"Gem" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... the man who mindeth the minstrelsy; Since still, in sandy, glittering pleasances, Cold, stony fruits, gem-like but quite in- Edible, flatter and ...
— New Poems • Robert Louis Stevenson
... Blair's "Grave," and the "Inventions to the Book of Job," show the peculiarity of Blake's mind quite as clearly as his poems. While he worked at his trade he flung off—for he never seemed to compose—disjointed visions and incomprehensible rhapsodies, with an occasional little gem that still sets ...
— English Literature - Its History and Its Significance for the Life of the English Speaking World • William J. Long
... to the rock, and it turned over as if by magic, and underneath was disclosed a wondrous chamber, whose walls shone brighter than the sun, and on whose floor lay treasures of gold and glittering gem stones such as no man had ever seen. And Loki, in great haste, seized upon the hoard, and placed it in the magic net which he had borrowed from the Ocean-queen. Then he came out of the chamber; and Andvari again put his shoulder to the rock which lay ...
— Hero Tales • James Baldwin
... Cavo—the ancient temple of Jupiter Latialis, up to which the Roman consuls came to triumph when the Latin States were merged in the Roman Commonwealth—and bearing on their shoulders the sparkling, gem-like towns of Frascati and Albano, with their thrilling memories of Cicero and Pompey; the whole range melting away into the blue vault of heaven in delicate gradations of pale pink and purple. In the wide gap between these ranges of hills—beyond ...
— Roman Mosaics - Or, Studies in Rome and Its Neighbourhood • Hugh Macmillan
... does not wish to make his hobby an expensive one. The schoolboy may get together a very respectable little collection by the judicious expenditure of small savings from his pocket money, and the millionaire will find ample scope for his surplus wealth in the fine range of varieties that gem the issues of many of the oldest stamp-issuing countries, and which only the fortunate few can ...
— Stamp Collecting as a Pastime • Edward J. Nankivell
... fondness," cried he, as he struck at the dog again. Alas for the fair girl who filled this bad man's thoughts, and who thought but of him that night! down in his cold heart she may not find one solitary gem of tenderness or love to light her with its ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 62, Number 385. November, 1847. • Various
... personalities. These human bits, these memories, he had picked up as he lived along and had taken them with him and made them his own, had trimmed and polished every one until its rough unpleasant edges were all nicely smoothed away and it glittered and shone like the gem that it was. For Roger was an idealist. And so he would have liked to do here. What a gem could be made of Isadore with a ...
— His Family • Ernest Poole
... Continent, was a firm adherent of the royal party, and at one time a member of Prince Rupert's famous troop. He married the daughter of the British ambassador in Paris, through whom he came into possession of Say's Court, which he made a gem of beauty. But in his later years he had the annoyance of seeing his fine parterres and shrubbery trampled down by that Northern boor, Peter the Great, who made his residence there while studying the mysteries of ship-building ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 12, No. 73, November, 1863 • Various
... presented itself to his fifty-years' old eyes in the shape of a little woman in a soft dress with a long train, with a head attractively overweighted by a great mass of fair hair and the delicate preciousness of her inner worth, partaking of a gem and a flower, revealed in every attitude of her person. As the dangers thickened round the San Tome mine this illusion acquired force, permanency, and authority. It claimed him at last! This claim, exalted by a spiritual detachment from the usual sanctions of hope and reward, ...
— Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard • Joseph Conrad
... gem, that thus can softly gild The starry coronal of quiet eve! What frost-work fabrics man shall vainly build Ere thou art doomed ...
— Heart Utterances at Various Periods of a Chequered Life. • Eliza Paul Kirkbride Gurney
... the silver jewel box, your mind as the silk lining, your spirit as the gem. Keep the box burnished and clear of dust, but remember always that the jewel within is ...
— The Heart of the New Thought • Ella Wheeler Wilcox
... Gobelin tapestries, while the richest productions of Sevres are placed in profusion around it and occupy pedestals and niches wherever they could be properly placed. The combined effect of the individual richness of the things themselves and their lavish profusion constitutes this gallery the gem of the Exhibition. As if the thousands of gems on the gold and silver vessels and richly-mounted weapons and shields of the prince of Wales's collection were not rich enough, a kiosque has been erected in which ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Volume 22. October, 1878. • Various
... fluttered o'er the deep; Brightest of beings, greatest of the great, Who, not as mortals steep Their eyes in dewy sleep, But heavenly pensive on the lotus lay, That blossom'd at his touch, and shed a golden ray. Hail, primal blossom! hail, empyreal gem, Kemel, or Pedma, [1] or whate'er high name Delight thee, say. What four-formed godhead came, With graceful stole and beamy diadem, Forth from thy verdant ...
— The Folk-lore of Plants • T. F. Thiselton-Dyer
... success of Peter Cooper was he always paid cash. But the great life-work of Peter Cooper is embellished with one gem that is perpetually bright. We speak of Cooper Union. In 1854 the ground was cleared, the plans made and the work begun. This institution cost Cooper about eight hundred thousand dollars. It is deeded as a trust, with all its rents and profits, to the instruction ...
— Hidden Treasures - Why Some Succeed While Others Fail • Harry A. Lewis
... is a mistake and absurdity, fit to have a place in some new collection of Vulgar Errors, by some other Sir Thomas Browne, with the ancient, but exploded stories, that the toad has a gem in its head, and that ostriches digest iron. According to the true spirit of the Constitution, and the sentiments of the Fathers, Slavery, and not Freedom, is sectional, while Freedom, and not Slavery, is national. On this unanswerable proposition I take my stand, and ...
— American Eloquence, Volume II. (of 4) - Studies In American Political History (1896) • Various
... son as you have is a fortune, Madam; and as for the daughter, she is a gem, a genuine ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 4, No. 21, July, 1859 • Various
... water they soon separated, and swam about very briskly. These animals are of a new genus, to, which Mr Banks and Dr Solander gave the name of Dagysa, from the likeness of one species of them to a gem. Several specimens of them were taken adhering together sometimes to the length of a yard or more, and shining in the water with very beautiful colours. Another animal of a new genus they also discovered, which shone in the water with colours still more beautiful ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 12 • Robert Kerr
... never painted beggars; nor did he ever stoop as Titian did when he pictured his old mother as a peasant woman at market, in that gem of the Belle d' Arte at Venice; nor did he ever reveal on his canvas wrinkled, weather-worn old ...
— Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great, Volume 4 (of 14) - Little Journeys to the Homes of Eminent Painters • Elbert Hubbard
... sky, descending and talking with him, the Diana of a lower world, bound by her destiny, and without a choice, to return to her heaven, and be once more the far, unapproachable Luna. She shone in his eyes like a lovely mysterious gem which he might wear for an hour, but which must presently, with its hundred-fold shadow and shine, pass from his keeping. He knew that love was his, but he did not know that he was Love's. He knew he loved Barbara, but he did not know that her exquisiteness ...
— There & Back • George MacDonald
... what we in our higher and better moments recognize as Love. And Love was lost to Helen Murray; the choice pearl had fallen in the vast gulf of Might- have-been, and not all the forces of Nature would ever restore to her that priceless gem. ...
— Ziska - The Problem of a Wicked Soul • Marie Corelli
... qualified for pearl, Then drop the paste, And deem ourself a fool. The shapes, though, were similar, And our new hands Learned gem-tactics Practising sands. ...
— Poems: Three Series, Complete • Emily Dickinson
... mean possibility, that he lost sight of virtue. Grubbing like a mole beneath the surface of earth, rather than reading its living language above, he had not faith enough to believe in the flower, neither faith enough to mine for the gem, and remains at penance in the limbo of halfnesses, I trust not forever. Then all his characteristics wore brilliant hues. He was very witty, and I owe to him the great obligation of being the first and only person ...
— Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli, Vol. I • Margaret Fuller Ossoli
... a time, he found himself at a palace beside which grew a many-branched cassia tree overhanging a well. He climbed into the tree and waited. Presently the handmaidens of Princess Rich Gem, daughter of the ocean Kami, came to draw water, and seeing a shadow in the well, they detected Hohodemi in the cassia tree. At his request they gave him water in a jewelled vessel, but instead of drinking, he dropped ...
— A History of the Japanese People - From the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era • Frank Brinkley and Dairoku Kikuchi
... little trial often tries, But proves a blessing in disguise. Just as the rough rock holds the gem, The trial ...
— The value of a praying mother • Isabel C. Byrum
... tops—was that I had seen something akin to this in a dazzling picture somewhere. Need I say that it is in the Turner Gallery alone where such color can be seen? He should have painted the "Hindoo Bathers at Benares," and given the world one more gem revealing what he alone, in his generation, fully saw in the mind's eye, "the light which never shone on sea or shore." We have voted this scene at Benares the finest ...
— Round the World • Andrew Carnegie
... on, fuming, till the open and unmeasured admiration of the two ladies for his great Rembrandt, the gem of his collection, now occupying the place of honor in the large room of the Academy, restored him ...
— Lady Rose's Daughter • Mrs. Humphry Ward
... sunlight the lustre of the green is almost more than the eye can bear. To the southward of Oberlin station, formerly belonging to our mission, rises a range of verdant hills, which in some lights has so much the pure, continuous color of a gem, as almost to realize Arabian fables to the eye. Indeed, I have gazed at it sometimes with such a feeling as Aladdin had when the magician had left him confined in the Hall of Jewels, and have almost ...
— The Continental Monthly, Vol. IV. October, 1863, No. IV. - Devoted to Literature and National Policy. • Various
... vaguely familiar about him. He was no riffraff of the Kharsa, either, for his shirtcloak was of rich silk interwoven with metallic threads, and crusted with heavy embroideries. The hilt of his skean was carved from a single green gem. He stood looking down at me for some ...
— The Door Through Space • Marion Zimmer Bradley
... I take this gem with some others from a collection made three years ago, by the "Oxford Magazine"; and I hope you admire it as one beyond price. 'He was associated with the distinction of the Order of Merit' means 'he was given the Order of Merit.' If the members of that Order make a ...
— On the Art of Writing - Lectures delivered in the University of Cambridge 1913-1914 • Arthur Quiller-Couch
... affairs had availed him in this latest crisis. But the benefit was substantial, none the less, and the columns of the Argus were again buoyant as of yore. It was at this time, I remember, that the Argus first spoke of our town as "a gem at beauty's throat," and, touching the rare enterprise of our citizens, declared that, "If you put a Slocum County man astride a streak of lightning, he'd call ...
— The Boss of Little Arcady • Harry Leon Wilson
... demand it, all I have is thine; Shrink not, but trust me; place thy hand in mine." And as they journeyed toward the deacon's home, The child related how he came to roam, Until the listening deacon understood The touching story of his orphanhood. Then, finding in the little waif a gem Worthy to deck the Saviour's diadem, He drew him to his loving breast, and said, "My child, you shall by me be clothed and fed; Nor shall you go from hence again to roam While God in love provides for ...
— Poems Teachers Ask For, Book Two • Various
... lagoon, a thousand yards from me, was Motu Uta, a tiny island ringed with golden sand, a mass of green trees half disclosing a gray house. Motu Uta was a gem incomparable in its beauty and its setting. It had been the place of revels of old kings and chiefs, and Pomare the Fourth had made it his residence. Cut off by half a mile of water from Papeete, ...
— Mystic Isles of the South Seas. • Frederick O'Brien
... remember, Estelle, the story we read together once, out of the "Casket" or "Gem," one of those old annuals, where a certain princess was sent to a desolate island, whose maids of honor were all old crones, once distinguished by their wonderful beauty? Her task was to discover each especial grace, long since buried by the rubbish which time ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 6, Issue 35, September, 1860 • Various
... with great simplicity.) This is the pure lyric gem of the Six Love Songs by MacDowell. It is very short, but has a rare charm ...
— Edward MacDowell • John F. Porte
... the rich dews of fortune Ne'er water'd this stem, Nor one fostering sunbeam Matured the rich gem— Oh! give me that pure bosom, Her lot let me share, I'll laugh at distinction, And ...
— The Modern Scottish Minstrel, Volume IV. - The Songs of Scotland of the Past Half Century • Various
... it off by assuming an easy unembarrassed air, as if nothing particular was going on; I felt strongly disposed to laugh; while Mullins looked much more inclined to cry; but the expression of Coleman's face, affording a regular series of "dissolving views" of varied emotions, was the "gem" of the whole affair. The unconscious cause of all this excitement, whose back was turned towards the bookcase, walked quietly up to his usual seat, ...
— Frank Fairlegh - Scenes From The Life Of A Private Pupil • Frank E. Smedley
... came Raf's turn he did not remain sitting in the flitter, listening to the com-tech's heavy breathing, but walked a circular beat which took him into the darkness of the night in a path about the flyer. Overhead the stars were sharp and clear, glittering gem points. But in the dead city no light showed, and he was sure that no ...
— Star Born • Andre Norton
... servants—his household consisted of his wife, his aged mother, a female servant, and a small girl. The latter was a diamond from the London diggings, who had been imported the year before. She was undergoing the process of being polished, and gave promise of soon becoming a very valuable gem. It was this that induced her employer to secure our two masculine gems ...
— Dusty Diamonds Cut and Polished - A Tale of City Arab Life and Adventure • R.M. Ballantyne
... the faery broods Drove Nymph and Satyr from the prosperous woods, Before King Oberon's bright diadem, Sceptre, and mantle, clasp'd with dewy gem, Frighted away the Dryads and the Fauns From rushes green, and brakes, and cowslip'd lawns, The ever-smitten Hermes empty left His golden throne, bent warm on amorous theft: From high Olympus had he stolen light, On this side of Jove's clouds, to escape the sight 10 Of his great summoner, ...
— Keats: Poems Published in 1820 • John Keats
... ground, grass and flowers sprang up, and great trees with leafy branches rose on every side.... As they rode on beneath the leafy trees from every tree the birds sang out, for the spell of silence over the lonely moor was broken for ever." This unpretentious story, a child's story, is as engaging as a gem. And so, I think, are most of the others. One more example to illustrate the quality of Leamy's style—say, the description of the contest of the bards before the High King at the Feis of Tara ...
— Irish Fairy Tales • Edmund Leamy
... you feel so—felt so about it when you gave orders for the building, would be foolish," said she at last. "And it was very dear of you to do it. But once a man, having a little gem which he thought of perfect water, placed it in a setting so large and so cunningly wrought that nobody ever saw the little stone, unless it ...
— Double Trouble - Or, Every Hero His Own Villain • Herbert Quick
... The gem of the whole service, however, is the sermon; and these sermons are characteristic of the man. They come warm and fresh from his heart, and they go home to the hearer, giving him food for thought for days afterward. To attempt to describe his ...
— Great Fortunes, and How They Were Made • James D. McCabe, Jr.
... similar to it, was to be seen flying about above the heads of the others. It also had a crest, which was of the same colour as the others, but of a somewhat lighter tint; while at the base of each feather, as we afterwards observed, was a round spot of bronzed green, looking like a gem in a dark setting. The crest, which was constantly spread out, appeared very like that of a peacock's tail, though, as Ellen observed, it would be a very little peacock to have such a tail. On searching in our book, we found that the first of these humming-birds we had remarked was ...
— On the Banks of the Amazon • W.H.G. Kingston
... fourth-largest exporter of nonfuel minerals in Africa and the world's fifth-largest producer of uranium. Alluvial diamond deposits are among the richest in the world, making Namibia a primary source for gem-quality diamonds. Namibia also produces large quantities of lead, zinc, tin, silver, and tungsten, and it has ...
— The 1990 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency
... or, at any rate, between the beauty that those of us who are not great artists perceive in a work of art and that which the same people perceive in a flower. Is it not simpler to use different words? In any case, the distinction is a real one: compare your delight in a flower or a gem with what you feel before a great work of art, and you will find no difficulty, I think, in ...
— Art • Clive Bell
... skelpin' o' bullets and skirlin' o' shells, And breengin' o' bombs and a thoosand death-knells; But cooryin' doon in a Jack Johnson hole Little fashed the twa men o' the List'nin' Patrol. For sweeter than honey and bricht as a gem Wis the thocht o' the ...
— Rhymes of a Red Cross Man • Robert W. Service
... your benefit. Your brother has kindly interfered for the payment of your creditors; and as all the outstanding bonds have been redeemed, you would now, by his generosity, be enabled to enjoy any property which might be left to you. There are a few tables and chairs at my disposal, and a gem or two, and some odd volumes which perhaps you might like to possess. I have written to Mr. Grey on the subject, and I would wish you to see him. This you might do, whether you come here or not. But I do not the less wish ...
— Mr. Scarborough's Family • Anthony Trollope
... brown hospital on the north; the back-yards of the surgeon's and sutler's quarters on the east; while the hypothenuse of the right-angled triangle thus limited was the unsightly fence that bounded the back-yards of officers' row. Mr. Dick Swiveller's delightful view "of over the way" was a gem of ...
— Marion's Faith. • Charles King
... with kindly greeting and winsome words. Of wounden gold, she offered, to honor him, arm-jewels twain, corselet and rings, and of collars the noblest that ever I knew the earth around. Ne'er heard I so mighty, 'neath heaven's dome, a hoard-gem of heroes, since Hama bore to his bright-built burg the Brisings' necklace, jewel and gem casket. — Jealousy fled he, Eormenric's hate: chose help eternal. Hygelac Geat, grandson of Swerting, on the last of his raids this ring bore with ...
— Beowulf • Anonymous
... great a variety of colors, the curious adornments in the windows, the great beauty of the women, the richness of their ornaments and clothing, and the concourse of so many conspicuous people; for all the assembly appeared to be a priceless cluster of jewels, and everything by itself a precious gem set in the cluster. And as the country contains so many and so beautiful women—who have, as a rule, faces so angelic—and since the festivities were of so great splendor, and for so great a personage, the like of which were never seen, they eclipsed ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898: Volume XXII, 1625-29 • Various
... Post says: "It would be hard to find better reading * * * the book is so varied, so full of color and life from end to end, that few who read the first two or three stories will lay it down till they have read the last—and the last is a veritable gem * * * contains some of the best of his highly vivid work * * * Kipling is a born story-teller and a man of humor ...
— The Rose of Old St. Louis • Mary Dillon
... sought to remember. That he had seen this ring before, or one exactly like it, he knew, but strangely enough he was unable to determine where and upon what occasion. So, his hands resting upon the case, he leant, peering down at the singular gem. And as he stood thus, frowning in the effort of recollection, a dull white hand, having long tapered fingers, glided across the glass until it rested directly beneath his eyes. Upon one of the slim fingers was an exact replica of the ring in ...
— Brood of the Witch-Queen • Sax Rohmer
... she is mine, and, since she's mine, At trifles I should not repine; But oh, the miser's real pleasure Is not in knowing he has treasure; He must behold his golden store, And feel, and count his riches o'er. Thus I, of one dear gem possest, And in that treasure only blest, There every day would seek delight, And ...
— Memoirs of the Life of the Rt. Hon. Richard Brinsley Sheridan V1 • Thomas Moore
... cautiously examine Evelyn and himself; he would weigh in the balance every straw that the wind should turn up; he would not aspire to the treasure, unless he could feel secure that the coffer could preserve the gem. This was not only a prudent, it was a just and a generous determination. It was one which we all ought to form if the fervour of our passions will permit us. We have no right to sacrifice years to moments, and to melt the pearl ...
— Alice, or The Mysteries, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton
... 'O ascetic, about this time the two sisters saw approaching near, that steed of complacent appearance named Uchchaihsravas who was worshipped by the gods, that gem of steeds, who arose at the churning of the Ocean for nectar. Divine, graceful, perpetually young, creation's master-piece, and of irresistible vigour, it was blest ...
— The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa - Translated into English Prose - Adi Parva (First Parva, or First Book) • Kisari Mohan Ganguli (Translator)
... truths are of gem-like brilliance, and the ears of a patriotic subject can never be closed to the beauty and music of their ceaseless repetition. Yet between father and daughter in the security of an inner chamber there not unnaturally arise topics ...
— Kai Lung's Golden Hours • Ernest Bramah
... ["As a gem shines enchased in yellow gold, or an ornament on the neck or head, or as ivory has lustre, set by art in boxwood ...
— The Essays of Montaigne, Complete • Michel de Montaigne
... to pore over the Apocalypse, which I thought by far the most beautiful and absorbing of all the books of the Bible; it seemed full of rich and dim pictures, things which I could not interpret and did not wish to interpret, the shining of clear gem-like walls, lonely riders, amazing monsters, sealed books, all of which took perfectly definite shape in the childish imagination. The consequence is that I can no more criticise it than I could criticise old tapestries or pictures familiar from infancy. They are there, just so, and any difference ...
— Joyous Gard • Arthur Christopher Benson
... my fair fortune turn again; It wounds my heart now ceaselessly, And burns my breast with bitter pain. Yet never so sweet a song may be As, this still hour, steals through my brain, While verity I muse in vain How clay should her bright beauty clot; O Earth! a brave gem thou dost stain, My own pearl, ...
— The Pearl • Sophie Jewett
... heard only the rattle of table utensils, but, with the sharp edge of appetites dulled, talk and joking retort ran about the board. Bud took his part, but the two easterners were silent, preferring to listen and learn. And they picked up many a gem of slang from the repartee ...
— The Boy Ranchers - or Solving the Mystery at Diamond X • Willard F. Baker
... darling Hattie, I dedicate the Sea-Flower would that this casket contained for such as thou, a purer gem. ...
— Natalie - A Gem Among the Sea-Weeds • Ferna Vale
... Earth, whose throbbing bosom Is hid like a maid's in her gown at night, Wake out of her sleep, and with blade and blossom Gem her garments to please my sight? Over the knoll in the valley yonder The loveliest buttercups bloomed and grew; When the snow has gone that drifted them under, Will they shoot up sunward, and ...
— Maurine and Other Poems • Ella Wheeler Wilcox
... person whichever way unity. They tell the whole story hanging at the end of John's pen. This little bit commonly called the prologue is a gem of simplicity and compactness. ...
— Quiet Talks on John's Gospel • S. D. Gordon
... their owner's ideal is a very slow and often an expensive process. A club that was bought in the shop for six shillings might have cost its owner six sovereigns when the many unsatisfactory and discarded articles that were bought while this one perfect gem was being searched for are taken into account. Therefore it behoves the man who is to any extent satisfied with his clubs to take a proper pride in them and look well after them. I like to see a golfer play with bright irons, ...
— The Complete Golfer [1905] • Harry Vardon
... least at a loss; he had refurnished his rooms, to begin with; and that involved a diligent search in antique shops and at sale rooms, and one or two trips across country in order not to miss a real gem. And they had to be ready for comfortable habitation before the arrival of M. and Mlle. St. Andre for their annual stay with him—a delightful old pair, brother and sister, with peppery manners and hypercritical appreciation of a good cuisine—but so poor, so really ...
— The Best British Short Stories of 1922 • Edward J. O'Brien and John Cournos, editors
... precious than the rarest gem In all the world could be; More sweet than honor, fame, and praise, ...
— Choice Readings for the Home Circle • Anonymous
... can see her now coming forward, her two little feet encased in pink satin. She was like a bird hesitating as to whether it would fly or remain on the ground. She looked so pretty, so smiling, and when she trilled out the gem-like notes of her wonderful voice the whole ...
— My Double Life - The Memoirs of Sarah Bernhardt • Sarah Bernhardt
... description in detail because the cathedral at Coutances is a rare gem, and possesses so many points of interest to the architect ...
— Normandy Picturesque • Henry Blackburn
... style, bless her! I should like you to see her. It's splendacious she is entirely when she's dressed up in her best—velvet and feathers and laces and jewels. Why, nothing holds her in bounds; there's nothing she stops at. I have seen her give hundreds of pounds for one little glittering gem. Ah! and here's a ...
— The Rebel of the School • Mrs. L. T. Meade
... befriended him. A merchant of long standing in Venice, who became the British consul there in 1745, Smith was a bibliophile, gem collector, and connoisseur of the arts. In spite of Walpole's sneering reference to him as "the merchant of Venice," it must be said that he was expert in his fields of interest. He had excellent taste. His fine collection of books was purchased by George ...
— John Baptist Jackson - 18th-Century Master of the Color Woodcut • Jacob Kainen
... light summer-rings his fingers sweat, Unable to support a gem of weight.' DRYDEN. Juvenal, ...
— Life Of Johnson, Volume 4 (of 6) • Boswell
... find in each bit of earth the record of the causes which made it precisely what it is; those forces have left their trace, she knows, as much as the tact and hand of the artist left their mark on a classical gem. It would be tedious (and it is not in my way) to reckon up the ingenious questionings by which geology has made part of the earth, at least, tell part of its tale; and the answers would have been meaningless if physiology and conchology and a hundred similar sciences ...
— Physics and Politics, or, Thoughts on the application of the principles of "natural selection" and "inheritance" to political society • Walter Bagehot
... and breaking loose from the hands that held him, made a bound toward Lysia ... here he paused. Her eyes met his languidly, shedding a sombre, mysterious light upon him through the black shower of her abundant hair, ... the evil glitter of the great Symbolic Gem she wore fixed him with its stony yet mesmeric luster ... a delicious smile parted her roseate lips,—and breaking off a magnolia-bud from the cluster she held, she kissed ...
— Ardath - The Story of a Dead Self • Marie Corelli
... eggs (without separating) until very light, then add the milk and salt; pour this mixture on the flour (slowly), beating all the while. Beat until smooth and light, about five minutes. Grease gem pans or small cups, and bake in a moderately hot oven about thirty-five minutes. They should increase to four times their original size. (This recipe may be divided for ...
— Public School Domestic Science • Mrs. J. Hoodless
... flow of his periods, it would be idle to search for a grain of golden sand. Not a single sterling, manly thought is to be found in all his productions. If at times our admiration is excited with the appearance of a gem of true philosophy, we are soon obliged to acknowledge, on closer inspection, that we have been deceived by a false glitter. In retirement, his solitude was not relieved by serious application to any branch of knowledge. Devotion to science and to the advancement ...
— The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-1566 • John Lothrop Motley
... How ridiculous in a country even yet so weak and poor and crude in the arts, which has contributed so little to the world's store of all that makes fine living for the mind! What a laughable parallel of the cock and the gem he found and left upon the dung- heap, if we could be proved not to be proud of American fiction! For if the novel and the short story should be left out of America's slender contribution to world ...
— Definitions • Henry Seidel Canby
... having sampled the sublime intoxication of seeing himself in print, was not ready to sober off yet a while. He continued to bombard the Item with verses. They were invariably accepted, but when he sent to a New York magazine a poem which he considered a gem, the promptness with which it was returned staggered his conceit and was in that respect a ...
— The Portygee • Joseph Crosby Lincoln
... inch of its irregular surface is composed of dripstone of a bright yellowish-red and colorless crystal; and down the glittering walls trickles clear and almost ice-cold water, to the onyx floor where it is caught and held in a marvelous fluted bowl of its own manufacture. This is said to be the gem of the whole cave and seems to have been placed where it is for the consolation of those who are unable to enjoy the peculiar grandeur of the Auditorium, and leave it as some actually are said to do, with a sense of disappointment, because it is not the gleaming white hall of marble which ...
— Cave Regions of the Ozarks and Black Hills • Luella Agnes Owen
... signal made of banquet in the halls of Stowe, of wassail, and the dance. The messengers had sped, and Alice of the Lea would be there. Robes, precious and many, were unfolded from their rest, and the casket poured forth jewel and gem, that the maiden might stand before the knight victorious! It was the day—the hour—the time. Her mother sate by her wheel at the hearth. The page waited in the hall. She came down in her loveliness into the old oak room, and stood before the mirrored glass. ...
— Notes & Queries, No. 45, Saturday, September 7, 1850 • Various
... sift flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add the egg well beaten and one-half the milk. Mix the remainder of the milk with the cereal, and beat in thoroughly. Then add the butter. Bake in buttered muffin or gem tins about 30 ...
— Everyday Foods in War Time • Mary Swartz Rose
... wealth of history, gracious in its English comeliness, the fair valleys and gentle swelling hills of South-west Devon, wildly beautiful Dartmoor and the coloured splendour of Exmoor, the patrician walls of Bath, and the high romance of ancient Bristol. Under the Mendip is that gem of medieval art at Wells, one of the loveliest buildings in Europe, and the unmatched road into the heart of the hills that runs between the most stupendous cliffs in South Britain. Not far away is Avalon, ...
— Wanderings in Wessex - An Exploration of the Southern Realm from Itchen to Otter • Edric Holmes
... wheat was several inches high and before the wind came up the prospects were bright for a good crop. It took but a few hours for the wind to complete its work of destruction. The little town of Gem sits in about the ...
— The True Story of Our National Calamity of Flood, Fire and Tornado • Logan Marshall
... deserving of notice. Yet, perchance, such a cottage may often contain a treasure of infinitely more value than the sumptuous palace of the rich man—even "the pearl of great price." If this be set in the heart of the poor cottager, it proves a gem of unspeakable worth, and will shine among the brightest ornaments of the Redeemer's crown, in that day when ...
— The Annals of the Poor • Legh Richmond
... conversation with her, he suddenly assumed a ceremonious indifference of manner, and went into another room. I saw at once that the slightness of the attention was an "anchor to windward," and that, in even those few minutes the prince had recognized a rare gem, and foreseen that, in the pursuit of it, he might need to be without any remembered particularity of attention. Lady ——- conversed with him with her usual earnest openness, but started a little, once or twice, at words which were certainly unaccompanied by their corresponding ...
— Graham's Magazine Vol XXXII No. 1 January 1848 • Various
... giving up its prey to the little wife brooding over the eggs, it stood on one leg and gazed thoughtfully down upon the city, whose shining red tiles gleamed spick and span from the green velvet carpet of the meadows. The bird had known beautiful Leyden, the gem of Holland, for many a year, and was familiar with all the branches of the Rhine that divided the stately city into numerous islands, and over which arched as many stone bridges as there are days in five months of the year; but ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers
... us up your souls That our long fingers wake them verily Like dulcimers and citherns and violes; Or at the burning disk of ecstasy Impose rare sigils on your gem-like souls. ...
— The Hours of Fiammetta - A Sonnet Sequence • Rachel Annand Taylor
... our own nation! Was it not chosen by Providence to become the leading nation on earth? And does it not tower mountain high over other nations? Is it not the gem of the ocean? Is it not incomparably virtuous, ideal and brave? The result of such ridiculous teaching is a dull, shallow patriotism, blind to its own limitations, with bull-like stubbornness, utterly incapable of judging of the capacities of other nations. This is the way the ...
— Mother Earth, Vol. 1 No. 2, April 1906 - Monthly Magazine Devoted to Social Science and Literature • Various
... Jews—with the tragedy of his race pictured on his furrowed face, a face like an ancient weather-worn statue on whose countenance grief has petrified—has summed up the character of Disraeli as no other man ever has or can. I will not rob the reader by quoting from "The Primrose Sphinx"—that gem of letters must ever stand together without subtraction of a word. It belongs to the realm of the lapidary, and its facets can not be transferred. Yet when Mr. Zangwill refers to the Mephistophelian curl of Lord Beaconsfield's ...
— Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great, Volume 5 (of 14) • Elbert Hubbard
... the immortal plains, Where heav'n's Supreme in bliss and glory reigns. There sits, illustrious Sir, thy beauteous spouse; A gem-blaz'd circle beaming on her brows. Hail'd with acclaim among the heav'nly choirs, Her soul new-kindling with seraphic fires, To notes divine she tunes the vocal strings, While heav'n's high concave with the music rings. Virtue's rewards can mortal pencil paint? ...
— Religious and Moral Poems • Phillis Wheatley
... the frame alone is worth that. Ladies and gentlemen, for the credit of the town! Suppose it should be discovered hereafter that a gem of art has been amongst us in this town, and nobody in Middlemarch awake to it. Five guineas—five seven-six—five ten. Still, ladies, still! It is a gem, and 'Full many a gem,' as the poet says, has been allowed to go at a nominal price because the ...
— Middlemarch • George Eliot
... thinking or knowing what there was in it besides beauty, as Allah "in mercy hid the book of fate." On we went among the ferns and flowers until we met a swamp, a different kind of swamp to those we had heretofore met, save the little one last mentioned. This one was much larger, and a gem of beauty; but we had to cross it. It was completely furnished with characteristic flora. Fortunately when we got to its edge we saw a woman crossing before us, but unfortunately she did not take a ...
— Travels in West Africa • Mary H. Kingsley
... LAST.—Watches Superseded. The Dollar Time Keeper.—A Perfect Gem.—Elegantly cased in Oriode of Gold, Superior Compass attachment, Enameled Dial, Silver and Brass Works, glass crystal, size of Ladies' Watch. Will denote correct time, warranted five years, superb and showy case, entirely of metal. This is no wood Compass. ...
— Scientific American, Vol.22, No. 1, January 1, 1870 • Various
... which in its own nature IS. If instead of a gem, or even of a flower, we could cast the gift of a lovely thought into the heart of a friend, that would be giving, as the angels, I suppose, must give. But you did more and better for me than that. I had been troubled ...
— Annals of a Quiet Neighbourhood • George MacDonald
... "judgments" quoted by Byron through "an Italian abstract" from Wagner's Appendix (pp. 217-218) there read inaccurately as follows: "In der Englischen Poesie," sagt Goethe, "man findet durchaus einen grossen, tchtigen, weltgebten Verstand, ein tiefes, zartes, Gemth, ein vortreffliches Wollen, ein leidenschaftliches Wirken ... das alles zuzammengenommen macht noch keinen Poeten ... nach dieser Ansicht zeigen die meisten Englischen Gedichte einen dstern Ueberdruss ...
— The Works of Lord Byron, Vol. 7. - Poetry • George Gordon Byron
... already immortal as a literary gem, is Benjamin Franklin's "Model of a Letter of Recommendation of a Person You ...
— How to Write Letters (Formerly The Book of Letters) - A Complete Guide to Correct Business and Personal Correspondence • Mary Owens Crowther
... letters. The rewards, Rich and unnumbered, she conferred on merit Her own refined, exalted taste betrayed. Her graceful and majestic figure, crowned With beauty such as few but angels wear, Like the rich casing that surrounds the gem, Heightened the splendor of her brilliant genius. Equally daring on the battle-field And in the chase, her prudence and her courage, Displayed in many a hot emergency, Had twined victorious laurel ...
— Graham's Magazine Vol XXXIII No. 4 October 1848 • Various
... a broiling August Sunday. The populace eyed you with awe.—Don't be offended, there's a dear. You can't help being very smart and very beautiful; and you oughtn't to want to help it even if you could, since it gives me so much pleasure. Your tailor's a gem. But how he must love you, must be ready to dress you free of cost for the simple joy of ...
— The Far Horizon • Lucas Malet
... its efforts to protect itself from the sharp edges, the bit becomes covered, layer by layer, and assumes naturally an oval shape. This growth of the pearl, as it is incorrectly termed, can be seen by breaking open a $500 gem, when the nacre will be seen in layers, resembling the section of an onion. The Romans were particularly fond of pearls, and, according to Pliny, the wife of Caius Caligula possessed a collection valued at over $8,000,000 of our ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 362, December 9, 1882 • Various
... lay on the thatched roofs. Calm and undisturbed, a gem-like brightness twinkled from every object; whilst the vapours that covered them looked not as the shroud, but rather as a pure mantle of eider, hiding the fair bosom ...
— Traditions of Lancashire, Volume 1 (of 2) • John Roby
... in no way be understood by such of my readers as are unacquainted with this little gem, I venture to give it here—exquisite, passionate utterance that it is, though little known to fame, at least at ...
— Sea and Shore - A Sequel to "Miriam's Memoirs" • Mrs. Catharine A. Warfield |
