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Act   Listen
verb
Act  v. t.  (past & past part. acted; pres. part. acting)  
1.
To move to action; to actuate; to animate. (Obs.) "Self-love, the spring of motion, acts the soul."
2.
To perform; to execute; to do. (Archaic) "That we act our temporal affairs with a desire no greater than our necessity." "Industry doth beget by producing good habits, and facility of acting things expedient for us to do." "Uplifted hands that at convenient times Could act extortion and the worst of crimes."
3.
To perform, as an actor; to represent dramatically on the stage.
4.
To assume the office or character of; to play; to personate; as, to act the hero.
5.
To feign or counterfeit; to simulate. "With acted fear the villain thus pursued."
To act a part, to sustain the part of one of the characters in a play; hence, to simulate; to dissemble.
To act the part of, to take the character of; to fulfill the duties of.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Act" Quotes from Famous Books



... notions preceptors deem it necessary to inculcate on their disciples regarding generosity, disinterestedness, liberty, honor, patriotism, etc. When he saw that almost all he had thus been taught was mere illusion, a theme for declamation, and that people in the world very rarely act on such principles; then, no doubt, with his exquisite sensibility, and elevated standard of ideal, he must have felt himself more disgusted than any one else, and must have believed he had a right to despise the human race. Especially would this have been the case after he had personally suffered ...
— My Recollections of Lord Byron • Teresa Guiccioli

... of principles except to give one an agreeable sensation of wickedness when one doesn't act ...
— The Explorer • W. Somerset Maugham

... treat me so badly? What is friendship worth, if you set no higher value upon it than this? I don't believe you know what friendship means, or you never could act so. How miserable you have made me! how wretched you must have been yourself! you proud, noble-minded darling—under the sting of ...
— The Golden Calf • M. E. Braddon

... sympathy with either side. Once the oath was administered, these new deputies were confronted by the choice between perjury and service. To be sure the issuance of these summonses forced many of the neutral minded into the ranks of the Vigilantes. The refusal to act placed them on the wrong side of the law; and they felt that joining a party pledged to what practically amounted to civil war was only a short step farther. The various military companies were mustered, ...
— The Gray Dawn • Stewart Edward White

... interested expectation was not lost on Evelyn Desmond. A pressing need was urging her to unburden her mind through the comforting channels of speech. Cut off, by her own act, from the two strong natures on whom she leaned for sympathy and help, there remained only this girl, who would certainly give her the one, and might possibly give her the other, in the form of practical information. ...
— Captain Desmond, V.C. • Maud Diver

... with a bitter laugh. "Aye, fools indeed; King George would have paid them better, for he is richer. He would have made them gentlemen for their losses. But, thank God! there is a pervading spirit in the people that seems miraculous. Men who have nothing, act as if the wealth of the Indies depended on their fidelity; all are not villains like yourself, or we should have been ...
— The Spy • James Fenimore Cooper

... determination to go ashore as soon as I can. If it is possible, I shall recover her body and care for it. As for Rossland, it is not a matter of importance to me whether he lives or dies. Mary Standish had nothing to do with the assault upon him. It was merely coincident with her own act and nothing more. Will you tell me our location when she leaped ...
— The Alaskan • James Oliver Curwood

... which Congress held out the promise that it would be admitted as a state as soon as its population numbered 60,000; but Alabama was separated from Mississippi in 1816. The old matter of claims was not finally disposed of until an act of 1814 appropriated $5,000,000 for the purpose. In the same year Andrew Jackson's decisive victories over the Creeks at Talladega and Horseshoe Bend—of which more must be said—resulted in the cession of a vast tract of the land of that unhappy ...
— A Social History of the American Negro • Benjamin Brawley

... the Celestial City," began the other pilgrim, whose name was Mr. Foot-it-to-heaven, "has refused, and will ever refuse, to grant an act of incorporation for this railroad; and unless that be obtained, no passenger can ever hope to enter his dominions. Wherefore every man who buys a ticket must lay his account with losing the purchase money, which is the value of his ...
— Mosses from an Old Manse and Other Stories • Nathaniel Hawthorne

... Reserve Act would be amended to give the President control over the Federal Reserve System—which, as set up in 1913, is supposed to be free of any kind of political control, from the White ...
— The Invisible Government • Dan Smoot

... hermit was in the habit of setting out on one of his trading trips; and when Martin told him of the desire that he and Barney entertained to visit the interior, he told them that he would be happy to take them along with him, provided they would act the part of muleteers. To this they readily agreed, being only too glad of an opportunity of making some return to their friend, who refused to accept any payment for his hospitality, although Barney earnestly begged of him to accept of his watch, which was the only object of ...
— Martin Rattler • R.M. Ballantyne

... The state of man in divers functions, Setting endeavour in continual motion; To which is fixed, as an aim or butt, Obedience: for so work the honey-bees, Creatures that by a rule in nature teach The act of order to ...
— Shakespeare and the Modern Stage - with Other Essays • Sir Sidney Lee

... be better to give them away, and begin on a new foundation. Take 'Honesty is the best policy' for your motto, and live up to it in act, and word, and thought, and though you don't make a cent of money this summer, you will be a rich boy in the autumn," said ...
— Little Men - Life at Plumfield With Jo's Boys • Louisa May Alcott

... eyes looked icily into his wife's blazing gray ones. "Don't act like a fool. Suppose he had gotten in there himself, and had fallen down—do you think she'd have waited to kill him? Where'd he be now—like that?" and he pointed ...
— Dust • Mr. and Mrs. Haldeman-Julius

... the idle poor was another common source for providing servants. In 1663 an act was passed by Parliament empowering Justices of the Peace to send rogues, vagrants, and "sturdy beggars" to the colonies. These men belonged to the class of the unfortunate rather than the vicious and ...
— Our Foreigners - A Chronicle of Americans in the Making • Samuel P. Orth

... the act, he passed his arm around her shoulders, and drew her close to him. She looked up in astonishment, but his eyes were fixed on the kneeling figure in the room opposite, and she saw that, just then, he was thinking of anything else than ...
— Beulah • Augusta J. Evans

... pirate fleet as far north as Manila Bay. Although the Spaniards had repeatedly won victories in Jolo, Zamboanga, and Davao, and by treaties had made all this country vassal to the crown of Spain, up to the time of the evacuation of the Philippines, when, as a last act, they had sent their own tiny gunboats to the bottom of Lanao, they never had become the undisputed ...
— The Great White Tribe in Filipinia • Paul T. Gilbert

... again to the temple of the Iron Fence and ascertained how things were progressing. But as Pao Chu was obstinate in her refusal to return home, Chia Chen found himself under the necessity of selecting a few servants to act as her companions. But the reader must listen to what is said in the next chapter ...
— Hung Lou Meng, Book I • Cao Xueqin

... recovered herself with a start, and again buried her face in her hands. What were games and combats of that kind to her? She was to enter upon a different kind of struggle. She must reflect—reflect!—and when she had reflected, must act! ...
— The Continental Monthly, Vol 6, No 5, November 1864 - Devoted To Literature And National Policy • Various

... of the will, foreseeing the result of a legal contest with a millionaire, withdrew opposition, trusting to Lord Lonsdale's sense of justice for payment. They leaned on a broken reed, the wealthy debtor "Died and made no sign."' [2 Henry VI, act iii. sc. 3.] See De Quincey's Works, ...
— Life Of Johnson, Volume 5 • Boswell

... chancing to cross a small stream, I saw a number of Lampreys in the act of spawning, and remembering the queries of your correspondent, I stood to watch their motions. After observing them for some time, I observed one twist its tail round another in such a manner, and they both stirred ...
— Essays in Natural History and Agriculture • Thomas Garnett

... The other German act which brought home to Americans the possibilities of the submarine, the visit of the U-53, was a very different sort of matter. U-53 was a German submarine of the largest type. On October 7, 1916, it made a sudden appearance at Newport, and its captain, Lieutenant-Captain ...
— History of the World War - An Authentic Narrative of the World's Greatest War • Francis A. March and Richard J. Beamish

... gazed, the Chimes stopped. Instantaneous change! The whole swarm fainted! their forms collapsed, their speed deserted them; they sought to fly, but in the act of falling died and melted into air. No fresh supply succeeded them. One straggler leaped down pretty briskly from the surface of the Great Bell, and alighted on his feet, but he was dead and gone before he could turn round. ...
— The Chimes • Charles Dickens

... had been surmounted, produced in him a sense of negative relief. It was much simpler for him to judge Miss Bart by her habitual conduct than by the rare deviations from it which had thrown her so disturbingly in his way; and every act of hers which made the recurrence of such deviations more unlikely, confirmed the sense of relief with which he returned to ...
— House of Mirth • Edith Wharton

... which might otherwise have slain him had been poured the wine and oil of a great love; a love so clean and pure in its own well-springs that it could perceive no wrong in its object; could measure no act of loyal devotion by any standard save that of its own greatness. This love asked nothing but what he chose to give. It would accept him either as he was, or as he ought to be. The place he should elect to occupy would be its place; ...
— The Price • Francis Lynde

... as to draw the sharpest words from Him that He ever spoke to a loving heart. In his eagerness, Peter had taken Jesus on one side to whisper his suggestion; but Christ will have all hear His rejection of the counsel. Therefore He 'turned about,' facing the rest of the group, and by the act putting Peter behind Him, and spoke aloud the stern words. Not thus was He wont to repel ignorant love, nor to tell out faults in public; but the act witnessed to the recoil of His fixed spirit from the temptation which addressed His natural human shrinking from death, as well as to His desire ...
— Expositions of Holy Scripture - St. Mark • Alexander Maclaren

... one man, in truth such as Appius Claudius, for that that was more than a consul, would in a moment disperse these private meetings." When the consuls, thus rebuked, asked them, "What they desired them to do, for that they would act with as much energy and vigour as the senators wished," they resolve that they should push on the levies as briskly as possible, that the people were become insolent from want of employment. When the house broke up, the consuls ascend ...
— The History of Rome, Books 01 to 08 • Titus Livius

... first professional appearance at Hopkins' Theatre, State Street, Chicago, being billed as "Chicago's Leading Amateur"—a singing and dancing "black-faced" comedian, doing a "ragtime piano" specialty, and dancing act. This led to other engagements. The "piano specialty," which he originated, started the "ragtime" craze. He played in and around Chicago and the middle west. He came East to New York, and was booked by the late Phil Nash, on the Keith Circuit, billed ...
— The Art of Stage Dancing - The Story of a Beautiful and Profitable Profession • Ned Wayburn

... on the tenth day of Tishri, the Day of Atonement, and upon the spot on which the altar was later to be erected in the Temple, for the act of Abraham remains a never-ceasing ...
— The Legends of the Jews Volume 1 • Louis Ginzberg

... Feet; French fait, act, feat. Ferremens. See Serremens. Flessly; fleshily. Folelarge; prodigal, extravagant. Fumee; French fumee, smoke, vapour. Garnyfche; garnish, adorn, set off. Genere; general. Goddes man; godsman, saint or religious person. Gossibs; gossyb; gossips, gossip. Gree; French ...
— Game and Playe of the Chesse - A Verbatim Reprint Of The First Edition, 1474 • Caxton

... gave me no pleasure, it had a very different effect upon Olivia, who mistook it for humour, though but a mere act of the memory. She thought him therefore a very fine gentleman; and such as consider what powerful ingredients a good figure, fine cloaths, and fortune, are in that character, will easily forgive her. Mr ...
— The Vicar of Wakefield • Oliver Goldsmith

... question seems to be an unimportant matter of terminology. Compositions cast in this shape were, without doubt, originally written for the stage only, and as a consequence their nomenclature of "Act," "Scene," and the like, was drawn directly from the vehicle of representation. But in the course of time such a shape would reveal itself to be an eminently readable one; moreover, by dispensing with the theatre altogether, a freedom of treatment was attainable ...
— The Dynasts - An Epic-Drama Of The War With Napoleon, In Three Parts, - Nineteen Acts, And One Hundred And Thirty Scenes • Thomas Hardy

... pointing to the other counsel, "here arrayed—it is more like a conspiracy (not that my learned friends have lot, or part, or feeling in the business)—more like a conspiracy against this woman, than any, the least act of felony on her part. These clothes! I pray you look at them, Gentlemen of the Jury—these clothes!! Can you conceive, Gentlemen, that if you were a Duke and Duchess of N——, you would have even offered to give a housekeeper, a woman of credit and respectability—a fellow-servant of this ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 20, - Issue 563, August 25, 1832 • Various

... seized, to clothe with it the sides and roof of the stone mountain which he had built; piling up pinnacles and spires, each crocketed at the angles; that, like a group of firs upon an isolated rock, every point of the building might seem in act to grow toward heaven, till his idea culminated in that glorious Minster of Cologne, which, if it ever be completed, will be the likeness of one forest-clothed group of cliffs, ...
— Health and Education • Charles Kingsley

... young doctor in their corner. He was beginning to feel uncomfortably stranded in the middle of the long room, when Dr. Lindsay crossed to his side. The talk at dinner had not put the distinguished specialist in a sympathetic light, but the younger man felt grateful for this act of cordiality. They chatted about St. Isidore's, about the medical schools in Chicago, and the medical societies. At last Dr. Lindsay suggested casually, ...
— The Web of Life • Robert Herrick

... those who can least afford it often wear the best mourning, so tyrannical is custom. They consider it—by what process of reasoning no one can understand, unless it be out of a hereditary belief that we hold in the heathen idea of propitiating the manes of the departed—an act of disrespect to the memory of the dead if the living are ...
— Manners and Social Usages • Mrs. John M. E. W. Sherwood

... secondly, when "the earth brought forth the green herb." But concerning the production of plants, Augustine's opinion differs from that of others. For other commentators, in accordance with the surface meaning of the text, consider that the plants were produced in act in their various species on this third day; whereas Augustine (Gen. ad lit. v, 5; viii, 3) says that the earth is said to have then produced plants and trees in their causes, that is, it received then the power to produce them. He supports this ...
— Summa Theologica, Part I (Prima Pars) - From the Complete American Edition • Thomas Aquinas

... holy hate. His first act on reentering the Senate was to deliver an implacably bitter speech against the President. It was his last public appearance. He went thence to his home in East Tennessee, gratified and happy, to die in a ...
— Marse Henry, Complete - An Autobiography • Henry Watterson

... hard to state in such a case as this," answered Frye cautiously. "The estate is a large one; there may be, and no doubt will be, other claimants; litigation may follow, and so the cost is an uncertain one. I shall be glad to act for you in this matter, and will do so ...
— Uncle Terry - A Story of the Maine Coast • Charles Clark Munn

... walking slowly, side by side; Hobbs, for the first time caught off his guard, had dropped behind more than half a long block. But now Kirkwood's quick sidelong glance discovered the mate in the act of taking alarm and quickening his pace. None the less the American was at the time barely conscious of anything other than a wholly unexpected furtive pressure of the girl's gloved fingers on ...
— The Black Bag • Louis Joseph Vance

... in hesitation how to act, stones kept whizzing over and around me, and I received a blow with one in the inside of my knee, which nearly knocked my leg from under me; it came from the left, where I had not been looking. I then ran under lee of the fly of the tent to take a better survey, ...
— What Led To The Discovery of the Source Of The Nile • John Hanning Speke

... aimed at commerce in India and South Africa, and investment in the banking sector alone has reached over $1 billion. Mauritius, with its strong textile sector and responsible fiscal management, has been well poised to take advantage of the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). The government is encouraging foreign investment ...
— The 2003 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency

... advisable, so far as to make him acquainted with the truth, that this had already been sifted and decided; and I judged this to be the time. Again and again I urged confession upon him. I put it to him that this act of justice might now be done for its own sake, and for that of the cleansing from spot of his stained spirit. I told him, finally, that it could no longer prejudice him in this world, where his fate was written and sealed, for that his companion was reprieved. I knew not what I did. Whether ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction - Vol. 13, No. 374 • Various

... presence in the eucharist and instigated the Elector of Saxony to seize, imprison, and banish all the secret Calvinists that differed from them in sentiment, and to reduce their followers by every act of violence, to renounce their sentiments and to confess the ubiquity. Peucer, for his opinions, suffered ten years of imprisonment in the severest manner. In 1577 a form of concord was produced in which the real manducation of Christ's body and blood ...
— The Revelation Explained • F. Smith

... Lord Eglington's wife—there could be no sharing of soul and mind and body and the exquisite devotion of a life too dear for thought. Nothing that she was to Eglington could be divided with another, not for an hour, not by one act of impulse; or else she must be less, she that might have been, if there ...
— The Judgment House • Gilbert Parker

... have the desire of receiving the Baptism of water as soon as he can; just as a person in mortal sin and without a priest to absolve him may, when in danger of death, save his soul from Hell by an act of perfect contrition and the firm resolution of going to confession as soon as possible. Baptism of desire would be useful and necessary if there was no water at hand or no person to baptize; or if the one ...
— Baltimore Catechism No. 4 (of 4) - An Explanation Of The Baltimore Catechism of Christian Doctrine • Thomas L. Kinkead

... Don John. I gave it as my advice to make a show of defence, to declare they would not be taken by surprise, and to offer to admit Barlemont, and no one else, within their gates. They resolved to act according to my counsel, and offered to serve me at the hazard of their lives. They promised to procure me a guide, who should conduct me by a road by following which I should put the river betwixt me and Don John's forces, whereby I should be out of his reach, and ...
— Memoirs And Historical Chronicles Of The Courts Of Europe - Marguerite de Valois, Madame de Pompadour, and Catherine de Medici • Various

... who are acquainted with European theatres, it will not be considered as amplifying, when we assert, that we do not yield to them in that species of decoration. The management of the scenery is as correct and subject to as few interruptions as possible; and the expedition with which one act succeeds another, can be only appreciated by those who have witnessed the tedious delay so often experienced ...
— The Mirror of Taste, and Dramatic Censor - Vol I, No. 2, February 1810 • Samuel James Arnold

... for whom all public men should feel most solicitous, are those prisoners who are awaiting in prison the decrees of the courts of justice. Bailly took care not to neglect such a duty. At the end of 1790, the old tribunals had no moral power; they could no longer act; the new ones were not yet created. This state of affairs distracted the mind of our colleague. On the 18th of November, he expressed his grief to the National Assembly, in terms full of sensibility and kindness. I should be culpable if ...
— Biographies of Distinguished Scientific Men • Francois Arago

... ought, and as an inn or place, wherein to repose ourselves in passing on towards our celestial habitation? when on the contrary, besides the discourse and outward profession, the soul hath nothing but hypocrisy. We are all (in effect) become comedians in religion: and while we act in gesture and voice, divine virtues, in all the course of our lives we renounce our persons, and the parts we play. For Charity, Justice, and Truth have but their being in terms, like the ...
— Prefaces and Prologues to Famous Books - with Introductions, Notes and Illustrations • Charles W. Eliot

... salient points. His mere aspect would be enough to subdue Nancy, and when he began to speak she would tremble before him. Such a moment would repay him for the enforced humility of years. Perhaps she would weep; she might even implore him to be merciful. How to act in that event he had quite made up his mind. But all such anticipations were confused by Nancy's singular behaviour. She seemed, in truth, not to understand the hints which should ...
— In the Year of Jubilee • George Gissing

... more than thou hast done, vile Moor," said the baron. "Thou hast robbed me of my daughter, not by force of arms, but stealthily, as a thief at midnight. If any spark of chivalry warmed thy infidel blood thou wouldst blush for the act thou hast wrought. But I fear thee not, proud Moor; thy warriors are no braver than thy women. Dare them to move, and I will ...
— Tales from the Lands of Nuts and Grapes - Spanish and Portuguese Folklore • Charles Sellers and Others

... see the Perrys." By a definite act of will she added the truth: "They weren't in. And I saw Guy Pollock. ...
— Main Street • Sinclair Lewis

... also divided into nineteen police districts, each having a resident police magistrate, chief constable, police clerk, and deputy registrar of births, deaths, and marriages. In the country districts, the police magistrates act as coroners, and in the districts of New Norfolk, Richmond, Oatlands, Campbell Town, Longford, Horton, and South Port, as commissioners of the court of requests. In the first five of these districts they are also deputy chairmen of ...
— The History of Tasmania , Volume II (of 2) • John West

... the wisdom of her childhood had returned to her to teach her the true cause of happiness. For her it was born of the act of giving, and her knowledge of George's need was changed into a feeling that, in its turn, transformed existence. Her mental confusion cleared itself and, concentrating her powers on him, she tried not to think of Zebedee. She would not dwell on the little, familiar ...
— Moor Fires • E. H. (Emily Hilda) Young

... shall be as you desire. Rochester, you have heard our promise, and will act in conformity ...
— Old Saint Paul's - A Tale of the Plague and the Fire • William Harrison Ainsworth

... the wind-up. I'm no better, I'm no worse, than the rest of our fellows, but I'm Irish—I can see. The Celt can always see, even if he can't act. And I see dark days coming for this old land. England is wallowing. It's all guzzle and feed and finery, and nobody cares a copper ...
— The Judgment House • Gilbert Parker

... He ignored the command of E McGinnis, received over the ship's communicator when they arrived at the scene of the crime, to stand clear of the planet. What policeman moving in to make an arrest for an illegal act—and certainly running around stark naked, posing in lewd and indecent postures in full view of the public, was an illegal act—would pay any attention to the request of an onlooker which amounted to ...
— Eight Keys to Eden • Mark Irvin Clifton

... scandalous treatment of Messire Franquet, the Burgundians were loud in their sorrow and indignation.[1965] It would seem that in this matter the Bailie of Senlis and the judges of Lagny did not act according to custom. We, however, are not sufficiently acquainted with the circumstances to form an opinion. There may have been some reason, of which we are ignorant, why the King of France should have demanded this prisoner. He had a right ...
— The Life of Joan of Arc, Vol. 1 and 2 (of 2) • Anatole France

... Peter Minuit himself, in the very act of reaching for the proceeds," Smith explained. For which piece of simple levity it is to be feared that he was neither properly ashamed ...
— White Ashes • Sidney R. Kennedy and Alden C. Noble

... act or function of breathing; the act by which air is drawn in and expelled from the lungs, including ...
— Mother's Remedies - Over One Thousand Tried and Tested Remedies from Mothers - of the United States and Canada • T. J. Ritter

... act square with you! But look here, what's all this about, anyhow? Why do you want that girl? You said you didn't care for her that way; you told me so yourself. Been having a change of heart, or is it your second childhood?" ...
— The Barrier • Rex Beach

... been the lawful wife of Henry the Eighth, and she herself was illegitimate. If the Pope would overlook this unfortunate fact and confirm her crown in the eyes of Catholic Europe, she would make an act of obedience by her ambassador. She had been brought up as a Catholic, she had been crowned by a Roman Catholic bishop, and on first ascending the throne she had shown herself favourable to the Catholic party; the request and proposition were reasonable, if nothing ...
— Ave Roma Immortalis, Vol. 2 - Studies from the Chronicles of Rome • Francis Marion Crawford

... faces plainly damaged by anxiety; their cool, slow utterance slightly humanized by the realization that they must act at once. In fact, as the detective closed the door of the private office, Mr. Jones was reaching with long, slender fingers for the telephone. They would need the best accountant they could find for the quick work they had ...
— The Winning Clue • James Hay, Jr.

... so large as the Grey Shrike, is a much bolder and fiercer bird. It will come down at once to a cage of small birds exposed at a window, and I once had an Amadavat killed and partly eaten through the wires by one of these Shrikes, which I saw in the act with my own eyes. The next day I caught the Shrike in a large basket which I set over the cage of Amadavats. On another occasion I exposed a rat in a cage for the purpose of attracting a Hawk, and in a few minutes found a L. erythronotus ...
— The Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds, Volume 1 • Allan O. Hume

... look so sorrowfully at me, Nora; we can talk, and we can act and do good deeds, without giving ourselves away. I hate girls who wear ...
— Light O' The Morning • L. T. Meade

... conversationally than when he heard her before, but her voice made him shudder with associated emotions. Its cadences reached deep, and the words she spoke opened long vistas in his mind. She was defending the right of women to live as human beings, to act as human beings, and to develop ...
— A Spoil of Office - A Story of the Modern West • Hamlin Garland

... you are small—not one whit bigger than the end of my little finger. It was a burning shame and a scandalous disgrace to act in that way. Did you think nothing of Miss Ingram's ...
— Jane Eyre - an Autobiography • Charlotte Bronte

... of obtaining Venice. The relations between Austria and Prussia grew more and more strained, until finally in June, 1866, Austria induced the diet to call out the forces of the confederation with a view of making war on Prussia. This act the representative of Prussia declared put an end to the existing union. He accordingly submitted to the diet Prussia's scheme for the reformation of Germany ...
— An Introduction to the History of Western Europe • James Harvey Robinson

... awfully impressive place; the sights and sounds of which, do not easily pass from memory. He who has seen it, will have it vividly brought before him, by Alfieri's description of Filippo, 'only a transient word or act gives us a short and dubious glimmer, that reveals to us the abysses of his being—dark, lurid and terrific, as the throat of the infernal pool.' Descending from the eminence, by a ladder of about twenty ...
— Rambles in the Mammoth Cave, during the Year 1844 - By a Visiter • Alexander Clark Bullitt

... also, although not done by hammer, was a striking process. The place was so hot owing to the quantity of uncooled metal on the floor, that it was not possible to remain long; they therefore took a rapid survey. In one place several men were in the act of conveying to the steam-hammer a mass of shapeless white-hot iron, which had just been plucked from a furnace with a pair of grippers. They put it below the hammer for a few minutes, which soon reduced it to a clumsy bar; then they carried it to a pair of iron rollers driven by ...
— The Iron Horse • R.M. Ballantyne

... well." Mr. Cowan's argument was altogether inapposite; for what Mr. Sumner and Mr. Wilson had complained of was not the action of individual men in the South, but of laws solemnly enacted by Legislatures whose right to act had been recognized by the Executive Department of the National Government, and which had indeed been organized in pursuance of the President's Reconstruction policy,—almost in fact by the personal patronage of the President. The situation was one very difficult ...
— Twenty Years of Congress, Volume 2 (of 2) • James Gillespie Blaine

... men, examine your flints and priming, so that all things may go right." They did so, saying, "All right, corporal, we will follow you;" so I too sang out, "Now for a gold chain or a wooden leg!" and having told them what to do and to act together, we jumped up, and giving them a volley, we charged them before they had any time to take an aim at us, and succeeded in gaining the cannon and driving the men down the mountain to a body of their infantry that was stationed at the foot. I immediately ...
— The Autobiography of Sergeant William Lawrence - A Hero of the Peninsular and Waterloo Campaigns • William Lawrence

... One act bore with extreme severity upon the free peasantry. They were compelled to enroll themselves with the serfs in their Communes, or to be dealt with as vagrants. Peter has been censured for this and also for not extending his reforming broom to the Communes ...
— A Short History of Russia • Mary Platt Parmele

... the knight feel and act while under Archimago's spell? 2. What becomes of Una? 3. How does Archimago plan to deceive her? 4. Tell the story of the lovers turned into trees. 5. Who was Sansfoy? 6. Describe the appearance and character of Duessa. 7. What did she have to do with Fradubio ...
— Spenser's The Faerie Queene, Book I • Edmund Spenser

... ordinance, or proceeding on its part, however formal in character or vigorously sustained, can deprive the National Government of the legal jurisdiction and sovereignty over the territory and people of such State which existed previous to the act of admission, or which were acquired thereby; that the effect of the so-called acts, resolutions and ordinances of secession adopted by the eleven States engaged in the present rebellion is, and can only ...
— Reminiscences of Sixty Years in Public Affairs, Vol. 2 • George S. Boutwell

... arrested him. He looked round and perceived Edith had fainted in the soldier's arms. "I will save the poor thing for thee—help thou the other," he cried, and snatching her up as if she had been but a feather, he was again in the act of springing to the door, when brought to a stand by a far more exciting impediment. A shriek from Telie Doe, uttered in sudden terror, was echoed by a laugh, strangely wild, harsh, guttural, and expressive of equal triumph and derision, coming from the door; looking to which ...
— Nick of the Woods • Robert M. Bird

... move from Vincennes to convey Henry of Monmouth to his last resting-place in Westminster Abbey. Bedford could not be spared to return to England, and was only to go as far as Calais; and James of Scotland was therefore to act as chief mourner, attended by his ...
— The Caged Lion • Charlotte M. Yonge

... 1795, chapter 36, passed at a time when Territorial governments received little attention from Congress, enforced this duty of the United States only as to the State governments. But the act of 1807, chapter 39, applied also to Territories. This law seems to have remained in force until the revision of the statutes, when the provision for the Territories was dropped. I am not advised whether this ...
— A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents - Section 2 (of 2) of Volume 8: Chester A. Arthur • James D. Richardson

... of Aphrodite (Venus), expressive of her having sprung from the foam of the sea. In a famous picture by Apelles she was represented under this title as if just emerged from the sea and in the act of wringing her tresses. This painting was executed for the temple of Asclepius at Cos, from which it was taken to Rome by Augustus in part payment of tribute, and set up in the temple of Caesar. In the time of Nero, owing to its dilapidated condition, ...
— Project Gutenberg Encyclopedia

... too, your godfather, have known what the enjoyment and advantages of this life are, and what the more refined pleasures which learning and intellectual power can give; I now, on the eve of my departure, declare to you, and earnestly pray that you may hereafter live and act on the conviction, that health is a great blessing; competence, obtained by honourable industry, a great blessing; and a great blessing it is, to have kind, faithful, and loving friends and relatives; ...
— Reminiscences of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey • Joseph Cottle

... at the window in Hope's study, came slowly forward, pale as death with her own trouble, to do an act of womanly justice. "Miss Clifford," said she, languidly, as one to whom all human events were comparatively indifferent—"Miss Clifford lent the bracelet to me, and I left it at that man's inn." This she said right in the ...
— A Perilous Secret • Charles Reade

... took it in such a jocular fashion that Tig felt not the least concern about her, and when, two days later, she died of pneumonia, he almost thought, at first, that it must be one of her jokes. She had departed with decision, such as had characterized every act of her life, and had made as little trouble for others as possible. When she was dead the community had the opportunity of discovering the number of her friends. Miserable children with faces which revealed two generations ...
— The Shape of Fear • Elia W. Peattie

... Colombo came to Kandy to trade. The fiendish king ordered them seized and horribly mutilated. When, a few weeks later, the survivors returned to the sea-coast deprived of ears, noses and hands—with the severed members tied to their necks—the English decided to act immediately. Three months later Kandy was in their possession, and the king an ...
— East of Suez - Ceylon, India, China and Japan • Frederic Courtland Penfield

... to act as if he was even now a father. He entreated Rosa not to trouble or vex herself; he would look into their finances, and set ...
— A Simpleton • Charles Reade

... in a foundling asylum. Here's a pass. Go up now and see it. If you hurry you'll get there just in time for that act. Then if you come to me at the office in the morning at ten, I'll give you a chance as one of the Charity girls. ...
— In the Bishop's Carriage • Miriam Michelson

... for, otherwise it is a waste of time. Take a person with a cold, for example: If he meets twenty people he may be told of fifteen different cures for it, ranging from goose grease on a red rag to suggestive therapeutics. If he were to act upon all the advice received there would probably be a funeral. It is best to be sparing with advice. Those who have any that is worth while will be asked for it and paid for their trouble. Free advice is generally ...
— Maintaining Health • R. L. Alsaker

... them to his lips. "My happiness is no less than your own, countess," he said, "that God has permitted me to be the means of bringing your child back again. It was no great thing to do on my part; and, as I have told the count, the little act of kindness was vastly more than repaid, for your daughter assuredly saved my life from the peasants, as I saved hers from the cold. Your little daughter is quite a heroine," he said more lightly. "I can assure you that even when the bullets were flying about thickly ...
— Through Russian Snows - A Story of Napoleon's Retreat from Moscow • G. A Henty

... rule, show a special fondness for leather. Undoubtedly it is palatable to them. But this fact would not justify them in the attempt they made to appropriate to themselves Herbert's boots. The propriety of such an act was most questionable, and no well mannered rats would have allowed themselves to become a party to such a raid. But as a matter of fact, and as Herbert learned to his sorrow, there were no well mannered rats at old Gunwagner's—none ...
— The Boy Broker - Among the Kings of Wall Street • Frank A. Munsey

... each other and grinned. "I wouldn't try it again, Chris," Charley chuckled; "you might throw a fit next time, you act ...
— The Boy Chums in the Forest - or Hunting for Plume Birds in the Florida Everglades • Wilmer M. Ely

... that he was an actor, and that whatever the effect of the scene he was about to perform, it was unnecessary and must be contemptible. "You talk of your shame and humiliation—no atonement can wipe it out. You came here prating to yourself of blotting out the past—no act of man can do so. Vain, vain, and idle as well as vain! Mere mummery and display, and a blow ...
— The Manxman - A Novel - 1895 • Hall Caine

... Fitzberesford could sit down together afterwards with all the pleasure in life over their modicum of claret in the barristers' room at the Imperial hotel. And then the judge had added to the life of the meeting, helping to bamboozle and make miserable a wretch of a witness who had been caught in the act of seeing the boat smashed with a fragment of rock, and was now, in consequence, being impaled alive by his ...
— Castle Richmond • Anthony Trollope

... Oftener than not the objective point of the devout is the summit of some noted mountain. For peaks are peculiarly sacred spots in the Shinto faith. The fact is perhaps an expression of man's instinctive desire to rise, as if the bodily act in some wise betokened the mental action. The shrine in so exalted a position is of the simplest: a rude hut, with or without the only distinctive emblems of the cult, a mirror typical of the god and the pendent gohei, ...
— The Soul of the Far East • Percival Lowell

... urine that terminates a paroxysm of hysteria, often suppressing menstruation, by contraction of uterine blood vessels, or causing an excess of menstrual haemorrhage, from an excessive excitement of the ovarian nerves during the menstrual crisis. None of these effects are observed after a simple act of thinking, ...
— The Education of American Girls • Anna Callender Brackett

... goes on to describe an act of Ra, the significance of which it is difficult to explain. The god ordered messengers to be brought to him, and when they arrived, he commanded them to run like the wind to Abu, or the city of Elephantine, and to ...
— Legends Of The Gods - The Egyptian Texts, edited with Translations • E. A. Wallis Budge

... Boston for that purpose; had seen little of the girl—or rather had seen her but briefly, for Mrs. Stringham, when she saw anything at all, saw much, saw everything—before accepting her proposal; and had accordingly placed herself, by her act, in a boat that she more and more estimated as, humanly speaking, of the biggest, though likewise, no doubt, in many ways, by reason of its size, of the safest. In Boston, the winter before, the young lady ...
— The Wings of the Dove, Volume 1 of 2 • Henry James

... proper place. We may take an illustration of what I have told you from astronomy. As comets enter our system from realms of which we have no knowledge, dazzle us a little, awaken our speculations and then depart, so may certain immortal spirits also be supposed to act. We entangle them possibly in our gross air and detain them for centuries, or moments, until their Creator's purpose in sending them is accomplished. Then He takes the means to liberate them and set them on their eternal roads and ...
— The Grey Room • Eden Phillpotts

... as crises love to come, without warning. The question had been simple enough, and the tone as gentle as possible: "You have just stated, Mrs. Coburn, that your son spoke to you in his apartment the day he is alleged to have committed this act, but I find that at the first and second trials you testified that you did not see him in his apartment at all. Which, please, is ...
— In a Little Town • Rupert Hughes

... drawn inward, and Jack Hansell was left alone. He lit his pipe, smoked it out, refilled it and was in the act of refilling it, when Harvey Bradley came in—as has been made known in another place. While the man sat smoking and alone in the cabin, he fell to brooding over the troubles at the mills. Thus it came to pass that ...
— The Jungle Fugitives • Edward S. Ellis

... two Letters in the whole, yet do those two so strongly fix his Character, that every Reader may see of what Consequence he made himself to Society; namely, to act the blustring Part in a Club of Rakes, to fill a Seat at the Table, and assist in keeping up the Roar and Noise necessary to make the ...
— Remarks on Clarissa (1749) • Sarah Fielding

... interests of his constituents. Among the important measures originated by him in the Legislature, are the Metropolitan Police, State Charities, State Gas Inspection, and the Building and Loan Association Acts. The last mentioned act has been very extensively taken advantage of among his immediate constituents. No less than ten societies have been organized in this city, under it, and have already been productive of much good among the laboring class, ...
— Cleveland Past and Present - Its Representative Men, etc. • Maurice Joblin

... they had taken no account. The complaints and appeals of the Quakers had at last produced some effect, and there was well-grounded apprehension that the sense of power which had brought the Colony to act with the freedom of an independent state, might result in the loss of some of their most dearly-prized privileges. The Quakers had conquered, and the magistrates suddenly became conscious that such strength as theirs need never have dreaded the power of this feeble folk, and that ...
— Anne Bradstreet and Her Time • Helen Campbell

... old sport; but don't you forget the other feller's proclamation. If you 'aven't got no uniform, your number's up for lead pills, an' don't you forget it. A fair fight an' no favour's all right; but I'm not on in this blooming execution act, thank you. Edward R. I. will have to pass me, I ...
— The Message • Alec John Dawson

... father the idea of discipline is to have the child act just as he does. But in this case the mother had her way, or, more properly, she let the boy have his—as mothers do—and the sequel shows that a woman's heart is sometimes nearer right than a ...
— Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great, Volume 6 - Subtitle: Little Journeys to the Homes of Eminent Artists • Elbert Hubbard

... the cold country and walked miles over the frozen fields through the still woods, trying to forget, only to return still ridden by her thoughts,—bitter tears for Vickers, sometimes almost reproach for his act. "If he had let me plunge to my fate, it would have been better than this! I might never have known my mistake,—it would have been different, all of it different. Now there is nothing!" And at the end of one of these black moods she resolved to return to her world and "go through the motions as ...
— Together • Robert Herrick (1868-1938)

... quiet talk will usually demonstrate to them that they have been unwise, and they make fresh resolutions and promise amendment. Of course the only argument I use is to tell them that one course will be for their material advancement, and is the way a white man would act, while the other will tend to keep them ...
— Blackfoot Lodge Tales • George Bird Grinnell

... from the outside and does as it pleases with it, indifferent to it's proprietor's suggestions, even, let alone his commands; wherefore, whatever the machine does—so called crimes and infamies included—is the personal act of its Maker, and He, solely, is responsible. I wish I could learn to pity the human race instead of censuring it and laughing at it; and I could, if the outside influences of old habit were not so strong upon my machine. It vexes me to catch myself praising the clean private citizen ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain

... of uncertainty, I chanced to make him a birthday present of 'Charles O'Malley,' the reading of which seemed to act like a charm on his whole character, inspiring him with a passion for movement and adventure, and spiriting him to an eager desire for a military life. Seeing that this was no passing enthusiasm, but a decided and determined bent, ...
— Charles O'Malley, The Irish Dragoon, Volume 1 (of 2) • Charles Lever

... at six o'clock from his meeting, much put out and disturbed. He said he had nothing good to report. Mr Gladstone, whom he had seen, had declined to act with him, saying that the country did not wish for Coalitions at this moment. Sir J. Graham, whom he had visited, had informed him that the feeling against him was very strong just now, precluding support in Parliament; he gave him credit ...
— The Letters of Queen Victoria, Volume III (of 3), 1854-1861 • Queen of Great Britain Victoria

... town commissioners. The Justice, Fitzgerald, desired to state that ladies were also entitled to sit as town commissioners, as well as to vote for them, and the chief-justice took pains to make it clear that there was nothing in the act of voting ...
— History of Woman Suffrage, Volume II • Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Matilda Joslyn Gage

... act goes a long way to meet the second claim of the State; so far as scientific and industrial capacities are concerned. In a few years there will be no reason why any potential Whitworth or Faraday, in the three kingdoms, should not ...
— The Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley Volume 3 • Leonard Huxley

... Peace, horrified at the uncalled-for act, and springing at the white-aproned figure, she caught her by the shoulder, and shook her till her teeth rattled. Lottie doubled up like a jack-knife and buried her sharp teeth in the brown hand ...
— The Lilac Lady • Ruth Alberta Brown

... half an hour the situation remained unaltered, and then at the end of that time the lady made a readjustment of her mantilla, which exposed all her head and face. The hands which were raised to perform this act were soft, round, plump, and dimpled, and might of themselves have attracted the admiration of one less preoccupied than Ashby; while the face that was now revealed was one which might have roused the dullest of mortals. It was a dark ...
— A Castle in Spain - A Novel • James De Mille

... things that he despised in life. It was impossible to treat or consider him in any way as a rival to be feared. He passed down the deck and made his way below to the doctor's room. He found the latter in the act of starting ...
— The Box with Broken Seals • E. Phillips Oppenheim

... not hasty; the deed is proved. Come, come, thou mayst well be excused for not recalling the act of thy delirium, and which thy sober senses would have shunned even to contemplate. But let me try to refresh thy exhausted and weary memory. Thou knowest thou wert walking with the priest, disputing about his sister; thou knowest he was intolerant, and half a Nazarene, and he sought to convert ...
— The Last Days of Pompeii • Edward George Bulwer-Lytton

... people in a territory equals or nearly equals the number required to secure a representative in congress, the inhabitants thereof may petition congress, through their delegate, for an act authorizing the formation ...
— Studies in Civics • James T. McCleary

... well have to thank him for putting some new life into the old party," Ashton Fisher was saying. "This campaign against the old squires just hits the degree of democracy there is in this county. This act for extending county council control is practically his bill; so you may say he's in the government even before ...
— The Man Who Knew Too Much • G.K. Chesterton

... the Doctor had not yet come in. Consequently, the room was still, and the entrance of Graham and Eric after the rest attracted general notice. Eric had just sense enough to try and assume his ordinary manner; but he was too giddy with the fumes of drink to walk straight or act naturally. ...
— Eric, or Little by Little • Frederic W. Farrar

... on each occasion I was obliged to begin the sentence all over again, because, for the life of me, I couldn't remember what it was I had set out to say in dictation. Poopendyke had an air of patient tolerance about him that irritated me intensely. More than once I thought I detected him in the act of suppressing a smile. ...
— A Fool and His Money • George Barr McCutcheon

... there was a bare chance of escaping violence, if they could keep the Indians interested without appearing to notice their presence. In successive whispers he communicated his idea to Miss Dyer: "Don't act as if you saw them at all, but do everything as if we were alone. That will puzzle them, and make them think us supernatural beings, or perhaps crazy: Indians have great respect for crazy people. It's ...
— Deserted - 1898 • Edward Bellamy

... stationing himself on a chair beside the door, as if to review his subjects as they passed, giving each dog a cuff beside the ears as he went by. This clapper-clawing was always taken in good part; it appeared to be, in fact, a mere act of sovereignty on the part of grimalkin, to remind the others of their vassalage; which they acknowledged by the most perfect acquiescence. A general harmony prevailed between sovereign and subjects, and they would all ...
— The Best of the World's Classics, Restricted to Prose, Vol. IX (of X) - America - I • Various

... hands of Divine Providence, sir, which will do with us as seems the best in the eyes of never-failing wisdom. At all events, Captain Gar'ner, I think 'twill be safest to act at once as if we had the winter afore us. In my judgment, this house might be made a good deal more comfortable for us all, in such a case, than our craft; for we should not only have more room, but might have as many fires as we want, and more than ...
— The Sea Lions - The Lost Sealers • James Fenimore Cooper

... appreciation of the motives which had unquestionably operated with Caldigate. Had Caldigate been quite assured, when he paid the money, that his enemies would remain and bear witness against him, still he would have paid it. In that matter he had endeavoured to act as he would have acted had the circumstances of the mining transaction been made known to him when no threat was hanging over his head. But all that Judge Bramber did not understand. He understood, however, quite clearly, that under ...
— John Caldigate • Anthony Trollope

... take part in this comedy. Act first is called "The Bond and the Outlawry." The action begins in a garden before Sir Richard Lea's castle—or rather the dialogue begins there, by which the basis of the action is revealed. Maid Marian is Marian Lea, the daughter of Sir Richard. Walter Lea, the son of Sir Richard, has been ...
— Shadows of the Stage • William Winter

... resisted, protested, when the Colonel proposed it to her, and then had been borne down by him; whether in short she didn't loathe herself as she sat there. The cruelty, the cowardice of fastening their unholy act upon the wretched woman struck him as monstrous—no less monstrous indeed than the levity that could make them run the risk of her giving them, in her righteous indignation, the lie. Of course that risk could only exculpate her and not inculpate them—the probabilities ...
— A London Life; The Patagonia; The Liar; Mrs. Temperly • Henry James

... by a gate of very singular character. It was extremely ingenious in its structure, and, among other peculiarities, it had three or four latches, for children, for grown persons, for those who were tall and those who were short, and for the right hand as well as the left. In the act of opening, it was made to crush certain berries, and the oil they yielded, was carried by a small duct to the hinge, which was thus made to turn easily, and was prevented from creaking. While we were admiring its mechanism, an elderly man, rather plainly dressed, on a zebra in low condition, rode ...
— A Voyage to the Moon • George Tucker

... served under the old lion Ali for a long while and was by him raised to a Pachalick which was confirm'd to him by the Porte after the death of Ali; he commanded the 12,000 men that landed at Psara. Another desperate act of heroism took place in the strong fort situated on an eminence at the West End of the Island, it held out till the last and was not destroy'd until everything was lost. The Turks had made a forlorn ...
— Charles Philip Yorke, Fourth Earl of Hardwicke, Vice-Admiral R.N. - A Memoir • Lady Biddulph of Ledbury

... early days, bent down and fervently kissed his hand and forehead. Having reached the door, Haydn asked his bearers to pause and turn him towards the orchestra. Then, lifting his hand, as if in the act of blessing, he was ...
— Haydn • J. Cuthbert Hadden

... be made of recent Federal buildings (custom-houses, post-offices, and court-houses) erected under the provisions of the Tarsney act from designs secured by competition among the leading architects of the country; among those the New York Custom House is the most important, but other buildings, at Washington, Indianapolis, and elsewhere, are also conspicuous, and many of them worthy of high praise. ...
— A Text-Book of the History of Architecture - Seventh Edition, revised • Alfred D. F. Hamlin

... sound of a man's feet coming swiftly toward them; they had one second to act, and flight over this marshy ground, filled with pit holes as it was, was impossible. No; the best plan was to stay where they were and ...
— The Riddle of the Frozen Flame • Mary E. Hanshew

... night is round me sinking; Only within me shines a radiant light. I haste to realize, in act, my thinking; The master's word, that only giveth might. Up, vassals, from your couch! my project bold, Grandly completed, now let all behold! Seize ye your tools; your spades, your shovels ply; The work laid down, accomplish instantly! Strict rule, swift diligence,—these ...
— The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, • Editor-in-Chief: Kuno Francke

... the constitution itself can only be changed in any particular by the consent of the legislatures or conventions of three-fourths of the several states; and finally the judges of the Supreme Court are to decide in all disputed cases whether an act of the legislature is permitted by the ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 7, Slice 2 - "Constantine Pavlovich" to "Convention" • Various

... his shoulders and put away the handkerchief. It had occurred to him that he was a man now and must act a man's part in ...
— Long Live the King • Mary Roberts Rinehart

... as a stable for his horse, the other for a habitation for himself. In the latter he formed a hearth, and bored a hole upwards in a slanting direction, till he reached daylight, and this served as chimney. Beside his door he cut a circular orifice to act as window. The doorway was closed by a stout door sustained in place by a massive bar, the socket ...
— Castles and Cave Dwellings of Europe • Sabine Baring-Gould

... a word to say to you. You all know that one of our novices has left us. You also know that one of our scholars has just gone. It is my wish that you should forget both of them, and I shall look upon it as an act of disobedience if any girl in the Convent ...
— The Woman Thou Gavest Me - Being the Story of Mary O'Neill • Hall Caine

... he says of the declarations of Tituba, subsequent to her examination, is quite consistent with a critical analysis of the details of the record of that examination. It can hardly be doubted, whatever the amount of severity employed to make her act the part assigned her, that she was used as an instrument to ...
— Salem Witchcraft, Volumes I and II • Charles Upham

... on the hillside in a wealth of orchards and great barns. The way thither led across fields of waving green corn, the point where the path diverged from the high-road being marked by a quaint mediaeval shrine, one of the many shrines which, sown broadcast over the Tyrol, are intended to act as heavenly milestones ...
— Lippincott's Magazine, Volume 11, No. 26, May, 1873 • Various

... to Act of Congress, in the year 1855, by Jacob Abbott, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court ...
— Rollo on the Rhine • Jacob Abbott

... uncle Polyphron, and used to address prayers to it and call it the Slayer. Once when he saw a tragedian performing Euripides' tragedy, the 'Troades,' he went suddenly out of the theatre, and sent a message to him to be of good courage, and not act worse for this, for he had not left the house because he disliked his acting, but because he felt ashamed that the citizens should see him weeping at the woes of Hekuba and Andromache, though he never had pitied any of the people whom he had put to death himself. ...
— Plutarch's Lives, Volume II • Aubrey Stewart & George Long

... would willingly give them all up if by so doing he could preserve the Union. He was opposed to secession, and to prevent it he would willingly sacrifice everything except honor and duty, which forbade him to desert his State. When in April, 1861, she formally and by an act of her Legislature left the Union, he resigned his commission in the United States army with the intention of retiring into private life. He endeavored to choose what was right. Every personal interest bade him ...
— Great Men and Famous Women. Vol. 2 of 8 • Various

... without thought, love, or even attention from the mass of the people, content only with their acquiescence. On the other hand, a rational condition, both of society and of the individual, would be that in which the thought, will, and love of the individual gave strength and life to every act. ...
— Continental Monthly , Vol V. Issue III. March, 1864 - Devoted to Literature and National Policy • Various

... chance on a house, the curiously frescoed front of which tempts you within. A building which has a lady and gentleman painted in fresco, and making love from balcony to balcony, on the facade, as well as Arlecchino depicted in the act of leaping from the second to the third story, promises something. Promises something, but does not fulfill the promise. The interior is fresh, clean, and new, and cold and dark as a cellar. This house—that is to say, a floor of the house—you may ...
— Venetian Life • W. D. Howells

... he had watched Langford's face this morning when he had told him that Doubler had long been suspected of rustling; that the men of the Double R had never been able to catch him in the act, but that the number of cattle missing had seemed to indicate the ...
— The Trail to Yesterday • Charles Alden Seltzer

... Austrian nor Russian representative had recognized the new regime as yet. Each was waiting to see how the other would act; so Baron von Rothstein viewed with mixed feelings the arrival of his royal visitor. But he met him with all ceremony, and began to say that instructions might reach him from Vienna at any moment to pay an ...
— A Son of the Immortals • Louis Tracy

... asps is under their lips: whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: their feet are swift to shed blood: destruction and misery are in their ways: and the way of peace have they not known: there is no fear of God before their eyes." So, fallen humanity, federated under Satan, will appear and act when the restraining hand of God is removed. Though the unsaved are moral, educated, refined, or religious, they are not righteous in God's sight; for the charge here brought against them is that "there is none righteous, no, not one;" and "all have sinned and come short of the glory ...
— Satan • Lewis Sperry Chafer

... institutions of the Romans form an essential part of their civil government; every public act, whether of legislation or election, was connected with certain determined forms, and thus received the sanction of a higher power. Every public assembly was opened by the magistrate and augurs taking the auspices, or signs by which they ...
— Pinnock's Improved Edition of Dr. Goldsmith's History of Rome • Oliver Goldsmith



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