"Preoccupancy" Quotes from Famous Books
... dates from a remote geological time. We know, however, that, before the Recent period, that continent was peopled with large kangaroos, and other herbivorous and carnivorous marsupials, of species long since extinct, their remains having been discovered in ossiferous caverns. The preoccupancy of the country by such indigenous tribes may have checked the development of the placental Rodents and Cheiroptera, even were we to concede the possibility of such forms being convertible by variation and progressive development into ... — The Antiquity of Man • Charles Lyell
... Rosalind; and perhaps a secret persuasion to that effect is the real cause of her rejecting his suit. Accordingly, when he sees her placed beyond his hope, he has no more trouble about her; but turns, and builds a true affection where, during the preoccupancy of his imagination, so many sweet and tender appeals have been ... — Shakespeare: His Life, Art, And Characters, Volume I. • H. N. Hudson |