"Improperly" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... is necessary to show how improperly these appellations were applied. Though the Gypsey chiefs might be gratified with such titles; and their descendants probably esteemed them persons of rank, it was merely a ridiculous imitation of what they had seen, and perhaps admired, among civilized people. ...
— A Historical Survey of the Customs, Habits, & Present State of the Gypsies • John Hoyland
... by the wholesale breaking of social customs during the war, it is necessary that parents and teachers give very careful attention to the dress of girls and to the demeanor of boys and girls of the adolescent period. Many teachers are improperly dressed and setting the wrong example. Many parents are dressing carelessly and sending their girls to high school improperly dressed. The boys are tempted—yes, are forced—to observe the bodies of their girl classmates, in study-rooms, halls, laboratories, and on playgrounds. ...
— Vocational Guidance for Girls • Marguerite Stockman Dickson
... judgment much better can discern the faults than I can excuse them; and whose good nature, like that of a lover, will find out those hidden beauties (if there are any such) which it would be great immodesty for me to discover. I think I don't speak improperly when I call you a lover of poetry; for it is very well known she has been a very kind mistress to you: she has not denied you the last favour, and she has been fruitful to you in a most beautiful issue. ...
— The Comedies of William Congreve - Volume 1 [of 2] • William Congreve
... so it was proper enough that it should stick to English forms, perhaps. It still calls itself an English Dictionary today, but it has quietly ceased to pronounce 'basket' as if it were spelt 'bahsket.' In the American language the 'h' is respected; the 'h' is not dropped or added improperly." ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain
... it hath been said that hunting, drinking, gambling, and too much enjoyment of women, are the four vices of kings. The man, that is addicted to these, liveth forsaking virtue. And people do not regard the acts done by a person who is thus improperly engaged, as of any authority. This son of Pandu, while deeply engaged in one of these vicious acts, urged thereto by deceitful gamblers, made Draupadi a stake. The innocent Draupadi is, besides, the common ...
— The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Part 2 • Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa
... the great deserts of the world, these authorities say:—"Perhaps the most absolute desert tract on the face of the globe is that which occupies the interior of the great island, or as it may not improperly ...
— Reminiscences of Queensland - 1862-1869 • William Henry Corfield
... ancestral door Mrs. Wilson had hung her own ermine victorine (the envy of all Edgewood) around Patty's neck and put her ermine willow muff into her new daughter's hands; thus she was as dazzling a personage, and as improperly dressed for the journey, as she could ...
— The Story Of Waitstill Baxter • By Kate Douglas Wiggin
... inevitable, there is no reason why it should be enlarged to uncomfortable proportions, and because eating is an unconquerable instinct there is no excuse for repletion. The position of the modern Socialist is that the contemporary idea of personal property is enormously exaggerated and improperly extended to things that ought not to be "private"; not that it is not a socially most useful and desirable ...
— New Worlds For Old - A Plain Account of Modern Socialism • Herbert George Wells
... who become 'far-sighted' before old age. Cases of debility and disease of the eyes seem to be multiplying at a rate which should awaken general attention to this matter. The causes are to be found in the neglect, often the hurtful management, of the eyesight of children; in the influence of improperly regulating artificial light; and in the injury done by bad printer's ink ...
— The Physical Life of Woman: - Advice to the Maiden, Wife and Mother • Dr. George H Napheys
... improperly called history, is an essential part of natural philosophy. The history of events has been divided into sacred history and profane history; sacred history is a series of divine and miraculous operations whereby it pleased God once on a time to lead the ...
— Voltaire's Philosophical Dictionary • Voltaire
... us at the chapel, the Earl of Errol was informed of our arrival, and we had the honour of an invitation to his seat, called Slanes Castle, as I am told, improperly, from the castle of that name, which once stood at ...
— A Journey to the Western Isles of Scotland • Samuel Johnson
... disappointment struck far deeper. As though I had hurt him physically, he shut his eyes, and when again he opened them I saw in them distress. For the moment I believe of my presence he was utterly unconscious. His hands lay idle upon the table; like a man facing a crisis, he stared before him. Quite improperly, I felt sorry for him. In me he thought he had found a victim; and that the loss of the few dollars he might have won should so deeply disturb him showed his need was great. Almost at once he abandoned me and I went on deck. When I returned ...
— The Red Cross Girl • Richard Harding Davis
... her quick eyes and keen ears, and under that demure forehead is a faculty which enables her to 'put this and that together,' and arrive at conclusions which would amaze her less acute foreign sisters. You may not envy her this faculty, but do not accuse her of employing it improperly. She will never disgrace herself nor the coronet which she already feels pressing lightly upon her head. As she trips out of sight, it may give any man a heart-pang to think that there is at least one lovely woman who is impenetrable to love; but then, if she were like those ...
— Lights and Shadows of New York Life - or, the Sights and Sensations of the Great City • James D. McCabe
... side in wrinkles, like the alforjos of a baboon, and a mouth so much accustomed to that contraction which produces grinning, that he could not pronounce a syllable without discovering the remains of his teeth, which consisted of four yellow fangs, not improperly, by anatomists, called canine. This person, I say, after having eyed me some time, said, "Oho, 'tis ver well, Monsieur Concordance; young man, you are ver welcome, take one coup of bierre—and come to mine house ...
— The Adventures of Roderick Random • Tobias Smollett
... obsolete, while that introduced by the praetors, which is also called 'honorary,' is most usual in the actual practice of the courts. Thus the pecuniary compensation awarded for an outrage rises and falls in amount according to the rank and character of the plaintiff, and this principle is not improperly followed even where it is a slave who is outraged; the penalty where the slave is a steward being different from what it is when he is an ordinary menial, and different again when he is ...
— The Institutes of Justinian • Caesar Flavius Justinian
... purposes of his art. In the villa, however, some exception must be made, inasmuch as it will be useful, and perhaps interesting, to arrive at some fixed conclusions respecting the modern buildings, improperly called villas, raised by moderate wealth, and of limited size, in which the architect is compelled to produce his effect without extent or decoration. The principles which we have hitherto arrived at, deduced as they are from ...
— The Poetry of Architecture • John Ruskin
... incluyen, pres. of incluir. incluyendo, pres. part. of incluir. incomodar, to trouble. incomodo,-a, annoying, troublesome. inconcebible, inconceivable. incredulo,-a, incredulous. indebidamente, improperly, illegally. indecente, indecent, improper. indemnizacion, f., indemnity. indiano,-a, Indian. Indias, f. pl., the (East or West) Indies. indignacion, f., anger, resentment. indignado,-a, indignant. indignarse, ...
— A First Spanish Reader • Erwin W. Roessler and Alfred Remy
... Marsden mentions, the brother of a chief, named Ahoudee Ogunna,[BA] conceiving himself to have been improperly treated by one of the missionaries, stole two earthen pots from another of them; but the explanation which the chief gave of the matter was that his brother had not stolen the pots, but had only taken them ...
— John Rutherford, the White Chief • George Lillie Craik
... being admitted, it will follow in due course of reasoning that those beings which the world calls improperly suits of clothes are in reality the most refined species of animals, or to proceed higher, that they are rational creatures or men. For is it not manifest that they live, and move, and talk, and perform all other offices of human life? Are not beauty, and wit, and mien, and breeding their inseparable ...
— A Tale of a Tub • Jonathan Swift
... reasons, men seek the acquisition of wisdom of various kinds. It seems to me that of all acquisitions that of wisdom is the most valuable. One should not speak until one is asked; nor should one speak when one is asked improperly. Even if possessed of intelligence and knowledge, one should still sit in silence like an idiot (until one is asked to speak and asked in proper form). One should seek to dwell among honest men devoted ...
— The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 3 - Books 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 • Unknown
... do not like irrigated grapes as well as those from non-irrigated lands; and watery grapes from irrigated lands make inferior raisins. It is maintained, however, with a show of reason, that grapes suffer in irrigated vineyards in the ways set forth only when the vines are over-or improperly irrigated. ...
— Manual of American Grape-Growing • U. P. Hedrick
... by royal appointment(225) to reach the height of this honor, let him not deserve to be received as a bishop by the bishops of the province in which the place is located, for they know that he was ordained improperly. If any of the fellow bishops of the province presume to receive him against this prohibition, let him be separated from all his brethren and be deprived of ...
— A Source Book for Ancient Church History • Joseph Cullen Ayer, Jr., Ph.D.
... suppose that I have saved a man's children from a shipwreck or a fire, and that afterwards disease or accident has carried them off; even when they are no more, the kindness which was done by means of them remains. All those things, therefore, which improperly assume the name of benefits, are means by which kindly feeling manifests itself. In other cases also, we find a distinction between the visible symbol and the matter itself, as when a general bestows collars of gold, or civic or mural crowns upon any ...
— L. Annaeus Seneca On Benefits • Seneca
... each one of the Greek scales had a characteristic expression, and that the four which he chose would suffice for the varying needs of the hymns of the Church. In naming these scales a mistake was made, that upon re being called the Dorian, and all the other names being applied improperly. The series upon mi was called Phrygian, upon fa Lydian; upon sol Mixo-Lydian. The melodies of St. Ambrose were somewhat charged with ornament, a fact which indicates their Asiatic origin. It is probable that a part of the ...
— A Popular History of the Art of Music - From the Earliest Times Until the Present • W. S. B. Mathews
... coupled anew for tension, furnished upon being discharged a spark due to a difference of potential of about 32,000 volts that presented all the characters of the spark produced by induction coils on the machines so improperly called "static." Finally, we may cite the apparatus arranged by Mr. S.P. Thompson for studying the development of currents in magneto-electric machines. The inventor studies the influence of the forms of the inductors ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 441, June 14, 1884. • Various
... this time to himself, he assumed a little more of his official stateliness. He condescended to say that it would have given him pleasure to reckon me amongst his flock; "But, sir," he said, in a tone of some sharpness, "your guardians have acted improperly. It was their duty to have given me at least one year's notice of their intention to place you at Christ Church. At present I have not a dog- kennel in my college untenanted." Upon this, I observed that nothing remained for me ...
— Memorials and Other Papers • Thomas de Quincey
... browsing upon the leaves of that plant, while those brought from districts where laurel is unknown, and turned into pastures where it grows, very often feed upon it and are poisoned by it. A curious acquired and hereditary instinct, of a different character, may not improperly be noticed here. I refer to that by which horses bred in provinces where quicksands are common avoid their dangers or extricate themsleves from them. See Bremontier, Memoire sur les Dunes, Annales des Ponts et Chaussees, 1833; premier ...
— The Earth as Modified by Human Action • George P. Marsh
... one of their chiefs. The Yun-nan Topography says:—'The name of "Ts'uan Man" is a very ancient one, and originally the tribes of Ts'uan were very numerous. There was that called "Lu-lu Man," for instance, now improperly called "Lo-Lo."' These people call themselves 'Nersu,' and the vocabularies show that they stretch in scattered communities as far as Ssu-mao and along the whole southern border of Yun-nan. It appears from the Topography that they are found ...
— The Travels of Marco Polo, Volume 2 • Marco Polo and Rustichello of Pisa
... imagination, as the honorable Senator from Ohio seems to have done to his, and take it for granted that the Secretary of the Treasury had a purpose to accomplish, and that he would not hesitate to take any means in his power to accomplish it, improperly against the manifest will of Congress, against the interests of the country, and against his own interests ...
— Recollections of Forty Years in the House, Senate and Cabinet - An Autobiography. • John Sherman
... the car," Sir Timothy explained. "She most improperly bribed my chauffeur to lend her his coat and ...
— The Evil Shepherd • E. Phillips Oppenheim
... the privilege I have already frequently taken of making abrupt transitions from one subject to another, according as the recollection of past circumstances occurs to my mind, I shall here note down a few details, which may not improperly be called domestic, and afterwards describe a conspiracy which was protected by the very man against ...
— The Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte • Bourrienne, Constant, and Stewarton
... to say with what readiness he should comply, and how anxiously he should desire to do his best for the person who had made the request, he mentioned what had arisen in his mind. It had occurred to him that he might not be unreasonably or improperly trespassing farther on Mr. Hogarth if, trusting to his kindness to refer the application to the proper quarter, he begged to ask whether it was probable, if he commenced a regular series of articles ...
— The Life of Charles Dickens, Vol. I-III, Complete • John Forster
... they call patronage (which is the means of corruption) they have the power of making the laws to suit their purposes. I am confident that my blood will rise a hundredfold against the tyrants who think proper to commit such an outrage. In the first place, I say I was identified improperly, by having chains on my hands and feet at the time of identification, and thus the witnesses who have sworn to my throwing stones and firing a pistol have sworn to what is false, for I was, as those ladies said, at the jail gates. I thank my counsel ...
— The Dock and the Scaffold • Unknown
... fatal hesitation as to the Armies of the West and Centre, fill up the measure of his incapacity. His uncontrolled temper and undisguised incivility, not only to the Press, but to fellow-soldiers of the stamp of Piffle, have alienated from him even the sympathy that sometimes improperly consoles demerit. ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. XXII (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson
... be a disease: Julius Pollux Onomast. lib. 6. cap. 44. determines it. They that are in love are likewise [4751]sick; lascivus, salax, lasciviens, et qui in venerem furit, vere est aegrotus, Arnoldus will have it improperly so called, and a malady rather of the body than mind. Tully, in his Tusculans, defines it a furious disease of the mind. Plato, madness itself. Ficinus, his Commentator, cap. 12. a species of madness, "for many have run mad for women," ...
— The Anatomy of Melancholy • Democritus Junior
... oratory, and the maxim there is Orator fit, for it is certain that by study and application every man can make himself a pretty good orator, eloquence depending upon observation and care. Every man, if he pleases, may choose good words instead of bad ones, may speak properly instead of improperly, may be clear and perspicuous in his recitals instead of dark and muddy, may have grace instead of awkwardness in his motions and gestures, and, in short, may be a very agreeable instead of a very disagreeable speaker if he will take care and pains. And surely it is very well worth ...
— The World's Greatest Books, Vol IX. • Edited by Arthur Mee and J.A. Hammerton
... quite early times, when the Australian heiress, as she was improperly styled, was taking London more or less by storm, she chanced to overhear a brief colloquy ...
— Sisters • Ada Cambridge
... have resented this comedy of thunderstorms more hotly than I did if I had not believed the friar to be mad. But I was very much offended by the titles of dishonour most improperly bestowed upon me, and was determined to have done with their inventor. "Sir," I said, "you have done me a service, I allow, and I am much obliged to you; but I am constrained to point out that I have carried ...
— The Fool Errant • Maurice Hewlett
... likewise, quite new; for, though all kings have had mistresses, they were attended at their own lodgings, and not in so public a manner. I conclude they performed that ceremony too; but they could not lose the first opportunity of paying their respects, though ever so improperly. ...
— The Letters of Horace Walpole, Volume 1 • Horace Walpole
... coming than on the night before, and she made up her mind that Stepan had declared a holiday from the responsibilities of a control. At last there was a faint vibration, and she went cautiously into the dark space behind the circle. The curtains had always hung improperly, and she could see a dim red ...
— The Best Short Stories of 1919 - and the Yearbook of the American Short Story • Various
... great beauty in the mountain of Cairn Gorm, in Scotland. It consists of brown and yellow crystals of quartz, and is much admired for seal stones, &c.; it is sometimes improperly termed topaz. ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 20, - Issue 560, August 4, 1832 • Various
... doors on each side, and not a few on the roof, handling the baskets there so roughly, as to occasion loud complaints from the fowls within. I rode up to the carriage, to see that the people inside were not improperly treated; but the only one there was an old gouty gentleman, who, from the nature of his cargo, must either have robbed his own house, or that of a very good fellow, for the carriage was literally laden with wines and provisions. Never did victors make a more legal or useful capture; ...
— Adventures in the Rifle Brigade, in the Peninsula, France, and the Netherlands - from 1809 to 1815 • Captain J. Kincaid
... indefinable quality which it adds to the lowest as to the highest of these is (as Lamb says of passion) "the all in all in poetry." Turning again for illustration to one of the highest names in imaginative literature—a name sometimes most improperly and absurdly inscribed on the register of the realistic school, {137} we may say that the difference on this point is not the difference between Balzac and Dumas, but the distinction between Balzac and M. Zola. Let us take by way of example the character next in importance ...
— A Study of Shakespeare • Algernon Charles Swinburne
... pins, was unfortunately upset, and together we rolled into his dispensary, out of which he was at that moment coming. There we lay, amidst a quantity of phials, jars, and gallipots, which, having been improperly secured, came crashing down upon us. The doctor kicked and struggled, and endeavoured to rise, but I was too far gone to make any effort of the sort. Had he been inclined, he might have pounded me to death before I should ...
— Paddy Finn • W. H. G. Kingston
... twenty-fifth June he discovered the island de Sal, one of the Cape Verdes, and passing it he came to another very improperly named Bona vista, which signifies good prospect, yet the place is dull and wretched. Here he cast anchor in a channel near a small island in which there are six or seven houses appointed for persons who are afflicted with the leprosy, who ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. III. • Robert Kerr
... his doorway, a simpleton face vulgarly called in studio slang a "melon." This fruit surmounted a pumpkin, clothed in blue cloth adorned with a bunch of tintinnabulating baubles. The melon puffed like a walrus; the pumpkin advanced on turnips, improperly called legs. A true painter would have turned the little bottle-vendor off at once, assuring him that he didn't paint vegetables. This painter looked at his client without a smile, for Monsieur Vervelle wore a three-thousand-franc ...
— Pierre Grassou • Honore de Balzac
... toward prosecuting Donald Trail, the master of the Neptune transport, for his treatment of the convicts with which he sailed from England for this settlement in the year 1790. The sickness and mortality which prevailed among them excited a suspicion that they had been improperly treated; and information upon oath was soon procured of many acts of neglect, ill ...
— An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales, Vol. 1 • David Collins
... if they were hardships; she was sullen towards her mamma, snappishly brief with her aunt and sister, and so ungracious and indifferent even with her father, that Albinia trembled lest he might withdraw the attention so improperly received. When this dreary state of things had lasted more than a week, he did tell her that if she were tired of the lessons, it was not worth while to proceed; but that he had ...
— The Young Step-Mother • Charlotte M. Yonge
... in order that the needs of to-morrow may be met. Fear and uneasiness about the future, the atra cura of the Latins, you will look for among us in vain. It is this care which poisons the pleasure of the present; whilst that other, which can only improperly be called care, but the real name of which is foresight, by means of the perfect sense of security which it creates concerning the morrow enhances the delight of present enjoyment by the foretaste to-day of future enjoyments already provided ...
— Freeland - A Social Anticipation • Theodor Hertzka
... with a 1 to 10,000 solution of potassium permanganate. In the course of time the majority of cuttings came out in leaf, but none formed roots, and hence soon died. It is admitted that this experiment may have been improperly planned and conducted, but it showed at any rate that it is not an easy matter to propagate most nut plants by root or ...
— Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the Fifteenth Annual Meeting • Various
... now, whether the law ought to acknowledge and protect such a state of life as minority, nor whether the continuance which is fixed for that state be not improperly prolonged in the law of England. Neither of these in general are questioned. The only question, is, whether matrimony is to be taken out of the general rule, and whether the minors of both sexes, without the consent of their parents, ought to have a capacity of contracting the matrimonial, whilst ...
— The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. VII. (of 12) • Edmund Burke
... no means improperly (for it was a legal requirement, though often evaded, that four months' residence per annum should be observed), persisted; and Scott, after a pleasing but impracticable dream of taking up his summer residence in the Tower ...
— Sir Walter Scott - Famous Scots Series • George Saintsbury
... stiff upon the point of honour, that they refuse to marry tradesmen, nay, even merchants, though vastly above them in wealth and fortune, only because they are tradesmen, or, as they are pleased to call them, though improperly, mechanics; and though perhaps they have not above L500 or L1000 to their portion, scorn the man for his rank, who does but turn round, and has his choice of wives, perhaps, with two, or three, or four thousand pounds, ...
— The Complete English Tradesman (1839 ed.) • Daniel Defoe
... Captains Troubridge and Ball should have led up the attack. The former was stranded; and the latter, by accident of the wind, could not bring his ship into the line of battle till some time after the engagement had become general. With his characteristic forecast and activity of (which may not improperly be called) practical imagination, he had made arrangements to meet every probable contingency. All the shrouds and sails of the ship not absolutely necessary for its immediate management, were thoroughly wetted, and so rolled up that they were as hard and ...
— Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit etc. • by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
... insignificant intruders into a golden mystery. The palace prefect in his cloak of cloth of gold, with his ivory wand of office, seemed a high priest of eternity; subprefects, standing in the marble antechamber to examine visitors' credentials and see that none passed in improperly ...
— Caesar Dies • Talbot Mundy
... but that arising from the dust." But that, or except that, is correct. Some persons improperly use than ...
— Slips of Speech • John H. Bechtel
... at this instance of his daughter's discretion; for a seasonable care about marriage may be permitted to a young maiden, provided it be accompanied with modesty and dutiful submission to her parents in the choice of her future husband; and there was no fear of Nausicaa choosing wrongly or improperly, for she was as wise as she was beautiful, and the best in all Phaeacia were suitors to her for her love. So Alcinous readily gave consent that she should go, ordering mules and a coach to be prepared. And Nausicaa brought from her chamber all her vestments, ...
— THE ADVENTURES OF ULYSSES • CHARLES LAMB
... entrusted with message of great importance, addressed to Von Dusenberg, The Hague. Is believed to have been in railway accident near Wymondham and to have been taken from inn by young man in motor-car. Suggest that he is being improperly detained." ...
— The Vanished Messenger • E. Phillips Oppenheim
... occasiones vel signa excitantia hominem ad adorandum prototype.(700) Friar Pedro de Cabrera,(701) a Spaniard, taketh the opinion of Durand and his followers to be this: That images are adored only improperly, because they put men in mind of the persons represented by them; and he reasoneth against them thus: "If images were only to be worshipped by way of rememoration and recordation, because they make us remember the samplers which we do so worship as if they had been then present, ...
— The Works of Mr. George Gillespie (Vol. 1 of 2) • George Gillespie
... things from being lost or improperly used she fell into the habit of storing them in her bedroom, so that in time it became a veritable junk-shop. "Among my dresses," she writes, "hang bridle straps and horse robes. On the camphor-wood trunk ...
— The Life of Mrs. Robert Louis Stevenson • Nellie Van de Grift Sanchez
... each prisoner. But, as no provision is made against the possibility of the criminal eating his meat raw, he is very delicately forced to an alternative which has another profitable issue for the sheriff; that of taking a pint of diluted water, very improperly called soup. Thus is carried out that ancient law of England which even she is now ashamed to own. Our feelings are naturally roused against the perpetration of such abuses upon suffering humanity. We struggle between a wish to speak well of her whose power it is to practise them, and an imperative ...
— Manuel Pereira • F. C. Adams
... adventurers, though at such a comparatively small distance, could not make out the topographical details of the Moon with any satisfaction by their unaided vision. The eye indeed could easily enough catch the rugged outline of these vast depressions improperly called "Seas," but it could do very little more. Its powers of adjustability seemed to fail before the strange and bewildering scene. The prominence of the mountains vanished, not only through the foreshortening, but also in the dazzling radiation produced by the direct reflection ...
— All Around the Moon • Jules Verne
... gives the particulars thus: "This morning, about three o'clock, a second duel was fought with swords, between Captain Mathews and Mr. R. Sheridan, on Kingsdown, near this city, in consequence of their former dispute respecting an amiable young lady, which Mr. M. considered as improperly adjusted; Mr. S. having, since their first rencontre, declared his sentiments respecting Mr. M. in a manner that the former thought required satisfaction. Mr. Sheridan received three or four wounds in his breast and sides, and now lies very ill. ...
— Memoirs of the Life of the Rt. Hon. Richard Brinsley Sheridan V1 • Thomas Moore
... or the Word, as the great Teacher, and supplies converts with practical precepts for their guidance; whilst in the Stromata, or Miscellanies, we have a description of what he calls the Gnostic or perfect Christian. He here takes occasion to attack those who, in his estimation, were improperly designated Gnostics, such as Basilides, Valentine, ...
— The Ancient Church - Its History, Doctrine, Worship, and Constitution • W.D. [William Dool] Killen
... with their conquered vassals, they were numerically few,) that with the invasion of Hengist in the one case, and the battle of Poictiers in the other, the modern history of both countries may not improperly be said to have begun. To the student of that history, however, one consideration must occur, which imparts to the objects of his studies an interest emphatically its own. It is this: he has strong reason to believe that all the elements of society are before ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. CCCXXVIII. February, 1843. Vol. LIII. • Various
... their gluttony, and their lust" (p. 173). To these evils was added that of gross deception, for a bad clergy used bad weapons; false miracles abounded in every direction; "the corrupt discipline that then prevailed admitted of those fallacious stratagems, which are very improperly called pious frauds; nor did the heralds of the gospel think it at all unlawful to terrify or to allure to the profession of Christianity, by fictitious prodigies, those obdurate hearts which they could not subdue by reason ...
— The Freethinker's Text Book, Part II. - Christianity: Its Evidences, Its Origin, Its Morality, Its History • Annie Besant
... impairing of your character which I see going on. You are becoming permanently distrustful, suspicious. You think one friend will fail us here, that that friend is untrue, that the other one may be influenced improperly. Very soon you will begin to suspect me, then you will suspect yourself, and then—then, you are utterly lost. Stop it. I would rather lose the fight than ...
— The Young Man and the World • Albert J. Beveridge
... the ardent and reflected rays of the summer's sun, and in winter swept by chilling blasts from the snow-clad mountains. Such is a great part of that vast region extending north and south along the mountains, several hundred miles in width, which has not improperly been termed the Great American Desert. It is a region that almost discourages all hope of cultivation, and can only be traversed with safety by keeping near the streams which intersect it. Extensive ...
— Astoria - Or, Anecdotes Of An Enterprise Beyond The Rocky Mountains • Washington Irving
... noble river, on which ships continually passing present to the delighted eye the most charming picture imaginable. I never saw a place so formed to inspire that pleasing lassitude, that divine inclination to saunter, which may not improperly be called the luxurious indolence of the country. I intend to build a temple here to the charming goddess of laziness. A gentleman is coming down the winding path on the side of the hill, whom by his air I take to be your brother. Adieu. I must receive him, my father ...
— Picturesque Quebec • James MacPherson Le Moine
... learned to distinguish the poisons of the Ticuna, Yagua, Peva, and Xibaro Indians, which being all obtained from the same plant, perhaps differ only by a more or less careful preparation. The Ticuna poison, to which La Condamine has given so much celebrity in Europe, and which somewhat improperly begins to bear the name of ticuna, is extracted from a liana which grows in the island of Mormorote, on the Upper Maranon. This poison is employed partly by the Ticunas, who remain independent on the Spanish territory near the sources of the Yacarique; and ...
— Equinoctial Regions of America V2 • Alexander von Humboldt
... by the later Greeks, and by the Romans, styled Nymphae; but improperly. Nympha vox, Graecorum [Greek: Numpha], non fuit ab origine Virgini sive Puellae propria: sed solummodo partem corporis denotabat. AEgyptijs, sicut omnia animalia, lapides, frutices, atque herbas, ita omne membrum atque omnia corporis humani loca, aliquo dei titulo mos ...
— A New System; or, an Analysis of Antient Mythology. Volume I. • Jacob Bryant
... the brain is, as a rule, a disease of childhood: after a child is seven years old it is comparatively rare. It more frequently attacks delicate children—children who have been dry nursed (especially if they have been improperly fed), or who have been suckled too long, or who have had consumptive mothers, or who have suffered severely from toothing, or who are naturally of a feeble constitution. Water on the brain sometimes follows ...
— Advice to a Mother on the Management of her Children • Pye Henry Chavasse
... what it will, ever yet was a prime racer. If it be objected, that many a plain ugly Horse has been a good racer; I answer that all goodness is comparative; and that such Horses who have been winners of plates about the country, may be improperly called good racers, when compared to some others: but I can even allow a very plain Horse to be a prime racer, without giving up the least part of this system: for instance if we suppose a Horse (with a large head and long ears, like the Godolphin Arabian) a low mean forehand, slat sided, ...
— A Dissertation on Horses • William Osmer
... have been a bad cartridge, or the pistol improperly loaded. It did not pierce the cloth of his cap, and even the skin of the scalp ...
— Sail Ho! - A Boy at Sea • George Manville Fenn
... respectability was preserved under such circumstances, by the most candid admission of the fact, accompanied by a store of other knowledge unfortunately quite foreign to the pursuits of the Society; and I will add, that I regretted to see him insulted by one President in a situation improperly given to him by ...
— Decline of Science in England • Charles Babbage
... getting me on to Pike; resolved to go immediately in some way. Informed of a person going 13 miles on the road. At ten he came and a very sensible man I found him; said the bank had registered certain wealthy individuals improperly, and therefore the charter had been refused; this more than the removal of the deposits had injured the credit and business of the country; admitted that there was too much paper money but thought it should have ...
— A Journey to America in 1834 • Robert Heywood
... disturb in the management of his house any keeper of a house, whatever offences he may have committed, or however unworthy he may appear to them to be. Supposing any person who had, in the eyes of the Commissioners, acted improperly, to apply in October, at the usual and the only period in the year for granting licences, they conceive (and they are advised) that they are obliged to grant a licence to that individual. There is another circumstance which I think is very important, which is the certificate ...
— Chapters in the History of the Insane in the British Isles • Daniel Hack Tuke
... they to blame? [Footnote: The Athenians claimed to be of indigenous origin— Autoch'tho-nes, that is, Aborigines, sprung from the earth itself. As emblematic of this origin they wore in their hair the golden forms of the cicada, or locust, often improperly called grasshopper, which was believed to spring from the earth. So it was said that the Athenians boasted ...
— Mosaics of Grecian History • Marcius Willson and Robert Pierpont Willson
... overworking certain of these organs (the liver and kidneys), but the wastes may linger too long in the body, causing disorder and laying the foundation for disease. On the other hand, if an insufficient amount of proteid is taken, the tissues are improperly nourished, and one is unable to exert his usual strength. What is true of the proteids is true, though in a different way, of the other great classes of foods. A diet which is lacking in proteid, carbohydrate, or fat, or which has ...
— Physiology and Hygiene for Secondary Schools • Francis M. Walters, A.M.
... Fox, the niece of Charles, and sister of Lord Holland." The noble lord was thunderstruck. Had Pitt seen him? If so, he was undone. He ran up to reproach Miss Vernon. "True," was the reply; "she is the niece of Fox, but since she has twenty thousand pounds to her fortune, I thought I had not acted improperly in introducing you." ...
— Beaux and Belles of England • Mary Robinson
... Crassus, a pontiff, died after the year was concluded, no person was nominated to succeed him. Caius Claudius, flamen of Jupiter, retired from his office, because he had distributed the entrails improperly. ...
— The History of Rome; Books Nine to Twenty-Six • Titus Livius
... the maid and me, because of the delicacy of his nature and breeding. 'Twas apparent, too, that he was ill: he would go white and red without cause, and did mope or overflow with a feverish jollity, and would improperly overfeed at table or starve his emaciating body. But after a time, when he had watched us narrowly to his heart's content, he recovered his health and amiability, and was the same as he had been. Judith and I were then cold and distant in behavior with each other, but unfailing ...
— The Cruise of the Shining Light • Norman Duncan
... Boston. Again for weary days, stretching into weeks, went on the disheartening search for work. Mr. Simmons says in those days the very iron entered into his soul. To see his refined, cultivated wife sick and wasting away, his children improperly clothed and hungry, and compelled, day by day, to return to the tenement house on the filthy street whither his condition had forced him, with a feeling of utter helplessness, he declares that nothing but the religious convictions of his youth, and the sense ...
— White Slaves • Louis A Banks
... title abbot was improperly transferred to clerics who had no connexion with the monastic system, as to the principal of a body of parochial clergy; and under the Carolingians to the chief chaplain of the king, Abbas Curiae, or military chaplain of the emperor, Abbas Castrensis. ...
— Project Gutenberg Encyclopedia
... there was a shrewd land agent living in Austin who devoted his undoubted talents and vast knowledge of land titles, and the laws governing them, to the locating of surveys made by illegal certificates, or improperly made, and otherwise of no value through non-compliance with the statutes, or whatever flaws his ingenious and unscrupulous mind ...
— Rolling Stones • O. Henry
... repairs. He puts my remaining, however, on the ground of necessity arising out of my crippled condition. Received also a reply from the Yankee Consul to my note about the prisoners: declined to receive it on account of its being improperly addressed.[5] Landed all the prisoners. Received another note from the Governor, requesting me to hurry my repairs, &c. Sent to the Captain of the port on the subject. Referred by ...
— The Cruise of the Alabama and the Sumter • Raphael Semmes
... easily have been Rex Holland as another. There is no suggestion that Mr. Cole went to Silvers Rents—which I understand is in a very poor neighborhood—with any illegal intent, or that he was committing any crime or behaving in any way improperly by paying such frequent visits. There may be something in the witness's life associated with that poor house which has no bearing on the case and which he does not desire should be ventilated in this court. ...
— The Man Who Knew • Edgar Wallace
... hope that provision may be made whereby great suffering may be relieved; and I assure you that so far as I am able to prevent it not one ounce of provisions or a cent of money contributed to the above need shall be improperly used. ...
— A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents, Volume IX. • Benjamin Harrison
... it went. A year and another year passed. The pretty home was beginning to look old. The bloom of its youth had most improperly faded—for surely a home should never fade—but there was the boy, a growing delight to his father, so why complain? Better this easy-going life than ...
— Paste Jewels • John Kendrick Bangs
... is involved in the fundamental principle of Augustine's theory, the good father could not but reel and stagger under it. "Respecting the sins of the other parents," says he, "the progenitors from Adam down to one's own immediate father, it may not improperly be debated, whether the child is implicated in the evil acts and multiplied original faults of all, so that each one is the worse in proportion as he is later; or that, in respect to the sins of their parents, God threatens posterity to the third and fourth generation, because, by the moderation ...
— A Theodicy, or, Vindication of the Divine Glory • Albert Taylor Bledsoe
... flavopurpurin are obtained from two isomeric disulphanthraquinonic acids, improperly named isoanthraflavic and anthraflavic acids, which are converted into anthrapurpurin and flavopurpurin by a more profound action of potassa. These two ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 286 - June 25, 1881 • Various
... is common and idiomatic, but precise and strong: it is the vigorous English of an unpretending man, without the graces of the schools, but expressing his meaning with remarkable clearness. Like Milton's Paradise Lost, Bunyan's allegory has been improperly placed by many persons on a par with the Bible as a body of Christian doctrine, and for ...
— English Literature, Considered as an Interpreter of English History - Designed as a Manual of Instruction • Henry Coppee
... of great interest to the student of Japanese religious development. They should be made much of by Christian preachers and missionaries. Such writers and thinkers as Muro evidently was might not improperly be called the pre-Christian Christians of Japan. They prepared the way for the coming of more light on these subjects. Japanese Christian apologists should collect such utterances from her wise men of ...
— Evolution Of The Japanese, Social And Psychic • Sidney L. Gulick
... overhauled the flag locker finding just what they sought. The white flag was at once brought to the deck where it was bent on to the halliards. It fluttered gaily at the top of the short flagstaff. Some difficulty was experienced in securing the staff because of an improperly fitting socket. ...
— Boy Scouts in the North Sea - The Mystery of a Sub • G. Harvey Ralphson
... improperly said that some suggestion of yours was nonsense and you rebuked me for my blunt incivility. Might not I rebuke you now with ...
— The Last Chronicle of Barset • Anthony Trollope
... projecting through the assembler face-plate from the rear, as shown in Fig. 7, its purpose being to hold the matrices forward and prevent them from falling back in such a manner that succeeding matrices and spaces or justifiers will pass improperly ahead of them. The descending matrices also pass beneath a long depending spring g4, which should be so adjusted as barely to permit the passage of ...
— A Book of Exposition • Homer Heath Nugent
... found him looking very sad about something which you had said to him, and in which you had very improperly mixed my name. While trying: to dissipate his sorrow, we went and walked about in the harbour. There, among other things, was to be seen a Turkish galley. A young Turk, with a gentlemanly look ...
— The Impostures of Scapin • Moliere
... connected with the lower part of the balloon, through which sleeve the string-of the valve passes. M. Barral, on looking for this sleeve, found that it had disappeared. Further search showed that the balloon being awkwardly and improperly placed in the inclosing net-work, the valve-sleeve, instead of hanging clear of the hoop, had been gathered up in the net-work above the hoop; so that, to reach it, it would have been necessary to have forced a passage between the inflated ...
— Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Volume 1, No. 4, September, 1850 • Various
... not be thought, and are, therefore, as contingent, factitious generalizations. To this process of experiment, analysis, and classification, through which we attain to a scientific knowledge of principles, it might be shown that Aristotle, not improperly, applies the term ...
— Christianity and Greek Philosophy • Benjamin Franklin Cocker
... improperly dignified by the Latins with the title of patriarch. The Abyssinians acknowledge only the four patriarchs, and their chief is no more than a metropolitan or national primate, (Ludolph. Hist. Aethiopic. et Comment. l. iii. c. 7.) The seven bishops of Renaudot, (p. 511,) who ...
— The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Volume 4 • Edward Gibbon
... direct result of his reckless lack of common prudence. That which made him live, in a literary way, curtailed his years. The man was improperly and imperfectly nourished, physically. Men who live alone do not cook any more than they have to: men and women, both, cook for emulation. That is to say, we work for each other, and we succeed only ...
— Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great Philosophers, Volume 8 • Elbert Hubbard
... weeks. Mr. Grand has, by my direction, credited you in the account he now sends for the two sums of ten thousand livres and two thousand, seven hundred and twenty-four livres and sixty-six sous, improperly charged in your former account. He had also debited you in his account for the whole sums paid by the United States, as well as those paid by Virginia, as by himself. The purpose of this was to keep the accounts unmixed, though in fact the funds have been applied occasionally ...
— The Writings of Thomas Jefferson - Library Edition - Vol. 6 (of 20) • Thomas Jefferson
... improperly loading fire arms chiefly arises from not ramming the wadding close to the powder; and then when a fowling-piece is discharged, it is very likely to burst in pieces. This circumstance, though well known, is often neglected, and various accidents are occasioned by it. Hence when a ...
— The Cook and Housekeeper's Complete and Universal Dictionary; Including a System of Modern Cookery, in all Its Various Branches, • Mary Eaton
... Commissary appointed to Execute the Contents hereof) and absolutely None shall be Suffered to Stay a Single Night; And the Said Commissary is hereby Directed to take the Necessary Precautions for Executing this Our Will and Pleasure, and due Care that None of his Certificates be Improperly made use of by Enabling them to Enter the City too frequently excepting such as he shall grant thro' favour to the Principal Merchants who will stand in Greater Need than others ...
— Notes on the Diplomatic History of the Jewish Question • Lucien Wolf
... command or begin anew movement improperly begun. To revoke a preparatory command, or, being at a halt, to begin anew a movement improperly begun, the command, AS YOU WERE, is given, at which the movement ceases and the former position is ...
— Manual of Military Training - Second, Revised Edition • James A. Moss
... did not however come into existence till the year B.C. 149, when L. Calpurnius Piso carried the statute known as the Lex Calpurnia de Repetundis. The law applied to cases Repetundarum Pecuniarum, that is, claims by Provincials to recover monies improperly received by a Governor-General, but the great and permanent importance of this statute arose from its establishing the first Quaestio Perpetua. A Quaestio Perpetua was a Permanent Commission as opposed to those which were occasional and to those which were temporary. ...
— Ancient Law - Its Connection to the History of Early Society • Sir Henry James Sumner Maine
... that ships were improperly built—some were ten times longer than their beam. There was nothing in the world so ticklish as a ship; touch her in the waist, and down she goes. He believed sailing ships ought not to exceed four times ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 514, November 7, 1885 • Various
... reason to recommend it. On the other hand, being totally destitute of all shadow of influence, natural or adventitious, I was very sure that if my proposition were futile or dangerous, if it were weakly conceived or improperly timed, there was nothing exterior to it of power to awe, dazzle, or delude you. You will see it just as it is; and you will treat ...
— Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern, Vol. 7 • Various
... agreement to be made that should it be shown to the satisfaction of this Government that the Virginius was improperly bearing the flag proceedings should be instituted in our courts for the punishment of the offense committed against the United States. On her part Spain undertook to proceed against those who had offended ...
— A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents: Ulysses S. Grant • James D. Richardson
... that thou hast taken these names upon thee of good, modest, true; of emfrwn, sumfrwn, uperfrwn; take heed lest at any times by doing anything that is contrary, thou be but improperly so called, and lose thy right to these appellations. Or if thou do, return unto them again with all possible speed. And remember, that the word emfrwn notes unto thee an intent and intelligent consideration of every object that presents itself unto thee, without ...
— Meditations • Marcus Aurelius |
