"Theme" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... followed; then the aged widow pursued her theme, at first in the same dreary, cracked monotone, then deepening ...
— Children of the Mist • Eden Phillpotts
... I choose for the theme of my song? Or must my poor pipe on the willow be hung? No more to commend that good nature and sense, Which always cou'd please, but ne'er once gave offence. What honour directed he firmly pursu'd, Yet would not his judgment on others ...
— Cavalier Songs and Ballads of England from 1642 to 1684 • Charles Mackay
... with some prefatory remarks, introduced Miss Rice, of Antioch College. Miss Rice announced as the theme of her address, "Woman's Work," and said that the work proper for woman is whatever she has the ability and opportunity to do. Miss Rice embraced in the discussion of her topic, considerations as to the duty of parents in rearing and teaching ...
— History of Woman Suffrage, Volume II • Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Matilda Joslyn Gage
... alone. Without accompaniment he played the little song, "Beware," that Patty had sung, and, improvising, he made a fantasia of the air. He was clever as well as skilled, and he turned the simple little melody into thrilling, rollicking music with trills and roulades until the original theme was almost lost sight of, only to crop up ...
— Patty's Suitors • Carolyn Wells
... the Hindoos, and the Greeks, this stage is discovered, and Osiris, Indra, and Zeus are characteristic representatives. As psychotheism and written language appear together in the evolution of culture, this stage of theism is consciously or unconsciously a part of the theme of all ...
— Sketch of the Mythology of the North American Indians • John Wesley Powell
... with his daughters Mr. Flack was frequently the theme, though introduced much more by the young ladies than by himself, and especially by Delia, who announced at an early period that she knew what he wanted and that it wasn't in the least what SHE wanted. She amplified this statement very ...
— The Reverberator • Henry James
... appears to be very often an artificial sentiment, rather inspired by poetry and romances, than a real perception of the beauties of nature. But, as it is reckoned a proof of refined taste to praise the calm pleasures which the country affords, the theme is never exhausted. Yet it may be made a question, whether this romantic kind of declamation, has much effect on the conduct of those, who leave, for a season, the crowded cities in which they ...
— Posthumous Works - of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman • Mary Wollstonecraft
... upon their own families and should never fail to enlarge upon their theme. If need be, they can prepare the matter for a short address or a ...
— Poise: How to Attain It • D. Starke
... conversation is that it is kept personal, in the sense, I mean, that the personality of the speakers suffuses it. "The theme being taken," as Stevenson says, "each talker plays on himself as on an instrument, affirming and justifying himself." This counter-assertion of personality, to all appearances, is combat, but at bottom is ...
— Conversation - What to Say and How to Say it • Mary Greer Conklin
... question of the coming Presidential election, and was not unwilling to exchange with all whom he might the ideas to which he had arrived. He then began to show the fallacy of some of the arguments against Gen. Taylor, making his chief theme the fashionable statement of all those who oppose him ("the old Locofocos as well as the new") that he has no principles, and that the Whig party have abandoned their principles by adopting him as their candidate. He maintained that Gen. Taylor occupied a high and unexceptionable Whig ground, and ...
— The Papers And Writings Of Abraham Lincoln, Complete - Constitutional Edition • Abraham Lincoln
... likened to the opening stanzas of an epic poem, in which the theme of the story is foreshadowed, and no grander epic was ever written than is depicted in these thirteen mighty paintings, of all those qualities of heroism and adventure which have ever been thought worthy of commemoration in song ...
— Thirteen Chapters of American History - represented by the Edward Moran series of Thirteen - Historical Marine Paintings • Theodore Sutro
... defeated in a contest for membership in the National Assembly. He started, in 1832, upon a long journey in the East with his wife and daughter, Julia. The latter died at Beyrout in 1833. A description of his travels was the theme of his Voyage en Orient, appearing in 1835. In his absence he had been elected from Bergues to the Assembly, in which, on his return, he made his first speech early in 1834. As a political orator his power was ...
— Raphael - Pages Of The Book Of Life At Twenty • Alphonse de Lamartine
... loved?—then let thy heart From its present pathway part not; Being everything which now thou art, Be nothing which thou art not. So with the world thy gentle ways, Thy grace, thy more than beauty, Shall be an endless theme of praise. And ...
— Edgar Allan Poe's Complete Poetical Works • Edgar Allan Poe
... to chant to rest that sombre past which memory kept as a funeral theme for ever on its vibrating strings? Was there at last a file for the serpent, that had so long made its lair in her ...
— Infelice • Augusta Jane Evans Wilson
... not the passion-laden theme of a master, or the marvelous feeling of a player awaken your emotions?" ...
— The Fifth String, The Conspirators • John Philip Sousa
... Dogma" is presented quite another theme, treated in a fashion strikingly different. In the historical novels the stage is crowded with personages. In "Without Dogma," the chief interest centres in a single character. This is not a battle between contending armies, but the greater conflict that goes on in silence,—the ...
— Without Dogma • Henryk Sienkiewicz
... composition. They may characterized generally, as well suited to affect the public mind—to rouse into healthful activity the conscience of this nation, stupified, torpid, almost dead, in relation to HUMAN RIGHTS, the high theme of which they treat! ...
— The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Omnibus • American Anti-Slavery Society
... deservedly had to eat it; for two red hot gospellers, Calamy and Sedgewick, preached on the iniquity of keeping Christ-tide to the Lords in Westminster Abbey; whilst in the contiguous Church of S. Margaret, Thorowgood and Langley expatiated on the same theme to the Commons, and, as if they could not have enough of so good a thing, all four sermons were printed by order of ...
— A Righte Merrie Christmasse - The Story of Christ-Tide • John Ashton
... ocean has been the theme for many a song and story, and in the early days of the Republic the achievements of our naval heroes were looked upon as more essential for the attainment of our liberties than victories on shore, as every vessel captured or destroyed meant the loss of stores and munitions of war to the ...
— The True Story of the American Flag • John H. Fow
... more. You know I was an hour last night writing your theme; and, Churchill, I do not ...
— Louis' School Days - A Story for Boys • E. J. May
... make a long dissertation on this theme, and I let him go on, for I was waiting till after supper to come to ...
— The Memoires of Casanova, Complete • Jacques Casanova de Seingalt
... an insurmountable reason why we should refrain from developing this brilliant theory. It would cause a digression from the main theme of our work. In the situation which we have supposed to be that of a married establishment, a man who is sufficiently unwise to sleep apart from his wife deserves no pity for the disaster which ...
— Analytical Studies • Honore de Balzac
... Lodges, education always began afresh. Forty years had left little of the Palermo that Garibaldi had shown to the boy of 1860, but Sicily in all ages seems to have taught only catastrophe and violence, running riot on that theme ever since Ulysses began its study on the eye of Cyclops. For a lesson in anarchy, without a shade of sequence, Sicily stands alone and defies evolution. Syracuse teaches more than Rome. Yet even Rome was not mute, and ...
— The Education of Henry Adams • Henry Adams
... attention to the great similarity between the theme of John Gabriel Borkman and that of Pillars of Society. "In both," he says, "we have a business man of great ability who is guilty of a crime; in both this man is placed between two sisters; and in both he renounces a marriage of inclination for the sake ...
— John Gabriel Borkman • Henrik Ibsen
... that the Arts were the handmaids of both, of a Divine origin, and were given to earth for purposes that tended to spiritualise humanity; and who directed all his teachings, preachings, and writings to one great object, namely, the separation of religion from all worldly influences. On this theme Dr. Madden discourses with great learning, and, some few passages excepted, with great moderation; and the result is a Life of Savonarola, which gives a far more complete view of his character and his writings than ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 201, September 3, 1853 • Various
... wanders away ours. I cannot repress my summer memories—nor do I wish to. I live through my experience again and again and yet again. To transmute it all into a poem, I find, in the meantime, impossible." Clearly, then, he felt that his imagination ought to have been engaged on some theme having no relation to his summer experiences—the theme, no doubt, of Hedda Gabler. In his next letter, dated October 29, he writes: "Do not be troubled because I cannot, in the meantime, create (dichten). In reality I am for ever creating, or, at any rate, ...
— Hedda Gabler - Play In Four Acts • Henrik Ibsen
... the old man lose his place and unconsciously repeat his sentences. But not a shadow of disrespect mingled with their feelings. There was no mistaking the glow of love and the kindly fire which flushed the pale face when salvation was the theme. When he mentioned the name of Jesus, and urged sinners to flee from the wrath to come, the people felt the truth of that word, "God's strength is perfected in ...
— Freaks on the Fells - Three Months' Rustication • R.M. Ballantyne
... discourse of the New-found-land by Captain John Mason." After a discerning account of the attractions of his theme, the writer concludes: ...
— The Story of Newfoundland • Frederick Edwin Smith, Earl of Birkenhead
... If we listen attentively, however, to a number of songs, we shall detect in all of them a theme, as it is termed by musicians, of which the different individuals of the species warble their respective variations. Every song is, technically speaking, a fantasia constructed upon this theme, from which none of the ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 2, Issue 10, August, 1858 • Various
... which was good, Mr. Robbie continued to develop the same theme. "You're, no doubt, what they call a dancing-man?" said he. "Well, on Thursday night there is the Assembly Ball. You must certainly go there, and you must permit me besides to do the honours of the ceety and send you a ticket. I am a thorough believer in a young man ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 20 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson
... life, that he might please Him who had called him to be a soldier;" and the reader of his life will find that this unworldly man took similar pains to avoid wealth, which others do to acquire it. Perhaps I may be excused for dwelling a moment on this theme, when I state that one of the latest public acts of my beloved and lamented father-in-law, James Cropper, was to cause John Woolman's auto-biography and writings to be re-edited, and a large and cheap edition to be struck off, which has appeared since his decease.[A] This ...
— A Visit To The United States In 1841 • Joseph Sturge
... He was in a wonderfully good humor. On his walk he had found a beautiful musical theme, and he felt it frolicking in him like a fish in water. He refused to go to the Palace until he had had something to eat. He was as hungry as an ape. Louisa then supervised his dressing, for he was beginning to tease her again, pretending that he was quite all ...
— Jean-Christophe, Vol. I • Romain Rolland
... most common form of tea adulteration? 612. Describe the coffee plant and fruit, and its method of preparation for market. 613. What is the difference in the chemical composition of tea and coffee? 614. Name the characteristic alkaloid of coffee. How does it compare with theme? 615. Why may coffee not be considered a food? 616. Tell different ways in which coffee may be adulterated. 617. Which is more commonly practiced, tea or coffee adulteration? Why? 618. How may real coffee be distinguished from chicory? Why? 619. Name the three ...
— Human Foods and Their Nutritive Value • Harry Snyder
... of the malformations of forty years, of children, of hard work, stands gripping her flanks with both hands. The naked woman has become impossible in modern art; it required Degas' genius to infuse new life into the worn-out theme. Cynicism was the great means of eloquence of the middle ages, and with cynicism Degas has rendered the nude again an artistic possibility. What Mr. Horsley or the British matron would say it is difficult ...
— Confessions of a Young Man • George Moore
... on that theme," said he; for this was with him a favourite way out of an argument. In truth the Vicar loved the prophecy, as a quiet student often loves a thing that echoes of the world which ...
— Simon Dale • Anthony Hope
... went on to a sadder and yet in its way an even more glorious theme—the loss of His Majesty's good ship Amphion. He described the splendid discipline of the men, the magnificent courage of the captain, who, when recovering from a shock which had stretched him insensible, had rushed to stop the engines. He told with what composure ...
— Good Old Anna • Marie Belloc Lowndes
... of this play lies in the fact that, beneath the surface, it vibrates with the quivering, intensely pulsating forces of life. The speeches breathe. The leading characters not only have perspicuity, but each has its own representative melodic theme. There is as music under the text, a constant accompaniment of exquisite passion, rising, sinking, and now rising once more, in a struggle with vacillating sensual pleasure and base inclination to supersede others. Around the simple action ...
— Hadda Padda • Godmunder Kamban
... long upon this theme. I feel ashamed of my own prolixity. And yet I am sure you will pardon it. Ah, those bright brief days! too quickly were they fled! I could expatiate upon each minute—recall each word—revive each look. It may not be. I must hasten ...
— Rookwood • William Harrison Ainsworth
... most wonderful works of art in the edifice are the windows of stained glass and the musical facilities. Every window presents a theme suggestive of the Incarnation. The windows of the porch present several of the Old Testament characters and events which prefigured the birth of Christ, and over the door leading to the nave are figures of Adam and Eve and of Abraham and Sarah. The four windows on the south side of the nave ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 488, May 9, 1885 • Various
... us not venture too deeply into this theme. Another claim of Liberia upon the sympathetic interest of the entire people, is that it represents our sole attempt at colonial enterprise. It is true the movement was largely individual, but the effort came from a widespread area of the country; moreover, the part played ...
— History of Liberia - Johns Hopkins University Studies In Historical And Political Science • J.H.T. McPherson
... theme of conversation between Luigi and Teresa. The young girl trembled very much at hearing the stories; but Vampa reassured her with a smile, tapping the butt of his good fowling-piece, which threw its ball so well; and if that did ...
— The Count of Monte Cristo • Alexandre Dumas, Pere
... supper, having seen that all the people were in their places and that a strict silence was observed, he preached to the fish. His text was that the Hurons did not burn fish bones. "Then enlarging on this theme with extraordinary unction, he exhorted and conjured and invited and implored the fish to come and be caught and to be of good courage and to fear nothing, for it was all to serve their friends who honoured them and did not burn their bones." The natives of the Duke of York Island ...
— The Golden Bough - A study of magic and religion • Sir James George Frazer
... of California" has been for years a theme of song and story, and a discussion of its merits forms one of the principal occupations of the dwellers on the Pacific coast. It is indeed difficult to see how tourists could pass their time here without this topic ...
— John L. Stoddard's Lectures, Vol. 10 (of 10) - Southern California; Grand Canon of the Colorado River; Yellowstone National Park • John L. Stoddard
... a thorn At evening chime. Its sweet refrain fell like the rain Of summer-time. Of summer-time when roses bloomed, And bright above A rainbow spanned my fairy-land Of hope and love! Of hope and love! O linnet, cease Thy mocking theme! I ne'er picked up the golden cup In all my dream! In all my dream I missed the prize Should have been mine; And dreams won't die! though fain would I, And ...
— The Golden Dog - Le Chien d'Or • William Kirby
... independence in some different country. The eminent prince, the Margrave (Marzban) of Hind, Taki-uddin Abdu-r Rahman, a son of Muhammad-ut-Tibi, whose virtues and accomplishments have for a long time been the theme of praise and admiration among the chief inhabitants of that beautiful country, was the Devar's deputy, minister, and adviser, and was a man of sound judgment. Fattan, Malifattan, and Kail[2] were made over to his possession.... In the months of the year 692 H. (A.D. 1293) the above-mentioned ...
— The Travels of Marco Polo, Volume 2 • Marco Polo and Rustichello of Pisa
... grandeur of his words was the fit expression of his great thoughts and raised his hearers up to his theme, and his voice exerted to its utmost power penetrated every recess or corner of the Senate—penetrated even the ante-rooms and stairways, as in closing he pronounced in deepest tones of pathos these words of solemn significance: ...
— Hidden Treasures - Why Some Succeed While Others Fail • Harry A. Lewis
... years of age, of a lively turn, pleasant countenance, dark color, and ordinary size. In unburdening his mind to the Committee the all-absorbing theme related to the manner in which he had been treated as a slave, and the character of those who had oppressed him. He stated that he had been the victim of a man or party, named Johnson, in whose family John had been a witness to some of the most high-handed ...
— The Underground Railroad • William Still
... brilliance? What lover of books is unmoved to an occasional effort at emulation, even if he afterwards destroy it? You who do these things, sympathize with Shirley, who, by her own hand we do confess, is bitterly disillusioned every time she tries to write a theme. ...
— The 1926 Tatler • Various
... The theme of the book grows out of that experience: As the love of God required incarnation in Jesus of Nazareth in order that it might be received by us, so the Word of God's love in our day calls for persons in whom it may be embodied. ...
— Herein is Love • Reuel L. Howe
... expository lectures which characterised the preaching of the past, but there is a growing conviction on the part of some that an occasional short course, of six or eight connected studies on one definite theme, is a necessity of their mental and ministerial life. It is at this point the projected series would strike in. It would suggest to those who are mapping out a scheme of work for the future a variety of subjects which might possibly be utilised in ...
— The Prayers of St. Paul • W. H. Griffith Thomas
... boredom! stupefying Theme! Whereon with eloquence less deep than full, Still maundering on in slow continuous stream, All can expatiate, and all be dull: Bane of the mind and topic of debate That drugs the reader to a restless doze, Thou that with soul-annihilating weight Crushest the Bard, and hypnotisest those Who plod ...
— The Casual Ward - academic and other oddments • A. D. Godley
... adored parent, supposed by her to be a tragedienne of the first water, is in fact no more than a handsome stick, and unable (as they say) to act for nuts. Jesting apart, I am bound to admit that Lady TROUBRIDGE has risen admirably to the demands of her theme, and written a story both direct and appealing. Perhaps (dare I say?) its emotion is rather more secure than its grammar. The fact that she makes a duchess allude to "these kind of things" struck me at first as ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 152, March 14, 1917 • Various
... business—he was too afraid of exposing the woman he once had loved. It was probable also that light would come to him from the talk of the rest of the company: the Colonel's queer habit, both as it affected his own situation and as it affected his wife, would be a familiar theme in any house in which he was in the habit of staying. Lyon had not observed in the circles in which he visited any marked abstention from comment on the singularities of their members. It interfered with his progress that the Colonel hunted all day, while he plied his brushes and chatted ...
— A London Life; The Patagonia; The Liar; Mrs. Temperly • Henry James
... the full thunder of the psalm of life as they had never heard it before; MacIan felt God the Father, benignant in all His energies, and Turnbull that ultimate anonymous energy, that Natura Naturans, which is the whole theme of Lucretius. It was down this clamorous ladder of life that they went ...
— The Ball and The Cross • G.K. Chesterton
... meant to pursue, but well assured that he would keep his word; and, if he did, it would be impossible for him to introduce this delicate subject without compromising himself,—nay, without positively offering himself to Bertha. The very mention of such a theme would be a proposal; and, with this consolatory reflection, ...
— Fairy Fingers - A Novel • Anna Cora Mowatt Ritchie
... him like a simple musical theme, the notes of which are widely separated in the scale; a spirit of rashness, daring, and adventure seemed to call to him from them. It was at that moment that the determination flashed into his heart to walk to the ...
— A Voyage to Arcturus • David Lindsay
... that night from what are known as "the wilds of Hammersmith" (Hammersmith is a suburb of London) I said to myself: "This play is bound to succeed" The next moment I said to myself: "This play cannot possibly succeed. It has no love interest. It is a political play. Its theme is the threatened separation of the Southern States from the Northern States. Nobody ever heard of a play with such an absurd theme reaching permanent success. No author before John Drinkwater ever had the effrontery to impose such a theme ...
— Abraham Lincoln • John Drinkwater
... up the theme. "The finger of Heaven is pointed against such robbery," he cried. "'Cursed is he,' saith the scripture, 'that removeth his neighbour's landmark.' And again, it is written, 'Cursed is he that smiteth his neighbour secretly.' ...
— The Lancashire Witches - A Romance of Pendle Forest • William Harrison Ainsworth
... and get some rest," said the doctor to John; but her idea of a hired nurse was Southern, and she would not hear of it. John was not feeling too honest these days. On the evening of Thursday he came nerved up to mention Miss Garnet, whom, as a theme, he had wholly avoided whenever Fannie had spoken of her. But the moment he met Fannie, in the outer room, he was so cut to the heart to see how her bridal beauty had wasted with her strength that he could ...
— John March, Southerner • George W. Cable
... fascination to their sterling veracity—the veracity which is faithful to the spirit and gambols only with the letter. The humor of that work lies in its sympathetic and creative insight quite as much as in the broad good-humor and imaginative whimsicality with which the author handles his theme. The caricature of a true artist gives a better likeness than ...
— The History of the United States from 1492 to 1910, Volume 1 • Julian Hawthorne
... notoriety flattering or otherwise to the national pride. No institution has been better known or more marked on the Continent and in England, not excepting the tramway and the Pullman cars. Her enterprise, her daring, her freedom from conventionality, have been the theme of the novelists and the horror of the dowagers having marriageable daughters. Considered as "stock," the American Girl has been quoted high, and the alliances that she has formed with families impecunious but noble have given her eclat as belonging to a new and conquering race in the world. ...
— Baddeck and That Sort of Thing • Charles Dudley Warner
... and commenced conversing about delirium tremens, directing all their remarks to him, and telling him what fearful objects, such as snakes and rats, were always seen by the victims of this horrible disease. When the conversation had waxed high on this theme, one of the number stepped out of the room, and from a trap which was at hand let a large rat into the room. None of his friends appeared to see it, but the young man who was to be the victim seized a chair ...
— The Book of Anecdotes and Budget of Fun; • Various
... Embrace this luggage, which the man of men Hath landed here, and change thy Welladay Into some home-spun welcome Roundelay. Send of this stuff thy Territories thorough, To Ireland, Wales, and Scottish Edenborough; There let this Book be read and understood, Where is no theme, nor writer ...
— The Lives of the Most Famous English Poets (1687) • William Winstanley
... went on, warming to her theme, "that is only one of his simplicities. He asks me, 'Who puts the whitewash on Monte Sfiorito? 'And when I tell him that it is not whitewash, but snow, he says, 'How do you know?' But everyone knows that it is ...
— The Cardinal's Snuff-Box • Henry Harland
... thy green braes, Flow gently, sweet river, the theme of my lays; My Mary 's asleep by thy murmuring stream, Flow gently, sweet Afton, ...
— English Songs and Ballads • Various
... put him into my head, and for the moment, it fell in with my humour for a space to foist the man's personality upon you as yours and call you scientific—that most abusive word. But here he is, indisputably, with me in Utopia, and lapsing from our high speculative theme into halting but intimate confidences. He declares he has not come to Utopia to ...
— A Modern Utopia • H. G. Wells
... Zulus), the extraordinary feats and tricks of a tiny and apparently feeble and helpless person or animal, such as Brer Rabbit. The triumph of astuteness over strength (a triumph here assigned to the infancy of a God) is the theme. Hermes is here a rustic doublure of Apollo, as he was, in fact, mainly a rural deity, though he became the Messenger of the Gods, and the Guide of Souls outworn. In these respects he answers to the Australian Grogoragally, in his double relation to the Father, ...
— The Homeric Hymns - A New Prose Translation; and Essays, Literary and Mythological • Andrew Lang
... deprivations and its consolations. Finally there are poems of Life itself, of the moods in which it may be faced, of religion, of man's excellent virtues, of friendship and childhood, of passion, grief, and comfort. But there is no arbitrary isolation of one theme from another; they mingle and inter-penetrate throughout, to the music of Pan's flute, and of Love's viol, and the bugle-call of Endeavour, and the passing-bell ...
— Poems of To-Day: an Anthology • Various
... one of the first tragic operas to command great success, notwithstanding its dreadful theme and its light music, which is half French, half Italian. It is in some respects the predecessor of Verdi's operas, Rigoletto, Trovatore etc., which have till now held their own in many theatres because the subject is interesting and the music may well entertain us for an evening, {186} though ...
— The Standard Operaglass - Detailed Plots of One Hundred and Fifty-one Celebrated Operas • Charles Annesley
... of mind, Trammelless and unconfined, Probing Nature's boundless scheme, Gauging the stupendous theme? She, that paints horizons bright, Belting heaven and earth with light! Beams upon cherubic gaze— Kindles the volcanic blaze! Makes Euroclydon her zone— Sits upon her thunder throne! Who her eulogy shall dare, Whose brow is wreathed with lightning glare? She, who treads the surgy ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction - Vol. 19, Issue 551, June 9, 1832 • Various
... question either of superiority or of inferiority. The great historian of European Morals has analysed the constitutional differences of the sexes as he conceived them; and I may quote his remarks as pertinent to my theme. Lecky writes as follows[422]: ...
— A Short History of Women's Rights • Eugene A. Hecker
... am I, on the verge of rushing into another theme, without having expressed our disappointment that you cannot bear us company this summer, yet I must say that the edge of regret is somewhat dulled by my interest in the progress and result of your garden vacation, which to us at least is a perfectly unique ...
— The Garden, You, and I • Mabel Osgood Wright
... of declining the honour. But Benham, who had been saying, "It takes a year in the Yukon for a man to get on to himself," interrupted his favourite theme to ask: "Your ...
— The Magnetic North • Elizabeth Robins (C. E. Raimond)
... college," said Wharton; "I would as soon, and sooner, hear a schoolboy read his theme as hear a man begin to prose about public virtue—especially a member of parliament. Keep that phrase, my dear Vivian, till some of the treasury bench come to court you; then look superb, like a French tragic actor, swelling out your chest, ...
— Tales and Novels, Vol. V - Tales of a Fashionable Life • Maria Edgeworth
... What theme for sorrow or for scorn! What chronicle of Fate's surprises— Of adverse fortune nobly borne, Of chances, ...
— Ballads • William Makepeace Thackeray
... respect our heroes differ. The fall of Troy and the wanderings of Ulysses became the theme of two great epic poems among the Greeks. The wanderings and adventures of neas, son of Anchises, were fashioned into a lordly epic by Virgil for the Romans. But the much-traveled man, the anr polutropos, the weapons and the hero, Odin, who, driven by the norns, first came to ...
— The Younger Edda - Also called Snorre's Edda, or The Prose Edda • Snorre
... to their ears, they would say cheerily, 'Lord, never mind, my dear; there's a third to come yet!'—at which maladroit remark she would show much indignation, and tell them they should know better than to trifle on so solemn a theme. Yet that the poor lady would have been only too happy to be the wife of the third, instead of Sir John whom she had taken, was painfully obvious, and much she was blamed for her foolish choice by some people. Sir William, however, had returned ...
— A Group of Noble Dames • Thomas Hardy
... question, whether these thousands of Italians have liberty or even food to-day, is one of a few months', or, at most, a few years', concern, while the soul's experience of that one Italian who died more than five hundred years ago will be a fruitful theme forever? ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 4, No. 24, Oct. 1859 • Various
... Whate'er the theme, the maiden sang As if her song could have no ending; I saw her singing at her work, And o'er the sickle bending. I listened motionless and still; And, as I mounted up the hill, The music in my heart I bore Long after it was heard ...
— Graded Poetry: Seventh Year - Edited by Katherine D. Blake and Georgia Alexander • Various
... are believed to have received about four thousand. Horace was wrong, mediocre poets may exist (now and then), and he was a wise man who first spoke of aurea mediocritas. At length the great work was achieved, a work thrice blessed in its theme, that divine Maiden to whom France owes all, and whom you and Voltaire have recompensed so strangely. In folio, in italics, with a score of portraits and engravings, and culs de lampe, the great work was given to the world, and had a success. Six editions in eighteen ...
— Letters to Dead Authors • Andrew Lang
... burning trireme, have a certain dazzling magnificence, but the colouring is often crude and startling. The figure of the deathless Jew is apt to be lost amid the mazes of the author's rhetoric. The conception of a man doomed to wander eternally in expiation of a curse is in itself an arresting theme likely to attract a romantic writer, but the record of his adventures may ...
— The Tale of Terror • Edith Birkhead
... best proof of the affirmative. See Bartholmess, Hist. Philosophique de l'Academie de Prusse, i. 281, and ii. 278. Condorcet did not actually compete for the prize, but he wrote a very acute piece, suggested by the theme, which was printed ...
— On Compromise • John Morley
... he soliloquized, and, taking my book, opened it as if to dismiss our theme. But I bade him turn to the preface, where heavily scored by the same feminine hand which had written on the blank leaf opposite, "Richard Thorndyke Smith, from ...
— Strong Hearts • George W. Cable
... to Helen at St. Filan's, informing her of the taking of the castle, and of the safety of her friends. This having satisfied the earl he did not advert to her at all in his present discourse with Wallace, but rather avoided encumbering his occupied mind with anything but the one great theme. ...
— The Scottish Chiefs • Miss Jane Porter
... on, touching the same keys of the musical instrument of His heart, back and forth, yet ever advancing in the theme. Now He broadens out, in clear vision, beyond the gathering storm, to those, through all the earth, and down the centuries, who would believe through these men who are listening. What a sweep of faith. That ...
— Quiet Talks on John's Gospel • S. D. Gordon
... Scythians of Asia; the wild inhabitants of the plains beyond the Oxus and the Jaxartes, two mighty rivers, which direct their course towards the Caspian Sea. The long and memorable quarrel of Iran and Touran is still the theme of history or romance: the famous, perhaps the fabulous, valor of the Persian heroes, Rustan and Asfendiar, was signalized, in the defence of their country, against the Afrasiabs of the North; and the invincible spirit of ...
— The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Volume 2 • Edward Gibbon
... of old have sung the vine Such a theme shall ne'er be mine; Weaker strains to me belong, Paeans sung to thee, Souchong! What though I may never sip Rubies from my tea-cup's lip; Do not milky pearls combine In this steaming cup of mine? What though round my youthful brow I ne'er twine the myrtle's ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 1, Complete • Various
... commander on board their vessel. The object of their remarks, meanwhile, stood once more quietly leaning over the monkey-rail on the weather side of the quarter-deck, quite unconscious that he was supplying a theme of entertainment to ...
— The Sea-Witch - or, The African Quadroon A Story of the Slave Coast • Maturin Murray
... mechanically moved from the spot where they had been standing. Aristide, embroidering his theme, mechanically accompanied him; and, such is democratic France, and also such was the magnetic, Ancient Mariner-like power of Aristide—did not I, myself, on my first meeting with him at Aigues-Mortes fall helplessly under the spell—that, in a few moments, the amateur Town Crier and the ...
— The Joyous Adventures of Aristide Pujol • William J. Locke
... in real or fictitious marriages, in order to save them from the hands of the king's ministers, custom having established a rule, which is rarely if ever violated, that no married woman can be seized, even for the king himself" (234. xlii.). The child-marriages of India have been a fruitful theme for discussion, as well as the enforced widowhood consequent upon the death of the husband. Among the most interesting literature on the subject are the "Papers relating to Infant Marriage and ...
— The Child and Childhood in Folk-Thought • Alexander F. Chamberlain
... answered the knight, "and I think thou darest not palter with me on such a theme, thou must have the aid of Satan, and I will have nought to do with him. I disown and ...
— The Fair Maid of Perth • Sir Walter Scott
... occasion when residing at the court of Scopas, king of Thessaly, the prince desired him to prepare a poem in celebration of his exploits, to be recited at a banquet. In order to diversify his theme, Simonides, who was celebrated for his piety, introduced into his poem the exploits of Castor and Pollux. Such digressions were not unusual with the poets on similar occasions, and one might suppose an ordinary mortal might have been content to share the praises of the ...
— TITLE • AUTHOR
... the dawning hour, Thy boundless love to tell; And when the night-wind shuts the flower, Still on the theme to dwell. ...
— Hymns for Christian Devotion - Especially Adapted to the Universalist Denomination • J.G. Adams
... in its present form," Eric explained. "The theme's the same, but I've rewritten almost ...
— The Education of Eric Lane • Stephen McKenna
... Plato's conception of the progression of experience we must again catch up the Socratic strain which he weaves into every theme. For Socrates, student of life and mankind, all objects were objects of interest, and all interests practical interests. One is ignorant when one does not know the good of things; opinionative when one rates things by conventional standards; wise ...
— The Approach to Philosophy • Ralph Barton Perry
... beauty, flushing, glowing, O'er broad Lutigh Neagh's breast, The sunset banner hovers, throwing Its glory over the West. And varied banks of glen and wood, That smile round Neagh's smiling flood, In this sweet hour seem fitting theme For ...
— Lays from the West • M. A. Nicholl
... satisfaction on the other, was not the struggle which Byron experienced in himself or desired to depict in his mysterious hierarch of the powers of nature. "It was the Staubach and the Jungfrau, and something else," not the influence of Faust on a receptive listener, which called up a new theme, and struck out a fresh well-spring of the imagination. The motif of Manfred is remorse—eternal suffering for inexpiable crime. The sufferer is for ever buoyed up with the hope that there is relief somewhere in nature, beyond nature, above nature, ...
— The Works of Lord Byron, Volume 4 • Lord Byron
... the Silver Fox Patrol when on one of their vacation trips to the wonderland of the great Northwest. How apparent disaster is bravely met and overcome by Thad and his friends, forms the main theme of the story, which abounds in plenty of humor, ...
— The Boy Chums in the Forest - or Hunting for Plume Birds in the Florida Everglades • Wilmer M. Ely
... out of cloud at a change of the theme. Gower journeyed to London without the letter, intoxicated, and conscious of poison; enamoured of it, and straining for health. He had to reflect at the journey's end, that he had picked up nothing on the road, neither a thing observed nor a thing imagined; ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith
... produced a feeling of elation. It had been horrible, that encounter with the descending enemy, and then the firing and the shrieks and yells as they had shot at these men; and then unconsciously, while he and his brothers were silently and thoughtfully dwelling on the same theme, Norman said aloud: "No, they are not men, but wolves, and must be treated ...
— The Dingo Boys - The Squatters of Wallaby Range • G. Manville Fenn
... we hear that remarked! It is the preacher's theme on each recurring Sabbath," said Mrs. Markland, in an abstracted way. "How often have words of similar import passed my own lips, when I spoke as a mentor, and vainly thought my own heart was not wedded to the world and the good things it ...
— The Good Time Coming • T. S. Arthur
... had indeed existed in northern France, known to us only by scanty fragments and allusions. It was a simple and light accompaniment of dancing or of the monotonous household tasks of sewing and spinning. Its theme was love and love-making. Its characteristic outward feature was a recurring refrain. The manner and frequency of repeating this refrain determined different forms, as rondets, ballettes, and virelis But there are few examples left us of early ...
— French Lyrics • Arthur Graves Canfield
... population of Tartars had so much interested Gibbon that he refers to it in that chapter of his great work in which he describes the ancient Scythians. De Quincey had fastened on the same document as supplying him with an admirable theme for literary treatment. Explaining this some time ago, while editing his Revolt of the Tartars for a set of Selections from his Writings, I had to add that there was much in the paper which he could not have derived ...
— De Quincey's Revolt of the Tartars • Thomas De Quincey
... day, however, Anne remembered regretfully that she had promised to help a troubled freshman through the mazes of an especially trying trigonometry lesson, while Miriam had a theme to write which she had neglected until the last minute, and had to rush through on ...
— Grace Harlowe's First Year at Overton College • Jessie Graham Flower
... What a precious theme is harvest! The hopes, the well-being, the life of the world is fast bound up in the magic of this ...
— The Stewardship of the Soil - Baccalaureate Address • John Henry Worst
... the struggles made by George IV to get rid of her claims; which failing, Lord Castlereagh placed the "Green Bag" on the table of the House of Commons, demanding in the King's name that an enquiry should be instituted into his wife's conduct. These circumstances were the theme of all conversation among the English. We were then at the Baths of San Giuliano. A friend came to visit us on the day when a fair was held in the square, beneath our windows: Shelley read to us ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley Volume I • Percy Bysshe Shelley
... one of hers that she might have money to help her lover. But none of the other stories shows the originality and impressively realistic tone which distinguish The Case of Summerfield. In this he achieved the successful combination of audacity of theme with a fitting incisiveness of style. It alone rises above the level of the merely ingenious and clever; it alone of his work was ...
— The Case of Summerfield • William Henry Rhodes
... his warriors, put an end to a dialogue, that had done but little to illustrate the story of the strange personage by my side. If possible, I was more mystified than ever. But it was not a time to be tempted by the lure of an idle curiosity, however interesting the theme. The perilous situation of my old comrades came once more vividly before my mind. The thought recalled me to my duty; and, hurrying from the presence of that beautiful being—whom I hoped soon to behold again—I leaped upon ...
— The Wild Huntress - Love in the Wilderness • Mayne Reid
... this invidious theme had all the desired effect upon Peregrine, who not only considered it as a piece of unmannerly abuse leveled against his own conduct, but also a retrospective insult on the memory of his grandfather, who, as he had been informed, was ...
— The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle, Volume I • Tobias Smollett
... had, and the stirring fight and the magnificent way in which Armitage had handled his long skirmish-line. He was enthusiastic in his praise of the tall Saxon captain. He soon noted how silent and absorbed she sat when he was the theme of discourse; he incidentally mentioned little things "he" had said about "her" that morning, and marked how her color rose and her eyes flashed quick, joyful, questioning glance at his face, then fell in maiden shyness. He had speedily gauged the cause of that strange excitement ...
— From the Ranks • Charles King
... maintain only a very small army. The mistake of 1870 must not be repeated. This time there would be no paltry levy of five billion francs. A great German Empire would rise on the ruins of the British. Commercial gain was the theme. I did not gather from the conversation that anybody but Germany would be a party to ...
— The Land of Deepening Shadow - Germany-at-War • D. Thomas Curtin
... Macready, and it is useless for me to thank you, my dearest friend, or her, for your care of our dear children, which is our constant theme of discourse. Forster has gladdened our hearts with his account of the triumph of "Acis and Galatea," and I am anxiously looking for news of the tragedy. Forrest breakfasted with us at Richmond last Saturday—he was acting there, and I invited him—and he spoke very gratefully, ...
— The Letters of Charles Dickens - Vol. 1 (of 3), 1833-1856 • Charles Dickens
... was still the uppermost subject in his mind. He had reserved for the conclusion of his address the justification of his view of the future, afforded by the widespread and frightful poverty among the millions of the population of London alone. On this melancholy theme he had spoken with the eloquence of true feeling, and had produced a strong impression, even on those members of the audience who were most resolutely opposed to the opinions which he advocated. Without any undue exercise of self-esteem, he could look back on the close of his lecture ...
— The Fallen Leaves • Wilkie Collins
... On this theme, my emotions are unutterable. If I could find words for them—if my powers bore any proportion to my zeal—I would swell my voice to such a note of remonstrance, it should reach every log house beyond the mountains, I would say to the inhabitants, Wake from your false security; ...
— The World's Best Orations, Vol. 1 (of 10) • Various
... their living together in undivided intercourse. In the present order of Providence, the marriage contract between baptized persons is a sacrament, under the superintendence of the Church, the fertile theme of canonists and theologians. As philosophers, we deal with marriage as it would be, were there no sacraments, no Church, and no Incarnation, present or to come. This is marriage in ...
— Moral Philosophy • Joseph Rickaby, S. J.
... here, now," continued the Baron, warming with his theme, which seemed to be a congenial one; "just look here; see the position of this Roman court. They can actually levy taxes on the whole world. Voluntary contributions, Sir, are a wonderful power. Think of our missionary societies—our Sabbath-school organizations in the States. Think ...
— The American Baron • James De Mille
... violins made years ago by masters of constructional art, for they have become mellow with age, and, like the bells of some old parish church, now give out rich and yet soft notes when handled by a master hand. The story of the development of the piano from the very early prototypes is an enchanting theme to the lover of music, for there is a far remove from the modern pianoforte, and still newer player piano to the virginal, harpsichord, and spinet which may occasionally be found among ...
— Chats on Household Curios • Fred W. Burgess
... to strike somewhere between a temperance lecture and the "Bartender's Guide." Relative to the latter, drink shall swell the theme and be set forth in abundance. Agreeably to the former, not ...
— The Trimmed Lamp and Others • O Henry |
