ...
— A Prisoner in Fairyland • Algernon Blackwood
... is no need," said Grand, a little uncertain whether this remedy was proposed in joke or earnest. "Valentine has been reminding me that he used to lisp horribly when a child, but he entirely cured himself before ...
— Fated to Be Free • Jean Ingelow
... put together in men and so uncertain is our judgment about it, that we may perhaps find two men both beautiful and fair to look upon, and yet neither resembleth the other, in measure or kind, in any single point or part; and so blind is our perception that we shall not understand whether of the two is the more beautiful, and ...
— Albert Durer • T. Sturge Moore
... Joshua stared at her—simply stood there and stared up at her in the queer, cold dawn, his mouth hanging open as if with a kind of horror. Sweat shone on his face. Turning away without a word by and by he laid an uncertain course for the gate, and leaving it open behind him went off through the vapors of the ...
— The Best Short Stories of 1920 - and the Yearbook of the American Short Story • Various
... and, true to his character of a rogue, he immediately advanced with a shrill trumpet towards me. His ears were cocked, and his tail was well up; but instead of charging, as rogues generally do, with his head thrown rather back and held high, which renders a front shot very uncertain, he rather lowered his head, and splashed towards me through the mud, apparently despising ...
— The Rifle and The Hound in Ceylon • Samuel White Baker
... their high ideals, and other women must have no blemish of any kind. Aileen, urgent, elemental, would have laughed at all this if she could have understood. Not understanding, she felt diffident and uncertain of ...
— The Titan • Theodore Dreiser
... footstep apparently had moved in that direction—then, and after that result, a blind misery of fear fell upon the population, so much the worse than any anguish of a beleaguered city that is awaiting the storming fury of a victorious enemy, by how much the shadowy, the uncertain, the infinite, is at all times more potent in mastering the mind than a danger that is known, measurable, palpable, and human. The very police, instead of offering protection or encouragement, were seized with ...
— The Lock and Key Library • Julian Hawthorne, Ed.
... light shone in the two front office windows of the inn, but the shades were drawn so that they could not see within. Other than the lamplight, there seemed to be a flickering, uncertain, intermittent gleam, or variation of the light, indicating probably a fire in the ...
— The Rival Campers Ashore - The Mystery of the Mill • Ruel Perley Smith
... so many children about her; there was only her and me and brother John at home then; the older boys were to sea with father, an' the rest of us wa'n't born," explained Mrs. Fosdick. "That next fall we all went to sea together. Mother was uncertain till the last minute, as one may say. The ship was waiting orders, but the baby that then was, was born just in time, and there was a long spell of extra bad weather, so mother got about again before they had to sail, an' we all went. I remember my clothes were all left ...
— The Country of the Pointed Firs • Sarah Orne Jewett
... were lakes on either side, and we made many miles on the hard ice, which split with a dull sound under us. Long after dark, we reached the next station, Stratjara, and found our horses in readiness. We started again, by the gleam of a flashing aurora, going through forests and fields in the uncertain light, blindly following our leader, Braisted and I driving by turns, and already much fatigued. After a long time, we descended a steep hill, to the Ljusne River. The water foamed and thundered under ...
— Northern Travel - Summer and Winter Pictures of Sweden, Denmark and Lapland • Bayard Taylor
... uncertain era, but of a date posterior to the age of Ossian, there is a class of compositions called Ur-sgeula,[5] or new-tales, which may be termed the productions of the sub-Ossianic period. They are largely blended with stories of dragons and other fabulous monsters; the best of these compositions ...
— The Modern Scottish Minstrel, Volume II. - The Songs of Scotland of the past half century • Various
... as capital, and a bundle of garments of rather uncertain style as baggage, and the pawn-ticket for a rather good suit-case as insurance, Mr. and Mrs. Seth Appleby established themselves in a "furnished housekeeping room" on Avenue B, and prepared to reconquer New York. It was youth's hopeful sally. They ...
— The Innocents - A Story for Lovers • Sinclair Lewis
... to arouse wonder in their unsophisticated minds. Whether it was one of the numerous discovery ships that have invaded those regions in the present century, or a whaler which had been driven out of its course by stress of weather or power of ice, is uncertain, for although some relics of the expedition ultimately reached the outpost of the fur-traders, nothing was brought away by the Eskimos which bore name or date or writing of any kind. Although ignorant of the meaning as well as the uses of almost ...
— The Walrus Hunters - A Romance of the Realms of Ice • R.M. Ballantyne
... kind of literature out of the hands of young people, but the safest procedure is in cultivating taste for literature that does teach helpful lessons of life. If young people do read books and magazines that seem to stand for uncertain morals, it is best that parents and teachers should point ...
— Sex-education - A series of lectures concerning knowledge of sex in its - relation to human life • Maurice Alpheus Bigelow
... out for Edinburgh on Monday morning; how long I stay there is uncertain, but you will know so soon as I can inform you myself. However I determine, poesy must be laid aside for some time; my mind has been vitiated with idleness, and it will take a good deal of effort to habituate it to the routine of business.—I am, ...
— The Letters of Robert Burns • Robert Burns
... looking about him in doubt and perplexity, uncertain whether to go to the captain of the boat, and demand that he be landed at once, or to explain the situation to some of the passengers, in the vain hope that they might be able to aid him, when he heard the sound ...
— A District Messenger Boy and a Necktie Party • James Otis
... struck the earth from which it came, seemed an alarum to waken all nature from its sleep. The thunder became incessant, and the wind suddenly arising the forest stretched itself and began to speak with no uncertain voice. MacLean took his seat again upon the log, but Audrey slipped into the road, and stood in the whirling dust, her arm raised above her eyes, looking for the horseman whose approach she could not hope to hear through the clamor of the storm. ...
— Audrey • Mary Johnston
... the same time made a like discovery. It was soon found that refined oil could not be shipped with profit; the barrels often had to be left in the sunshine or exposed to the weather, and transportation facilities were very uncertain. The still was then torn out and ...
— Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great, Volume 11 (of 14) - Little Journeys to the Homes of Great Businessmen • Elbert Hubbard
... feel pain by a blow, they are better physicians than we, and quickly cure. They are not subject to sore sicknesses, but dwindle and decay at a certain period, all about an age. Some say their continual sadness is because of their pendulous state (like those men, Luke xiii. 2-6), as uncertain what at the last revolution will become of them, when they are locked up into an unchangeable condition; and if they have any frolic fits of mirth, 'tis as the constrained grinning of a mort-head [death's-head], or rather as acted on a stage, and moved by another, ther [than?] cordially ...
— Folk-Lore and Legends - Scotland • Anonymous |
