"Variable" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... instead of proving a dreary season of frost or fog, was apt to be as variable as April. Sheltered by the tall mountains, the climate was mild, and though snow would lie on the peaks of Penllwyd and Cwm Dinas it rarely rested on the lower levels. Very early in January the garden at The Woodlands could boast brave clumps ...
— For the Sake of the School • Angela Brazil
... not admit of female electors. Whether this be right or wrong, the objection to our Constitution is, that it does not settle the point one way or the other with an absolute certainty. The practice is variable. The generally received opinion, however, is that the Constitution permits it. In this state of the matter it is not competent for the Legislature to interfere. Nothing short of a constitutional declaration can decide the question; which is, in fact, an important ...
— History of Woman Suffrage, Volume I • Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Matilda Joslyn Gage
... overwhelm and break down the artificial fences and bulwarks of sophistry by the irresistible tide of manly enthusiasm. Sir James Mackintosh is an accomplished debater, rather than a powerful orator: he is distinguished more as a man of wonderful and variable talent than as a man of commanding intellect. His mode of treating a question is critical, and not parliamentary. It has been formed in the closet and the schools, and is hardly fitted for scenes of active life, or the collisions ...
— The Spirit of the Age - Contemporary Portraits • William Hazlitt
... Froebel puts it, "the finest and most variable material that can be offered a boy for purposes of representation." The little boxes associated with the Kindergarten were originally planned for the use of nursery children two to three years of age, and in most if not in all Kindergartens these have been replaced by larger ...
— The Child Under Eight • E.R. Murray and Henrietta Brown Smith
... demands much more of philosophy than Sir W. Hamilton deems it capable of accomplishing. Why may not Hamilton, like Kant, distinguish between the permanent and necessary, and the variable and contingent—in other words, between the subjective and the objective elements of consciousness, without therefore obtaining a "direct intuition of things in themselves?" Why may he not distinguish between space and time as the forms of our sensitive cognitions, ...
— The Philosophy of the Conditioned • H. L. Mansel
... sepulchre, enriched with the improvements of succeeding times, and respectfully consulted as often as any doubtful question arose in the tribunals of Palestine. With the kingdom and city all was lost: [133] the fragments of the written law were preserved by jealous tradition [134] and variable practice till the middle of the thirteenth century: the code was restored by the pen of John d'Ibelin, count of Jaffa, one of the principal feudatories; [135] and the final revision was accomplished in the year thirteen hundred and sixty-nine, for the ...
— The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Volume 5 • Edward Gibbon
... see that his hopes had again been crushed. The Forward weighed anchor, and took up her uncertain march northward. As the Forward began to be weather-worn, the masts were unreeved, for they could no longer rely on the variable wind, and the sails were nearly useless in the winding channels. Large white marks appeared here and there on the sea like oil spots; they presaged an approaching frost; as soon as the breeze dropped the ...
— The English at the North Pole - Part I of the Adventures of Captain Hatteras • Jules Verne
... to leave the port. "On the 12th, we got into a clean berth for getting under weigh, but in the morning the wind being variable and light we were prevented sailing. I went on shore with Mr. Barrallier to make a survey of the cove we were lying in. When preparing to return to the vessel we were joined by several natives who appeared anxious to go on board with us. Two of these were strangers who signified ...
— The Logbooks of the Lady Nelson - With The Journal Of Her First Commander Lieutenant James Grant, R.N • Ida Lee
... ambition nowadays—Degas, Whistler, yes. But for the rest—dwarfs. Modern improvements indeed! Science may improve, but not art. Art, like religion, is an absolute in life—nobody will ever paint better than Velasquez, write better than Shakespeare, or pray better than the Psalmist. Science is the variable—always on the go; and when we think of progress it is just as well that we foolishly keep ...
— Without Prejudice • Israel Zangwill
... exact, the specific heat of ice is 0.504, hence 32 degrees x 0.504 16.128 B. t. u. would be required to raise the temperature of one pound of ice from 0 to 32 degrees. For solids, at ordinary temperatures, the specific heat may be considered a constant for each individual substance, although it is variable for high temperatures. In the case of gases a distinction must be made between specific heat at constant volume, ...
— Steam, Its Generation and Use • Babcock & Wilcox Co.
... whether the situation is unfolding along the lines desired by him, as promulgated in the directives of the third step. In effect, the commander, after action is begun, considers the changing situation as a variable in the problem presented for his solution by the original (basic) situation. With the march of events, he is, therefore, constantly critical to detect whether variations from the original situation are in accordance with his design or whether these variations have introduced ...
— Sound Military Decision • U.s. Naval War College
... sights and the object aimed at cannot be in focus together, and a great deal depends on the form of sight. Tycho Brahe invented, and applied to the pointers of his instruments, an aperture-sight of variable area, like the iris diaphragm used now in photography. This enabled him to get the best result with stars of different brightness. The telescope not having been invented, he could not use a telescopic-sight as we now do in gunnery. This not only removes the difficulty of focussing, ...
— History of Astronomy • George Forbes
... still do fly away Like empty shadows, did afflict my brain) Walk'd forth to ease my pain Along the shore of silver-streaming Thames; Whose rutty bank, the which his river hems, Was painted all with variable flowers, And all the meads adorn'd with dainty gems Fit to deck maidens' bowers, And crown their paramours Against the bridal day, which is not long: Sweet Thames! run softly, till ...
— The Golden Treasury - Of the Best Songs and Lyrical Poems in the English Language • Various
... acid which I obtain from different chemists rather variable in its strength. What I use is rather below the average strength, so that in general about six drachms of the commercial acid will suffice where I use one ounce; but the excess seems to ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 207, October 15, 1853 • Various
... the discretion of another, and the transferable character of the authority and claim of service of the master.[263] The manner in which men are brought into this condition; its continuance, and the means adopted for securing the authority and claim of masters, are all incidental and variable. They may be reasonable or unreasonable, just or unjust, at different times and places. The question, therefore, which the abolitionists have undertaken to decide, is not whether the laws enacted in the slaveholding States in relation to ...
— Cotton is King and The Pro-Slavery Arguments • Various
... to go in the landau, leaving the exclusive enjoyment of Robin's variable humours to Horatio and the juveniles. There was a general idea that Robin, in conjunction with a hilly country, might be sooner or later fatal to the young Wendovers; but they went on driving him, nevertheless, as everybody knew that if he did ultimately ...
— The Golden Calf • M. E. Braddon
... develop very slowly or indications of indigestion will be present as the appetite is variable, temperature elevated, breathing labored, the animal avoids walking down hill as it causes pain from the stomach and intestines pressing the lungs against the heart. The symptoms, however, are so slight that they may ...
— The Veterinarian • Chas. J. Korinek
... practical training. She knew all the inconveniences and anxieties of an insufficient and variable income. But she also knew the unselfishness, the affectionate give-and-take of a big family. She knew what miracles the loving patience of her mother daily performed. She knew the selflessness of her father, which kept him at ...
— The Cricket • Marjorie Cooke
... have been changed and are listed below. Author's archaic and variable spelling is preserved. Author's punctuation style is preserved. Passages ...
— Leading Articles on Various Subjects • Hugh Miller
... divers things: but taking away the diversity of means, and the diversity of matter, it then works but one or the like work; neither can it but work, matter being present." Now if Nature made choice of diversity of matter, to work all these variable works of heaven and earth, it had then both understanding and will; it had counsel to begin; reason to dispose; virtue and knowledge to finish, and power to govern: without which all things had ...
— Prefaces and Prologues to Famous Books - with Introductions, Notes and Illustrations • Charles W. Eliot
... formation of Johnston's army into three long, thin, parallel lines, together with the broken character of the ground and the variable obstinacy of resistance encountered, produced a complete and inextricable commingling of commands. General Beauregard left it to the discretion of the different commanders to select the place ...
— From Fort Henry to Corinth • Manning Ferguson Force
... that both enable us to make previsions differing only in their precision; and that while the one deals with equal properties and relations, the other deals with properties and relations that approximate towards equality in variable degrees. ...
— Essays on Education and Kindred Subjects - Everyman's Library • Herbert Spencer
... societies have no plan or system by which, as a whole, they are guided. The county societies have been and are the chief means of influence and progress; but they have no power which can be systematically applied; their movements are variable, and their annual exhibitions do not always indicate the condition of agriculture in the districts represented. They have become, to a certain extent, localized in the vicinity of the towns where the fairs are held; and yet they do not ...
— Thoughts on Educational Topics and Institutions • George S. Boutwell
... or Italy; the most esteemed of all are those of Roquevaire; they are very large and very sweet. This sort is rarely eaten by any but the most wealthy. The dried Malaga, or Muscatel raisins, which come to this country packed in small boxes, and nicely preserved in bunches, are variable in their quality, but mostly of a rich flavour, when new, juicy, and of a ...
— The Book of Household Management • Mrs. Isabella Beeton
... bird, far less brilliant in plumage than the tanager, alighted even nearer, and poured forth a flood of song to which Henry listened without moving. Then the gray bird also flew away, not in fear, but because its variable mind moved it to do so. It too had come as a friend and it departed without changing. A rabbit hopped through the brush, stared at him a moment or two, and then hopped calmly out of sight. Its visit had all the appearance ...
— The Eyes of the Woods - A story of the Ancient Wilderness • Joseph A. Altsheler
... in variable words, quality, person, mode or time. The radical, on the contrary, represents the ...
— Delsarte System of Oratory • Various
... in the main vegetarians, but the vegetables which they cultivate "contain a large proportion of starch and water, and are deficient in proteids. Moreover, the supply of the principal staples is irregular, being greatly affected by variable seasons, and the attacks of insects and vermin. Very few of them will bear keeping, and almost all of them must be eaten when ripe. As the food is of low nutritive value, a native always eats to repletion. In times of plenty a full-grown man will eat as much as ten pounds' weight of vegetables ...
— The Belief in Immortality and the Worship of the Dead, Volume I (of 3) • Sir James George Frazer
... yields the bread of life. But the mainspring of the world's onward religious movement is not in them, nor in any one body of men, let me tell you. It is the people that makes the clergy, and not the clergy that makes the people. Of course, the profession reacts on its source with variable energy.—But there never was a guild of dealers or a company of craftsmen that did not need ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 3, Issue 15, January, 1859 • Various
... last week the weather was very variable and unsettled, with constant gales from the north-west round to the south-west, and occasional heavy rain. We had reason to congratulate ourselves on the change of our situation: a delay of a few days would have swept us from the face of the earth. On ...
— Journals of Two Expeditions into the Interior of New South Wales • John Oxley
... a slip of metal of variable breadth inserted at the focus of the telescope. By observing at what point this exactly covered an object under examination, and knowing the focal length of the telescope and the width of the metal, he could then deduce the apparent ...
— A History of Science, Volume 2(of 5) • Henry Smith Williams
... varies from this norm, though not very often, the alteration usually taking the form of the loss of the first syllable, so that the half-line consists of three trochees. The second half is much more variable. Sometimes, in the same way as with the first, a syllable is dropped at the opening, and the half-line becomes similarly trochaic. Sometimes there is a double rhyme instead of a single, making seven syllables, though not altering the rhythm; and sometimes this is extended ...
— The Flourishing of Romance and the Rise of Allegory - (Periods of European Literature, vol. II) • George Saintsbury
... with statues of the heathen deities (although they were all but personifications of the various attributes of nature,) would be ridiculous. Setting aside the injury they must sustain from our damp, variable climate, they would be out of keeping with all around; here it is altogether different; the very air of Italy is embued with the spirit of ancient mythology; and though "the fair humanities of old religion," the Nymphs, the Fauns, the Dryads be banished from their haunts and ...
— The Diary of an Ennuyee • Anna Brownell Jameson
... lost, and Evil got, Happier, had it suffic'd him to have known Good by it self, and Evil not at all. He sorrows now, repents, and prayes contrite, 90 My motions in him, longer then they move, His heart I know, how variable and vain Self-left. Least therefore his now bolder hand Reach also of the Tree of Life, and eat, And live for ever, dream at least to live Forever, to remove him I decree, And send him from the Garden forth to Till The Ground whence he was taken, fitter ...
— The Poetical Works of John Milton • John Milton
... with cyanine, modified by the various juices of plants, communicates in variable proportions orange-yellow, scarlet-red, and red colors ...
— The Art of Perfumery - And Methods of Obtaining the Odors of Plants • G. W. Septimus Piesse
... country folks. They are very neglectful of their health, and as the changes of temperature are rapid and sudden, the chief mortality arises from inflammation of the lungs. It is difficult indeed to defend oneself against so variable a climate. On my arrival the heat was tropical. Twelve hours later I should have rejoiced in a fire. Dangerous, too, is the delicious hour after sunset, when mist rises from the valley, whilst yet the purple and golden glow on the peaks above ...
— In the Heart of the Vosges - And Other Sketches by a "Devious Traveller" • Matilda Betham-Edwards
... separated the fact of this sensual pleasure from the various women in whose company one has tasted it, when one has not reduced it to a general idea which makes one regard them thenceforward as the variable instruments of a pleasure that is always the same. Indeed, that pleasure does not exist, isolated and formulated in the consciousness, as the ultimate object with which one seeks a woman's company, or as the cause of the uneasiness which, in anticipation, one then feels. ...
— Swann's Way - (vol. 1 of Remembrance of Things Past) • Marcel Proust
... and likeness of Him, and all hell over against it like one monstrous man. This has been said because some natural men seize on arguments for their madness in favor of nature and of one's own prudence from even the constant and fixed which must exist for the variable ...
— Angelic Wisdom about Divine Providence • Emanuel Swedenborg
... tremendous pace. The machine "kicks" against this treatment, however, and, when about half wray down, it strikes a hole and sends me spinning and gyrating through space; and when I finally strike terra firma, it thumps me unmercifully in the ribs ere it lets me up. "Variable" is the word descriptive of the Iowa roads; for seventy-five miles due east of Omaha the prairie rolls like a heavy Atlantic swell, and during a day's journey I pass through a dozen alternate stretches of muddy ...
— Around the World on a Bicycle V1 • Thomas Stevens
... a revised ideal of life. Look back through the past, or look abroad through the present, and we find that the ideal of life is variable and depends on social conditions. Everyone knows that to be a successful warrior was the highest aim among all ancient peoples of note, as it is still among many barbarous peoples. When we remember that in the Norseman's heaven, the time was to be passed in daily battles with ...
— Modern Eloquence: Vol III, After-Dinner Speeches P-Z • Various
... French sou or shilling appears upon different occasions to have contained five, twelve, twenty, and forty pennies. Among the ancient Saxons, a shilling appears at one time to have contained only five pennies, and it is not improbable that it may have been as variable among them as among their neighbours, the ancient Franks. From the time of Charlemagne among the French, and from that of William the Conqueror among the English, the proportion between the pound, the shilling, and the penny, seems ...
— An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations • Adam Smith
... have standardized breakfasts and reading. If I feel in the mood for an orange I want an orange, even if my neighbor has a casaba melon. So, if I want my "Middlemarch," I'm quite eager for that book, and am quite willing for my neighbor to have his "Henry Esmond." The appetite for books is variable, the same as for food, and I'd rather consult my appetite than my neighbor when choosing a book as a companion through a lazy afternoon beneath the maple-tree, I refuse to try to supervise the reading of my pupils. ...
— Reveries of a Schoolmaster • Francis B. Pearson
... brethren, and of the faults and negligences of certain portions of the Christian community—and, finally, to endure many and various sufferings in satisfaction for the souls of purgatory. All these sufferings appeared like real illnesses, which took the most opposite and variable forms, and she was placed entirely under the care of the doctor, who endeavoured by earthly remedies to cure illnesses which in reality were the very sources of her life. She said on this subject—'Repose in suffering ...
— The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ • Anna Catherine Emmerich
... punctuation, omitted or transposed letters) have been repaired. Otherwise, however, variable spelling (including proper names, where there was no way to establish which spelling was correct) and hyphenation has been left as printed, due to the number ...
— The 1926 Tatler • Various
... of use-inheritance open, I pass on to say a word about variation as considered in itself and apart from this doubtful influence. Weismann holds, that organisms resulting from the union of two cells are more variable than those produced out of a single one. On this view, variation depends largely on the laws of the interaction of the dissimilar characters brought together in cell-union. But what are these laws? The best that can be said is that we are getting to know a little more ...
— Anthropology • Robert Marett
... animals they resemble infinitely small tadpoles, and their tails are equally mobile. The female germinative cell, on the contrary, is immobile and much larger than the male cell. Conjugation consists in the movement of the male cell, by means of variable mechanism, toward the female cell, or egg, into the protoplasm of which it enters. At this moment it produces on the surface of the egg a coagulation, which prevents the ...
— The Sexual Question - A Scientific, psychological, hygienic and sociological study • August Forel
... renders it the more necessary that the Residents in such places should be persons not disapproved of by the Court of Directors. They are to manage a permanent interest, which is not, like a matter of political negotiation, variable, and which, from circumstances, might possibly excuse some degree of discretionary latitude in construing their orders. During the lifetime of General Clavering and Colonel Monson, Mr. Bristow was appointed to this Presidency, and that appointment, being approved ...
— The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. VIII. (of 12) • Edmund Burke
... from the foot of the Lammermoors towards the sea-coast, including the coal-works of Preston-Hall, Huntlaw, Pencaitland, Tranent, and Blindwells. In this range of the coal-formation, the seam of coal is variable, but generally exceedingly thin, varying in thickness from eighteen inches, to three or four feet. It is with difficulty that mining operations can be prosecuted, from the extremely limited space in which the men have ...
— An Investigation into the Nature of Black Phthisis • Archibald Makellar
... hardly say that here the movements are co-ordinated like those of a machine; the acts of the animal are adapted to a special end; we find in them the characters of intelligence and will, a knowledge and choice of means, since they are as variable as the cause ...
— Life and Habit • Samuel Butler
... instinctive cries as such are practically identical for all humanity, just as the human skeleton or nervous system is to all intents and purposes a "fixed," that is, an only slightly and "accidentally" variable, feature of man's organism. ...
— Language - An Introduction to the Study of Speech • Edward Sapir
... a distance of three to five miles, farmers generally make two loads of a cord each, a day's work. From the barn-yard, a very variable number, per day. In my own case, two men with three horses have been hauling six and seven loads of sixty bushels, fine compost, a distance of from one-half to three-fourths of a mile, up a long and rather steep hill, ...
— Talks on Manures • Joseph Harris
... of misfortune, by which it was decreed that the virtue and the constancy of our heroine should be tried, was not yet ended. The disposition of a melancholy lover is in the utmost degree variable. Now the fair Delia studiously sought to plunge herself in impervious solitude; and now, worn with a train of gloomy reflections, she with equal eagerness solicited the ...
— Damon and Delia - A Tale • William Godwin
... is preserved as printed. Please note that both Oronooco and Oronooko appear in the text as variable spellings. ...
— The Church of England Magazine - Volume 10, No. 263, January 9, 1841 • Various
... to the smaller cylinder is regulated by an adjustable cut-off apparatus, which admits of maintaining a uniform power under a variable pressure. When the reservoir at first starting contains air at a very high pressure, the cut-off is adjusted so that the small cylinder receives a very small charge of air at each stroke; when the pressure in the reservoir ...
— Scientific American, Volume XLIII., No. 25, December 18, 1880 • Various
... form of polygamy, but Hinton was careful to point out that by "polygamy" he meant "less a particular marriage-order than such an order as best serves good, and which therefore must be essentially variable. Monogamy may be good, even the only good order, if of free choice; but a law for it is another thing. The sexual relationship must be a natural thing. The true social life will not be any fixed and definite relationship, as of monogamy, polygamy, ...
— Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 6 (of 6) • Havelock Ellis
... numbers for their security; but by the artificial structure of the accompts, produce a probability beyond what is derived from the skill and experience of the accomptant. For that is plainly of itself some degree of probability; though uncertain and variable, according to the degrees of his experience and length of the accompt. Now as none will maintain, that our assurance in a long numeration exceeds probability, I may safely affirm, that there scarce is any proposition ...
— A Treatise of Human Nature • David Hume
... the picture of her as a little school-girl herself: sent fastidiously on her way, with long gloves covering her arms, a white linen mask tied over her face to screen her complexion from tan, a sunbonnet sewed tightly on her head to keep it secure from the capricious winds of heaven and the more variable gusts of her own wilfulness; or on another picture of her—as a lonely little lass—begging to be taken to court, where she could marvel at her father, an awful judge in his wig and his robe of scarlet and black velvet; or ...
— The Choir Invisible • James Lane Allen
... abstract, hypothetical, and variable portions of the craft—or, if you will, of the science—depending on ten thousand varying and variable circumstances—depending on persons, passions, fancies, whims; caprices royal, national, parliamentary, and personal, is above theory, and ...
— Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Volume 1, No. 2, July, 1850. • Various
... hand-holds, Arcot made his way towards the control room, which was now above, now below, and now to one side of him as the wildly variable acceleration shook the ship. Doggedly, he worked his way up, frequently getting severe burns ...
— Islands of Space • John W Campbell
... talked of being absent for a week—he remained away for a month. We heard of him, leading a wild life, among a vicious set of men. It was reported that a frantic restlessness possessed him which nobody could understand. He came back as suddenly as he had left us. His variable nature had swung round, in the interval, to the opposite extreme. He was full of repentance for his reckless conduct; he was in a state of depression which defied rousing; he despaired of himself and his future. Sometimes ...
— Poor Miss Finch • Wilkie Collins
... Madarmali, there is a wretched small silver coin called Dama, of which the value in exchange is variable; but commonly 136 Damas ...
— An Account of The Kingdom of Nepal • Fancis Buchanan Hamilton
... ventilation, 139. Nutt's hive too complicated. Ventilation independent of the entrance, 140. Hive may be entirely closed without incommoding the bees. Ventilators should be easily removable to be cleansed. Ventilation from above injurious except when bees are to be moved, 141. Variable size of the entrance adapts it to all seasons. Ventilators should be closed in Spring. Downing on ...
— Langstroth on the Hive and the Honey-Bee - A Bee Keeper's Manual • L. L. Langstroth
... he could trace, and he had a hereditary reverence for mother earth as the giver of bread to man. He took pleasure in the work of the farm, labouring patiently and cheerfully to bring it to the highest productiveness which the soil and the variable Canadian climate would permit. Hollows were filled and heights were levelled, and the wide stretch of lowland on either side of the Burn near its mouth, was year by year made to yield. A road or two to be cleared and drained and ...
— David Fleming's Forgiveness • Margaret Murray Robertson
... Mediterranean region. The rhododendrons, of which only four species are European, have their headquarters in China, numbering 130 species, varying in size from miniature shrubs 6 in. high to tall trees. Lysimachia, Primula, Clematis, Rubus and Gentiana have each a hundred species, extraordinary variable in habit, in size and in colour of the flowers. The ferns are equally polymorphic, numbering 400 species, and including strange genera like Archangiopteris and Cheiropteris, unknown elsewhere. About 40 species of bamboos have been distinguished; the one with a square stem ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 6, Slice 2 - "Chicago, University of" to "Chiton" • Various
... her, for what he thought such premature proficiency in scientific coquetry. He had not sufficient resolution to keep beyond the sphere of her attraction; but, frequently, when he found himself within it, he cursed his folly, and drew back with sudden terror. His manner towards her was so variable and inconsistent, that she knew not how to interpret its language. Sometimes she fancied, that with all the eloquence of eyes he said, "I adore you, Belinda;" at other times she imagined that his guarded silence meant to warn her that ...
— Tales and Novels, Vol. III - Belinda • Maria Edgeworth
... one thing beyond its proportionate importance to adopt hasty conclusions; to entertain some questionable or erroneous principle because it appears to solve a difficulty, or perhaps falls in with an old prepossession; to make too much account of variable and transitory feelings; or to carry zeal beyond the limits of discretion. In examples of a lower order of the correction or reversal of the effects of ignorance by the influence of religion, the remains will be still more palpable. So that, while it is an unquestionable and gratifying fact, ...
— An Essay on the Evils of Popular Ignorance • John Foster
... is joyful he who is sure of travelling entertainment. [A ship's yards are short.][19] Variable is an autumn night. Many are the weather's changes in five days, but more in ...
— The Elder Eddas of Saemund Sigfusson; and the Younger Eddas of Snorre Sturleson • Saemund Sigfusson and Snorre Sturleson
... this family, I have promised to ride on Friday, wind and weather permitting; at present both are more variable than I can describe, the extreme changes of the temperature, and the suddenness of these, utterly surpassing all my experience. One day I have a large fire, and the next, windows and doors open in search of cool air: in the course of the afternoon a change of twenty ...
— Impressions of America - During The Years 1833, 1834, and 1835. In Two Volumes, Volume II. • Tyrone Power
... climate as variable, though not so humid, as that of any English town. A night of high wind followed upon that soft sunset, and all the next day was one of dry storm—dark, beclouded, yet rainless,—the streets were dim ...
— Villette • Charlotte Bronte
... however, is that human efficiency is a variable quantity which increases and decreases according to law. By the application of known physical laws the telephone and the telegraph have supplanted the messenger boy. By the laws of psychology applied to ...
— Increasing Efficiency In Business • Walter Dill Scott
... peculiarly convenient for watering. Many of the ships got two hundred tons on board in a single day. Several bullocks were here purchased, and a considerable quantity of onions. At noon, on the 24th, having gained no intelligence, the fleet again weighed, and stood for Ceuta; but variable winds, and a thick fog, kept them all night in Gibraltar Gut. About four o'clock, next morning, the Termagant joined, with an account of the combined fleet's having been seen, the 19th of June, by the Curieux brig, standing to the northward. At eight, the Spaniards fired a few ...
— The Life of the Right Honourable Horatio Lord Viscount Nelson, Vol. II (of 2) • James Harrison
... July and August, there was little to do afield, and fishing was impossible. Dannie grubbed fence corners, mended fences, chopped and corded wood for winter, and in spare time read his books. For the most part Jimmy kept close to Dannie. Jimmy's temper never had been so variable. Dannie was greatly troubled, for despite Jimmy's protests of devotion, he flared at a word, and sometimes at no word at all. The only thing in which he really seemed interested was the coon skin he ...
— At the Foot of the Rainbow • Gene Stratton-Porter
... of demonstrative science does not go on indefinitely, because one can come to principles that are self-evident, which are absolutely certain. But such like certainty is not to be had in contingent singulars, which are variable and uncertain. Therefore the inquiry of counsel ...
— Summa Theologica, Part I-II (Pars Prima Secundae) - From the Complete American Edition • Saint Thomas Aquinas
... energy can vary only by quanta inversely proportional to wave-length. The mechanical property of the resonators imagined by Planck is therefore precisely that which Wien's theory requires. If we are to suppose atoms of energy, therefore, they must be variable atoms. There are other objections which need not be touched upon here, the whole theory being in a very early ...
— A Librarian's Open Shelf • Arthur E. Bostwick
... theologic formula, reason to faith; it is easy to recognize the radical contradiction this attempt involves, which establishes reason herself as supreme judge of this very submission, the extent and the permanence of which is to depend upon her variable and not very rigid decisions. The most eminent thinker of the present catholic school, the illustrious De Maistre, himself affords a proof, as convincing as involuntary, of this inevitable contradiction in his philosophy, when, renouncing all theologic weapons, he labours in his principal ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. CCCXXIX. - March, 1843, Vol. LIII. • Various
... is incapable of reproduction. But for some days before her monthly illness she is liable to conception, as for that length of time the male element can survive. This period, therefore, becomes a variable and an undetermined one, and even when known, its observation demands ...
— The Physical Life of Woman: - Advice to the Maiden, Wife and Mother • Dr. George H Napheys
... four or five hundred roots which remain, the insoluble residuum (so thought by Professor Mueller) of Language, after eliminating the immense mass of variable and soluble material, he says: 1. That 'they are phonetic types produced by a power inherent in human nature;' 2. 'Man, in his primitive and perfect state, was not only endowed like the brute with the power of expressing his sensations ...
— The Continental Monthly, Vol. 6, No 4, October, 1864 - Devoted To Literature And National Policy • Various
... keep a free hand and deal with each case on its merits as a whole. It should be observed that the fulfilment of a contract may create a relation between the parties which, once established, is governed by fixed rules of law not variable by the preceding agreement. Marriage is the most conspicuous example of this, and perhaps the only complete one in ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 7, Slice 2 - "Constantine Pavlovich" to "Convention" • Various
... reading, and the authority acquired by those whom he reverences and admires, or from the different impressions produced on the mind, as it happens to be preoccupied and predisposed, or equable and tranquil, and the like; so that the spirit of man (according to its several dispositions), is variable, confused, and, as it were, actuated by chance; and Heraclitus said well that men search for knowledge in lesser worlds, and not in the ...
— Manhood of Humanity. • Alfred Korzybski
... was pathetic. The instrument became, as it were, the organ of sadness, it became eloquent with an inarticulate wo; it was a breast bursting with affliction, a voice broken with sorrow, a soul dissolving with emotions. Then the variable harmonies rose from pensiveness into frenzy, from frenzy into the noise and the shocks of a great battle; they swelled to the din of contending armies, to the storm and vicissitudes of warlike deeds, and soared at last into a paean such as that ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine - Volume 62, No. 384, October 1847 • Various
... among themselves, as in those of the genus Hepoona, where the extent of the whiteness on the tail, and the variation in the colour of the body appear to differ in the specimens from the same place, I have regarded them as belonging to the same species, believing it to be a variable species ...
— Journals Of Two Expeditions Of Discovery In North-West And Western Australia, Vol. 2 (of 2) • George Grey
... "Dr. Milton assures me that there is nothing radically wrong with her health, only want of tone and a severe cold; but I cannot feel comfortable about her. She is losing appetite and flesh, and her spirits are so variable. She is not happy, Bessie, and she cannot always hide her feelings from her mother. Richard says that we can do nothing; but how are we to ...
— Our Bessie • Rosa Nouchette Carey
... augmented, when st or est is to be added for the second person of it. For, since we use sometimes one and sometimes the other of these endings; (as, saidst, sawest, bidst, knewest, lovedst, wentest;) there is yet need of some rule to show which we ought to prefer. The variable formation or orthography of verbs in the simple past tense, has always been one of the greatest difficulties that the learners of our language have had to encounter. At present, there is a strong tendency to terminate as many as we can of them in ed, which is the only regular ending. ...
— The Grammar of English Grammars • Goold Brown
... continued in the Sundays following, the number of which is variable being dependent on the time Easter is kept. There may be one "Sunday after Epiphany" or there may be six. The Scriptural teachings of these Sundays are all illustrative of the fact that the Eternal Word ...
— The American Church Dictionary and Cyclopedia • William James Miller
... critical judgment. The former is, in the nature of things, ill considered and fleeting. It is the product of a momentary gratification or disappointment. In a much greater degree than a judgment based on principle and precedent, such as a critic's ought to be, it is a judgment swayed by that variable thing called fashion—"Qual pium' ...
— How to Listen to Music, 7th ed. - Hints and Suggestions to Untaught Lovers of the Art • Henry Edward Krehbiel
... Charles's son George; Charles Darwin is "the father" or "Mr. Darwin, senior". Dwarka Nath Tagore was Rabindranath (both transliterations are variable) Tagore's grandfather. The evil Professor Whitney is William Dwight Whitney, author of the standard Sanskrit grammar ...
— Chips from a German Workshop - Volume IV - Essays chiefly on the Science of Language • Max Muller
... sun-up. We had just come out of the foothills, where the Brazos has its source, and before us lay the plains, dusty and arid. This grove of green timber held out a hope that within it might be found what we wanted. Eyesight is as variable as men, but Ramrod's was known to be reliable for five miles with the naked eye, and ten with the aid of a good glass. He dismounted at the sergeant's request, and focused the glass on this oasis, and after sweeping the field for a minute or so, ...
— Cattle Brands - A Collection of Western Camp-fire Stories • Andy Adams
... often wished I could convey to others a little of the happiness I have enjoyed all through my life in the study of Natural History. During twenty years of variable health, the companionship of the animal world has been my constant solace and delight. To keep my own memory fresh, in the first instance, and afterwards with a distinct intention of repeating my single experiences to others, I have kept notes of whatever has seemed to me ...
— Wild Nature Won By Kindness • Elizabeth Brightwen
... He set verie manie prisoners at libertie, and did many other things to benefit the people, wherein the diligence and good aduice of Lanfranke did not a little preuaile. For he perceiued that there was in the king a variable mind, an vnstable nature, and a disposition to lightnesse and follie. Wherefore hee tooke oftentimes the more paines in persuading him not onelie to liberalitie (which is none of the least vertues in a prince) but also to vse a discreet and orderlie behauiour in all his dooings. Moreouer, he sticked ...
— Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland (2 of 6): England (2 of 12) - William Rufus • Raphael Holinshed
... toward Point Venus, in the district of Matavia, eight or nine miles distant. Here there is an opening, by which ships enter, and glide down the smooth, deep canal, between the reef and the shore, to the harbour. But, by seamen generally, the leeward entrance is preferred, as the wind is extremely variable inside the reef. This latter entrance is a break in the barrier directly facing the bay and village of Papeetee. It is very narrow; and from the baffling winds, currents, and sunken rocks, ships now and then grate their ...
— Omoo: Adventures in the South Seas • Herman Melville
... hours between each town as the local did its variable thirty-five miles an hour across the southern end of New Mexico. It was Pete's first experience in traveling by rail, and true to himself he made the most of it. He used his eyes, and came to the conclusion that they were aboard a very fast train—a train that "would sure give a thoroughbred ...
— The Ridin' Kid from Powder River • Henry Herbert Knibbs
... those fables which awed the childhood of the race, it has followed that established priesthoods have been almost uniformly the most conservative of social forces, and that clergymen have seldom failed to slay their variable brethren when opportunity has offered. History teems with such slaughters, some of the most instructive of which are related in the Old Testament, whose code of ...
— The Emancipation of Massachusetts • Brooks Adams
... represent what really passes before the spiritual eyes of clairvoyant consciousness, when looking back upon these events. With regard to the Moon evolution this cannot be done in such sharp and definite outlines as are characteristic of earthly perceptions. In the Moon period we are mainly concerned with variable, changing impressions, with shifting, moving pictures and their transitory stages. We have, moreover, to bear in mind that we are contemplating an evolution continuing through long, long periods of time, and that ...
— An Outline of Occult Science • Rudolf Steiner
... understanding that the old supposition of its serving as a receptacle whence the bird might supply itself or its companions with water in dry places must be deemed to be wholly untenable. The structure of this pouch—the existence of which in some examples has been well established—is, however, variable; and though there is reason to believe that in one form or another it is more or less common to several exotic species of the family Otididae, it would seem to be as inconstant in its occurrence as in ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 4 - "Bulgaria" to "Calgary" • Various
... in New York or London. To every one in India falls naturally a little faithful company of assistants to oil the wheels of life—groom, gardener, butler and so forth—and a spacious dwelling-place to think of England in, and calculate the variable value of the rupee, and wonder why the dickens So-and-so got his knighthood. Agra seemed to me to be the most widespreading city of all; but very likely it is not. In itself it is far from being the most interesting, but it has one building ...
— Roving East and Roving West • E.V. Lucas
... effectually may a well-bred woman promote the most useful and elegant conversation, almost without speaking a word! for the modes of speech are scarcely more variable than the modes of silence. The silence of listless ignorance, and the silence of sparkling intelligence, are perhaps as separately marked, and as distinctly expressed, as the same feelings could have been by ...
— Essays on Various Subjects - Principally Designed for Young Ladies • Hannah More
... groups began to scatter themselves through the light and shadow made here by closely neighboring beeches and there by rarer oaks, one may suppose that a painter would have been glad to look on. This roving archery was far prettier than the stationary game, but success in shooting at variable marks were less favored by practice, and the hits were distributed among the volunteer archers otherwise than they would have been in target-shooting. From this cause, perhaps, as well as from the twofold distraction of being preoccupied and wishing not to betray her preoccupation, Gwendolen ...
— Daniel Deronda • George Eliot
... vote, for Jo is so decided in her manner that she makes me feel wobbly unless I am conscious of being backed up by Robbie Belle. I suppose it is because my own opinions are so shaky from the inside view that I hate to appear variable from the outside. It would have been horrid to yield to Jo's arguments and change my ideas right there before the whole board. The rest of them except Jo had fallen into a way of deferring to my judgment, for I had seemed ...
— Beatrice Leigh at College - A Story for Girls • Julia Augusta Schwartz
... I neuer heard a passion so confusd, So strange, outragious, and so variable, As the dogge Iew did vtter in the streets; My daughter, O my ducats, O my daughter, Fled with a Christian, O my Christian ducats! Iustice, the law, my ducats, and my daughter; A sealed bag, two sealed bags of ducats, Of double ducats, stolne from me by my ...
— The First Folio [35 Plays] • William Shakespeare
... the Kantian viewpoint amounts to is an exaltation of conscience-a much more concrete (and variable) thing than this abstract formula. Do your duty, at any cost! Our hearts respond to such preaching, but our intellects remain perplexed, if the practical apotheosis of goodness is not supplemented by an adequate ...
— Problems of Conduct • Durant Drake
... Parliament on the present Establishment, having been ordained in the Reign of Henry the First, Son of William the Conquerer) avoiding the turbulent Licentiousness of a Democracy, the factious domineering Temper of Aristocracy, and the variable oppressive Sway of Arbitrary Monarchy; but including, by an harmonious Assemblage, the essential Virtues of those different Systems of Government; is unquestionably the best digested and wisest in the known World: Under which, the King and the Nobles, with the Commons, unite, to ...
— An Essay on the Antient and Modern State of Ireland • Henry Brooke
... debt, if I tell you that your mind and intellect, to which I look up with reverence under a consciousness of immense inferiority, are much under the dominion, whether it be known or not known to yourself, of an agency lower than their own, more blind, more variable, more difficult to call inwardly to account and make to answer for itself—the agency, I mean, of painful and disheartening impressions—impressions which have an unhappy and powerful tendency to realise the very worst of what they picture. Of this ...
— Memoirs of James Robert Hope-Scott, Volume 2 • Robert Ornsby
... time of Ine, however, pending, pen(n)ing ("penny"), had already come into use for the latter, while, owing to the temporary disappearance of a gold coinage, scilling had come to denote a mere unit of account. It was, however, a variable unit, for the Kentish shilling contained twenty sceattas (pence), while the Mercian contained only four. The West Saxon shilling seems originally to have been identical with the Mercian, but later it contained five ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 3 - "Brescia" to "Bulgaria" • Various
... inquires concerning the material and efficient causes, but metaphysic handles the formal and final causes. So physic is in a middle term between natural history and metaphysic; for natural history describes the variety of things, physic the variable or respective causes, and metaphysic the fixed and constant causes. Of metaphysic I find that it is partly omitted and partly misplaced. In mathematics, which I place as a part of metaphysic, I can report no deficience. But natural prudence, or the operative part ...
— The Worlds Greatest Books, Volume XIII. - Religion and Philosophy • Various
... and colorless, as long as it does not come in contact with matter. When in apposition with any body, it suffers variable degrees of decomposition, resulting in color, as by reflection, dispersion, ...
— American Handbook of the Daguerrotype • Samuel D. Humphrey
... to his myths; that is to say, his subject is something he may fashion, and about which he may write verses. He will naturally do this with love and a certain becoming reverence, but with the sovereign right of the creator notwithstanding. And precisely because history is more supple and more variable than a dream to him, he can invest the most individual case with the characteristics of a whole age, and thus attain to a vividness of narrative of which historians are quite incapable. In what work of art, of any kind, has ...
— Thoughts out of Season (Part One) • Friedrich Nietzsche
... and dry winter is followed with a greater yield of sugar from the maple than a season very moist and variable. Trees growing in wet places will yield more sap, but much less sugar from the same quantity, than trees on more elevated and drier ground. The red and white maple will yield sap, but it has much less of the saccharine quality than ...
— The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom • P. L. Simmonds
... (Burmah type), or pale (Ceylon), is more pleasing usually than the red of any of the other species. Viewed from the back of the stone (by transmitted light) it is still pleasing. It may be purplish, but is seldom orange red. Also, owing to the dichroism of the ruby the red is variable according to the changing position of the stone. It therefore has a certain life and variety not seen in any of the others except perhaps in red tourmaline, which, however, does not approach ruby in fineness of ...
— A Text-Book of Precious Stones for Jewelers and the Gem-Loving Public • Frank Bertram Wade
... Valley of Oregon and to some extent in a narrow strip running north towards Seattle. The best informed are planting only in fertile, moist, properly drained soils so situated that air drainage is good. The local soils are much more variable than would be suggested by casual observation. Also, greater attention is being paid to air drainage in that part of the country than in the East. Several years ago there was a sudden drop in temperature from 32 degrees above to 24 degrees below zero, at McMinnville, Oregon. ...
— Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the Fifteenth Annual Meeting • Various
... valid argument against extreme fineness of the stone used in liberal applications is the danger of loss by leaching. Soils are so variable in their ability to hold what may be given them that it is idle to offer any estimate on this point. The amount of lime found in the drainage waters of limestone land teaches no lesson of value for other land, the excessive loss in the former case being due oftentimes to ...
— Right Use of Lime in Soil Improvement • Alva Agee
... book is to stimulate thought and to encourage the average young officer to seek truth for, and in, himself. It is never a good idea to attempt a precise formula about matters which are by nature indefinite and subject to all number of variable factors. ...
— The Armed Forces Officer - Department of the Army Pamphlet 600-2 • U. S. Department of Defense
... view of all these things, not to anticipate and prepare for a state of things when not only will moral standards be shifting and uncertain, admitting of physiologically sound menages of very variable status, but also when vice and depravity, in every form that is not absolutely penal, will be practised in every grade of magnificence and condoned. This means that not only will status cease to be simple and become complex and varied, but that outside ...
— Anticipations - Of the Reaction of Mechanical and Scientific Progress upon - Human life and Thought • Herbert George Wells
... tolerably white; her eyes light blue, with a brown spot in one, which, though a defect, takes nothing away from her beauty or expression. Her eyebrows and hair, which, by the bye, is never clean, are dark and her complexion coarse. Her expression is strongly marked, variable, and interesting; her movements in common life ungraceful, her voice loud, yet not disagreeable." This female critic seems to have been overburdened with the weight of Emma's defects, mental and physical! Elliot says: "Her person is nothing short of monstrous for its enormity, and is growing ...
— Drake, Nelson and Napoleon • Walter Runciman
... high, oblong-lanceolate, bipinnate, the upper pinnae lanceolate, the lower triangular with spinulose teeth. Sori in rows each side of the midvein, one to each tooth and often scattering on the lower pinules. Indusium large, minutely glandular, variable. ...
— The Fern Lover's Companion - A Guide for the Northeastern States and Canada • George Henry Tilton
... mentioned as an article of belief among sextons that a hundred years is the fair measure of a head-stone's "life" above ground, but this reckoning is much too short for the evidences, and makes no allowance for variable circumstances. In some places, Keston for instance, the church is founded upon a bed of chalk, and out of the chalk the graves are laboriously hewn. It is obvious therefore that the nature of the soil, as it is yielding or impervious, must be a prime factor in ...
— In Search Of Gravestones Old And Curious • W.T. (William Thomas) Vincent
... of this"—so let us strike the chords to a merrier measure—to a "livelier lilt"—as suits the variable spirit of our Soliloquy. Be it observed, then, that the sole certain way of getting rid of the blue devils, is to drown them in a shower-bath. You would not suppose that we are subject to the blue devils? Yet we are sometimes their very slave. When driven ...
— Recreations of Christopher North, Volume 2 • John Wilson
... consoling only to those who have no embarrassment about it; the indefinite and vague recompense which it promises, without giving ideas of it, is made to deceive those who make no reflections on the impatient, variable, false, and cruel character which this religion gives of its God. But how can it make any promises on the part of a God whom it represents as a tempter, a seducer—who appears, moreover, to take ...
— Letters to Eugenia - or, a Preservative Against Religious Prejudices • Baron d'Holbach
... The variable position of the head of steamboat navigation on the Kanawha made it impossible to fix a permanent depot as a terminus for our wagon trains in the upper valley. My own judgment was in favor of placing it at Kanawha Falls, a mile below Gauley Bridge, and within the limits of ...
— Military Reminiscences of the Civil War V1 • Jacob Dolson Cox
... one within to have shot them dead. This observed, the light was cautiously removed, and everybody took care to keep out of its reflection. By this time the crisis of the position was at hand, the cavalry exhibited very variable inclinations, some to run away, others to shoot Booth without a summons, but all excited and fitfully silent. At the house near by the female folks were seen collected in the doorway, and the necessities of the case provoked prompt conclusions. The boy was placed at a remote ...
— The Life, Crime and Capture of John Wilkes Booth • George Alfred Townsend
... one or two arguments current among the protectionists of the United States that were not rife in France when Bastiat wrote his Sophismes. It is said, for instance, that protection has failed to achieve all the good results expected from it, because the policy of the government has been variable. If we could have a steady course of protection for a sufficient period of time (nobody being bold enough to say what time would be sufficient), and could be assured of having it, we should see wonderful progress. ...
— Sophisms of the Protectionists • Frederic Bastiat
... Llotta do not even know of the existence of this vehicle. We could not get right of way on the rails, so this gravity car was developed in secrecy. It is provided with variable repulsion energies that can be adjusted to keep it at a fixed distance from the inner surface of the copper shell. Thus it misses cross beams and braces. It is drawn forward by similar energies, or more exactly, by the component of a number of attracting forces. We do not display lights, ...
— The Copper-Clad World • Harl Vincent
... the premise. As God the invisible is the changeless, what is the variable, fleeting, visible unreality? The real is everlasting, the unreal is transitory. The real is called Spirit, the ...
— The Right Knock - A Story • Helen Van-Anderson
... discovered land at five of the clock in the morning, being very great and high mountains, the tops of the hills being covered with snow. Here the wind was variable, sometimes north-east, east-north-east, and east by north; but we imagined ourselves to be 16 or 17 leagues off ...
— Voyages in Search of the North-West Passage • Richard Hakluyt
... fixed form; while the beautiful Arethusan leaves, alike in flowing of their lines, change their forms indefinitely,—some shaped like round pools, and some like winding currents, and many like arrows, and many like hearts, and otherwise varied and variable, as leaves ought to be,—that rise out of the waters, and float amidst the pausing of ...
— Proserpina, Volume 1 - Studies Of Wayside Flowers • John Ruskin
... sea; in front, the anchorage. The sea-breeze, as though it had the sooner blown itself out by its unusual violence, was already at an end; it had been succeeded by light, variable airs from the south and southeast, carrying great banks of fog; and the anchorage, under lee of Skeleton Island, lay still and leaden as when first we entered it. The Hispaniola, in that unbroken mirror, was exactly portrayed from the truck ...
— Treasure Island • Robert Louis Stevenson
... dozen; mulberries 1s. per quart; Cape gooseberries 8d. per quart; native currants 8d. per quart; oranges, raspberries, grapes, plums, almonds, pomegranates, limes, shaddocks, citrons, pine-apples, nectarines, and guavas, are to be procured; but their prices are variable, some of them being more scarce than others. Cucumbers 1d. each, mushrooms 8d. per quart, French beans 4d. per quart, onions 20s. per cwt. peas 1s. per quart, beans 9d. per quart, asparagus 2s. per hundred, artichokes 6d. each, spinage 1s. ...
— The Present Picture of New South Wales (1811) • David Dickinson Mann
... remains. In their construction the skill of the maker seems to have been exhausted. Their general form, which may be regarded as the primitive form of the implement, is well exhibited in the accompanying sketch. They are always carved from a single piece, and consist of a flat carved bore of variable length and width, with the bowl rising from the centre of the convex side. From one of the ends, and communicating with the hollow of the bowl, is drilled a small hole, which answers the purpose of a tube; the corresponding opposite division ...
— Tobacco; Its History, Varieties, Culture, Manufacture and Commerce • E. R. Billings
... you mean Catherine Seyton," said the page, his heart rising as he spoke; "but she is herself fifty times more variable in her humour than the very water which ...
— The Abbot • Sir Walter Scott |
