"Explain" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... in with my judgment would never have surprised me, for he always hung back from condemnation, partly, I presume, from being even morbidly conscious of his own imperfections, and partly that his prolific suggestion supplied endless possibilities to explain or else perplex everything. I had been often even annoyed by his use of the most refined invention to excuse, as I thought, behaviour the most palpably wrong. I believe now it was rather to account for it ...
— Wilfrid Cumbermede • George MacDonald
... you'd be setting out to sea in my dory after hearing that sermon last night," he said banteringly, with a twinkle in his eyes. "You'd best explain that your meaning was figur'tive, Mack. I looked up that ...
— Captain Pott's Minister • Francis L. Cooper
... that is even above that of the deities?' Thus addressed by Indra, Brahman said unto the slayer of Vala, 'Thou hast always, O slayer of Vala, disregarded kine. Hence, thou art not acquainted with the glorious pre-eminence of kine. Listen now to me, O puissant one, as I explain to thee the high energy and glorious pre-eminence of kine, O chief of the celestials! Kine have been said to be the limbs of sacrifice. They represent sacrifice itself, O Vasava! Without them, there can be no sacrifice. With their milk and the Havi produced therefrom, they uphold all ...
— The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 4 • Kisari Mohan Ganguli
... reason assigned for not convoking the States General in proper form, viz., that time did not permit the necessary delay, must be considered scarcely sufficient to explain the irregularity. ...
— The Rise of the Hugenots, Vol. 1 (of 2) • Henry Martyn Baird
... explain myself then. Moral courage, as I understand it, is shown when a person has the bravery and strength of character to act from principle, when doing so may subject him, and he knows it, to misunderstanding, misrepresentation, opposition, ...
— Amos Huntingdon • T.P. Wilson
... her authority as a parent was gone for ever. Let it not be imagined that I treated her harshly; on the contrary, I was more kind, and, before other people, more dutiful than ever I was before. She was my only confidant, and to her only did I explain the reasons of my actions: she was my adviser, but her advice was not that of a parent, but that of an humble, devoted, and attached friend; and during the remainder of her days this position ...
— Percival Keene • Frederick Marryat
... the Propagation of the Gospel by an Established Ministry everywhere, the fixed idea of Cromwell for his Home-Government, as we have had again and again to explain, was toleration of all varieties of religious opinion. Under this head little that is new presents itself in the part of his Protectorate with which we are now concerned. The Anti-Trinitarian Mr. ...
— The Life of John Milton, Volume 5 (of 7), 1654-1660 • David Masson
... shift in stride. "Of course," he agreed. "But you are trained in the scientific method of thought. That, at least, is something. When I have opportunity to explain my ideas more fully, I believe you will be interested in ...
— Murder in the Gunroom • Henry Beam Piper
... should need a guide; one who could explain much in a short time," he said, contemplating me with his burning glance until I began ...
— When the World Shook - Being an Account of the Great Adventure of Bastin, Bickley and Arbuthnot • H. Rider Haggard
... pass, to explain the clue intended, whether to the presence of the young Lord Clifford himself, which was his first thought, or to the inhabitant of the hermitage. For Sir Lancelot's cheerful voice was exclaiming, 'Here he is, my lady! Here's your son! How now, my young lord? Thou hast learnt to ...
— The Herd Boy and His Hermit • Charlotte M. Yonge
... as the conservative force of nature. 2. Explain Variation as the progressive tendency in nature. 3. In what ratio is the Multiplication of animals? 4. How does the process of Selection make for the survival of the fittest? 5. What three possibilities are open to animals under a change of environment? 6. What is ...
— The Meaning of Evolution • Samuel Christian Schmucker
... to me a mystery. {128} Pip and Pumblechook and Mr. Wopsle and Jo are all immortal, and cause laughter inextinguishable. The rarity of this book, by the way, in its first edition—the usual library three volumes—is rather difficult to explain. One very seldom sees it come into the market, and ...
— Essays in Little • Andrew Lang
... so that, if the despatches should miscarry, not only would no information be conveyed to the French, but they would be led to believe that the invading force was vastly stronger than they had hitherto supposed. Ryan was, of course, to explain, when he delivered the despatches, that the figures must in all cases be divided by five, and the reason why false numbers had ...
— Under Wellington's Command - A Tale of the Peninsular War • G. A. Henty
... a long story. I haven't time to explain. We were attacked and she was carried off. Come along, Dandy, and help ...
— A Mating in the Wilds • Ottwell Binns
... the book is thus the first to attempt any comprehensive description of the Exposition. Without indiscriminate praise, or sacrificing independent judgment, the author's purpose has been to interpret and explain the many things about which the visitors on the ground and readers at home may naturally wish to know, rather than to point out ...
— The Jewel City • Ben Macomber
... their chests, as bland As if they were not second-hand. I do not know of what they think, Nor why they never frown or wink, But why from smiling they refrain I think I clearly can explain: They none of them could show much ...
— The Book of Humorous Verse • Various
... word sincere, in connection with Lord Settleham, was at once pounced on. He could not know Lord Settleham—one of the most sincere of men. Felix freely admitted that he did not, and hastened to explain that he did not question the—er—parliamentary sincerity of Lord Settleham and his followers. He only ventured to doubt whether they realized the hold that human nature had on them. His experience, he ...
— Forsyte Saga • John Galsworthy
... a tribunal where all alike—judge, evidence, accuser—-were in effect one and the same malignant enemy? In what way she could have come to be connected in the Landgrave's mind with a charge of treason against his princely rights, she found it difficult to explain, unless the mere fact of having carried the imperial despatches in the trunks about her carriages were sufficient to implicate her as a secret emissary or agent concerned in the imperial diplomacy. But ...
— Memorials and Other Papers • Thomas de Quincey
... to explain that the passage leading to that "haunted" chamber sloped upwards steeply enough to require a step here and there along it. It might even be called a stairway; therefore the little room—which had been the goal of Yaspard's present raid—was situated on a much higher level than ...
— Viking Boys • Jessie Margaret Edmondston Saxby
... simple question—at first. And yet, before the answer could be put into words, unsuspected and unforeseen difficulties began to appear. They increased; they multiplied; they brought about another defeat. The effort to explain came to a standstill. Then Susy tried to help her mother out—with an instance, an example, an illustration. The mother was getting ready to go down-town, and one of her errands was to buy a long-promised toy-watch ...
— Chapters from My Autobiography • Mark Twain
... have learned, unfortunately, that in the home there are no petty troubles. For everything there is magnified by incessant contact with sensations, with desires, with ideas. Such then is the secret of that sadness which you have surprised in me and which I did not care to explain. It is one of those things in which words go too far, and where writing holds at least the thought within bounds by establishing it. The effects of a moral perspective differ so radically between what is said and what is written! All is so solemn, ...
— Petty Troubles of Married Life, Second Part • Honore de Balzac
... not think you did," quietly replied the old man. "But I will explain my meaning more fully—perhaps you will be able to comprehend something of what I say. Men talk a great deal about Heaven, but few understand what it means. All admit that in this life they must prepare for Heaven; but nearly all seem to think that this preparation consists ...
— Graham's Magazine Vol XXXIII No. 1 July 1848 • Various
... reject my offers, because I do not explain them to you by any of the usual motives. But what can I tell you? Suppose I should say to you that I have a daughter who has secretly left me, so that I do not know what has become of her, and that her memory makes me anxious ...
— The Clique of Gold • Emile Gaboriau
... "How, then, explain the undoubted discomfort that many people experience after eating nuts? I believe the explanation rests on the fact that our common American way of eating nuts is not the rational way. We would not consider topping off a heavy meal with eggs, ...
— Northern Nut Growers Report of the Proceedings at the Twenty-First Annual Meeting • Northern Nut Growers Association
... say in which direction they came, or whither they went, with the exception that they took the road to the Boulevards. A gendarme a pied was the only person near me, and I asked him, if he could explain the reason of the movement. "Je n'en sais rien," in the brusque manner that the French soldiers are a little apt to assume, when it suits their humours, was ...
— A Residence in France - With An Excursion Up The Rhine, And A Second Visit To Switzerland • J. Fenimore Cooper
... She had to explain very slowly, with his ardent eyes on her. But he understood at last and agreed of course. His incredulity was turning to certainty. Harmony had actually been in the same building with him while ...
— The Street of Seven Stars • Mary Roberts Rinehart
... sure that you would understand me, Miss Charteris," said Ronald—"that you would see and comprehend the motives that I can hardly explain myself! Sitting here in the summer sunshine, I can scarcely realize how dark the cloud is that hangs over me. You are so kind and patient, I will tell you my story in my own way." She gathered a rich cluster of bluebells, and bent over them, ...
— Dora Thorne • Charlotte M. Braeme
... been thinking in the interval. He joined the others in the drawing-room, looking ruffled and impatient—a condition of things seen for the first time. The others, with the patience—or the experience—of age, trusted to time to unfold and explain things. They had not long to wait. After sitting down and standing up several ...
— The Lair of the White Worm • Bram Stoker
... Mr Turnbull's account, that these accursed arreoys were rather on the increase,—a circumstance, which, considering that infanticide formed a part, an essential part indeed, of their policy, may well explain the rapidity in the diminution ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 13 • Robert Kerr
... here is a very odd question. I ask for a particular reason, which I cannot explain, but you will soon understand.... It is this—Why do Catholics ...
— Lord of the World • Robert Hugh Benson
... Ainos, in their humble way, are addicted to moralising and to speculating on the origin of things. A perusal of the following tales will show that a surprisingly large number of them are attempts to explain some natural phenomenon, or to exemplify some simple precept. In fact they are science,—physical science and moral science,—at a very early stage. The explanations given in these tales completely satisfy ...
— Aino Folk-Tales • Basil Hall Chamberlain
... of our married life were supremely happy, and perhaps she was even happier than I; for after our marriage, in spite of all the wealth of her love which she lavished upon me, there came a new dread to haunt me, a dread which I cannot explain and which was unfounded, but one that never left me. I was in constant fear that she would discover in me some shortcoming which she would unconsciously attribute to my blood rather than to a failing of human nature. But no cloud ever came to mar our life together; her loss to me ...
— The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man • James Weldon Johnson
... throwing the Prior into confusion, and he set himself to explain that she was in reality very wonderful, that he himself had not at first believed in her, but that he had seen so much that he had been converted. At this stage Cesare came to his aid, bearing witness, as he could, that he himself had seen the Prior discredit her when others ...
— The Life of Cesare Borgia • Raphael Sabatini
... the terms Frogs or Froggies as applied to their French comrades in arms. American officers hastened to explain to French officers that the one piece of information concerning France most popularly known in America was that it was the place where people first learned to eat frog legs ...
— "And they thought we wouldn't fight" • Floyd Gibbons
... perceptions and conceptions, to the most indefatigable industry and perseverance, and the most accurate knowledge of the phenomena of nature as they affect his peculiar labours, this man joined an utter want of the 'gift of gab;' he could no more explain to others what he meant to do and how he meant to do it, than he could fly, and therefore the members of the House of Commons, after saying 'There is a rock to be excavated to a depth of more than sixty feet, there are embankments to be made nearly to the same height, ...
— Railway Adventures and Anecdotes - extending over more than fifty years • Various
... every name and nation, whether poets, philosophers, statesmen, or divines, have been trying to explain the puzzles of human condition, since the world began. For three thousand years, at least, they have been at this problem, and it is far enough from being solved yet. Its anomalies seem to have been expressly contrived by Nature to elude our curiosity and defy our cunning. And no part of it has ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 1, Issue 2, December, 1857 • Various
... better able to offer resistance to the invaders, although they were not in all cases able or desirous to prevent isolated bands from gaining a footing, such as the Tities and afterwards the Claudii in Rome.(2) In this way the stocks here became variously mingled, a state of things which serves to explain the numerous relations that subsisted between the Volscians and Latins, and how it happened that their district, as well as Sabina, afterwards became so early and ...
— The History of Rome (Volumes 1-5) • Theodor Mommsen
... as well of the matter of law, as of the fact, with this difference only, that the [a Saxon word] or judge on the bench is to give them no assistance in determining the matter of fact, but if they have any doubt among themselves relating to matter of law, they may then request him to explain it to them, which when he hath done, and they are thus become well informed, they, and they only, become competent judges of the matter of law. And this is the province of the judge on the bench, namely, to show, or ...
— An Essay on the Trial By Jury • Lysander Spooner
... or in that of the English tongue, will only be determined by the slow settling of opinion, which no critic can foretell, and the operation of which no criticism seems able to explain. I venture to believe, however, that the verdict will not be in accord with much of the present prevalent criticism. The service that he rendered to American letters no critic disputes; nor is there any question of our national indebtedness ...
— Washington Irving • Charles Dudley Warner
... influence on the women was dreadful, and in many cases their appeals were heartrending. Mothers with suffering children, whose husbands were in the war or already fallen, would beseech me for permits to take cotton through the lines. It was useless to explain that it was against law and orders, and that I was without authority to act. This did not give food and clothing to their children, and they departed, believing me to be an unfeeling brute. In fact, the instincts of humanity ...
— Destruction and Reconstruction: - Personal Experiences of the Late War • Richard Taylor
... herself that she was tired after last night, so as to explain the ache, but her little, pale face was looking pinched in the light from the sea when Laura Temple paused at the barrier to say a few words. The two girls spoke to each other through the little window; one smiling, ...
— The Privet Hedge • J. E. Buckrose
... and then Coleman's face flared red. He beat his hand violently upon a table. " Good God, Marjory! Don't make a fool of me. Don't make this kind of a fool of me, at any rate. Tell me what you mean. Explain-" ...
— Active Service • Stephen Crane
... acquire this faculty by endeavoring to foresee the solution of contemporary events; or at least try to explain the hidden reasons which have ...
— Common Sense - - Subtitle: How To Exercise It • Yoritomo-Tashi
... state of the crew. Upon our coming into the forecastle, there was some difficulty about the uniting of the allowances of bread, by which we thought we were to lose a few pounds. This set us into a ferment. The captain would not condescend to explain, and we went aft in a body, with a Swede, the oldest and best sailor of the crew, for spokesman. The recollection of the scene that followed always brings up a smile, especially the quarter-deck dignity and eloquence of the captain. ...
— Two Years Before the Mast • Richard Henry Dana
... kind of freedom from a wife's." She knitted and unknitted her hands. "It is difficult to explain. Would you be willing to ask nothing of me that a friend or a sister might not give? ...
— The Dop Doctor • Clotilde Inez Mary Graves
... Then, commandant, you will probably apologise to this noble gentleman for your treatment of him, and permit us to return to our former apartments. I will there explain to you this most ...
— The Phantom Ship • Frederick Marryat
... advice for the most part. Drugs. My nervous system.... They are all very well for the run of people. It's hard to explain. I dare not ...
— The Sleeper Awakes - A Revised Edition of When the Sleeper Wakes • H.G. Wells
... more gentlemanlike, and, at the same time, more difficult than going fast. Keep your horses well together; to do this properly, you must know how to arrange their couplings. I think I cannot better explain this, than to ask my readers to notice the working of the horses. If you see one a little in front of the other, you may judge that he is either stronger or more free, consequently his coupling requires shortening, or that of the other horse lengthening. ...
— Hints on Driving • C. S. Ward
... almost angry with me this morning, by a hint or two I gave upon this subject. She looked so very grave, that I was afraid of my own thoughts, and I dared not explain myself farther. Intimate as I am with her, there are points on which I am sure that she would never make me her confidante. I think that she has not been in her usual good spirits lately; and though she treats Olivia with ...
— Tales And Novels, Vol. 8 • Maria Edgeworth
... Bridge, "I guess, Giova, that you and we are in the same boat. We haven't any of us done anything so very bad but it would be embarrassing to have to explain to the police what we have done," here he glanced at The Oskaloosa Kid and the girl standing beside the youth. "Suppose we form a defensive alliance, eh? We'll help you and you help ...
— The Oakdale Affair • Edgar Rice Burroughs
... later Mr. Horn who owned the adjoining plantation came over and asked him if he had missed anything,—any rations he said. Old master told him 'Yes' and went on to explain what had been taken and what he had done about it. Then Mr. Horn took Mr. Blackshear over to his house and showed him the rations and they were the one he had whipped my old father about. Then Blackshear came back and told my father that he ...
— Slave Narratives: a Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves - Arkansas Narratives Part 3 • Works Projects Administration
... then; but after the guests had retired, and Mr. Haines proposed to him to smoke one more quiet cigar, in the cool of the veranda, before retiring to bed; he took the opportunity of asking his host to explain to him the situation, with which he had no ...
— With Clive in India - Or, The Beginnings of an Empire • G. A. Henty
... knew. Day after day, as the autumn advanced, Dan went out with the wolf and the wild black stallion and ranged the hills alone. She did not ask him where or why, for she understood that to be alone was as necessary to him as sleep is to others. Yet she could not explain it all and the cold fear grew in her. Sometimes she surprised a look of infinite pity in the eyes of Buck or her father. Sometimes she found them whispering and nodding together. At last on an evening when the three sat before the fire in solemn silence and Dan was away, they knew not where, among ...
— The Untamed • Max Brand
... this vivifying is at the Lord's coming, when those who have died shall be raised, and those who are alive shall be transfigured; but because of the Spirit of life dwelling in us, who shall say that the process has not even now begun? To explain: "Behold I shew you a mystery," says Paul; "we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump" (1 Cor. 15: 51, 52). That is, as at Christ's coming the dead saints will be raised, so the living saints will be translated without ...
— The Ministry of the Spirit • A. J. Gordon
... that," said Rosmore. "Finding Mistress Payne here to-night may lead you to surmise many things. Strange to say, I was beginning to explain matters to her when we were interrupted, first by Judge Marriott, then by you. That is ...
— The Brown Mask • Percy J. Brebner
... should have made this out, had not my species theory convinced me, that an hermaphrodite species must pass into a bisexual species by insensibly small stages; and here we have it, for the male organs in the hermaphrodite are beginning to fail, and independent males ready formed. But I can hardly explain what I mean, and you will perhaps wish my barnacles and species theory al Diavolo together. But I don't care what you say, my species theory is all gospel. We have had only one party here: viz., of the Lyells, Forbes, Owen, and Ramsay, and we both missed you and Falconer very much...I know more ...
— More Letters of Charles Darwin - Volume I (of II) • Charles Darwin
... enough about the earliest history of the Greeks to explain how it was that they attained their free outlook upon the world and came to possess the will and courage to set no bounds to the range of their criticism and curiosity. We have to take this character as a fact. But it must be remembered that the ...
— A History of Freedom of Thought • John Bagnell Bury
... said Mrs. Krill, graciously. But she was annoyed that her golden bait had not been taken immediately, and, in spite of her suavity, Paul could see that she was annoyed, the more so when she began to explain. "Of course ...
— The Opal Serpent • Fergus Hume
... and tied the sack, convinced that it would be useless to explain to this person that fossils like this were not found by the wagon-load; that perhaps in the entire world there was not one in which the branchiocardiac grooves were so clearly defined, in which the emostigite and the ambulatory legs were ...
— 'Me-Smith' • Caroline Lockhart
... realm by land and sea." The hated connection with Spain had produced all the evils which the opponents of the marriage had foretold, and no good was expected from any enterprise pursued in common with Philip. Prone as the English were to explain events by supernatural causes, they saw, like the queen, in the misfortunes which had haunted her, an evidence that Heaven was not on her side, and they despaired of success in anything until it could be undertaken under ...
— The Reign of Mary Tudor • James Anthony Froude
... small degree owing to them; the unjust strictures passed upon Sedgwick for his failure to execute a practically impossible order; the truly remarkable blunders into which Gen. Hooker allowed himself to lapse, in endeavoring to explain away his responsibility for the disaster; the bare fact, indeed, that the Army of the Potomac was here beaten by Lee, with one-half its force; and the very partial publication, thus far, of the details of the campaign, and the causes of our defeat,—may stand as excuse for ...
— The Campaign of Chancellorsville • Theodore A. Dodge
... was even the cause of a complete change in his way of writing. With the object of reaching the plainest sort of people, he began to employ the popular language, not recoiling before a solecism, when the solecism appeared to him indispensable to explain his thought. This must have been a cruel mortification for him. In his very latest writings he made a point of shewing that no elegance of language was unknown to him. But his real originality is not in that. When he writes the fine style, his period is heavy, entangled, often obscure. On ...
— Saint Augustin • Louis Bertrand
... herself every evening when she went to her room. Did she love him? For hours, in the middle of her great bed, she had turned over again and again these words, seeking for meanings she could not find, and thinking she was too ignorant to explain them. But that night, all at once, she felt her heart was softened by some inexplicable happiness. She cried nervously, without reason, and hid her head in her pillow that ...
— The Dream • Emile Zola
... new acquaintances passed pleasantly, and after it the two friends went with Mr. Coburn to see over the works. Hilliard thought it better to explain that they had seen something of them on the previous day, but notwithstanding this assurance Mr. Coburn insisted on their going over the whole place again. He showed them everything in detail, and when the ...
— The Pit Prop Syndicate • Freeman Wills Crofts
... With eyes full of grateful tears I will dare to say this, and some time I may perhaps more fully explain how this has been done. And blessed be the home which has turned back her wandering steps, has healed the wounds of her heart, and has offered her a peaceful haven, an affectionate defence, where she has time to rest after the storms, and to collect and to know herself. Without this home, without ...
— The Home • Fredrika Bremer
... of this tale with which I am acquainted. Mr. Clodd sees in the class of name- guessing stories, a "survival" of the superstition that to know a man's name gives you power over him, for which reason savages object to tell their names. It may be necessary, I find, to explain to the little ones that Tom Tit can only be referred to as "that," because his name is ...
— English Fairy Tales • Joseph Jacobs (coll. & ed.)
... Hall loomed indistinctly. To the ignorant it may be necessary to explain that its courtyard is open to Chapel Street, but that an iron grill stretches from wing to wing and keeps out the town. This grill is high enough for Hagenbeck, and it used to be a favorite game with us to play animal behind it for ...
— Chimney-Pot Papers • Charles S. Brooks
... wisdom and wit[593]; and my memory is filled with the recollection of lively and affectionate feelings, which now, I think, yield me more satisfaction than at the time when they were first excited. I have experienced this upon other occasions. I shall be obliged to you if you will explain it to me; for it seems wonderful that pleasure should be more vivid at a distance than when near. I wish you may find yourself in a humour to do me this favour; but I flatter myself with no strong hope of it; for I have observed, that unless ...
— The Life Of Johnson, Volume 3 of 6 • Boswell
... father noticed something queer about me. The day I got to the office only five minutes late, he called me in for some anxious questioning as to my health. I couldn't tell him anything, of course. How could I explain that I'd been late once too often, and had fallen in love with a girl two weeks after ...
— The Worlds of If • Stanley Grauman Weinbaum
... furthermore kept him segregated from all that could in any way vitiate or vulgarise; he has had the ablest tutors and been my constant companion, and to-day—I am told—all this is but his misfortune. Now and therefore. Sir Jervas Vereker, pray explain yourself." ...
— Peregrine's Progress • Jeffery Farnol
... emphyteusis, emphyteuma, and emphyteuta were still hidden to her, though her steward spoke of them with surprising loquacity and fluency. She laboured hard to understand the system upon which her tenants held their lands from her, and it was some time before she succeeded. It is easier to explain the matter at once than to follow Corona in ...
— Saracinesca • F. Marion Crawford
... ye explain to Brindley," he said, as I left him, "that it isn't my fault ye've had a night out of bed. It was your own doing. I'm going to get a bit of sleep now. See you this evening, Bob's asked ...
— The Matador of the Five Towns and Other Stories • Arnold Bennett
... ascendancy," although it never came into use during the period with which we are dealing, has so frequently since then been employed with reference to it, that it is necessary to explain its meaning. Probably no word in the English language has suffered more from being used in different senses than the word "Protestant." In Ireland it frequently used to be, and still sometimes is, taken as equivalent to "Anglican" or "Episcopalian"; to an Irishman of the ...
— Is Ulster Right? • Anonymous
... a full explanation of my position and the prospect of toys and treats before us both. I was even prepared, in the generous excitement of the moment to endow my new sister with a joint partnership in the possession of Rubens, and was about to explain all the advantages the little lady would derive from having me for a brother, when I was stopped by the changed ...
— A Flat Iron for a Farthing - or Some Passages in the Life of an only Son • Juliana Horatia Ewing
... of the Matin case, Rufus Isaacs appeared for the first time before the Parliamentary Committee, almost five months after its formation. His problem was not so much to explain his dealings in American Marconis, as to account for his silence in the House of Commons. His one desire that day in Parliament, it seems, had been to answer the "foul lies" being uttered against him, which he was "quite unable to find any foundation ...
— Gilbert Keith Chesterton • Maisie Ward
... said Arthur, very doubtful what to say, 'that my respect for your daughter may explain and justify my desire to be presented to ...
— Little Dorrit • Charles Dickens
... reached a point which prompts me to ask the question at the head of this sketch, "Who Shall Explain It?" I have my own theory, which I shall submit, with no little diffidence, ...
— The Jungle Fugitives • Edward S. Ellis
... people of Pessinus, a great seat of the worship of Cybele, and the whole legend of which the story forms a part is stamped with a character of rudeness and savagery that speaks strongly for its antiquity. Both tales might claim the support of custom, or rather both were probably invented to explain certain customs observed by the worshippers. The story of the self-mutilation of Attis is clearly an attempt to account for the self-mutilation of his priests, who regularly castrated themselves on entering the service of ...
— The Golden Bough - A study of magic and religion • Sir James George Frazer
... color rose a little, but I replied carelessly, "I have made some heavy blunders of late. You are adroit in stealing away from a weak position under a fire of questions, but your stratagem shall not succeed," I continued severely. "How can you explain the fact, too patent to be concealed, that here in good Mrs. Yocomb's house, and on a Sunday afternoon, you are ...
— A Day Of Fate • E. P. Roe
... it's all about? Then go over to—well, to Milligan's. Donnegan will be there. He'll explain things to you, I guess. He wants to see you. And maybe I'll come over later ...
— Gunman's Reckoning • Max Brand
... be well, dearest," she said, "that you should explain to me clearly what has happened. To do so may avert ...
— The History of Sir Richard Calmady - A Romance • Lucas Malet
... Paul III. complained to Francis I. of their obstinacy; the king wrote about it to the Parliament of Aix; the Parliament ordered the lords of the lands occupied by the Vaudians to force their vassals to abjure or leave the country. When cited to appear before the court of Aix to explain the grounds of their refusal, several declined. The court sentenced them, in default, to be burned alive. Their friends took up arms and went to deliver the prisoners. Merindol was understood to be the principal retreat of the sectaries; by decree of November 18, 1540, the Parliament ordered ...
— A Popular History of France From The Earliest Times - Volume IV. of VI. • Francois Pierre Guillaume Guizot
... two fifteenth-century plays constitute a distinct species which has attained to a high degree of differentiation if not of dramatic evolution, and critics who would see in them the origin of the later pastoral drama have to explain the strange phenomenon of the species lying dormant for nearly three-quarters of a century, and then suddenly developing into an equally individualized but very dissimilar form[164]. It should, moreover, ...
— Pastoral Poetry and Pastoral Drama - A Literary Inquiry, with Special Reference to the Pre-Restoration - Stage in England • Walter W. Greg
... recross" their epistles in every direction! Paper is not so dear but that they could at least afford a fly-leaf. They defeat their own ends, too, for their letters are never legible, and they have to write again to explain their meaning, thus paying ...
— Lazy Thoughts of a Lazy Girl - Sister of that "Idle Fellow." • Jenny Wren
... is not settled. One thing that has kept it unsettled has been the uncertain use of the term "missionary schools" in the Orders of the Indian Department. What is precisely a missionary school? Let me try to explain. There are three kinds of schools in the nomenclature of the Indian Office, based on ...
— American Missionary, Vol. XLII., May, 1888., No. 5 • Various
... Do you see that mark on the rocky platform overhead? I noticed it as soon as I got here. It made me think of a wild spot in the Hartz Mountains where there is just such a mark. The people call it 'The Horse's Hoof-print.' I will tell you how they explain its ...
— Bertha • Mary Hazelton Wade
... now acceptably with us. They expect to spend two or three months with us, and then we have some prospect of going in company to the South of France. As this has fallen out in a rather remarkable manner, it may not be amiss just to explain it to thee. We were entire strangers to each other's concern; but as soon as my friends in London heard of my prospect from the copy of the minutes of our Two-months' Meeting and of my certificate, dear William Allen wrote to me desiring ...
— Memoir and Diary of John Yeardley, Minister of the Gospel • John Yeardley
... with their existence, have had a strong and decided influence on all their subsequent history, and especially on the great event of the Revolution. Whoever would write our history, and would understand and explain early transactions, should comprehend the nature and force of the feeling which I have endeavored to describe. As a son, leaving the house of his father for his own, finds, by the order of nature, and the very law of his being, nearer and dearer objects around which his affections circle, ...
— The Great Speeches and Orations of Daniel Webster • Daniel Webster
... sometimes mistaken for epilepsy: for example, the liver and kidneys in a defective state and impurities passing in the blood to the brain, will explain certain forms of that which passes as epilepsy. It is often easy to cure attacks of this nature by merely bringing the liver and kidneys into working order. If there is a yellowness of the skin, or other signs of the blood failing to be purified in a natural ...
— Papers on Health • John Kirk
... to my taste, and which I resented by rising in a very abrupt manner. Seeing that I was angry, the Turk affected to approve my reserve, and said that he had only been joking. I left him after a few minutes, with the intention of not visiting him again, but I was compelled to do so, as I will explain by-and-by. ...
— The Memoires of Casanova, Complete • Jacques Casanova de Seingalt
... 8th, Lieutenant Ball waited on the general, accompanied by the Shebander and myself. As the general could not speak any other language than Dutch, and the Shebander could not speak sufficient English to explain himself, I was obliged to interpret between Lieutenant Ball and the latter; and I beg here to remark, that during this conversation, which was in the general's office, we were not asked to sit down; indeed, had the general been polite enough to have made the offer, ...
— An Historical Journal of the Transactions at Port Jackson and Norfolk Island • John Hunter
... that he had intended to establish on the spot, was temporarily defeated, it is true, and without his exactly knowing how it had been effected; for it was merely the steadiness of the young lady, blended as it was with a polished reserve, that had thrown him to a distance he could not explain. He felt immediately, and with taste that did his sagacity credit, that his footing in this quarter was only to be obtained by unusually slow and cautious means. Still, Mr. Bragg was a man of great decision, and, in his way, ...
— Home as Found • James Fenimore Cooper
... breakfast by seeing Sir Lukin ride past the windows. He entered with the veritable appetite of a cavalier who had ridden from London fasting; and why he had come at that early hour, he was too hungry to explain. The ladies retired to read their letters by the morning's post; whereupon Sir Lukin called to Redworth; 'I met that woman in the park yesterday, and had to stand a volley. I went beating about London for you ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith
... hugged too close!" snapped the young man. The others bent an inquiring gaze on him. But he did not explain. His thoughts were busy with the events of that day when the Bee line steamer ...
— Blow The Man Down - A Romance Of The Coast - 1916 • Holman Day
... a glorious theory," said the bride enthusiastically. "You explain it to Dody, will you? He is positively death on duty, especially when it is painful. He'd do his duty if it killed him and me, burned the house down and ...
— Eve to the Rescue • Ethel Hueston
... takes part in the debates, unless it becomes necessary to explain or defend some measure of which he has charge. It is said that he is very careful not to offend anybody, and that he is unwilling to take responsibilities or to commit himself. There is undoubtedly some truth in that criticism. ...
— Autobiography of Seventy Years, Vol. 1-2 • George Hoar
... that is not in the papers—yet—ma'am," said Starmidge. "I think it will explain matters to you. When we examined Mr. Hollis's effects at Scarnham, yesterday morning, after the finding of his body, we found in his letter-case a ...
— The Chestermarke Instinct • J. S. Fletcher
... Anaxagoras' dictum. For that belief is similarly indefinite; it is what is called a belief in a general providence, and is not followed out into definite application, or displayed in its bearing on the grand total—the entire course of human history. But to explain history is to depict the passions of mankind, the genius, the active powers, that play their part on the great stage; and the providentially determined process which these exhibit constitutes what is generally called the "plan" of Providence. Yet it is this very plan which is supposed to be ...
— The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Vol. VII. • Various
... I might call myself the first Carpet Bagger." This expression casually let fall by Mr. J.G. Thompson, of this city, in a conversation with the writer, was so striking and so suggestive that I asked him to explain. He complied, and in so doing, gave the following extraordinary narrative, which he subsequently ...
— The Journal of Negro History, Volume 5, 1920 • Various
... would never have been what it is - sit verbo venia - but for him. Mr. Trübner was a poet, even in English, as his translation from Scheffel's poems indicates. A very few words have been added to explain the poems in the ballads which appear for the first time in ...
— The Breitmann Ballads • Charles G. Leland
... reached Salt Lake City, Joel Rae was made major of militia. The following day, he attended the meeting at the tabernacle. He needed, for reasons he did not fully explain to himself, to receive fresh assurance of Brigham's infallibility, of his touch with the Holy Ghost, of his goodness as well as his might; to be caught once more by the compelling magnetism of his presence, the flash of his eye, ...
— The Lions of the Lord - A Tale of the Old West • Harry Leon Wilson
... to-morrow I will show you over the premises; and explain all that you may wish to know; perhaps, though you may not be quite so much in favor of a miner's life when you come to realize ...
— Virgie's Inheritance • Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
... could think of nothing else. Was that what had happened to Eunice Arton? Did that explain the reported disappearances of the several other girls? Did this ghostly activity have some rational purpose—the stealing of young white women, all of them of unusual beauty? The conclusion was forced ...
— The White Invaders • Raymond King Cummings
... judgment, you attached too much importance to this measure as a means for suppressing the Rebellion, it is due to you that I shall explain. ...
— The Great Conspiracy, Complete • John Alexander Logan
... given an account of what took place in the five stations in that island of Leite. Before we pass on to the rest, it will be fitting to explain, as far as we can, their usages in marriage and divorce—as well to make more intelligible what we have already related as to have a better understanding of a topic which in the course of our ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898: Volume XII, 1601-1604 • Edited by Blair and Robertson
... the theory of national responsibility, we ought, by parity of reason, to admit success as a valid proof of right. The moralists of fifty years ago, who saw the democratic orgies of France punished with Napoleon, whose own crimes brought him in turn to the rock of Prometheus, how would they explain the phenomenon of Napoleon III.? The readiness to trace a too close and consequent relation between public delinquencies and temporal judgments seems to us a superstition holding over from the time when each race, each family even, had its private and tutelary ...
— The Writings of James Russell Lowell in Prose and Poetry, Volume V - Political Essays • James Russell Lowell
... however, worked out a scheme of joining the skins in a way to eliminate waste, that is far ahead of civilized fur workers. A row of skins are joined head to tail and the next row headed the opposite way will fit in perfectly, the legs being left on the skins. The sketch with this will explain better than any description. The guanaco pelt being of a woolly nature makes it unnecessary to run it all the same way and the entire skins are utilized in spite of their ungainly shape, the flaps and tabs trimmed off filling the indentations around the outer edge ...
— Home Taxidermy for Pleasure and Profit • Albert B. Farnham
... have learned so much myself, that it now seems to me that what I knew before was the merest rudiment. This I learn is the experience of others who are engaged in similar work. Helping others has a wonderful reflex influence upon ourselves. I often wonder if this may no explain in part the philosophy of that passage of Holy Writ, which says, "It is more blessed to give than to receive." In this exercise of drilling, and in the comparative monotony of camp life, we spent the ...
— Three Years in the Federal Cavalry • Willard Glazier
... that?' said Mrs. Poulter. 'It is beyond comment. We cannot remain another night.' Mr. Goacher and Miss Taggart agreed, and Miss Taggart was commissioned at once to engage rooms. When she had gone Mr. Goacher was compelled to explain that he ...
— More Pages from a Journal • Mark Rutherford
... not explain the condition of their affairs. She had no idea they were "so far behind." She was sure that she had given Jack most of the bills and supposed that he had taken care of them. She protested that she had always been ...
— One Woman's Life • Robert Herrick |
