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Supposition   Listen
noun
Supposition  n.  
1.
The act of supposing, laying down, imagining, or considering as true or existing, what is known not to be true, or what is not proved.
2.
That which is supposed; hypothesis; conjecture; surmise; opinion or belief without sufficient evidence. "This is only an infallibility upon supposition that if a thing be true, it is imposible to be false." "He means are in supposition."






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Supposition" Quotes from Famous Books



... of the nursery, and especially the English nurse, Darya Alexandrovna did not like at all. It was only on the supposition that no good nurse would have entered so irregular a household as Anna's that Darya Alexandrovna could explain to herself how Anna with her insight into people could take such an unprepossessing, disreputable-looking woman as nurse ...
— Anna Karenina • Leo Tolstoy

... that he should be rightly advised on the real value of what he is about to purchase or to sell. If the sensitivity of women were superior to that of men, the self-interest of merchants would lead to their being [3] always employed; but as the reverse is the case, the opposite supposition is likely to be the ...
— Inquiries into Human Faculty and Its Development • Francis Galton

... body He was certainly open to error, like the rest of us, for it is recorded how He questioned the woman of Samaria about her husband, to which she replied that she had no husband. In the case of the woman taken in sin, one can only explain His action by the supposition that He opened a channel instantly for the knowledge and wisdom which was preter-human, and which at once gave a decision in ...
— The Vital Message • Arthur Conan Doyle

... volumes so entitled. A careful and repeated examination of these confirms me in the belief, that the omission of less than a hundred lines would have precluded nine-tenths of the criticism on this work. I hazard this declaration, however, on the supposition, that the reader has taken it up, as he would have done any other collection of poems purporting to derive their subjects or interests from the incidents of domestic or ordinary life, intermingled with higher strains ...
— Biographia Literaria • Samuel Taylor Coleridge

... Denry had made the Countess laugh tremendously. It was on this note that the waltz finished. She was still laughing when he bowed to her (as taught by Ruth Earp). He could not comprehend why she had so laughed, save on the supposition that he was more humorous than he had suspected. Anyhow, he laughed too, and they parted laughing. He remembered that he had made a marked effect (though not one of laughter) on the tailor by quickly returning the question, "Are you?" And his unpremeditated stroke with the Countess ...
— The Card, A Story Of Adventure In The Five Towns • Arnold Bennett

... cannot be found amazing that a situation such as Temple Barholm presented should provide rich food for conversation, supposition, argument, and ...
— T. Tembarom • Frances Hodgson Burnett

... a shipment of cattle to California: and it was Madeline's supposition that he had welcomed the opportunity to absent ...
— The Light of Western Stars • Zane Grey

... letters, but I confess that, notwithstanding the arguments of authoritative commentators, I cannot believe that they are the same set of men preaching the same doctrines which in other places he treats as destructive of the whole gospel. The change of tone is so great as to require the supposition of a change of subjects, and the Judaisers with whom the Apostle waged a neverending warfare, never did evangelistic work amongst the heathen as these men seem to have done, but confined themselves to trying to pervert converts ...
— Expositions Of Holy Scripture - Volume I: St. Luke, Chaps. I to XII • Alexander Maclaren

... offer be accepted, in the same year when the despatches are received, where we are not free. Replying to that, we may contradict the opinion that in requesting an answer to so serious a matter in so short a time, our offer is more apparent than real. We declare, Sir, that we are going on the supposition that the relations which were sent to his Majesty and to your Highness are truth itself, and were made by persons who have seen what they relate, according to the papers which have been found, the summary of which composes the relation which is being sent there. ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898: Volume XIV., 1606-1609 • Various

... anterior pterygoid to the edge of the flange was probably tendinous, judging from the extent of the development of the edge of the flange. From the edge the origin extended medially across the dorsal surface of the flange; the ridging of this surface is indistinct, leading to the supposition that here the origin was more likely to ...
— The Adductor Muscles of the Jaw In Some Primitive Reptiles • Richard C. Fox

... spread about, whereof no man is able to trace the original further than by conjecture, which with its usual charity lays them to my account. The former is entitled, "Seasonable Advice,"[18] and appears to have been intended for information of the grand jury, upon the supposition of a bill to be prepared against that letter. The other[19] is an extract from a printed book of Parliamentary Proceedings in the year 1680 containing an angry resolution of the House of Commons in England against dissolving grand juries. As to the former, your ...
— The Prose Works of Jonathan Swift, Vol. VI; The Drapier's Letters • Jonathan Swift

... of human invention or industry can Paris rival London in commerce, even on the supposition that France could produce as many men possessed of the capital and spirit of enterprise, for which our British merchants ...
— Paris As It Was and As It Is • Francis W. Blagdon

... been perpetually listening and taking notes. It had appeared to me that these aggravating notes related to the jolts and bumps of the carriage, and I should have resigned myself to his taking them, under a general supposition that he was in the civil-engineering way of life, if he had not sat staring straight over my head whenever he listened. He was a goggle-eyed gentleman of a perplexed aspect, ...
— The Signal-Man #33 • Charles Dickens

... and flushed. For a moment she thought the evangelist must have heard a report of the scene at Nettleton; then she saw the absurdity of the supposition. ...
— Summer • Edith Wharton

... their capacity, even had the will been admitted, to meet the required outlay in money and men. Another question, too, was prominent in men's minds, and indisposed them to contemplating a subjugated South. They would ask, "What is to be done with the South, on the unlikely supposition of its being conquered? Is it to become an American Poland?" All these considerations inclined the great majority of the nation to believe that the South would succeed; and, of those who so believed, a large proportion ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 17, No. 100, February, 1866 • Various

... The last supposition was proved to be right; and in another moment Rupert Merton was receiving the affectionate greetings of his sister and cousins. Elizabeth felt some embarrassment in performing a regular introduction of Mr. Merton to the Miss Hazlebys; but Rupert's easy well-bred ...
— Abbeychurch - or, Self-Control and Self-Conceit • Charlotte M. Yonge

... men, whom they call heroes and demi-gods; and to the souls of the wicked, the region of the ungodly, in Hades, where their fables relate that certain persons, such as Sisyphus, and Tantalus, and Ixion, and Tityus, are punished; which is built on this first supposition, that souls are immortal; and thence are those exhortations to virtue and dehortations from wickedness collected; whereby good men are bettered in the conduct of their life by the hope they have ...
— The Wars of the Jews or History of the Destruction of Jerusalem • Flavius Josephus

... number of Cagots are to be found in those parts of the Pyrenees which lead directly to Spain, which may strengthen the supposition that the Moors are really their ancestors. A sad falling off to the glory and grandeur of this magnificent people is the notion that all that remains of them should be a race of outcasts, loathsome and abhorred! ...
— Barn and the Pyrenees - A Legendary Tour to the Country of Henri Quatre • Louisa Stuart Costello

... theory expresses the truth, we must grant an almost infinite power to telepathy. This supposition is indispensable to account for the facts. Then how shall we understand the errors and confusions of the communicators? How can an infinite power seem at times so limited, so finite, when the conditions remain unchanged? On the other hand, the lapses of memory and confusions are ...
— Mrs. Piper & the Society for Psychical Research • Michael Sage

... do also agree that all Editors of Cyclopedias and Biographical Dictionaries, all Publishers of Reviews and Papers, and all Critics writing therein, shall be at liberty to retract or qualify any opinion predicated on the supposition that I was the sole and undisputed author of the above comparison. But, inasmuch as I do affirm that the comparison aforesaid was uttered by me in the firm belief that it was new and wholly my own, ...
— The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (The Physician and Poet not the Jurist)

... in the common life, finding themselves suddenly lit and exalted, capable of doing what had hitherto been impossible, incapable of doing what had hitherto been irresistible, happy, hopeful, unselfishly energetic, rejected altogether the supposition that this was merely a change in the blood and material texture of life. They denied the bodies God had given them, as once the Upper Nile savages struck out their canine teeth, because these made them like the beasts. They declared that this was ...
— In the Days of the Comet • H. G. Wells

... ironically; because there seems to be a contradiction in terms. (Monck Mason's rank distortion of the words, there cited, I will not pain the reader's sight with.) MR. COLLIER'S note concludes with a supposition that gird may possibly be a misprint. This is the misery! Men will sooner suspect the text than their own understanding or researches. In Act I. Sc. 1. of Coriolanus, dissatisfied with his previous note, MR. COLLIER tries again, and thinks a kindly gird may mean a gentle reproof. ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 188, June 4, 1853 • Various

... Perfectly sweet, clean dishes are not evolved from dirty dishwater. The usual order given for the washing of dishes is, glasses, silver, fine china, cups, saucers, pitchers, plates and other dishes. This is, however, based upon the supposition that cups and saucers are used for beverages, and plates are soiled by the use of various greasy foods; but in families where tea and coffee and animal foods are dispensed with, and saucers are used for grains with cream dressing, the plates are often cleaner than the saucers ...
— Science in the Kitchen. • Mrs. E. E. Kellogg

... you nothing about it, and you know nothing about it. The boy is innocent—of course. And what, my good soul, is the course for us to pursoo? Suppose he is attached to this girl—don't look sad again, it's merely a supposition—and begad a young fellow may have an attachment, mayn't he?—Directly he gets well he will ...
— The History of Pendennis, Vol. 2 - His Fortunes and Misfortunes, His Friends and His Greatest Enemy • William Makepeace Thackeray

... Pattmore's illness was caused by poison administered by her husband, was correct; if so, it would be necessary to act at once, before she should become his victim. It was barely possible that he might intend to get a divorce from his wife and then marry Annie; but I did not consider this supposition a very probable one. He wished to be elected to Congress, and he would not dare to give such an opportunity for scandal as would ensue if he attempted that course. No; poison had been his reliance in one case, and he would not scruple to make use of it again. Mrs. Thayer ...
— The Somnambulist and the Detective - The Murderer and the Fortune Teller • Allan Pinkerton

... the first troubadour known to us, the relatively high excellence of his technique, as regards stanza construction and rime, and the capacity of his language for expressing lofty and refined ideas in poetical form (in spite of his occasional lapses into coarseness), entirely preclude the supposition that he was the first troubadour in point of time. The artistic conventions apparent in his poetry and his obviously careful respect for fixed rules oblige us to regard his poetry as the outcome of a considerable ...
— The Troubadours • H.J. Chaytor

... poets is the more noticeable when we think of Ireland's contributions to English prose and to English drama. Possibly, if one had prophecy rather than history to settle the question, one might predict that Irishmen would naturally write more and better poetry than Englishmen; for the common supposition is that the poetic temperament is romantic, sentimental, volatile, reckless. If this were true, then the lovable, careless, impulsive Irish would completely outclass in original poetry the sensible, steady-headed, cautious Englishman. ...
— The Advance of English Poetry in the Twentieth Century • William Lyon Phelps

... form of absolution is used: The passion of our lord Jesus Christ the merits of the most blessed Virgin Mary and of all the saints, be to thee for the remission of sins. Here the absolution is pronounced on the supposition that we are reconciled and accounted righteous not only by the merits of Christ, but also by the merits of the other saints. Some of us have seen a doctor of theology dying, for consoling whom a certain theologian, ...
— The Apology of the Augsburg Confession • Philip Melanchthon

... supposition. He knew of no rancher in the neighborhood of his old home, and it would seem that no white man would ride with such desperation unless pursued by a relentless enemy, and he saw no evidence of such ...
— The Young Ranchers - or Fighting the Sioux • Edward S. Ellis

... sides, remarkable for cruelty. If Joan de Clisson gave to the sword all the people in a castle, belonging to Charles of Blois, to which she had been admitted on a supposition of pacific intentions, Charles of Blois, on his side, finding in another castle thirty knights, partisans of the Count of Montfort, had their heads shot from catapults over the walls of Nantes, which he was besieging, and, ...
— A Popular History of France From The Earliest Times - Volume II. of VI. • Francois Pierre Guillaume Guizot

... renders it in the slightest degree probable that the Gospel of S. Mark, as it originally came from the hands of its inspired Author, was either an imperfect or an unfinished work. Whether there have not emerged certain considerations which render such a supposition in the highest degree unlikely,—I am quite content that my ...
— The Last Twelve Verses of the Gospel According to S. Mark • John Burgon

... chin with broad, stiff strings. In this she appeared to her host as far more hideous than when wearing her sun-bonnet. Mr Brandon had arranged that two servants should wait upon the table, so that one of them should always be in the room, but in his supposition that the presence of a third person would have any effect upon the expression of Mrs Keswick's fond regard, he was mistaken. The meal had scarcely begun, when she looked around the room with wide-open eyes, and exclaimed: "Robert, if we ...
— The Late Mrs. Null • Frank Richard Stockton

... against them, and these we made the object of our hope, quite forgetting the direction in this exhortation, 'Let Israel hope in the Lord.' For indeed the Lord ought to be our hope in temporals, as well as in spirituals and eternals. Wherefore Israel of old were checked, under a supposition of placing their hope for temporals in men; 'It is better to trust in the Lord, than to put confidence in man. It is better to trust in the Lord, than to put confidence in princes' (Psa 118:8,9). And again, 'Put not your trust in princes, nor in the ...
— The Works of John Bunyan • John Bunyan

... his too elaborated history of William III. he describes a large number of events about which, I think, no sensible man can in the least care either how they happened, or whether indeed they happened at all or not." If I am right in my supposition that Thucydides and Tacitus had a mass of materials, they showed reserve and discretion in throwing a large part of them away, as not being necessary or important to the posterity for which they were writing. This ...
— Historical Essays • James Ford Rhodes

... City. They killed and scalped several teamsters and also a young German traveler; stampeded and drove off a number of mules and burned up several wagons. This was done while fording the Arkansas River, near Fort Dodge. I was delayed near Kansas City under circumstances which preclude the supposition of chance and indicate a subtle and Inexorably fatal power at work for the preservation of my life—a force which with the giant tread of the earthquake devastates countries and lays cities in ruins; that ...
— Tales of Aztlan • George Hartmann

... a sigh and—sat down. He was no longer on familiar ground. Then Fra Diavolo proceeded to verify mademoiselle's judgment of him. Sombrero in hand and with a pompous courtliness, he repeated his natural supposition that the senorita was on her way to the City (meaning the City of Mexico), and perhaps to the court of His Glorious Majesty, Maximiliano. He offered himself, therefore, in case he might have the felicity to be of use. This she need ...
— The Missourian • Eugene P. (Eugene Percy) Lyle

... considering their attitude toward the Bible, that they should wish to put it into the hands of all the people in a form which they would be able to understand, that is in their own vernacular English. Hence sprang the Wiclifite translation. The usual supposition that from the outset, before the time of Wiclif, the Church had prohibited translations of the Bible from the Latin into the common tongues is a mistake; that policy was a direct result of Wiclif's work. In England from Anglo-Saxon times, as must be clear from what has here ...
— A History of English Literature • Robert Huntington Fletcher

... Danglar's plan of using the Sparrow as a pawn, who, in that case, would make a very convenient scapegoat for the Adventurer—instead of Danglar! She dared not trust the man. She could not absolve her conscience by staking another's life on a hazard, on the supposition that the Adventurer might do this or that. ...
— The White Moll • Frank L. Packard

... legends and fairy tales) among early peoples, and in far-sundered places and times is so remarkable that it has given the students of these subjects 'furiously to think' (1)—yet for the most part without great success in the way of finding a solution. The supposition that (1) the creed, rite or legend in question has sprung up, so to speak, accidentally, in one place, and then has travelled (owing to some inherent plausibility) over the rest of the world, is of course one that commends itself readily at first; ...
— Pagan & Christian Creeds - Their Origin and Meaning • Edward Carpenter

... Blaisdell heard this shot, so near his home was it fired. No trace of the hidden foe could be found. The 'ground all around that vicinity bore a carpet of pine needles which showed no trace of footprints. The supposition was that this cowardly attempt had been perpetrated, or certainly instigated, by the Jorths. But there was no proof. And Gaston Isbel had other enemies in the Tonto Basin besides the sheep clan. The old man raged like a lion about ...
— To the Last Man • Zane Grey

... instruction acts upon the supposition that there is an inequality between present knowledge and power and that knowledge and power which are not yet attained. To the pupil belong the first, to the teacher the second. Education is the act which gradually cancels the original inequality of teacher and pupil, in that it converts what ...
— Pedagogics as a System • Karl Rosenkranz

... have been wrong, not only on account of the ice, but because we must have left a vast space of sea to the north unexplored, a space of 24 deg. of latitude; in which a large tract of land might have lain. Whether such a supposition was well-grounded, could only be ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 14 • Robert Kerr

... Teyn Kirche, she was in the city and not far from him. If she had not been there, he had been deceived by an accidental but extraordinary likeness. Within the logical concatenation of cause and effect there was no room for any other supposition, and it followed that his course was perfectly clear. He must continue his search until he should find the person he had seen, and the result would be conclusive, for he would again see the same face and hear the same voice. Reason told him that he had in all likelihood been mistaken after ...
— The Witch of Prague • F. Marion Crawford

... idea that Lady Macbeth beheld the spectre of Banquo in the supper scene, and that her self-control and presence of mind enabled her to surmount her consciousness of the ghastly presence. This would be superhuman, and I do not see that either the character or the text bear out this supposition. ...
— Characteristics of Women - Moral, Poetical, and Historical • Anna Jameson

... Scots; and, when the Scots actually did make their appearance in England, there was a sudden refreshing of the memory of the English Parliament on the subject, and a sudden exertion to make up the arrears. "The Scots are among us on the supposition that we have all taken the Covenant; and lo! we have not yet all taken it," was virtually the exclamation of the Parliament. Accordingly, that all might be brought in, that there might be no escape, and that there might remain to all time coming a ...
— The Life of John Milton Vol. 3 1643-1649 • David Masson

... Life which she was going to throw away, that she began to wave the Thought, and entertain a secret Affection for her friendly Monitor. Pray, Madam, tell me, said Zadig, how would you dispose of yourself, upon the Supposition, that you could shake off this vain and barbarous Notion? Why, said Dame, with an amorous Glance, I think verily I should accept of yourself ...
— Zadig - Or, The Book of Fate • Voltaire

... him because he had loved her enough to fling to the winds his chances of wealth for her sake—a sufficient measure of the feelings of one of his nationality and caste. And she permitted, for an instant, her mind to linger on the supposition that Howard Spence had never come into her life; might she not, when the Vicomte had made his unexpected and generous avowal, have accepted him? She thought of the romances of her childish days, written ...
— The Crossing • Winston Churchill

... Artillery, the German Artillery, and the Washington Artillery.) I was informed by a spectator that the new-comers were exceedingly cautious in making an entrance. They were looking out for mines in all directions, and had brought ladders with them, on the supposition that there might be torpedoes in front of the main gates. It was a clear, beautiful evening, and the moon was at the full. They were greatly enraged to find the flag-staff cut down, for they had hoped to run up their own ...
— Reminiscences of Forts Sumter and Moultrie in 1860-'61 • Abner Doubleday

... supposition," she said quietly, "for you know it cannot be proved. The Trust was never recorded, and the only copy could not be found among Mr. Hammersley's papers. It is only part of the name, of ...
— A Ward of the Golden Gate • Bret Harte

... states that he learned from Dr. Bowles, that it was the purpose of the Order to free the rebel prisoners at Indianapolis, and that the same had been agreed upon with respect to other rebel camps, in other States, on the supposition that they would unite with the Sons of Liberty, in overturning the Government, and if they were found willing to do this, arms were to be placed in their hands. At that meeting it was a matter of discussion in what manner it was feasible to communicate with Gens. Buckner and Price, in order ...
— The Great North-Western Conspiracy In All Its Startling Details • I. Windslow Ayer

... what is termed eternity—hell?" he murmured, at the moment the door was closed upon him, which we remember Baisemeaux had shut with his own hands. He did not even look round him; and in the room, leaning with his back against the wall, he allowed himself to be carried away by the terrible supposition that he was already dead, as he closed his eyes, in order to avoid looking upon something even worse still. "How can I have died?" he said to himself, sick with terror. "The bed might have been let down by some artificial means? But no! I do not remember ...
— The Man in the Iron Mask • Alexandre Dumas, Pere

... these silent communications with the astronomer as so much preparatory schooling, in order that my mind might be prepared for its own avenir, and not be blinded by an undue appreciation of the importance of its future associates. I know there are those who will sneer at the supposition of a pocket-handkerchief possessing any mind, or esprit, at all; but let such have patience and read on, when I hope it will be in my ...
— Autobiography of a Pocket-Hankerchief • James Fenimore Cooper

... put as much venom as she knew how into this speech, meaning it as a vengeful payment for the supposition of her being thirty, even more than for the reproof for her angry words about the child. She thought that Alice Rose must be either mother or aunt to Philip, from the serious cast of countenance that was remarkable in ...
— Sylvia's Lovers — Complete • Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

... a matter that she knew he wished to be private. She told herself that she had probably been wrong. The scheming duplicity which she had heard even her godfather allude to as inseparable from party tactics might be sufficient to account for the connection with Spini, without the supposition that Tito had ever meant to further the plot. She wanted to atone for her impetuosity by confessing that she had been too hasty, and for some hours her mind had been dwelling on the possibility that this confession of hers might lead to other ...
— Romola • George Eliot

... plant Ehren-preis, or Prize of Honour; which fact favours the supposition of its being the true "Forget-me-not," or souveigne vous de moy, as legendary on knightly collars of yore to commemorate a famous joust fought in 1465 between the most accomplished champions of England ...
— Herbal Simples Approved for Modern Uses of Cure • William Thomas Fernie

... which made her marriage with the king illegal, and illegitimatised the offspring of it; and it has been supposed, therefore, that, in spite of Lord Percy's denial, he had really engaged himself to her, and was afraid to acknowledge it.[184] This supposition, however, is not easy to reconcile with the language of the act, which speaks of the circumstance, whatever it was, as only "recently known;" nor could a contract with Percy have invalidated her marriage with the king, when Percy having ...
— The Reign of Henry the Eighth, Volume 1 (of 3) • James Anthony Froude

... shallow water by a ripple before them. They were ridden on behind and forced into water too shallow for them to swim well, and were speared. I inferred from this fact that they confined themselves to the Tidewater. When young, I have heard the old people speak of an abundance of other fish. The supposition was that the clearing of the country, and consequent muddying of the streams, had ...
— The Bounty of the Chesapeake - Fishing in Colonial Virginia • James Wharton

... supposition," chuckled the priest, "that there is one law for the crowd, the mob, the diggers, and another for the illuminati. Now, let me tell you, Mr. Endicott, that with all his faith Tim Hurley could not have welcomed priest and oils more than I shall when I need them. The anguish of death ...
— The Art of Disappearing • John Talbot Smith

... My pupil is in error in this supposition. He should have remembered—for he drew it on the block for me—that the window in the oratory near the church of Kilmalkedar, county of Kerry, which is built without cement, splays both externally and internally.—See my ...
— Archaeological Essays, Vol. 1 • James Y. Simpson

... that which belongs to love alone. Another thing troubled me greatly. I was afraid lest people might suppose that I was a source of profit to him. That idea made me feel the deepest shame, yet, whenever I thought of it, I could not help admitting that such a supposition, however false, was not wanting in probability. It is owing to that feeling that you found me so reserved towards you, for I was afraid that you might harbour that fearful idea if I allowed, you to read in my looks the favourable impression ...
— The Memoires of Casanova, Complete • Jacques Casanova de Seingalt

... the spiral appearance may be accounted for by supposing the existence of an accurate elevation in the wall of the cell, following a spiral direction from one end of the thread to the other. This supposition would, he thinks, accord well with the optical appearances, and it would account exactly for the undulations of outline to which he alludes. He states that he had in his possession a thread of Trichia chrysosperma, in which the spiral appearance was ...
— Fungi: Their Nature and Uses • Mordecai Cubitt Cooke

... the sultan, and thy companion thy vizier." The sultan replied, "What reason have you for such a supposition?" She answered, "From your dignified demeanour and liberal conduct, for the signs of royalty cannot be concealed even in the habit ...
— The Arabian Nights Entertainments Complete • Anonymous

... On this supposition the new doctrines which Luther diffused in Germany, and Calvin in Switzerland, must have found a congenial soil in the Netherlands. The first seeds of it were sown in the Netherlands by the Protestant merchants, who assembled at Amsterdam and Antwerp. The ...
— The Works of Frederich Schiller in English • Frederich Schiller

... longest and drank least of all the topers of Naishapur, and the bell for Saki rang not from his corner half often enough to please mine host. Certainly the longevity of some modern poets can only be accounted for by some such supposition in their case. The proposition is certainly proved inversely in the case of Narcissus, for he has not written one vinous line, and yet—well, and yet! Furthermore, it may interest future biographers to know that in his cups ...
— The Book-Bills of Narcissus - An Account Rendered by Richard Le Gallienne • Le Gallienne, Richard

... what a classical education would do for Harry! I feel sure that had I—pardon the supposition—been born a man, and made conversant with the best thoughts of ...
— Poison Island • Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch (Q)

... on the Arundel family, two more daughters are ascribed to Earl Richard the Copped-Hat. These are Philippa Sergeaux, the heroine of the tale; and Mary L'Estrange. At the time when this story was written, I was misled to follow this supposition, though I had already seen that in that case, Isabel, and not Alianora, must have been the mother of Philippa. Some months after the story was first published, I began to suspect that this was also the case ...
— The Well in the Desert - An Old Legend of the House of Arundel • Emily Sarah Holt

... of them, but in this particular case I happen to remember that she did not like the pose particularly, and ordered but half a dozen. I do not think that she gave any of them away. If I am right in my supposition, there should be five more here in the apartment." Closing the book, Mrs. Morton went to the cabinet again, and took out a portfolio containing numberless photographs of her daughter ...
— The Film of Fear • Arnold Fredericks

... Globigerinoe, in proportion to other organisms, of like kind, increases with the depth of the sea; and that deep-water Globigerinoe are larger than those which live in shallower parts of the sea; and such facts negative the supposition that these organisms have been swept by currents from the shallows into the deeps of the Atlantic. It therefore seems to be hardly doubtful that these wonderful creatures live and die at the depths in which they ...
— Discourses - Biological and Geological Essays • Thomas H. Huxley

... existence he had learnt at Babylon, into a subordinate spirit; so now, not questioning the facts of disease, of death, of pain, of the infirmity of the flesh which the natural strength of the spirit was unable to resist, he accounted for them under the supposition that the first man had deliberately sinned, and by his sin had brought a curse upon the whole material earth, and upon all which was fashioned out of it. The earth was created pure and lovely—a garden of delight of its own free accord, loading itself with fruit and ...
— Froude's Essays in Literature and History - With Introduction by Hilaire Belloc • James Froude

... could not entirely believe it in her. The words he was speaking might have been the utter nonsense to her that they would have been to any but the girl who was lost from the Bates and Cameron clearing for all hint she gave of understanding. He worked on his supposition, however. He had all ...
— What Necessity Knows • Lily Dougall

... less excuse for such illiberality, are yet vulgar enough to join in this ridiculous prejudice. The colored woman, whose daughter has been mentioned as excluded from a private school, was once smuggled into a stage, upon the supposition that she was a white woman, with a sallow complexion. Her manners were modest and prepossessing, and the gentlemen were very polite to her. But when she stopped at her own door, and was handed out by her curly-headed husband, they were at once surprised and angry to find they had been riding ...
— An Appeal in Favor of that Class of Americans Called Africans • Lydia Maria Child

... "Utility" becomes their watchword. With a fundamental principle of this nature, they very naturally go on to ask, what there is to show for the expense of a University; what is the real worth in the market of the article called "a Liberal Education," on the supposition that it does not teach us definitely how to advance our manufactures, or to improve our lands, or to better our civil economy; or again, if it does not at once make this man a lawyer, that an engineer, and that a surgeon; or at least if it does not lead to ...
— The Idea of a University Defined and Illustrated: In Nine - Discourses Delivered to the Catholics of Dublin • John Henry Newman

... was enthusiastic in his description of the plains and valleys lying beyond the hills which stood so prominently on the coast,—hills probably older than any tongue in which we could describe them. The Scriptural Garden of Eden has absolutely been placed here by supposition on the part of traveled people. The temperature is simply perfect, if we are to believe our informant; the vegetation is of a primitive delicacy and beauty unequaled elsewhere; the fruits are fabulously abundant and of the most ...
— Due South or Cuba Past and Present • Maturin M. Ballou

... religion of these lake dwellers, if they had any, nothing is known. From some curious objects formed somewhat like the crescent of the moon, which are found in considerable numbers, it has been supposed that they worshiped that body; but there seems to be really no evidence for this supposition, and these objects may only have been ornaments, or perhaps charms, fixed above the doors of their huts something after the manner of the horse shoe nailed over the door in modern times to keep away ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 711, August 17, 1889 • Various

... utterly different in external structure and habits one from the other, and from the Cirripedes to which they are attached, should yet have absolutely similar prehensile antennae with these Cirripedes, appears to me, on the supposition of the parasites being really independent creatures, and not, as I fully believe, merely in a different state ...
— A Monograph on the Sub-class Cirripedia (Volume 1 of 2) - The Lepadidae; or, Pedunculated Cirripedes • Charles Darwin

... eminence it is supposed that Oliver Cromwell planted his artillery to overawe the town; but the majority of the inhabitants being favourable to his cause, there was no necessity to make use of it; and what gives weight to this supposition is, that this spot being about one mile and a half from Aston hall, it is very probable that from thence the artillery played upon that mansion, as a ball penetrated into the interior of it. At the distance of three miles and a half, there is a road on the ...
— A Description of Modern Birmingham • Charles Pye

... but, on comparing the Serignan pseudochrysalids with those of Schreber's Cerocoma, which came from Aramon, near Avignon, he was able to establish the closest resemblance between the two organisms. Everything therefore confirms the supposition that my discovery can relate only to Schaeffer's Cerocoma. As for the other, it must be eliminated: its extreme rarity in my neighbourhood ...
— The Glow-Worm and Other Beetles • Jean Henri Fabre

... history gave no account of any calamity they had ever been under, that could be compared with this which Herod had brought upon their nation; that it was for this reason that they thought they might justly and gladly salute Archelaus as king, upon this supposition, that whosoever should be set over their kingdom, he would appear more mild to them than Herod had been; and that they had joined with him in the mourning for his father, in order to gratify him, and were ready to oblige him in other points also, if they could ...
— The Antiquities of the Jews • Flavius Josephus

... past. Their mistakes arises from the fact that they do not understand the cause of the things they see—causes which, unlike the effects they produce, contain in themselves the germ of future change. The effects are all that people know, and they hold fast to them on the supposition that those unknown causes, which were sufficient to bring them about, will also be able to maintain them as they are. This is a very common error; and the fact that it is common is not without its advantage, ...
— Counsels and Maxims - From The Essays Of Arthur Schopenhauer • Arthur Schopenhauer

... mentioned on this occasion her indiscretion, she was of a prudent age—she was near forty—yet, possessing rather a handsome face and person, she would not have impressed the spectator with a supposition that she was near so old had she not constantly attempted to appear much younger. Her dress was fantastically fashionable, her manners affected all the various passions of youth, and her conversation was perpetually embellished ...
— Nature and Art • Mrs. Inchbald

... subject, which is much more likely. What can be the signification of the word "fame" to a private of marines, who cannot read and knows nothing of past history beyond the reminiscences of his grandmother? But whichever supposition you make, the fact is unchanged. They died while the question still hung in the balance; and I suppose their bones were already white, before the winds and the waves and the humour of Indian chiefs and Spanish governors had decided whether they were to be unknown and useless martyrs or honoured ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition - Vol. 2 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson

... from the sea, or searching in his son's lodgings, where nothing was found that did not show him to have been a pure-hearted young man, devoted to his art, and fond of poetry. Sundry compositions were in the blotting-book, one, indeed, to Vera's name, under the supposition (a wrong one) {100} that it meant "true," but mostly rough copies of a poem about the Saints Julitta and her child Cyriac. Hope sank as another stormy day rose; and still the poor old artist lingered in hopes of news by some returning craft which might have picked ...
— Modern Broods • Charlotte Mary Yonge

... not only the claim of the specialist that I would repudiate. People are too apt to suppose that in order to discuss morals a man must have exceptional moral gifts. I would dispute that naive supposition. I am an ingenuous enquirer with, I think, some capacity for religious feeling, but neither a prophet nor a saint. On the whole I should be inclined to classify myself as a bad man rather than a good; not indeed as ...
— First and Last Things • H. G. Wells

... intrenched camp on Long Island, fortified with a chain of redoubts, which, according to one of his letters, were to be three in number, indicates quite clearly that this general intended to hold simply the heights along the river. The facts fail to bear out the supposition that the lines, as finally adopted on Long Island, were of Lee's planning. Work on the citadel was probably discontinued, because his plan was so much enlarged as to make ...
— The Campaign of 1776 around New York and Brooklyn • Henry P. Johnston

... to earn as much as possible, is convinced that he does not retard himself by conversation. But the experiments which have been carried on in establishments with scientific management speak decidedly against such a supposition. A tyrannical demand for silence would, of course, be felt as cruelty, and no suggestion of a jail-like discipline would be wise in the case of industrial labor, for evident psychological reasons. But various factories in rearranging their establishments according to the principles ...
— Psychology and Industrial Efficiency • Hugo Muensterberg

... shifts of wind and the readings of barometer. He tried to bring all these things into a definite relation to himself, and ended by becoming contemptuously angry with such a lot of words, and with so much advice, all head-work and supposition, without ...
— Typhoon • Joseph Conrad

... be if she would only guard against being cross at times, but you must not breathe this to a soul as I'm only going on supposition. Young Ernest isn't engaged to her, but I've seen him with her once or twice, and he looked so pleased that I suspected him of kind regards, as no man could ...
— Some Everyday Folk and Dawn • Miles Franklin

... Basel is not the work of Holbein; the costumes are of a time anterior to Holbein. There was also a "Dance of Death" painted on the wall of a convent at Bern by Manuel, who lived a little before Holbein. Only on the supposition that the "Dance of Death" at Basel was Holbein's work, could that of Bern be said to be the first of its kind. But, on comparing the costumes, it appears again, that the "Dance of Death" at Bern must have been painted subsequently to that at Basel. No "Dance ...
— Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, No. 276 - Volume 10, No. 276, October 6, 1827 • Various

... need, if we would be candid, to debate the principle in these violences of operation, any more than the proper methods of distributing food, on the supposition that the difference between a Paris dinner and a platter of Scotch porridge must imply that one-half of mankind are to die of eating, and the rest of having nothing to eat. I will therefore take for example a case in which the discrimination ...
— A Joy For Ever - (And Its Price in the Market) • John Ruskin

... committed was fully established by the discovery of the blood. That a body was obviously necessary for the continuance of further investigations he frankly acknowledged to himself; and not for one instant would any supposition or explanation other than assassination be tolerated. And it was with unshaken conviction ...
— The Daughter of Anderson Crow • George Barr McCutcheon

... edict constituting this court caused a degree of consternation among those principally concerned, which can only be accounted for on the supposition that their peculation had been enormous. But they met with no sympathy. The proceedings against them justified their terror. The Bastille was soon unable to contain the prisoners that were sent to it, and the gaols all over the country teemed with guilty ...
— Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds • Charles Mackay

... O'Donovan Rossa, Don Philip O'Sullivan Beare. A couched spear of acuminated granite rested by him while at his feet reposed a savage animal of the canine tribe whose stertorous gasps announced that he was sunk in uneasy slumber, a supposition confirmed by hoarse growls and spasmodic movements which his master repressed from time to time by tranquilising blows of a mighty cudgel rudely ...
— Ulysses • James Joyce

... subjects alike. Such would be a pretty faithful interpretation of the tone of what is called good society. The surface is everything; we do not pierce to the core. The setting is more valuable than the jewel. Is it not so in other things as well as letters? Is not an R. A. by the supposition a greater man in his profession than any one who is not so blazoned? Compared with that unrivalled list, Raphael had been illegitimate, Claude not classical, and Michael Angelo admitted by special favour. What is a physician ...
— Table-Talk - Essays on Men and Manners • William Hazlitt

... in our law with relation to civil debts. One is, that every man is presumed solvent: a presumption, in innumerable cases, directly against truth. Therefore the debtor is ordered, on a supposition of ability and fraud, to be coerced his liberty until he makes payment. By this means, in all cases of civil insolvency, without a pardon from his creditor, he is to be imprisoned for life; and thus a ...
— The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. II. (of 12) • Edmund Burke

... to her relations, but to the service of the gods of Moab? Whatever opinion she entertained of her daughter-in-law's piety, could she really be desirous of placing her in circumstances of such temptation and danger? This supposition would be at least uncharitable, and contradicts probability. It was rather a trial of her sincerity in religion, and an evidence of her determination to use no compulsory measures, not even maternal influence, to coerce her conscience. Her language was, besides, premonitory and warning, similar ...
— Female Scripture Biographies, Vol. I • Francis Augustus Cox

... sort of question I asked myself a few minutes ago," I replied. "And I've been able to answer it only on the supposition that your third officer is an ...
— Hurricane Island • H. B. Marriott Watson

... agricultural institutions. There is, however, another reason for attempting to cover the whole field of grape-growing in America. It is certain that eastern grape-growers will sometime grow European grapes. Western vineyards might well be enlarged with plantings of native grapes. On the supposition, then, that the culture of both European and native grapes is to become less and less restricted in America, the author has ventured to discuss the culture of all grapes for all parts of ...
— Manual of American Grape-Growing • U. P. Hedrick

... Russian residents at Tien-Tsin, under circumstances of great barbarity, was supposed by some to have been premeditated, and to indicate a purpose among the populace to exterminate foreigners in the Chinese Empire. The evidence fails to establish such a supposition, but shows a complicity between the local authorities and the mob. The Government at Peking, however, seems to have been disposed to fulfill its treaty obligations so far as it was able to do so. Unfortunately, the news of the war between ...
— State of the Union Addresses of Ulysses S. Grant • Ulysses S. Grant

... chewing savagely at the ends of his moustache. It never entered into his head that she was trying to play upon his sympathies. There was some curious quality of simplicity in her manner which forbade that supposition. She interested him as no woman had ever interested him before, and, suddenly, he was filled with a desire to know her past, and, in that, to find excuses ...
— People of Position • Stanley Portal Hyatt

... clear motive for it—and that is rarely present. Of course the motive is not always absent because we do not immediately recognize it, but it is not enough to suppose that the confession does not occur without a reason. That supposition would be approximately true, but it need not be true. If a confession is to serve evidentially the motive *must be clear and indubitable. Proof of its mere existence is insufficient; we must understand the confession in terms of all the factors that ...
— Robin Hood • J. Walker McSpadden

... proper causes, and in case of separation, to whom the guardianship of the children shall be given, as to be wholly regardless of the happiness of women—the law, in all cases, going upon a false supposition of the supremacy of man, and giving ...
— History of Woman Suffrage, Volume I • Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Matilda Joslyn Gage

... "That is the supposition. But they have nothing on him yet; he is too shrewd for that. And that leads to something else. Lily ...
— A Poor Wise Man • Mary Roberts Rinehart

... that all Indian races are destined to disappear if they come into contact with Europeans; certainly, experience would seem to confirm the supposition. The policy of the Jesuits, however, was based on isolation of their missions, and how this might have worked is matter at least for speculation. It was on account of the isolation which they practised that it was possible for the extravagant calumnies which were circulated as to their ...
— A Vanished Arcadia, • R. B. Cunninghame Graham

... the species, which we may sometimes name, in order that it may be more clearly understood; in this manner: "If the money was bequeathed to Fabia by her husband, on the supposition that she was the mother of his family; if she was not his wife, then nothing is due to her." For the wife is the genus: there are two kinds of wife; one being those mothers of a family which become wives by coemptio; ...
— The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, Volume 4 • Cicero

... have made on it; it wasn't absent from his thought that Milly would have been at home by her account because expecting, after a talk with Mrs. Stringham, that a certain person might turn up. He even—so pleasantly did things go—enjoyed freedom of mind to welcome, on that supposition, a fresh sign of the beautiful hypocrisy of women. He went so far as to enjoy believing the girl might have stayed in for him; it helped him to enjoy her behaving as if she hadn't. She expressed, that is, exactly the right degree of surprise; she didn't a bit overdo it: the lesson of which ...
— The Wings of the Dove, Volume II • Henry James

... type, the outward form and the arrangement of the maternal group, as that the classical Greek types of the Orpheus and Apollo should have furnished the early symbols of the Redeemer as the Good Shepherd; a fact which does not rest upon supposition, but of which the proofs remain to us in the antique Christian sculptures and ...
— Legends of the Madonna • Mrs. Jameson

... arrived in Rome, and, after taking the usual steps to celebrate the victory, turned his attention to the administration and despatch of business. For Lepidus through fear of him and out of his general weakness of heart had not rebelled; and Lucius and Fulvia, on the supposition that they were relatives and sharers in his supremacy were quiet,—at least at first. As time went on they became at variance, the persons just mentioned because they did not get a share in the portion of lands to be assigned which belonged to Antony, and Caesar because ...
— Dio's Rome, Vol. III • Cassius Dio

... felicity. Let it simply be asked, Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice? And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion ...
— A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents: Lincoln - Section 1 (of 2) of Volume 6: Abraham Lincoln • Compiled by James D. Richardson

... tons each of ore, borax, and soda, 4 of litharge, and 4 grams of charcoal are needed. This quantity requires a large crucible (I Battersea, round). In this the proportion of silicate of soda and borax counted together is to the oxide of iron as 4 to 1, on the supposition that the quartz and oxide of iron of the ore are in about equal quantities; but, in the larger charge especially, much oxide of lead would also remain ...
— A Textbook of Assaying: For the Use of Those Connected with Mines. • Cornelius Beringer and John Jacob Beringer

... discover it. But it is just this characteristic of simplicity in the laws of nature hitherto discovered which it would be fallacious to generalise, for it is obvious that simplicity has been a part cause of their discovery, and can, therefore, give no ground for the supposition that other undiscovered laws are ...
— Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays • Bertrand Russell

... after an individual had suffered a certain number of convictions for crime, drunkenness, or vagrancy, he should forfeit his freedom to roam abroad and curse his fellows. When I include vagrancy in this list, I do it on the supposition that the opportunity and ability for work are present. Otherwise it seems to me most heartless to punish a hungry man who begs for food because he can in no other way obtain it. But with the opportunity and ability for work I would count the solicitation of charity ...
— "In Darkest England and The Way Out" • General William Booth

... Quart. Journ. Math., 1858, and Ernst Abbe1) showed that the properties of these reproductions, i.e. the relative position .and magnitude of the images, are not special properties of optical systems, but necessary consequences of the supposition (in Abbe) of the reproduction of all points of a space in image points (Maxwell assumes a less general hypothesis), and are independent of the manner in which the reproduction is effected. These authors proved, however, that no optical system can justify ...
— Project Gutenberg Encyclopedia

... comprehended within the principles of the Prefect—its discovery would have been a matter altogether beyond question. This functionary, however, has been thoroughly mystified; and the remote source of his defeat lies in the supposition that the Minister is a fool, because he has acquired renown as a poet. All fools are poets; this the Prefect feels; and he is merely guilty of a non distributio medii in thence inferring that all poets ...
— The Works of Edgar Allan Poe - Volume 2 (of 5) of the Raven Edition • Edgar Allan Poe

... out of the system. Fourth, there is a joy seeing the leaves and branches grow the next summer and in old age one must feed and take joy from the eye and ear more and more and less and less from the mouth and stomach. Fifth, it is not at all an unreasonable supposition that as a boy again I may be climbing the same trees that I planted. And if I know for certain that I would not be then some other boy will ...
— Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the Eleventh Annual Meeting - Washington, D. C. October 7 AND 8, 1920 • Various

... among insects, it would be naturally supposed that the object of the mimicry was to enable the spider to approach its victim without exciting suspicion; and it is difficult to account, on any other supposition, for the very close resemblance between certain species of spiders and the particular species of ants which they prey upon. It seems as though the highest point of protective benefit would have been reached long ...
— A Book of Natural History - Young Folks' Library Volume XIV. • Various

... "Neb's supposition is certainly inadmissible," replied Harding, who, notwithstanding the gravity of his thoughts, could not restrain a smile. "It is certain that a gun has been fired in the island, within three months at most. But I am inclined to think that the ...
— The Mysterious Island • Jules Verne

... longer he was destined to delight the people. On this occasion, however, his arraignment left a deeper and more lasting impression than his words ordinarily did. "Seymour," he said, "undertook to increase enlistments by refusing the soldier his political franchise. On the supposition that Meade would be defeated, he delivered a Fourth of July address that indicted the free people of the North and placed him in the front rank of men whom rebels delight to honour. If there was a traitor in New York City on that day he was in the ...
— A Political History of the State of New York, Volumes 1-3 • DeAlva Stanwood Alexander

... consider the other supposition, that their growth may render them dangerous. Of this, I own, I have not the least conception, when I consider that we have already fourteen separate governments on the maritime coast of the continent; ...
— Benjamin Franklin • John Torrey Morse, Jr.

... have been some one who had rendered military or other services to the State. That he was the Prescott who commanded at Bunker Hill is, indeed, possible; but, as the grant was probably made before the Revolutionary War, that supposition ...
— The Bay State Monthly, Volume II. No. 2, November, 1884 • Various

... reader is wholly different from that of the actor in events. That I had chanced on one of those curious coincidences in the romance of real life which a reader looks out for and expects in following the course of narrative, was a supposition forbidden to me by a variety of causes. There was not the least family resemblance between Vivian and any of his relations; and, somehow or other, in Roland's son I had pictured to myself a form and ...
— The Caxtons, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... foolish enough to fall into the other trap, and imagine, therefore, that He did not know what was going on. Jimbo felt quite sure that He was only waiting his chance; and the governess's avoidance of the subject tended to confirm this supposition. ...
— Jimbo - A Fantasy • Algernon Blackwood

... what I call an insult is the bare supposition that I could for a moment think of prostituting my person for a maintenance; for in that point of view does such a marriage appear to me, who consider right and wrong in the abstract, and never by words and ...
— Mary Wollstonecraft • Elizabeth Robins Pennell

... send any message to him from himself, and perhaps was even ignorant that the merchant had any intention of reclaiming him, he looked upon it as a confirmation of his having intirely thrown off all care of him, and in this supposition he became more resolute than ever in his mind, to go where he never might be heard ...
— Life's Progress Through The Passions - Or, The Adventures of Natura • Eliza Fowler Haywood

... to vol. 2, p. LXXII. A 294, c, H 371, I. 2, 2, n. The best texts of Cicero now give only one example of a construction at all resembling this, viz. pro Scauro 13 obliviscendum vobis putatis matrum in liberos, virorum in uxores scelera? The supposition of some scholars, that in this passage Cic. used the construction in imitation of the archaic style of Cato, is not likely to be true, seeing that in Cato's extant works the construction does not once occur. For the form undum ...
— Cato Maior de Senectute • Marcus Tullius Cicero

... ortho-position being generally the most powerful. Kauffmann (Ber., 1906, 39, p. 1959) attempted an evaluation of the effects of auxochromic groups by means of the magnetic optical constants. The method is based on the supposition that the magnetic rotation measures the strain produced in the molecule by an auxochrome, and he arranges the groups ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 6, Slice 1 - "Chtelet" to "Chicago" • Various

... the child?" asked the captain; and again they searched the cabin. The closet was peered into to its topmost shelf; a few boxes that had been left, emptied of their contents; even the bed on which Charlie lay was minutely examined, and the improbable supposition that the walls of the cellar might conceal him was renounced, as the soldiers struck the butts of their guns against ...
— The Cabin on the Prairie • C. H. (Charles Henry) Pearson

... in such a supposition. But it is the tendency of innocent natures, when they are made acquainted with evil for the first time, to go at once too far, beyond reason. When he was once convinced of the treachery of Georges and Sidonie, Risler's ...
— Fromont and Risler, Complete • Alphonse Daudet

... aboard!" These were his very words, and I had no reason to doubt that they were true. On the contrary, his behaviour, and that of those who were with him, went far to prove their truth. On no other supposition could I account for their haste to be gone; but the hypothesis of the powder at once explained it. Beyond a doubt the speech was true. There was a barrel of powder aboard! Both he and the mate were aware ...
— Ran Away to Sea • Mayne Reid

... plus naturel qu'il ait commence ses travaux par cet acte de foi qu'il devait songer a faire batir une eglise pres de sa demeure. Dans cette supposition, on s'explique facilement que la croix ait ete plantee un jour de fete solennelle ou tout le monde surtout a cette epoque, devait vaquer a ses devoirs religieux. Je vois dans les Archives de Beauport par Mgr. Langevin que la maison de Giffard, d'apres M. Ferland, ...
— Picturesque Quebec • James MacPherson Le Moine

... been found. (Cf. "Romania", xvi. 101, and "Ztsch. fur romanische Philologie", xi. 430.) From this passage G. Paris surmised that Chretien himself was a herald-at-arms ("Journal des Savants", 1902, p. 296), but as Foerster says, the text hardly warrants the supposition.] ...
— Four Arthurian Romances - "Erec et Enide", "Cliges", "Yvain", and "Lancelot" • Chretien de Troyes

... is said, by those who interpret the curse of Canaan as divine authority for slavery, that God has hereby ordained that the descendants of Ham shall be slaves. The descendants of Shem are not, of course, doomed to that curse. Now, upon the supposition that these are the words of God, and not the denunciations of an irritated father just awaking from his drunkenness, we ought not to find any of Canaan's descendants out of a condition of slavery, nor any of the descendants ...
— History of the Negro Race in America From 1619 to 1880. Vol 1 - Negroes as Slaves, as Soldiers, and as Citizens • George W. Williams

... most severely criticized for her lack of affection for Balzac, and their married life has generally been conceded to have been very unhappy. This supposition seems to have been based largely on hearsay. Miss Sandars quotes from a letter written to her daughter on May 16 from Frankfort, in which, speaking of Balzac as "poor dear friend," she seems to be quite ignorant ...
— Women in the Life of Balzac • Juanita Helm Floyd

... Under this supposition the boats were permitted to approach unharmed, their course being directed towards a large Tartar junk. A near approach being thus made, grappling-irons were flung out, and in a minute more the daring assailants were leaping ...
— Historic Tales, Vol. 12 (of 15) - The Romance of Reality • Charles Morris

... on the supposition that only such ships would be convoyed as carried goods not regarded as contraband according to the British interpretation made in the ...
— New York Times Current History: The European War, Vol 2, No. 1, April, 1915 - April-September, 1915 • Various

... example of the Court, no dictates of either religion or morality ever interfered to protect the sanctity of home; unbridled desires were often the sole cause of murderous assaults; and these fearful crimes continually passing unpunished, encouraged the supposition that men's passions were given to be their sole guide, before which, honor, innocence, ...
— The Vale of Cedars • Grace Aguilar

... husband. As to the first part of the accusation, I can only observe, that I never yet had the fortune to fall in with any lady who did not try all she could to have her own way, nor do I conceive it to be a crime. As to the second, if the reader has formed that supposition, he is much mistaken. Madame de Fontanges was very much attached to her husband, and the attachment as well ...
— Newton Forster • Frederick Marryat

... to the sea ice, so that we had the best possible surface for our sleds. Our first undertaking was to ascend the Barrier in order to get a general survey and to determine a suitable place for the erection of the house which we had brought with us. The supposition that this part of the Barrier rests on land seemed to be confirmed immediately by our surroundings. Instead of the smooth, flat surface which the outer wall of the Barrier presents, we here found the surface to be very uneven. We everywhere saw sharp ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Vol. 21 - The Recent Days (1910-1914) • Charles F. Horne, Editor

... religion out of the case, the happiness of the present life would consist in a manner wholly in riches, honours, sensual gratifications; insomuch that one scarce hears a reflection made upon prudence, life, conduct, but upon this supposition. Yet, on the contrary, that persons in the greatest affluence of fortune are no happier than such as have only a competency; that the cares and disappointments of ambition for the most part far exceed the satisfactions of it; as also the miserable ...
— Human Nature - and Other Sermons • Joseph Butler

... and their being drawn with absolute geometrical precision, as if they were the work of rule or compass, has led some to see in them the work of intelligent beings, inhabitants of the planet. I am very careful not to combat this supposition, which includes nothing impossible. (Io mi guarder bene dal combattere questa supposizione, la quale nulla include d'impossibile.) But it will be noticed that in any case the gemination cannot be a work ...
— The Certainty of a Future Life in Mars • L. P. Gratacap

... so detested by himself. He ridiculed the notion that King Philip either could or would freely disburse 600,000 crowns on the mere word of Cobham. Elizabeth's own Londoners did not lend to her without lands in pawn. Yet more absurd was the supposition that Ralegh was in the plot. Thrice had he served against Spain at sea. Against Spain he had expended, of his own property, 40,000 marks. 'Spanish as you term me, I had at this time writ a treatise to the ...
— Sir Walter Ralegh - A Biography • William Stebbing

... made against Rhodes that he wished to make for himself in South Africa a position of such independence and strength that even the authority of the Queen might find itself compromised by it. As has been pointed out, the supposition was devoid of truth, but it is quite certain that the then Premier of Cape Colony would not have objected had the suzerainty been placed in his hands by England and British rule in South Africa vested solely ...
— Cecil Rhodes - Man and Empire-Maker • Princess Catherine Radziwill

... Henderson argues against the above-quoted (No.6) supposition of Charles Etienne's (which is supported by Cotgrave's Vin miell, honied wine, bastard, Metheglin, sweet wine), and adopts Venner's account (Via Recta ad Vitam Longam), that "Bastard is in virtue somewhat like to muskadell, and may also in stead ...
— Early English Meals and Manners • Various

... you have just told me, my boy," he said with a smile. "In the first place your reasoning is not at all bad. Of course it is obvious that I cannot suspect myself of being Fantomas, but I quite admit that if I were in your place I might make the supposition, wild as it may seem. And, in the next place, you have shadowed me without my becoming aware of the fact, and that is very good indeed: a proof that you are uncommonly smart." He looked at the lad attentively for a few moments, and then went on ...
— Fantomas • Pierre Souvestre

... is so certainly and clearly established, that all supposition to the contrary becomes inexplicable and absurd. Such, for example, is a hypothesis that it should not be attributed to the Evangelist, but to another Luke, also called 'Saint,' and a Florentine by birth. This ...
— Alps and Sanctuaries of Piedmont and the Canton Ticino • Samuel Butler

... the time he would himself laugh at this extravagant supposition, but, while endeavoring to make light of his own cowardice, the idea still haunted and tormented him. Sometimes, in the effort to rid himself of the persistence of his own imagination, he would try to exorcise the demon ...
— A Woodland Queen, Complete • Andre Theuriet

... strain, or sexual excitement. It has been shown that such epileptic tendencies are present in subjects of pituitary disease, particularly those with pituitary instability. In Napoleon's case the brain attacks may have been crises of pituitary insufficiency in a hyper-pituitary type. This supposition is borne out by the headache which followed them, the headache of an oversecreting pituitary compensating for a defect in its formation. During his prime, his intellect was mathematical, logical, and rational, and remarkable for a prodigious memory. Such an intellect is the ...
— The Glands Regulating Personality • Louis Berman, M.D.

... In 1606 the supposition was that the river system of North America might be like that of Russia, where easy portages joining rivers flowing in different directions made it possible to travel, most of the way by boat, from the north to the south of the country and return. ...
— The Virginia Company Of London, 1606-1624 • Wesley Frank Craven

... recorded in history which lends support to the supposition that Anne of Austria had a son whose birth was kept as secret as her marriage ...
— Celebrated Crimes, Complete • Alexandre Dumas, Pere

... not be necessary to consider further the subject of bars in the river, but those at its mouth deserve some attention. The subject is one that has led to much theorizing, study, and fear—the latter particularly, from an ill-founded supposition that they threaten to cut off ...
— Continental Monthly , Vol. 5, No. 6, June, 1864 - Devoted to Literature and National Policy • Various



Words linked to "Supposition" :   divination, possibility, guess, self-evident truth, supposititious, basis, presumption, surmisal, view, assumption, theory, speculation, groundwork, foundation, hypothesis



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