"Probable" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... birth and death of Tacitus are uncertain, but it is probable that he was born about 54 A. D. and died after 117. He was a contemporary and friend of the younger Pliny, who addressed to him some of his most famous epistles. Tacitus was apparently of the equestrian class, was an advocate by training, and had a reputation as an orator, ...
— Tacitus on Germany • Tacitus
... He no longer felt the slightest impulse to be the girl's protector, knight and saviour, or the faintest solicitude for her probable fate. ...
— Atlantis • Gerhart Hauptmann
... ill-gotten gains prejudicial to his love of liberty, pursued the Scotch youth almost tearfully, until the bottle changed hands, but at a considerable reduction on the price originally demanded. Shortly after a friend enlightened the youth as to the probable value of the collection, and gave him some cheap advice, especially on the desirableness of secrecy. The youth accepted the advice so literally that the story ends. No one ever knew how, when, where, and for ...
— Tropic Days • E. J. Banfield
... adjustment of the rates of compensation as would conciliate a reasonable competency with a proper regard to the limits prescribed by the law. It is hoped that the circumspection which has been used will be found in the result to have secured the last of the two objects; but it is probable that with a view to the first in some instances a revision of the provision ...
— State of the Union Addresses of George Washington • George Washington
... should be inclined to think the Psalms of David especially witty, and to agree with the pretentious young lady who, being asked what she thought of Euclid, replied at a hazard that "It was the wittiest book she had ever read." But it seems probable from other passages in Pope's works that he did not here intend to give a full definition, but only some characteristics. Moreover, in former times, Wit was not properly distinguished from Wisdom, and the above authors probably used the word in the old sense. Young says, ...
— History of English Humour, Vol. 2 (of 2) • Alfred Guy Kingan L'Estrange
... particulars of our happiness, though the scripture has said but very little on the subject? "We know not what we shall be."' JOHNSON. 'Sir, there is no harm. What philosophy suggests to us on this topick is probable: what scripture tells us is certain. Dr. Henry More[477] has carried it as far as philosophy can. You may buy both his theological and philosophical works in two volumes folio, for about eight shillings.' ...
— Life Of Johnson, Vol. 2 • Boswell, Edited by Birkbeck Hill
... fictions followed many more of the same sort. But if, from all this, we separate the original principle, and consider it alone, namely, that the first Essences are Gods, we shall find that this has been divinely said; and since it is probable that philosophy and the arts have been several times, so far as that is possible, found and lost, such doctrines may have been preserved to our times as the ...
— Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry • Albert Pike
... be christened; wherefore I will really request you to take the business into your consideration, and give me in the most rigorous sober manner you can some scheme of it. How many Discourses; what Towns; the probable Expenses, the probable net Income, the Time, &c., &c.: all that you can suppose a man wholly ignorant might want to know about it. America I should like well enough to visit, much as I should another part of my native country: it is, as you see, distinctly possible that such a thing might be; we ...
— The Correspondence of Thomas Carlyle and Ralph Waldo Emerson, - 1834-1872, Vol. I • Thomas Carlyle and Ralph Waldo Emerson
... you mean, and yet, may-be, it is the same thing." He said, "It is my chief reliance." He talk'd of death, and said he did not fear it. I said, "Why, Oscar, don't you think you will get well?" He said, "I may, but it is not probable." He spoke calmly of his condition. The wound was very bad, it discharg'd much. Then the diarrhoea had prostrated him, and I felt that he was even then the same as dying. He behaved very manly and affectionate. The kiss I gave him as I was about leaving he return'd ...
— Complete Prose Works - Specimen Days and Collect, November Boughs and Goodbye My Fancy • Walt Whitman
... and distinct from "Moralities." Byron seems to have had some acquaintance with the archaeology of the drama, but it is not easy to divine the source or extent of his knowledge. He may have received and read the Roxburghe reprint of the Chester Plays, published in 1818; but it is most probable that he had read the pages devoted to mystery plays in Warton's History of Poetry, or that he had met with a version of the Ludus Coventriae (reprinted by J. O. Halliwell Phillipps, in 1841), printed in Stevens's continuation ...
— The Works of Lord Byron - Poetry, Volume V. • Lord Byron
... discussion upon you. Instead, I'll tell you what happened in the morning (that's to-day!). We got up early and Jack sported a shocking old suit of knickerbockers, just right for an up-to-date cave man. You see, he really meant to keep his engagement. If he found anything, as he thought quite probable, it would bear out his theory and save unsuspecting Peter the trouble of working the Moore family up to an interest in the cave. We were just attacking our coffee and rolls, however, at eight-thirty, when Pat appeared, hovering at the end of the ...
— The Lightning Conductor Discovers America • C. N. (Charles Norris) Williamson and A. M. (Alice Muriel)
... your delegates for me, unless I object. I certainly shall not object. That would be too pleasant a compliment for me to tread in the dust. And, besides, if anything should happen (which, however, is not probable) by which Baker should be thrown out of the fight, I would be at liberty to accept the nomination if I could get it. I do, however, feel myself bound not to hinder him in any way from getting the nomination. I ...
— A Short Life of Abraham Lincoln - Condensed from Nicolay & Hay's Abraham Lincoln: A History • John G. Nicolay
... It is probable that his sudden weight jolted the plank out of its position. For hardly was he safe on the turf again when he heard a sharp cry. Throwing a look behind, he saw his pursuer totter, clutch at the slipping timber, and, still clutching at it, turn ...
— The Blue Pavilions • Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
... study; the loosely-hung windows rattled even in a light breeze, and the flavours of the college dustbins, hard by, appeared to have selected these chambers, above all others, for their favourite haunt. I am told Saint George's College has recently undergone renovation. It so, it is probable "the Mouse-trap"—for this was the designation by which George Reader's classical domain was familiarly styled—has disappeared. Let us hope so, for a more miserable, uncomfortable, and uninviting couple ...
— The Adventures of a Three-Guinea Watch • Talbot Baines Reed
... office. I asked her to come into the library and sit with me. I remember that she had a pudding to bake, and refused at first; then yielded, laughing, and said that I must go without my dessert. I thought it highly probable that I ...
— Men, Women, and Ghosts • Elizabeth Stuart Phelps
... as seemed only too probable, the machine was in the hands of a few irresponsible individuals, or, still worse, in those of such enemies of humanity as the Nihilists, or that yet more mysterious and terrible society who were popularly known as the Terrorists, then indeed the outlook ...
— The Angel of the Revolution - A Tale of the Coming Terror • George Griffith
... and highly probable theory, that the corpse, during its mummification, was placed in stoves of a certain temperature, where the heat gradually and closely united the various preservative agents before mentioned. They were then swathed in linen bandages of great length, and ...
— Practical Taxidermy • Montagu Browne
... her day, heard a slight sound outside, of a certain incisiveness out of proportion to its volume. With an idleness that visited her only at early day-break, she wondered what it was. It was repeated, and this time, moved by an insistent curiosity blended with the recognition of its probable cause, she rose and looked out of the window which was close to the head of her bed. A little pier was a stone's throw from the house on that side, at which were moored several boats belonging to the ...
— A Christmas Accident and Other Stories • Annie Eliot Trumbull
... over the genius and statesmanship of Potemkin, and besought him to uphold the interests of Prussia. Furthermore he promised his interest and influence to the prince, not only for the present, but for the future, when it was probable that he (Frederick) could serve Potemkin substantially. [Footnote: This letter is historical, and is to be found in Dohm's Memoirs, vol. i., ...
— Joseph II. and His Court • L. Muhlbach
... anti-Serbian propaganda conducted by the Austro-Hungarian press, the interpellations in the Hungarian Parliament, etc., and the probable intention of the Austro-Hungarian Government to demand a categorical reply from Serbia, which, if not satisfactory, would be ...
— The Story of the Great War, Volume I (of 8) - Introductions; Special Articles; Causes of War; Diplomatic and State Papers • Various
... quid in his mouth, and immediately returns it thither, after rising from his meal? And when we reflect, that large quantities of saliva strongly impregnated with this poison, and even particles of the substance itself, are frequently swallowed, what, again I ask, is the probable condition of such a person's ...
— A Dissertation on the Medical Properties and Injurious Effects of the Habitual Use of Tobacco • A. McAllister
... Chevreuse were a stranger in 1642 to the fresh conspiracy of Gaston, Duke d'Orleans, Cinq Mars, and the Duke de Bouillon against her relentless foe, it would have been the only one in which she had not taken a leading part. It is indeed more than probable that she was in the secret as well as Queen Anne, whose understanding with Gaston and Cinq Mars cannot be contested. La Rochefoucauld repeatedly remarks touching a matter in which he seems to have been implicated, "The dazzling reputation ...
— Political Women (Vol. 1 of 2) • Sutherland Menzies
... It is more than probable, I think, that "Troilus and Cressida" was planned and the love-story at least written about 1603, while Shakespeare's memory of one of his mistress's betrayals was still vivid and sharp. The play ...
— The Man Shakespeare • Frank Harris
... the Grammar School of that city, and at Benet (afterwards Corpus) College, Cambridge; he plunged into literary work and dissipation in London; and he outlived Greene only to fall a victim to debauchery in a still more tragical way. His death (1593) was the subject of much gossip, but the most probable account is that he was poniarded in self-defence by a certain Francis Archer, a serving-man (not by any means necessarily, as Charles Kingsley has it, a footman), while drinking at Deptford, and that the cause of the quarrel was a woman ...
— A History of English Literature - Elizabethan Literature • George Saintsbury
... monarch. France would form no exception to the rule; but, as men are apt to run into the delusion of believing it liberty to strip one of power, although his mantle is to fall on the few, I think it more than probable the popular error would be quite likely to aid the aristocrats in effecting their object, after habit had a little accustomed the nation to the presence of such a body. This is said, however, under the supposition that the elements of an independent peerage ...
— A Residence in France - With An Excursion Up The Rhine, And A Second Visit To Switzerland • J. Fenimore Cooper
... in after life, he went back over the ground to see whether he could detect error on either side. He found none. At every stage the steps were both probable and proved. All the more he was disconcerted that Russell should indignantly and with growing energy, to his dying day, deny and resent the axiom of Adams's whole contention, that from the first he meant to break up the Union. Russell affirmed that he meant nothing ...
— The Education of Henry Adams • Henry Adams
... by what means they were conveyed to this distant region, has been the subject of much speculation and inquiry, not only in that, but also in every future period. History claims not the province of peremptorily determining inquires, which can have no better foundation than the probable opinions and uncertain conjectures of ingenious men, and therefore must leave every man to adopt such accounts as appear to him least absurd or liable to exception. Yet, as the subject is curious, it may be amusing to some readers to present ...
— An Historical Account Of The Rise And Progress Of The Colonies Of South Carolina And Georgia, Volume 1 • Alexander Hewatt
... and impatient temper made desperate, as it were, by long continuance of the troubles and disappointments I had met with in the wreck; where I hoped to have found some living person to speak to, by whom I might have known in what place I was, and of the probable means of my deliverance. Thus, while my thoughts were agitated, my resignation to the will of heaven was entirely suspended; to that I had no power to fix my mind to any thing, but to the project of a voyage to the main land. And indeed so much was I inflamed upon this account, ...
— The Life and Most Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of - York, Mariner (1801) • Daniel Defoe
... by the genealogy? The first verse answers the question. We need not discuss whether the title, 'The book of the generations of Jesus Christ,' applies to the table of descent only, or to the whole chapter. The former seems the more probable conclusion, but the point to note is that two facts are made prominent in the title; viz. that Jesus was a true Jew, 'forasmuch as He also is a son of Abraham,' and was the true king of Israel, being the 'Son of David,' of whom prophets had spoken ...
— Expositions of Holy Scripture - Ezekiel, Daniel, and the Minor Prophets. St Matthew Chapters I to VIII • Alexander Maclaren
... to the superintendent of the apartment building, although she knew him to be well out of hearing. It is probable that Harry knew, too, because he had her by the elbows, pressing them in against her body and her ...
— Star-Dust • Fannie Hurst
... That is his first thought. How to counteract the probable influence of that "something" is the second. A little dwelling upon causes and effects shows him the way. For an effect there is often ...
— April's Lady - A Novel • Margaret Wolfe Hungerford
... oh, how I wish now that I had succeeded!" She added that it was the only time she had attempted anything of the sort; but, because of home troubles, she became desperate, and resolved that her burdens should not be made any greater. Does it not seem probable that the murderous intent, even though of short duration, was communicated to the mind of the child, and resulted in the crime ...
— Searchlights on Health - The Science of Eugenics • B. G. Jefferis and J. L. Nichols
... In order to form them the rock had to be cut away, blasting being of course unknown at the time, and every handful of earth brought up from the plain below, often to a height of two thousand feet. The Provencal writers consider them the work of the Moors, but it is probable that they were commenced under the Phoceans and the Romans and continued by the Arabs. I have been shown several terraces the masonry of which was undoubtedly Roman, and coins bearing the effigies of the earlier Caesars have been often found in the brick ...
— Lippincott's Magazine. Vol. XII, No. 33. December, 1873. • Various
... utmost precipitation, and in the very heyday of a most tempestuous youth. In one thing only, upon a retrospect at this day of the whole case, there may appear to have been some imprudence, viz. that timber being then at a most unprecedented high price, it is probable that the building cost seven or eight hundred pounds more than it would have done a few years later. Allowing for this one oversight, the principal house on the Elleray estate, which at the time was looked upon as an evidence of Mr. Wilson's flightiness ...
— The Uncollected Writings of Thomas de Quincey—Vol. 1 - With a Preface and Annotations by James Hogg • Thomas de Quincey
... with Conrad Lagrange in the rose garden, Sibyl Andres had looked, every day, for that promised letter. She found it early in the afternoon. It was a quaint letter—written in the spirit of their meeting—telling her the probable time of her neighbor's return; warning her, in fear of some fanciful horror, to beware of the picture on the easel; and wishing her joy of the adventure. With the ...
— The Eyes of the World • Harold Bell Wright
... exposing the dead in Dakhmas or towers of silence to be devoured by vultures has often been described. It has objectionable features, and the smaller communities in the interior of India do not as a rule erect towers of silence, and are content simply to bury the dead. It seems probable that the original custom was simply to expose the dead on waste land, the towers of silence being a substitute which became necessary when the Parsis began to live in towns. This hypothesis would explain some points in their funeral customs recorded in the Bombay Gazetteer. The ...
— The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India—Volume I (of IV) • R.V. Russell
... engaged, but would have to wait till a certain person, who was described, should come from a foreign country and take her away. This would happen, it was said, in the month of January, three years later. This event transpired in due course exactly as predicted, though nothing was further from the probable course of events; in fact, the lady was not a little irate at the allusion to the breaking off of her then existing relations, while the idea of marrying a person whom she had never seen, and for whom she could have no sort of regard, was naturally revolting ...
— How to Read the Crystal - or, Crystal and Seer • Sepharial
... attended as it has been by serious drawbacks to the Spanish and Italian peoples, and by a lamentable waste of vigor to the Teutonic nations, has yet resulted in a permeation of the modern compost with the leaven of Christianity. Unchecked, it is probable that the Renaissance would have swept away much that was valuable and deserved to be permanent. Nor, without the flux and reflux of contending principles by which Europe was agitated in the Counter-Reformation period, could the equipoise of reciprocally ...
— Renaissance in Italy, Volumes 1 and 2 - The Catholic Reaction • John Addington Symonds
... mulls over it, and by and-by he gets out something about like this: Probably northeast to southwest winds, varying to the southward and westward and eastward, and points between, high and low barometer swapping around from place to place; probable areas of rain, snow, hail, and drought, succeeded or preceded by earthquakes, with thunder and lightning. Then he jots down his postscript from his wandering mind, to cover accidents. "But it is possible that the programme may be ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain
... short space of two years, the hand of death snatched from the court of Great Britain, all these its most remarkable personages—Essex, Nottingham, and the queen. It is probable, that the decease of the first, hastened that of the second, as well as of the last, character; for the countess's remorse for political stratagem is reported to have been ...
— The Earl of Essex • Henry Jones
... if it be worthy. Judged on this scale does it stand? Coordinately with the idea of toil, does it violate the laws of the universe; do the surfaces thereof reflect the light of day; is the color probable; is the action possible? If under this scrutiny the work fails, its acceptable ...
— Pictorial Composition and the Critical Judgment of Pictures • Henry Rankin Poore
... itself in all directions until its forces were expended, or a bound was set to it by resistance which it could not overcome. Isdigerd, by remaining quiet, might perhaps have prolonged the precarious existence of Persia for half a dozen years, though even this is uncertain, and it is perhaps as probable that the tide of conquest would have flowed eastward in A.D. 641 or 642, even had he attempted nothing. What alone we can be sure of his, that no acquiescence on his part, no abstention from warlike enterprise, ...
— The Seven Great Monarchies Of The Ancient Eastern World, Vol 7. (of 7): The Sassanian or New Persian Empire • George Rawlinson
... height of the white waves massed against the garden-fence and along the wall of the church showed that the storm must have been going on all night, and that the drifts were likely to be heavy in the open. I thought it probable that my train would be delayed; but I had to be at the power-house for an hour or two that afternoon, and I decided, if Frome turned up, to push through to the Flats and wait there till my train came in. I don't know why I put it in the conditional, however, for I never doubted that Frome would ...
— Ethan Frome • Edith Wharton
... that the Russians will have ventured out of their harbour," answered Jack; "I suspect rather that the allies have commenced the bombardment of the city. The last account stated that they were busy preparing for it, and I think it probable that the admirals will take the fleet in ...
— The Three Commanders • W.H.G. Kingston
... to make the distance from 14th to 23d streets, while the electric motor with a train of 70 tons made the same trip in 1 min. and 50 sec.; the absence of power brakes compelled the current to be taken off at 19th street, while it was probable that the throttle of the steam locomotive was not closed until it reached 23d street, this being the usual practice. The data obtained in these experiments shows that 29,940 h.p. is required to operate the ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 711, August 17, 1889 • Various
... marriage with Lady Betty Molyneux is more plainly than politely pointed out. Leaving forever, therefore, the sphere in which he had encountered so much favor and so much severity, he retired to Southampton to end his days in the society of his kindred; and it is more than probable that an indisposition to proclaim too loudly their identity of race with the unlucky surgeon was the cause of their modification of name by the immediate family from which ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 6, No. 38, December, 1860 • Various
... Turner's character was immaculate, but still it is very probable that worldlings do not appreciate what a small part of this great genius ...
— Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great, Vol. 1 of 14 - Little Journeys to the Homes of Good Men and Great • Elbert Hubbard
... ran toward home like a hunted wild animal, hoping with all his heart that Juliet was still asleep. It was probable, for more than once she had slept on the ...
— Old Rose and Silver • Myrtle Reed
... humility that he was quite transparent; she insisted on doubting him and contrived to look disturbed in her mind concerning the probable darkness of that past so dear to any young man who ...
— The Younger Set • Robert W. Chambers
... Wastwater (BLACKWOOD). The plot is so eerie, and its conclusion so incredulous, that the practised novel-reader, seeing whither he is being led, almost up to the last page expects the threatened blow will be averted by some more or less probable agency. But Mr. (or Miss) SYDNEY BOLTON is inexorable. Lord Wastwater is dead now, and there can be no harm in saying that the House of Lords is well rid of his impending company. He would ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 103, December 31, 1892 • Various
... ever an unfamiliar word, limited almost entirely to the use of law courts. When, therefore, various obsolete practices relating to it were swept away and its consequences rendered less formidable, it is probable that few but lawyers were cognisant of any change. But in the first half of the last century, amid a number of complaints that notorious vice so continually escaped the formal censure of the Church, it ...
— The English Church in the Eighteenth Century • Charles J. Abbey and John H. Overton
... probable, however, that Sommers and Alves would be the first to leave the Keystone. Although the sultry June weather made them think longingly of the idyllic days at Perota Lake, the journey to Wisconsin was out of the question. Struggle as he might, Sommers was being ...
— The Web of Life • Robert Herrick
... presumptive evidence, circumstantial evidence; credibility. reasonable chance, fair chance, good chance, favorable chance, reasonable prospect, fair prospect, good prospect, favorable prospect; prospect, wellgrounded hope; chance &c 156. V. be probable &c adj.; give color to, lend color to; point to; imply &c (evidence) 467; bid fair &c (promise) 511; stand fair for; stand a good chance, run a good chance. think likely, dare say, flatter oneself; expect &c 507; count upon &c (believe) ...
— Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases: Body • Roget
... from the methods established in my youth; methods of which their effects have shown me, that they at least answer the intention for which they were contrived, and which, therefore, I shall be afraid of rejecting, lest those which it is proposed to substitute in their place, however probable in speculation, should be found defective in practice, and the reasonings, which, indeed, I cannot answer, should be confuted in the field, where eloquence has ...
— The Works of Samuel Johnson, Vol. 10. - Parlimentary Debates I. • Samuel Johnson
... have said, describe the council as a national assembly. But we can hardly claim so much for it. It is much more probable that it was in reality a meeting of the Reforming party. The first signature appended to its canons was that of Gilbert, who presided as legate of the Holy See. He was followed by Cellach, "coarb of Patrick and Primate of Ireland," and ...
— St. Bernard of Clairvaux's Life of St. Malachy of Armagh • H. J. Lawlor
... one word to say, in conclusion. Whatever has been advanced in the course of this evening, has rested on the assumption that all architecture was to be of brick and stone; and may meet with some hesitation in its acceptance, on account of the probable use of iron, glass, and such other materials in our future edifices. I cannot now enter into any statement of the possible uses of iron or glass, but I will give you one reason, which I think will weigh ...
— Lectures on Architecture and Painting - Delivered at Edinburgh in November 1853 • John Ruskin
... Christians believing a benevolent Being rules the world, and that He permits smallpox. Can it be possible that my daughter has contracted this loathsome horror?" "Well, it is possible, but I hope not at all probable. We doctors are compelled to look at the practical rather than the theological side of the question. It is possible for any one to have this disease. ...
— Barriers Burned Away • E. P. Roe
... Toulon fleet] will now liberate the Ferrol squadron from Calder, make the round of the bay, and taking the Rochefort people with them, appear off Ushant, perhaps with 34 sail, there to be joined by 20 more. Cornwallis collecting his out-squadrons may have 30 and upwards. This appears to be a probable plan; for unless it is to bring their great fleets and armies to some point of service—some rash attempt at conquest—they have been only subjecting them to chance of loss; which I do not believe the Corsican would do, without the hope ...
— Springhaven - A Tale of the Great War • R. D. Blackmore
... all. I just mentioned that as most probable. He didn't look strong. I can't tell for a ...
— The Diamond Cross Mystery - Being a Somewhat Different Detective Story • Chester K. Steele
... shut, and the awful words, "I know you not—depart, ye cursed," will hurry them to eternal darkness. The question, "Are there few that be saved?" will suggest itself to our minds; may the answer fix upon our conscience, "STRIVE to enter in." It is very probable that it was in preaching upon this text, Bunyan was assailed with a want of charity. The anecdote is thus narrated by Mr. Doe in The Struggler:—"As Mr. Bunyan was preaching in a barn, and showing the fewness of those that should be saved, there stood one of ...
— The Works of John Bunyan • John Bunyan
... over-valuing the fine person of Thaddeus, the encomiums which it extorted, even from the lips of prejudice, occasioned one source of her pain. She could not bear to think it probable that the man whom she believed, and knew, to be gifted with every attribute of goodness and of heroism, might one day be induced to sacrifice the rich treasure of his mind to a creature who would select him from the rest merely on account of his ...
— Thaddeus of Warsaw • Jane Porter
... friend," he said, "it is probable that you know more about the Sydney Bamboroughs ...
— The Sowers • Henry Seton Merriman
... have observed. You can explain all these phenomena only by the hypothesis of a thief. But that is a hypothetical conclusion, of the justice of which you have no absolute proof at all; it is only rendered highly probable by a series of inductive and ...
— The Method By Which The Causes Of The Present And Past Conditions Of Organic Nature Are To Be Discovered.—The Origination Of Living Beings • Thomas H. Huxley
... in January next, and that he is "inclined to think it best to postpone the convention until after the meeting of parliament in February." It is, doubtless, the desire of the Irish party to know with some definiteness the probable outcome of the present situation before making any authoritative announcement of their plans, or before sending any message to their American brothers; and it also seems that they regard Mr. Parnell's constant presence on the scene of negotiations as indispensable. The convention, in accordance ...
— Donahoe's Magazine, Volume 15, No. 2, February 1886 • Various
... lowly, earnestly—planning the night's work, speculating upon the probable outcome of the raid upon the Circle L ...
— The Trail Horde • Charles Alden Seltzer
... the expense of constructing a Ship Canal across the Isthmus, and the probable returns. The estimates which have been made, and of which the result is given below, suppose the Canal to be cut through the whole width of the Isthmus, from the Bay of Limon to that of Chorrera, and they include a large outlay for improving ...
— A Succinct View of the Importance and Practicability of Forming a Ship Canal across the Isthmus of Panama • H. R. Hill
... peace; my house was the rendezvous of the first people, who came to take the waters. I began to be more known among the very first and best people. I visited Professor Gellert at Leipzig, and asked his advice concerning what branch of literature he thought it was probable I might succeed in. He most approved my fables and tales, and blamed the excessive freedom with which I spoke in political writings. I neglected his advice, and many of the ensuing calamities ...
— The Life and Adventures of Baron Trenck - Vol. 2 (of 2) • Baron Trenck
... a procession which has been variously interpreted as a band of soldiers or marines returning in triumph from a victory, or as a body of harvesters marching in some sort of harvest thanksgiving festival. This interpretation seems, on the whole, the more probable of the two. In the middle of the procession is a figure, interesting from the fact that he is so different from his companions. He has not the usual pinched-in waist of the Cretans, but is quite normally developed, and he bears in his hand the sistrum, or metal rattle, which was ...
— The Sea-Kings of Crete • James Baikie
... the stars that night and thought of many things. One of these things, which plays some part in the story, though it is probable that it played but a slight one in his thoughts, was begotten of the words Othmani had used. What, indeed, would be Asad's welcome of him on his return if he sailed into Algiers with nothing more to show for that long voyage and the imperilling of the lives of two hundred True-Believers ...
— The Sea-Hawk • Raphael Sabatini
... assemblages of dreary ruins, amid which, in the solitude of night, one almost expects to see spirits walk. These excavations have been designated, from time immemorial, by the neighboring town's-people, as "the Danes;" but whether the name be, as is most probable, merely a corruption of an appropriate enough Saxon word, "the dens," or derived, as a vague tradition is said to testify, from the ages of Danish invasion, it is not quite the part of the geologist to determine. It may be worth ...
— The Cruise of the Betsey • Hugh Miller
... Denis is certain to be disappointed. To tell the truth, the dances of Bali, like those I saw in Java and Cambodia, are rather tedious performances, beautiful, it is true, but almost totally lacking in that fire and spirit which we associate with the East. It is probable, however, that I am not sufficiently educated in the art of Terpsichore to appreciate them. It was as though I had been given a selection from Die Niebelungen Lied when I had looked for rag-time. But the natives are passionately fond of them, it being by no means ...
— Where the Strange Trails Go Down • E. Alexander Powell
... fight, he thought of the wrecked saloon when the fight was over. Thinking of the wrecked saloon led him to think of the probable condition of the nice new schoolhouse. Thinking of that brought him back to Mary Hope,—to her face as it looked when she rode up to the place on Monday morning. Ride up to it she must, if she meant to go on teaching, for there was no more ...
— Rim o' the World • B. M. Bower
... memory of Prince Albert, on account of his outspoken friendship in the hour of her need. During the war of the Rebellion, while the fate of our country seemed hanging in the balance, we had few friends in England, where people seemed to look with satisfaction upon our probable dismemberment. ...
— The Evolution of an Empire • Mary Parmele
... codification of the custom introduced by popular uprisings against heresy and by certain royal decrees, or whether it owes its origin to the law of Frederic II which Gregory IX tried to enforce in France, as he had done in Germany and Italy. This second hypothesis is hardly probable. The tribunals of the Inquisition did not have to import into France the penalty of the stake; they found it already established in both ...
— The Inquisition - A Critical and Historical Study of the Coercive Power of the Church • E. Vacandard
... the discontent of South Carolina is not one to be allayed by any concessions which the Free States can make with dignity or even safety. It is something more radical and of longer standing than distrust of the motives or probable policy of the Republican party. It is neither more nor less than a disbelief in the very principles on which our government is founded. So long as they practically retained the government of the country, and could use its power and patronage ...
— The Writings of James Russell Lowell in Prose and Poetry, Volume V - Political Essays • James Russell Lowell
... horror for her! and poor Herbert too who would acutely feel this ingratitude. The blackness of it was beyond what Julius thought probable in the lad, and the discussion of it occupied the brothers till they reached the Reynolds colony, where they were received by the daughter-in-law, a much more ...
— The Three Brides • Charlotte M. Yonge
... disadvantageous treaty. He now loudly protested against the failure of the English contingent, which he declared to have been the subject of a treaty, and resolved on revenge. The plunder of the merchants' stores at Madras was the more probable motive to his next desperate attack. The half military, half commercial government of the Company, at that period, paralyzed all measures of effective resistance; and while the garrison urged vigorous proceedings, and the inhabitants dreaded ...
— Blackwoods Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 59, No. 366, April, 1846 • Various
... is a hydrocarbon of the terpene series, having the general formula C^{n}H^(2n-4). From the above experiments it seems to be probable that the camphor oil is a complicated mixture, consisting of hydrocarbons of terpene series, oxy-hydrocarbons isomeric with camphor, and ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 460, October 25, 1884 • Various
... It is also probable that the pretty woman who is singing sportive French songs to the accompaniment of the instrument she strikes with her left hand is one of the Court ladies of the Czarina, who, as a rule, throws half-roubles out of her carriage ...
— Stories by Foreign Authors: Polish • Various
... authoritative preacher down to the slave or peasant, but was equally, though in his own way, a miracle of mercy, and a vessel, once of wrath, if now of glory? Only might he and all who heard him persevere as they had begun, so that if (as was so probable) their trial was to be like hers, its issue might be like ...
— Callista • John Henry Cardinal Newman
... It is probable, then, that these chapels may be later than the rest —even in their stonework. In their decoration, they are so, assuredly; belonging already to the time when the story of St. Francis was becoming a passionate tradition, told ...
— Mornings in Florence • John Ruskin
... on the books of the Stationers' Company January 18, 1602. It was certainly written after the two parts of Henry IV, and if, as is most probable, the character of Nym is a revival and not an imperfect first sketch, the play must have succeeded Henry V. On these grounds the play is best assigned to 1599. It was first printed in quarto in 1602, but this version is extremely faulty, besides being considerably ...
— An Introduction to Shakespeare • H. N. MacCracken
... must have heard of the transplantation, knew the new town directly blocked the approach to the Mine. Though, however, he was ignorant that in the circumstances a collision was certain, he may well have thought it probable. So must the English Government which had sanctioned his martial preparations. The Spaniards never dissembled their belief that the entrance of foreigners into the American interior was a lawless ...
— Sir Walter Ralegh - A Biography • William Stebbing
... were the MERITS of the case? Was the fault mine—and how could I best repair it? These questions were beyond my then powers of resolution while I was uncertain of Aurelia's fate and prospects, and I deliberately put them aside. I turned all my powers of mind and heart to consider her injuries, probable sufferings and monstrous humiliations, and by the time I was near the Convent of SS. Maria e Giuseppe I was trembling in every limb, and in the state of apprehension and desire which becomes the devout lover of a lady incredibly ...
— The Fool Errant • Maurice Hewlett
... said to Lory, "is the probable radius of it so far as the expert could tell me on his examination of ...
— The Isle of Unrest • Henry Seton Merriman
... on a war might be justified by his probable acquaintance with the engagement of Austria to France that she would join her in attacking Prussia in the early spring of 1871; but it is a curious fact that he has never, either to me or to anybody else, made ...
— The Life of the Rt. Hon. Sir Charles W. Dilke V1 • Stephen Gwynn
... to him by the help of a Roman gentleman and banker, Messer Jacopo Gallo. It so happened that an intimate Florentine friend of Buonarroti, the Baldassare Balducci mentioned at the end of his letter to Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco, was employed in Gallo's house of business. It is probable, therefore, that this man formed the link of connection between the sculptor and his new patron. At all events, Messer Gallo purchased a Bacchus, which now adorns the sculpture-gallery of the Bargello, and a Cupid, ...
— The Life of Michelangelo Buonarroti • John Addington Symonds
... opened; and it is clear that its inmates did not die for want. It is not a frequent occurrence for bees so to die; but I have known another instance. In that case the hive was left out in the ordinary way, and possibly cold was the cause of death. I think it probable that my bees died about a month before the 14th of March, merely from the circumstance that some one remarked about that time that there was no noise in the hive. They might have died earlier; but there were certainly live bees in ...
— Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society - Vol. 3 - Zoology • Various
... offered them no career such as it opened up to the men. A troubadour sang at the command of his noble patron, but with the women poetry was not an employment, but a necessity for self-expression. It is altogether probable that their efforts were for the most part the result of a sudden inspiration, their mirth or their grief was poured forth, and then they relapsed into silence. Other than in this way the voice of the woman was rarely heard in song, unless she took part in the tenso, or song of contention, ...
— Women of the Romance Countries • John R. Effinger
... FEAST, a probable reference to the massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day in Paris in 1572, and to the persecutions of Alva's Council of Blood in the ...
— Spenser's The Faerie Queene, Book I • Edmund Spenser
... hung over the aerodrome, I had misjudged our position. We found we were much nearer the end of the ground than I had imagined. In front of us there loomed suddenly a boundary wall, against which it seemed probable we should dash ourselves. There were no brakes on the machine; no way of checking it from the driving ...
— Learning to Fly - A Practical Manual for Beginners • Claude Grahame-White
... of the kings are too far lost to be set back in their place in history, but Professor Skeet gives the probable date of Havelok and Grim as at the end of the sixth century, with a possible identification of the former with the "governor of Lincoln" baptized by Paulinus. I have, therefore, assumed this period where required. But a legend of this kind is ...
— Havelok The Dane - A Legend of Old Grimsby and Lincoln • Charles Whistler
... with free passes over half the lines in the Union; and he will take his departure from New York after a dinner at Delmonico's, the cartes of which will cost a dollar each. The chances are extremely probable that his book will be about as fair a representation of American social and political institutions as his dinner at Delmonico's would justly represent the ordinary cuisine throughout the ...
— The Great Lone Land - A Narrative of Travel and Adventure in the North-West of America • W. F. Butler
... conceive, that every augmentation of the price must produce a proportionate diminution of the consumption; and that, therefore, this duty will contribute, in some degree, to the reformation of the people. It seems, at least, in the highest degree probable, that it cannot increase the evil which it is intended to remedy; and that, therefore, we may reasonably concur in it, as it will furnish the government with supplies, without any inconvenience to ...
— The Works of Samuel Johnson, Vol. 11. - Parlimentary Debates II. • Samuel Johnson
... insects that flit in the summer sunbeams, and to the minuter world of microscopic discovery. But analogy would lead us to infer, that there may be beings in the vast dominion of universal space as much superior to man as man himself is superior to insects or animalculæ. It is not probable that creative power should cease to operate precisely at the point where human existence commences; and especially as mind admits of incalculable diversity in the extent of its energies and capacities, and as it is found in all ...
— Female Scripture Biographies, Vol. II • Francis Augustus Cox
... "Stile Nobile, in which the singer," he says, "emancipates himself from the fetters of the measure, by prolonging or diminishing the duration of a note by one-half, according as the sense of the word requires it." But it is probable that the Italian singers of that period, as to-day, used this kind of rubato merely to display the beauty of their voice on a loud high note, and not, like Chopin, for the sake of emphasizing a pathetic or otherwise ...
— Chopin and Other Musical Essays • Henry T. Finck
... the proposition of something which runs counter to what would generally be thought likely, may present itself in many ways. There is a fly-leaf paradox, which puzzled me for many years, until I found a probable solution. I frequently saw, in the blank leaves of old books, learned books, Bibles of a time when a Bible was very costly, etc., the name of an owner who, by the handwriting and spelling, must have been an illiterate person or ...
— A Budget of Paradoxes, Volume II (of II) • Augustus de Morgan
... left, and I was still idling my precious time away on the big veranda, listening to the gossip of women who bored me and trying to keep track of a girl who shunned me. My establishment in New York was feverishly busy and my presence was urgently needed there. It was more than probable that Bender had wired to Tannersville to call me home. The situation was ...
— The Rise of David Levinsky • Abraham Cahan
... Even with this lubrication, one can seldom weave more than half way across the seat with the pointed end before finding it advisable to pull the remainder of the strand through. After finishing this fourth layer of strands, it is quite probable that each strand will be about midway between its two neighbors instead of lying close to its mate as desired, and here is where the square and pointed wedge is used. The wedge is driven down between the proper strands to move ...
— The Boy Mechanic: Volume 1 - 700 Things For Boys To Do • Popular Mechanics
... temper of the parties. If your enemy offers peace in the moment of success, it indicates that he is satisfied with something. It shows that there are limits to his ambition or his resentment. If he offers nothing under misfortune, it is probable that it is more painful to him to abandon the prospect of advantage than to endure calamity. If he rejects solicitation, and will not give even a nod to the suppliants for peace, until a change in the fortune of the war threatens him with ...
— The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. V. (of 12) • Edmund Burke
... correspondences between The Insatiate Countess and the poems, see R. A. Small, "The Authorship and Date of The Insatiate Countess," Harvard Studies and Notes in Philology and Literature, V (1896), 279-282. For a more recent survey of Barksted's probable contribution to The Insatiate Countess see A. J. Axelrad, Un Malcontent Elizabethain: John Marston (Paris, ...
— Seven Minor Epics of the English Renaissance (1596-1624) • Dunstan Gale
... started to my feet as soon as I heard the words, 'The girl is a singer in Peter Bingham's Variety Theater,' but, when her name was mentioned and her probable death, the pangs that shot through me no ...
— Caesar's Column • Ignatius Donnelly
... invited to Marion. At that time the "irreconcilables" were beginning to be afraid that Elihu Root and William H. Taft were about to induce Mr. Harding to accept a compromise on the League of Nations. Harvey served the purpose of restoring the equilibrium. At the same time it is quite probable that the President was impressed by a mind so much more agile than his own. It was reasonably certain that it would not be diverted or misled by the intricacies of European diplomacy. And there was never ...
— The Mirrors of Washington • Anonymous
... being prone to familiarity, and negro slaves doubly so, Peg rested her weight on one foot, and waited to learn what this unusual event might portend. All present instantly fixed their eyes upon Janice, but had they not done so it is probable that she would have coloured much as she did, for the girl was enough interested and enough frightened to be quite unconscious of ...
— Janice Meredith • Paul Leicester Ford
... force straight through to the Jerusalem-Nablus road, the 60th throwing out a flank to the south-east, so as to cut off the Turks opposing the 53rd from either the Nablus or the Jericho road. It was not considered probable that the enemy would risk the capture of a large body of troops south of Jerusalem. On the other hand, should the Turks withdraw from in front of the Welsh Division, the alternative plan provided that the latter attack should take the form of making ...
— How Jerusalem Was Won - Being the Record of Allenby's Campaign in Palestine • W.T. Massey
... Don Carlos, ordered them to be expelled to the Balearic Islands; but they, fearful perhaps of severer measures being adopted against them, and convinced of the general hatred in which they were held by the people, fled to France, from whence it is probable they will not ...
— Roman Catholicism in Spain • Anonymous
... hung, were things visible through gaps; so that the far-spreading presence of Paris came up in coolness, dimness and invitation, in the twinkle of gilt-tipped palings, the crunch of gravel, the click of hoofs, the crack of whips, things that suggested some parade of the circus. "I think it probable," said Mrs. Pocock, "that I shall have the opportunity of going to my brother's I've no doubt it's very pleasant indeed." She spoke as to Strether, but her face was turned with an intensity of brightness to Madame de Vionnet, and there was a moment during which, ...
— The Ambassadors • Henry James
... canoes—that's what they called Shoshoni Cove, where the river petered out for boats—we'd have three thousand and ninety-six miles; two hundred and forty-seven miles above here, as they figured it, and they weren't at the summit even then. Now if we'd take their probable estimate, if they'd finished the distance to the real head of the Missouri, we'd have to allow them about thirty-two hundred and forty-nine miles plus their overrun, at ...
— The Young Alaskans on the Missouri • Emerson Hough
... malice, rather than severity of criticism: but as I was more apprehensive of there being just grounds to excite the latter than conscious of having deserved the former, I continue not to believe that probable, which I am sure must have been unprovoked. However, if it was so, and I could even mark the quarter from whence it came, it would be ungenerous to retort: for no passion suffers more than malice from disappointment. For my own part, I see no reason why the author ...
— The Rivals - A Comedy • Richard Brinsley Sheridan
... representation or the course of a recent policy. I do not, at this moment, venture to pronounce an opinion upon the degree of criminality that attaches to the hon. member now unhappily in the custody of the Officer of the House. It is possible—I do not say it is probable, I do not now say whether I shall be prepared to commit myself to that hypothesis or not—but it is not impossible that the hon. member or some of his friends may be able to urge some extenuating circumstances—(Oh! oh!)—I mean circumstances that, when duly weighed, ...
— Collections and Recollections • George William Erskine Russell
... replied that I did not think the pretender would relinquish his claims; that it was very unlikely the Bourbons would return to France as long as he, Bonaparte, should continue at the head of the Government, though they would look forward to their ultimate return as probable. "How so?" inquired he. "For a very simple reason, General. Do you not see every day that your agents conceal the truth from you, and flatter you in your wishes, for the purpose of ingratiating themselves in your favour? are ...
— Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte, Complete • Louis Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne
... little crowd of miners had gathered around the lucky man; and handshakes and claps on the shoulders and verbal congratulations were showered on him from all sides, while the nugget was passed from hand to hand, with many wise and otherwise comments as to its weight and probable value and the likelihood of there being others like it where it came from. In the excitement caused by the finding of the nugget, the remaining dirt in the pan was forgotten, until Ham, suddenly remembering, turned ...
— The Cave of Gold - A Tale of California in '49 • Everett McNeil
... in the afternoon lay near the river over low ground, wooded with box, having an undergrowth of saltbush and polygonum. To the eastward there was fine undulating open country. Somewhere above here I think it is probable that the river is joined by a larger stream from the westward as it is now quite unfordable and about sixty feet in width. We came in the following courses from last camp: 9.45 south-south-east for three miles; 11 south for three and a half ...
— Journal of Landsborough's Expedition from Carpentaria - In search of Burke and Wills • William Landsborough
... Blackgang Chine was once the favorite retreat of a gang of pirates, and from that circumstance its name was derived.—Without disputing the fact of its having offered occasionally concealment and a safe depository to smugglers, or even pirates for a time,—it is equally, if not more probable, that it is indebted for its very expressive appellation to its sombre coloring, and the step-like appearance of the strata, if the word gang be admitted to have the same signification as it has ...
— Brannon's Picture of The Isle of Wight • George Brannon
... work of Ramirez de Fuen-leal (cap. viii), Tezcatlipoca is said to have been the discoverer of pulque, the intoxicating wine of the Maguey. In Meztitlan he was associated with the gods of this beverage and of drunkenness. Hence it is probable that the name Meconetzin applied to Quetzalcoatl in this myth meant to convey that he was the ...
— American Hero-Myths - A Study in the Native Religions of the Western Continent • Daniel G. Brinton |
