"Take fire" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... the emblem of this strong and hideous nation—sublime in its mechanical intelligence, patient in its season, and once in a century terrible, inflammable as gunpowder, and ripe with brandy for the madness of revolution, with wits enough, in fine, to take fire at a captious word, which signifies to it always: Gold and Pleasure! If we comprise in it all those who hold out their hands for an alms, for lawful wages, or the five francs that are granted to every kind of Parisian prostitution, in short, for all the money well or ill earned, this people ...
— The Thirteen • Honore de Balzac
... how good it is when you know that light for all the people already exists in life, and that there will be a time when they will begin to see it, when they will bathe their souls in it, and all, all, will take fire in ...
— Mother • Maxim Gorky
... language of President Jefferson, "giving loose to the worst of passions" in the treatment of their slaves, become in a great measure unfitted for self control in their intercourse with each other. Tempers accustomed to riot with loose reins, spurn restraints, and passions inflamed by indulgence, take fire on the least friction. We repeat it, the state of society in the slave states, the duels, and daily deadly affrays of slaveholders with each other—the fact that the most deliberate and cold-blooded murders are committed at noon day, in the presence of thousands, ...
— The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Omnibus • American Anti-Slavery Society
... nickeled tube that carried the dripping water into the space over the glass bowl, had a second tube within it; through which his assistant from the adjoining room either blew, or sent by some mechanism, the chemicals (probably potassium) that would take fire and ...
— The Lock and Key Library/Real Life #2 • Julian Hawthorne
... Aileen to think? Her moods and aspirations were linked so closely with the love and success of Cowperwood that she could not, in spite of herself, but take fire at the least thought of losing him. He himself wondered sometimes, as he threaded the mesh-like paths of sex, what she would do once she discovered his variant conduct. Indeed, there had been little occasional squabbles, not sharp, but suggestive, when he was trifling about with Mrs. Kittridge, Mrs. ...
— The Titan • Theodore Dreiser
... "I see quite plainly how it has been. He was like tinder, ready to take fire at a spark, and you were thinking I had been hard and ...
— The Christian - A Story • Hall Caine
... possible fortune, 'Tis good to get resolved spirits about mee. I follow'd D'Ambois to this greene retreat; 45 A man of spirit beyond the reach of feare, Who (discontent with his neglected worth) Neglects the light, and loves obscure abodes; But hee is young and haughty, apt to take Fire at advancement, to beare state, and flourish; 50 In his rise therefore shall my bounties shine: None lothes the world so much, nor loves to scoffe it, But gold and grace will make him surfet ...
— Bussy D'Ambois and The Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois • George Chapman
... out guided him down a narrow hallway to the rear upper bedroom. The furniture in it was just commencing to take fire. On the floor was the fireman's wife, a tiny babe held in one arm, while with the other she was trying unsuccessfully to pull herself out of range ...
— Ralph on the Overland Express - The Trials and Triumphs of a Young Engineer • Allen Chapman
... and when kindled, maintained by the priests, and of that the lamps were lighted (Lev 9:24; 2 Chron 7:1). Nor was there, upon pain of death, any other fire to be used there (Lev 10:1,2). These tongs, therefore, were used to take fire from off the altar to light the lamps and candlesticks withal. For to trim the lights, and to dress the lamps, was Aaron's work day by day. He shall light and order the lamps upon the pure candlestick before the Lord, and Aaron did so. He lighted the ...
— The Works of John Bunyan • John Bunyan
... the fire is clear and red, without flames. Trim off most of the fat from the steak, and rub the wires of the broiler with it and heat it over the coals. Then put in the meat and turn over and over as it cooks, and be careful not to let it take fire. When brown, put it on a hot platter, dust over with salt and a very little pepper, and dot it with tiny lumps of butter. Put parsley around. Steak ought to be pink inside; not brown and not red. Put a fork in as you did with the chops, and twist in a little, and you ...
— A Little Cook Book for a Little Girl • Caroline French Benton
... how can they be expected to relish in a lover what they do not, or very imperfectly, possess themselves? The sympathy that unites hearts, and invites to confidence, in them is so very faint, that it cannot take fire, and thus mount to passion. No, I repeat it, the love cherished by such minds, ...
— A Vindication of the Rights of Woman - Title: Vindication of the Rights of Women • Mary Wollstonecraft [Godwin]
... second test is the "flash test." The object of this is to see how hot the oil must be before it gives off a vapor which will burn. The third, the "burning test," is to discover how hot the oil must be before it will take fire and burn on the surface. Most civilized countries make definite laws forbidding the sale of kerosene oil that is not up to a standard of safety. Oil for use in lamps should have an open flash test of at least 100 deg. F. and a burning point of not less ...
— Diggers in the Earth • Eva March Tappan
... all ready to make a dash for his life as soon as the cover should take fire, and he peered up into the soldier's face as the latter blew on the brand; but the flame had died, the thistles were not dry, and the fire was a failure; so, growling again, the soldier threw down the smoking stick and went away. As soon as he was safely ...
— Rolf In The Woods • Ernest Thompson Seton
... his goods!" the crowd cried on all sides. "More than nine thousand livres! Oil and brandy, do you think those won't burn? The old witch, she drinks enough to know! If one put a candle near her she would take fire, fast enough!" ...
— Celebrated Crimes, Complete • Alexandre Dumas, Pere
... forty and fifty years, might have brought the thin boards which lined the cupola to such a state of dryness and inflammability, that, together with the soot which encrusted it, and which was formed from the smoke of the candles, it might have been as liable to take fire as a mass of tinder, and a single spark from one of the candles would be sufficient to effect the mischief. The light-keepers themselves attributed the fire to the copper funnel of the kitchen chimney which passed through the cupola. However this might be, the three light-keepers ...
— Smeaton and Lighthouses - A Popular Biography, with an Historical Introduction and Sequel • John Smeaton
... he said. "Miss Rita does not converse with menials. It was Peggy—Miss Peggy, I should say—who told me about it. She was quite inclined to take fire herself, but I think I cooled her down a bit. These are dangerous matters for young ladies to meddle with. I think she told me that young Mr. Carlos Montfort ...
— Three Margarets • Laura E. Richards
... trees bend, shrivel up and vanish. I saw the high walls of Kaloon blown in and flee away, while the houses within the walls took fire, to go out beneath the torrents of the driving rain, and again take fire. I saw blackness sweep over us with great wings, and when I looked, lo! those wide wings were flame, floods of pulsing flame that ...
— Ayesha - The Further History of She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed • H. Rider Haggard
... without accepting his help. Only think how useful he was at Sotherton! Only think what grand things were produced there by our all going with him one hot day in August to drive about the grounds, and see his genius take fire. There we went, and there we came home again; and what was done there is not to ...
— Persuasion • Jane Austen
... The force with which the compressed gas and petroleum rushes upward almost surpasses belief. Drill, jars, and sinker bar are sometimes shot out along with debris, oil, and hissing gas. Sometimes this gas and oil take fire, and last summer one of the wells thus ignited burned so fiercely that a number of days elapsed before the flames could be extinguished. More often the tankage provided is insufficient, and thousands of barrels escape. Two or three years ago, at the height of ...
— Scientific American Supplement, Vol. XV., No. 388, June 9, 1883 • Various
... himself!! An ex parte affidavit, made by an absent and interested party, with the certificate of an absent judge that he believes it to be true, is to be received as CONCLUSIVE, in the face of any amount of oral and documentary testimony to the contrary. "Can a man take fire into his bosom and not be burned?" Can a man aid in executing such a law without defiling his own conscience? Yet does this profligate statute, with impious arrogance, command "ALL GOOD CITIZENS" to assist in enforcing it, when required so to do by ...
— Autographs for Freedom, Volume 2 (of 2) (1854) • Various
... provoked. "It corrects a sharpness of temper, and sweetens and softens the mind." It does not take fire at the least opposition or unkindness, nor "make a man an offender for a word." One of the servants of Nabal described his character in this significant manner: "He is such a son of Belial that a man cannot speak to him." There are many such sons and daughters of ...
— A Practical Directory for Young Christian Females - Being a Series of Letters from a Brother to a Younger Sister • Harvey Newcomb
... a long, green palmetto stem which would not take fire readily and sharpened one end to a point upon which he impaled a generous slice of steak. With flushed faces and singed fingers they kept turning the meat over and over before the blaze. It was an unsavory mess, burnt and ash covered, which they at last pronounced done and deposited upon a clean ...
— The Boy Chums in the Forest - or Hunting for Plume Birds in the Florida Everglades • Wilmer M. Ely
... it looks," commented Barry as he explained the tactics to the midshipmen. "You see, they can torpedo us as much as they like, and blow the dummy sides of the ship to bits piecemeal. We can't sink, since we'll be hard aground. We can't take fire—at least, it would be quite a job to get any part of her to burn without being able to keep the flames under control. Gunnery, of course, puts a different aspect on the subject. If the enemy start shelling us with their heavy guns, then the sooner we abandon ship and clear out the better, and ...
— The Submarine Hunters - A Story of the Naval Patrol Work in the Great War • Percy F. Westerman
... if you say a word to Martial about the box, or the copper, or the clothes, you shall have a dance, so that you'll take fire; not to say taking ...
— The Mysteries of Paris V2 • Eugene Sue
... that was rising within him.—I was very much affected.—The Shadow of the Bough and its appendages on the wall, and arching over on the Ceiling, made a pretty Picture—and then the raptures of the "very" little Ones, when at last the twigs and their needles began to take fire and "snap"—O it was a delight for them!—On the next day, in the great Parlour, the Parents lay out on the table the Presents for the Children: a scene of more sober joy succeeds, as on this day, after an old custom, the Mother says privately to each of her Daughters, and the Father to ...
— Biographia Epistolaris, Volume 1. • Coleridge, ed. Turnbull
... necessary to his recovery. From the voracity with which he bolted down a loaf of bread which I bought for him, the vapour does not seem to injure the animal functions. Addison seems to have been very particular in his experiments upon the vapour of this cavern. He found that a pistol would not take fire in it; but upon laying a train of gunpowder, and igniting it beyond the sphere of the vapour, he found that it could not intercept the train of fire when it had once begun flashing, nor hinder it from running to the very end. He subjected a dog to a second trial in order to ascertain whether ...
— Heads and Tales • Various
... fuel, original sin; and can I divest that? Wilt thou bid me to separate the leaven that a lump of dough hath received, or the salt, that the water hath contracted, from the sea? Dost thou look, that I should so look to the fuel or embers of sin, that I never take fire? The whole world is a pile of fagots, upon which we are laid, and (as though there were no other) we are the bellows. Ignorance blows the fire. He that touched any unclean thing, though he knew it not, became unclean,[315] and a sacrifice was required (therefore a sin imputed), though ...
— Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions - Together with Death's Duel • John Donne
... the Greeks had nearly the same tradition." This method, we learn from Lawson, was in use amongst the natives of Carolina, before they became acquainted, with the use of steel and flints. "They got their fire," says he, "with sticks, which by vehement collision, or rubbing together, take fire." "You are to understand," he adds, "that the two sticks they use to strike fire withal, are never of one sort of wood, but always differ from each other." Indeed it is probable that this method has been very generally practised. Seneca makes mention of it in the ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 13 • Robert Kerr
... of a new temple; laborers poured water under the runners, that the heavily loaded and dried wood should not take fire. ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers
... be wise at length ye Kings averse Be taught ye Judges of the earth; with fear Jehovah serve and let your joy converse With trembling; Kiss the Son least he appear In anger and ye perish in the way If once his wrath take fire like fuel sere. Happy all those who have in him ...
— The Poetical Works of John Milton • John Milton
... Rarer in texture under his pulsing blaze; And, therefore, whatso seeds it holds of fire It renders up, even as it renders oft The frost that it contains within itself And thaws its ice and looseneth the knots. There is, moreover, a fountain cold in kind That makes a bit of tow (above it held) Take fire forthwith and shoot a flame; so, too, A pitch-pine torch will kindle and flare round Along its waves, wherever 'tis impelled Afloat before the breeze. No marvel, this: Because full many seeds of heat there be Within the water; and, from earth itself Out of the deeps must particles of ...
— Of The Nature of Things • [Titus Lucretius Carus] Lucretius
... proved, although an inch or two of some of the logs were sufficiently seasoned to take fire, they were all too damp and soaked to burn. Oonamoo had hardly spoken when the blaze went out of itself. A perfect storm of arrows, tipped with burning tow, now came sailing in upon them, but the only inconvenience they occasioned was a blinding, suffocating ...
— The Riflemen of the Miami • Edward S. Ellis
... Mukkun, which means butter, and of this commodity I believe he absorbs as much as he can honestly or dishonestly come by. How else does the surface of him acquire that glossy, oleaginous appearance, as if he would take fire easily and burn well? I wish we could do without him! The centre of his influence, a small room in the suburbs of the dining-room, which he calls the dispence, or dispence-khana, is a place of unwholesome sights and noisome odours, which it is good ...
— Behind the Bungalow • EHA
... Hellenic heads, and there The old gods who made men godlike as they were, The lyric lips wherefrom all songs take fire, Live eyes, and light of ...
— Poems & Ballads (Second Series) - Swinburne's Poems Volume III • Algernon Charles Swinburne
... Library, and once at his house. I said to him, 'That is my nephew, Monsieur Charnot.' He replied, 'I congratulate you, sir; he seems a youth of parts.'—'That he is, but his heart is very inflammable.'—'At his age, sir, who is not liable to take fire?' That was how we began. Your friend Monsieur Charnot has a pretty wit. I did not want to be behindhand with him, so I answered, 'Well, sir, it caught fire in your house.' He started with fright ...
— The Ink-Stain, Complete • Rene Bazin
... many solid cylinders of wood; every sailor had his appropriate place and function, and a certain number were appointed as the fire-men, whose sole duty it was to be on the watch if any part of the vessel should take fire; and to these men exclusively the charge of extinguishing it was committed. It was already dark when he brought his ship into action, and laid her alongside L'Orient. One particular only I shall add to the known account of the memorable ...
— Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit etc. • by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
... sword of a song, The sword of my spirit's desire, Feeble; but laid at your feet, That which was weak shall be strong, That which was cold shall take fire, That which was ...
— Songs before Sunrise • Algernon Charles Swinburne
... during one of the attacks of the Mexicans on his quarters, he had endeavoured to fire off one of his guns and could not get the priming to take fire; but sometime afterwards, when they were in great danger, the gun went off of itself and made prodigious havock among the enemy, who were thus miraculously repulsed, and the Spaniards saved from inevitable destruction. He said also, that the garrison being in great distress ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. IV. • Robert Kerr
... and Dixon's, my son." The major eyed his victim with calculating coolness, gaging just how much more of the baiting he would stand. He was disappointed to see that the train of explosives he had laid failed to take fire. ...
— Andrew the Glad • Maria Thompson Daviess
... congregation rushed across there, Harry Winburn and two or three of the most active young men and boys leading. As they entered the yard, the flames were rushing out of the chimney, and any moment the thatch might take fire. Here was the real danger. A ladder had just been raised against the chimney, and, while a frightened farm-girl and a carter-boy held it at the bottom, a man was going up it carrying a bucket of water. It shook with his weight, ...
— Tom Brown at Oxford • Thomas Hughes
... was waked up one night in a strange house by a noise he could not understand. He wanted a light, and wanted it very much, but he had no matches that would take fire by the heat of friction. He knew of many other ways of starting a fire. If water gets to the cargo of lime in a vessel it sets the ship on fire. It is of no use to try to put it out by water, for it only makes more ...
— Among the Forces • Henry White Warren
... deflagrating-spoon. Heat another wire, touch it to the P, and at once lower the latter into a receiver of O. Notice the combustion, the color of the flame and of the product. After removing, be sure to burn every bit of P by holding it in a flame, as it is liable to take fire if left. The product of the combustion is a union of what two elements? Is it an oxide? Its symbol is P2O5. Write the equation, using symbols, names, and weights. Towards the close of the experiment, when the O ...
— An Introduction to Chemical Science • R.P. Williams
... Paganel stood over the hearth with his long legs straddled out in the Arab manner. Then stooping down and raising himself with a rapid motion, he made a violent current of air with his poncho, which made the wood take fire, and soon a bright flame roared in the improvised brasier. After drying themselves, each in his own fashion, and hanging their ponchos on the tree, where they were swung to and fro in the breeze, they breakfasted, carefully however rationing out the provisions, for the morrow had to be thought of; ...
— In Search of the Castaways • Jules Verne
... tried in all sorts of ways to procure fire. Neb helped him in this work. He found some dry moss, and by striking together two pebbles he obtained some sparks, but the moss, not being inflammable enough, did not take fire, for the sparks were really only incandescent, and not at all of the same consistency as those which are emitted from flint when struck in the same manner. The ...
— The Mysterious Island • Jules Verne
... lying all the same way. The lieutenants of the Victory, seeing this, depressed their guns of the middle and lower decks, and fired with a diminished charge, lest the shot should pass through, and injure the Temeraire. And because there was danger that the Redoubtable might take fire from the lower-deck guns, the muzzles of which touched her side when they were run out, the fireman of each gun stood ready with a bucket of water, which, as soon as the gun was discharged, he dashed into the hole made by the shot. An incessant ...
— Journeys Through Bookland, Vol. 8 • Charles H. Sylvester
... shoulder, endeavoured to refit his bow, and, turning about, was pierced with a second arrow in the breast. Oliver, the gunner, immediately presented his piece at the insidious assailants, which failing to take fire, gave them time to level another flight of arrows by which he was killed; nor, perhaps, had any of them escaped, surprised and perplexed as they were, had not Drake, with his usual presence of mind, animated their courage, ...
— The Works of Samuel Johnson, Vol. 6 - Reviews, Political Tracts, and Lives of Eminent Persons • Samuel Johnson
... ran a little brook, bordered by elms and small birches. It appeared as if the flames would halt there. Leafy trees are not so ready to take fire as fir trees. The fire did pause as if before a gate that could stop it. It glowed and crackled and tried to leap across the brook to the pine woods on the other side, ...
— The Wonderful Adventures of Nils • Selma Lagerlof
... cruell maner. Some write, that he tooke this citie by a policie of warre, in binding to the feet of sparrowes which his people had caught, certeine clewes of thred or matches, finelie wrought & tempered with matter readie to take fire, so that the sparrowes being suffered to go out of hand, flue into the towne to lodge themselues within their neasts which they had made in stacks of corne, and eues of houses, so that the towne was thereby set on fire, and then the Britains issuing foorth, fought with their enimies, and were ...
— Chronicles 1 (of 6): The Historie of England 5 (of 8) - The Fift Booke of the Historie of England. • Raphael Holinshed
... Caucasian mountaineers is unsurpassed. They are by no means satisfied with damning their adversary's soul after the vulgar manner of the Anglo-Saxon, but invoke the direst calamities upon his body also; as, for example, "May the flesh be stripped from your face!" "May your heart take fire!" "May eagles drink your eyes!" "May your name be written on a stone!" (i.e. a tombstone); "May the shadow of an owl fall on your house!" (this, owing probably to the rarity of its occurrence, is regarded as a fatal omen); "May your hearth-fire be put out!" ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Volume 22. October, 1878. • Various
... with Turpentine, fired in a Silver Spoon colour it, and quickly diffuse themselves upon a Knife, or Paper. The best way to try by firing, is to put a drop or two of these Oyls on the end of a broad pointed Knife, which being first heated, and then thrust into a lighted Candle, presently take fire, and break out into a flame with much dark smoak; but if you will try them in a Spoon, heat it first over a Candle, and then blow the flame of lighted paper, or of a Wax Candle on them. To try the scent, blow out the flame of the ...
— A Short View of the Frauds and Abuses Committed by Apothecaries • Christopher Merrett
... (which I caus'd to be made to trye Experiments of Fire and Flame in) it continued so long burning that it Lin'd all the Inside of the Glass with a Soot as Black as Ink, and so Copious, that the Closeness of the Vessel consider'd, almost all that part of the White Camphire that did take Fire, seem'd to have been chang'd into that deep ...
— Experiments and Considerations Touching Colours (1664) • Robert Boyle
... beautifully uniform in appearance", says A.L. Burns, "may lose all uniformity by delayed or inadequate cooling. Separated beans of coffee will cool off by themselves; but when heaped together, the inner part of the mass will get hotter and even take fire.... Coffee must be spread over a considerable surface, or all kept moving, and have at the same time a lot of air forced through it. Otherwise, there will be some darkening and over-development of part of the ...
— All About Coffee • William H. Ukers
... collected and printed by this modest author, we shall quote a few passages from his play, and illustrate his genius by pointing out their beauties—an office much needed, particularly by certain dullards, the magazine of whose souls are not combustible enough to take fire at the electric sparks shot forth up out of the depths of ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 1, Complete • Various
... has yielded the earth To the only god peace cannot disarm. Beneath serener skies see all revive, All grow tender, all take fire. On the oak, beneath the heather, See, yielding to the call of love, The proud eagle itself forgetting ...
— The Happy Days of the Empress Marie Louise • Imbert De Saint-Amand
... Miranda was the highest, and the burning coals which flew out on every side, together with the flames, which were driven by the wind, fell on the tops of the houses, that were only covered with bows of palm-trees, dry, and easy to take fire. In this extremity of danger, Goncalez bethought himself of the holy image which he had brought; falling on his knees, accompanied by all his domestic servants, he held it upwards to the flames, and invoked Father Francis ...
— The Works of John Dryden, Volume XVI. (of 18) - The Life of St. Francis Xavier • John Dryden
... pretty, but exceedingly troublesome. The wind blows the flame to and fro; the insects flutter into the light; an unhappy moth seats himself on the wick, and burning into an unsightly cadaver makes a gutter down one side; the little red-paper shades take fire, and there is a general conflagration. Yet light is positively necessary to digestion, and no party can be cheerful without it. Therefore, try carcel or moderator lamps with pretty transparent shades, or a hanging ...
— Manners and Social Usages • Mrs. John M. E. W. Sherwood
... my works, my building, and fortifying, and applied myself to make bags and boxes to separate the powder, and to keep it a little and a little in a parcel, in hope, that, whatever might come, it might not all take fire at once, and to keep it so apart, that it should not be possible to make one part fire another. I finished this work in about a fortnight; and I think my powder, which in all was about two hundred and forty pounds weight, was divided in not less than a hundred parcels. ...
— The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1808) • Daniel Defoe
... rock, what with dirt and stones I dug out, I not only raised my ground two feet, but made a little cellar to my mansion-house; and this cost me many days labour and pains. One day in particular a shower of rain falling, thunder and lighting ensued, which put me in terror lest my powder should take fire, and not only hinder my necessary subsistence, by killing me food, but even blow up me and my habitation. To prevent which, I fell to making boxes and bags, in order to separate it, having by me near 150lb. weight. And thus being established as king of the island, every ...
— The Life and Most Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of - York, Mariner (1801) • Daniel Defoe
... tree—not a woman! But life is like an inextinguishable wood-pile, and every one of us blazes up sometimes. She, too, will take fire; wait, give her time. Then we shall see how she ...
— Foma Gordyeff - (The Man Who Was Afraid) • Maxim Gorky
... the problem of Finland, nor England the problem of Ireland. The Turk still occupies Constantinople. And finally, the Prussianised nationalism of Germany has created new questions of nationality in Alsace-Lorraine and Schleswig. All these problems together were as so much tinder ready to take fire directly the spark fell. They were the cause of the "armed peace" of the past forty-three years; they are the cause of the war to-day. The conflagration of 1914 is a proof of a profound dissatisfaction among civilised nations with the existing political structure of the Continent. Alsatians, ...
— The War and Democracy • R.W. Seton-Watson, J. Dover Wilson, Alfred E. Zimmern,
... 23 And the Lord said unto the brother of Jared: What will ye that I should do that ye may have light in your vessels? For behold, ye cannot have windows, for they will be dashed in pieces; neither shall ye take fire with you, for ye shall not go by the light ...
— The Book Of Mormon - An Account Written By The Hand Of Mormon Upon Plates Taken - From The Plates Of Nephi • Anonymous
... a man to take fire easily, and embraced me. And, strange to say, neither he nor I saw the humour, nor the pity, of the situation. How many another would long before have become sceptical of my promises! And justly. For I had led him to London, spent all his savings, and then got him into a miserable prison, and yet ...
— The Crossing • Winston Churchill
... and the Begums are on terms of mutual goodwill. It would ill become this government to interpose its influence by any act which might tend to revive their animosities,—and a very slight occasion would be sufficient to effect it. They will instantly take fire on such a declaration, proclaim the judgment of the Company in their favor, demand a reparation of the acts which they will construe wrongs with such a sentence warranting that construction, and either accept the invitation to the proclaimed scandal of the Nabob Vizier, which ...
— The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. VIII. (of 12) • Edmund Burke
... fancy jacket he had worn in his wire slide. Taking a match Joe lighted it and held it against the cloth. It did not take fire. ...
— Joe Strong The Boy Fire-Eater - The Most Dangerous Performance on Record • Vance Barnum
... the man and the woman. Woman is begotten of man at that moment, into her greater self: and man is begotten of woman. This is the main. And that which cannot be fulfilled, perfected in the two individuals, that which cannot take fire into individual life, this trickles down and is the seed of a new life, destined ultimately to fulfill that which the parents could not fulfill. So it is ...
— Fantasia of the Unconscious • D. H. Lawrence
... should never be made of flannelette, it is so liable to take fire if the child approaches the grate. At hundreds of inquests coroners have directed attention to the terrible loss ...
— Papers on Health • John Kirk
... yet grow pale, Tears rise at fortune, and true hearts take fire In all who hear, with quickening pulse's stroke, That cry that from the infinite people broke, When third among them Helen led the wail ...
— Poems of To-Day: an Anthology • Various
... examining the body inside the house, the battle was progressing outside, and many shots struck the building, which I feared would take fire; so I ordered Captains Steele and Gile to carry the body to Marietta. They reached that place the same night, and, on application, I ordered his personal staff to go on and escort the body to his home, in Clyde, Ohio, where it was received with great honor, and it is ...
— Memoirs of Three Civil War Generals, Complete • U. S. Grant, W. T. Sherman, P. H. Sheridan
... which had aroused Commines' contempt. What boy of imagination has not revelled in such sport, living a glorious hour beyond his age? And not a few of every nation have, in their turn, made the glory real at the call of the country that the blood of new generations may take fire. And Stephen La Mothe saw no shame in such a play; saw, rather, a stimulus and an uplifting whose effects might not altogether pass away when the play ended. So he was France or England as the Dauphin bade him, and by turns ...
— The Justice of the King • Hamilton Drummond
... slightly heated, burn with sparks. Organic bodies are violently attacked. A piece of cork placed near the end of the platinum tube, where the gas is evolved, immediately carbonizes and inflames. Alcohol, ether, benzol, spirit of turpentine, and petroleum take fire on contact. ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 561, October 2, 1886 • Various
... the blonde Gaillefontaine, drawing up her swan-like throat, with a bitter smile. "I see that messieurs the archers of the king's police easily take fire at the handsome eyes ...
— Notre-Dame de Paris - The Hunchback of Notre Dame • Victor Hugo
... plebeian would reflect twice before enrolling himself. He would weigh the pros and the cons, and balance for a long time between the vices of the government, and the dangers of revolution. But the mob of the Monti would take fire like a heap of straw at the mere prospect of a scramble, while the Trastevere savages would rise to a man, if the Papal despotism were represented to them as an attack upon their honour. It would be better to have in ...
— The Roman Question • Edmond About
... easy, though here and there were stony places, where we jolted fearfully. At 10:30, we had passed La Cienega, and our ungreased wheels were not only an annoyance, but, Eustasio suggested, a source of danger, as they might take fire. So, at 11:30, we stopped to grease them. As the axles and wheels were then too hot for grease to be safely applied, we lay down while they should cool. Probably in less than five minutes, we were all asleep, and no one moved until, waking with a start and looking at my ...
— In Indian Mexico (1908) • Frederick Starr
... our household stores that are of the most value to the island, and lodge the rest safely in our new root-house, first removing from its neighbourhood all such light, loose matter as is likely to take fire. The earthen roof will save it from destruction. As to the shanty, it must take its chance ...
— Lost in the Backwoods • Catharine Parr Traill
... his office in a cook-room, or galley, placed in the forecastle or "in the Hatchway upon the first Orlope" (Boteler). The floor of the galley was not at that time paved with brick or stone, as in later days, and now. It was therefore very liable to take fire, especially in foul weather, when the red embers were shaken from the ash-box of the range. It was the cook's duty to take the provisions from the steward, both flesh and fish, and to cook them, by boiling, until they were taken from ...
— On the Spanish Main - Or, Some English forays on the Isthmus of Darien. • John Masefield
... oil, at ordinary temperature, should extinguish a match as readily as water. When heated it should not evolve an inflammable vapor below 110 degrees, or, better, 120 degrees Fahrenheit, and should not take fire below 125 to 140 degrees Fahrenheit. As the temperature in a burning lamp rarely exceeds 100 degrees Fahrenheit, such an oil would be safe. It would produce no vapors to mix with the air in the lamp and make an explosive mixture; and, if the lamp should be overturned, ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 288 - July 9, 1881 • Various
... supervene. She held the Kaiser well at bay, mankind well in panic; and continually there came on all Europe, for about twenty years, a terror that war was just about to break out, and the whole world to take fire. The History so called of Europe went canting from side to side; heeling at a huge rate, according to the passes and lunges these two giant figures, Imperial Majesty and the Termagant of Spain, made at one another,—for a twenty ...
— History Of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Volume V. (of XXI.) • Thomas Carlyle
... Machine. When properly saturated with the essence of dulness and death, and brought down from a glaring white and black to a decidedly ashy-gray neutral color, a few small newspapers are permitted to be circulated, but with the greatest caution. They sometimes take fire, it is said,—these journals,—when brought too near any brain overcharged with electricity. Two or three times, it is said, the Governing Machine has been put out of order by the newspapers and their readers bringing ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 1, No. 5, March, 1858 • Various
... free from cinders and ashes, a piece of sheet-iron, in front of the fire, on which to set the irons, while heating; (this last saves many black spots from careless ironers;) three or four holders, made of woollen, and covered with old silk, as these do not easily take fire; two iron rings, or iron-stands, on which to set the irons, and small pieces of board to put under them, to prevent scorching the sheet; linen or cotton wipers; and a piece of beeswax, to rub on the irons when ...
— A Treatise on Domestic Economy - For the Use of Young Ladies at Home and at School • Catherine Esther Beecher
... shown, by using them while he looked on, the use of the tools, instruments, and utensils. It was obvious that Carefinotu belonged to, or had lived amongst savages in the lowest rank of the human scale, for fire itself seemed to be unknown to him. He could not understand why the pot did not take fire when they put it on the blazing wood; he would have hurried away from it, to the great displeasure of Tartlet, who was watching the different phases of the cooking of the soup. At a mirror, which was held out to him, he betrayed consummate astonishment; he turned round, and turned ...
— Godfrey Morgan - A Californian Mystery • Jules Verne
... do?" said Reason, after a few moment's reflection. "You are ambitious of introducing your book into every writing and reading-chamber in Edinburgh, and yet you take fire at the thoughts of its being criticised by Mr. Fairscribe's young people? Be a ...
— The Surgeon's Daughter • Sir Walter Scott
... Evening's forehead o'er the earth, And add each night a lustre till afar An eight-fold splendor shine above thy hearth. Clash, Israel, the cymbals, touch the lyre, Blow the brass trumpet and the harsh-tongued horn; Chant psalms of victory till the heart take fire, The ...
— The Poems of Emma Lazarus - Vol. II. (of II.), Jewish Poems: Translations • Emma Lazarus
... turning it round by the arms or levers, and others occasionally driving wedges of wood or stone behind the lower end of the upright pole, so as to press it the more on the end of the auger: by this constant friction and pressure, the ends of the auger would take fire, from which a fire would be instantly kindled, and thus the needfire would be accomplished. The fire in the farmer's house, etc., was immediately quenched with water, a fire kindled from this needfire, both in the farm-houses and offices, ...
— Balder The Beautiful, Vol. I. • Sir James George Frazer
... back on the ketch, they could not untie the rope that held the ketch to the ship. The big ship was bursting into flames. The ketch would soon take fire. ...
— Stories of Great Americans for Little Americans • Edward Eggleston
... great, and hath many suburbes round about it, and all the houses are made of Canes which they call Bambos, and bee couered with strawe ['srawe' in source text—KTH]. In your house you haue a Warehouse which they call Godon, which is made of bricke to put your goods in, for oftentimes they take fire and burne in an houre foure or fiue hundred houses: so that if the Gordon [sic—KTH] were not, you should bee in danger to haue all burned, if any winde should rise, at a trice. In the newe towne is the ...
— The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, - and Discoveries of The English Nation, Volume 10 - Asia, Part III • Richard Hakluyt
... walk along in this mixture of snow and flame, which at every step one takes splashes about in all directions, shining with a light so intense that one is ready to fear that his shoes or clothes will take fire." ...
— The Voyage of the Vega round Asia and Europe, Volume I and Volume II • A.E. Nordenskieold
... can render you now? What, if the cares and inquietudes of rank and office should lay you on a sick bed, who would attend you with so much tenderness and affection as your old father? What if your house should take fire, I would be the first to ascend through the flames; but I will not climb into office and rank, I tell ...
— The Lawyers, A Drama in Five Acts • Augustus William Iffland
... say I do see it," replied the leader of the Eagle Patrol, as he continued to look downward. "They've set fire to the building; and what bothers me most of all is the wind coming straight this way. I'm afraid it means the inn will take fire too, and like as not be ...
— The Boy Scouts on Belgian Battlefields • Lieut. Howard Payson
... street and milked at the doors of the houses. I saw real glass windows in the houses of even the commonest people. Some of the houses are not of stone, nor yet of bricks; I solemnly swear they are made of wood. Houses there will take fire and burn, sometimes—actually burn entirely down, and not leave a single vestige behind. I could state that for a truth, upon my death-bed. And as a proof that the circumstance is not rare, I aver that they have a thing which they call a fire-engine, which vomits forth great streams ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain
... daily receive assure me England will one day lose her colonies. As to the English colonies, one essential point should be known: it is, that they are never taxed. The Mother Country should have taxed them from the foundation; I have certain advice that all the colonies would take fire at being taxed now."[30] The expulsion of the French from America had already lessened the dependence of the colonies upon the home country, when the House of Commons directed its corrupt and blighting attention ...
— The Story of Newfoundland • Frederick Edwin Smith, Earl of Birkenhead
... it by and by when confinement upon bread and water has tamed you. I will come once more, but it will be the last time; and, mark you, should your people be defeated—the Danes I mean—still your escape would not necessarily follow; the house might take fire, it is of timber, and would soon burn down; a ...
— Alfgar the Dane or the Second Chronicle of Aescendune • A. D. Crake
... rocks against rocks, and matter that contains the elements of flame, {and} it takes fire at the concussion, the winds {once} calmed, the caverns will become cool; or, if the bituminous qualities take fire, or yellow sulphur is being dried up with a smouldering smoke, still, when the earth shall no longer give food and unctuous fuel to the flame, its energies being exhausted in length of time, and when nutriment shall be wanting to its devouring nature, it will ...
— The Metamorphoses of Ovid - Literally Translated into English Prose, with Copious Notes - and Explanations • Publius Ovidius Naso
... hissing of steam painfully near to my section. I tried to move and rise up, but found that the confines of my narrow quarters would not permit it. I then realized that we were wrecked and that I was in a bad predicament. I felt that I had no bones broken, and my only fear was that the wreck would take fire. My fears were not groundless for I soon smelled smoke. I cried out as loudly as I could, but my berth had evidently become a "sound proof booth." Then I felt that my time had come, and had about given up all hope, and was trying to say ...
— Danger Signals • John A. Hill and Jasper Ewing Brady
... to gar James Gottera ride the stang for his sinfulness in so traducing persecuted Christians. What might have come to pass is hard to say, had not Providence been pleased, in that most critical and perilous time, to cause a foul lum in a thacket house in the Sea-gate to take fire, by which an alarm was spread that drew off the mob, and allowed James Gottera to pass without farther molestation out ...
— Ringan Gilhaize - or The Covenanters • John Galt
... little man," answered Willet, with no grim though grimy smile, "if it didn't take fire and keep getting out of the way all the time it kept up the heat. You see we depend on the heat for getting through, and it's much less trouble to drop a bit of coal or two into the hole, than to take up the big axle and lay it ...
— Gutta-Percha Willie • George MacDonald
... that we every moment expected to see our clothes take fire. Our horses dragged us still nearer to the creek, sprang into the water, and drew us down the bank after them. Another rustling and noise in the thicket of reeds. A she-bear, with her cubs at her heels, came towards us; and at the same time ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine—Vol. 54, No. 333, July 1843 • Various
... then got some dry grass and a piece of rotten wood, and turning a small stick rapidly between his hands, in the same manner as we mill chocolate, the friction caused the touchwood, in which the point of the stick was inserted, to take fire; while, wrapping it up in the dry grass, and shaking it backward and forward, he very soon produced a flame, which he communicated to some dry sticks, and other fuel that our party ...
— John Rutherford, the White Chief • George Lillie Craik
... having a golden Censer; and there was given him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all Saints, upon the golden Altar which was before the throne. The custom was on other days, for one of the Priests to take fire from the great Altar in a silver Censer; but on this day, for the High-Priest to take fire from the great Altar in a golden Censer: and when he was come down from the great Altar, he took incense from one of the Priests who brought it to him, and went with it to the golden Altar: and while ...
— Observations upon the Prophecies of Daniel, and the Apocalypse of St. John • Isaac Newton
... as sovereign power is a necessary but a formidable creature, not unlike the powder which (as you are soldiers) is at once your safety and your danger, being subject to take fire against you as well as for you, how well and securely is she, by your galaxies so collected as to be in full force and vigor and yet so distributed that it is impossible you should be blown up by your own magazine? Let them who will have it, ...
— The Commonwealth of Oceana • James Harrington
... race. A grandsire or a grandame taints the blood; And seldom three descents continue good. Were virtue by descent, a noble name Could never villanise his father's fame; But, as the first, the last of all the line, Would, like the sun, even in descending shine; Take fire, and bear it to the darkest house, Betwixt King Arthur's court and Caucasus: If you depart, the flame shall still remain, 410 And the bright blaze enlighten all the plain: Nor, till the fuel perish, can decay, By nature ...
— The Poetical Works of John Dryden, Vol II - With Life, Critical Dissertation, and Explanatory Notes • John Dryden
... yield but very little, and therefore the violence of the concussion will be exerted on that piece of Steel which is cut off by the Flint. Thirdly, that the filings or small parts of Steel are very apt, as it were, to take fire, and are presently red hot, that is, there seems to be a very combustible sulphureous Body in Iron or Steel, which the Air very readily preys upon, as soon as the body is ...
— Micrographia • Robert Hooke
... between them both, a renegade To each in turn; having no longer faith In gods or men. Then what mysterious charm, What fascination is it chains my feet, And keeps me gazing like a curious child Into the holy places, where the priests Have raised their altar?—Striking stones together, They take fire out of them, and light the lamps In the great candlestick. They spread the veils, And set the loaves of showbread on the table. The incense burns; the well-remembered odor Comes wafted unto me, and takes me back To other days. I see myself among them As ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
... to ride on the box with Smith, for she had a camera and wanted to catch some views. Smith grew so red over handing her up that Dr. Slavens began to fear lest he might take fire from internal heat and leave them with only the ashes of a driver on their hands. But they all got placed without any such melancholy tragedy, with a great many cries of "Oh, Mr. Smith!" here, and "Oh, Mr. Smith!" ...
— Claim Number One • George W. (George Washington) Ogden
... progress of the lava-flood; trees, houses, everything yields to its massive assault, The trees take fire before its approach, and when it reaches them they emit a hissing noise almost amounting to a shriek, and then plunging into the molten flood are seen no more. Even the sea cannot withstand the lava-stream, but retires on its approach; so that promontories stretching ...
— Wonders of Creation • Anonymous
... Chemical Means.—It is not in the province of this book to describe the various matches that take fire by dipping them into compositions; and I have already spoken of lucifer-matches in the last section. Only one source of fire remains to be ...
— The Art of Travel - Shifts and Contrivances Available in Wild Countries • Francis Galton
... left empty, and about two inches of quick match are added at the end of the charge. The only difficulty in this experiment, especially when sulphur is contained in the mixture, is to discover the proper degree of moistening; for, if the paste be too much wetted, it will not take fire, and if too dry, the deflagration is apt to become too rapid, and ...
— Elements of Chemistry, - In a New Systematic Order, Containing all the Modern Discoveries • Antoine Lavoisier
... to grow cross, never to indulge in a sarcastic word, always to be a model of tact and forbearance. She determined to wield such an ennobling influence over the girls in her form-room that they should take fire from her example, and go forth into the world perfect, high-souled women who should leaven the race. She determined also to be the life and soul of the staff-room—the general peace-maker, confidante, and consoler, beloved by one and all. She determined to seize tactfully upon every ...
— The Independence of Claire • Mrs. George de Horne Vaizey
... example himself in Lombardy, and followed it without a blush, in Egypt, in Germany, in Spain, in Portugal, and but yesterday in Russia. Here also, therefore, his reclamations moved no feeling favourable to himself; and the time was gone by when the French people would have been ready to take fire at so lawless an aggression upon their national rights:—these Napoleon's tyranny had trampled down ere strangers dared to insult them. There were some few scattered instances of resistance; but in ...
— The History of Napoleon Buonaparte • John Gibson Lockhart
... heard of the inconstancy of the seas, and the inconstancy of those who roam them. Now, let the truth be spoken, Don Fernando, if he had any fault in the world, it was that he was a little too inflammable; that is to say, a little too subject to take fire from the sparkle of every bright eye: he had been somewhat of a rover among the sex on shore, what might he not be on sea? Might he not meet with other loves in foreign ports? Might he not behold some peerless beauty in one or other of those seven ...
— Wolfert's Roost and Miscellanies • Washington Irving
... tobacco, which they tie up with another leaf. These bundles they lay in heaps, in order to sweat them, for which purpose they cover those heaps with blankets, and lay boards or planks over them. But you should take care that the tobacco is not over-heated, and does not take fire, which may easily happen; for which purpose you uncover your heaps from time to time, and give the tobacco air, by spreading it abroad. This you continue to do till you find no more heat in the tobacco; then you pack it in hogsheads, and may transport it any where, ...
— History of Louisisana • Le Page Du Pratz
... foregoing is noted at this point to introduce a novel early method of lighting in coal-mines where inflammable gases were encountered. In discussing this coal-gas another early writer stated that "it will not take fire except by flame" and that "sparks do not affect it." One of the early solutions of the problem of artificial lighting under such conditions is ...
— Artificial Light - Its Influence upon Civilization • M. Luckiesh
... turning to his companion: "There is the signal," added he; and he immediately applied the burning brand to the wainscoting. Now, this cabaret of the Image-de-Notre-Dame was not a very newly-built house, and therefore did not require much entreating to take fire. In a second the boards began to crackle, and the flames arose sparkling to the ceiling. A howling from without replied to the shouts of the incendiaries. D'Artagnan, who had not seen what passed, from being engaged at the window, felt, at the ...
— Ten Years Later - Chapters 1-104 • Alexandre Dumas, Pere
... intensity for something that positively refused to be found. All that we can safely affirm in regard to her is, that if her face bore any resemblance to the scarlet of her neck, the fact that her workbox did not take fire is little short of ...
— The Floating Light of the Goodwin Sands • R.M. Ballantyne
... tell fibs; I never tell them unless there's something rather good to be gained. I don't see what's to be gained with you—especially as you wouldn't believe me. I don't make professions any more than I make paper flowers or flouncey lampshades—I don't know how. My lampshades would be sure to take fire, my roses and my fibs to be larger than life. I'm very glad for my own sake that you're to marry Osmond; but I won't pretend I'm glad for yours. You're very brilliant—you know that's the way you're always spoken of; you're an heiress and very good-looking ...
— The Portrait of a Lady - Volume 2 (of 2) • Henry James
... came away the Master said to me—The stubble-fields are mighty slow to take fire. These young fellows catch up with the world's ideas one after another,—they have been tamed a long while, but they find them running loose in their minds, and think they are ferae naturae. They remind ...
— The Poet at the Breakfast Table • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
... is just covered by the water in the vessel C. Each bubble of the gas as it escapes into the air takes fire, and the product of combustion (P{2}O{5}) forms beautiful small rings, which float unbroken for a considerable time in quiet air. The pure phosphine does not take fire spontaneously. When prepared as directed above, impurities are present which impart ...
— An Elementary Study of Chemistry • William McPherson
... is their fiery inflammation; their more rapid splendor is the thunderbolt, the faint and weak the whirlwind. Aristotle, that all these proceed from dry exhalations, which, if they meet with moist vapors, forcing their passage, the breaking of them gives the noise of thunder; they, being very dry, take fire and make lightning; tempests and hurricanes arise from the plenitude of matter which each draw to themselves, the hotter parts attracted make the whirlwinds, the ...
— Essays and Miscellanies - The Complete Works Volume 3 • Plutarch
... with stone, plastering, or brick, and between the facings of their walls they throw in their rubbish. Their roofs are flat; and on them they lay a sort of plaster, which costs very little, and yet is so tempered that it is not apt to take fire, and yet resists the weather more than lead. They have great quantities of glass among them, with which they glaze their windows; they use also in their windows a thin linen cloth, that is so oiled or gummed ...
— The Best of the World's Classics, Restricted to prose. Volume III (of X) - Great Britain and Ireland I • Francis W. Halsey
... help—all the birds of the prairie—but they cry for naught. My father hears them cry. The cry is sweet to his ears. He is waiting for me. We are all about to die. When the wheat-fields blaze and the stacks take fire, and the houses crackle, then we shall all die. So ...
— In The Boyhood of Lincoln - A Tale of the Tunker Schoolmaster and the Times of Black Hawk • Hezekiah Butterworth
... Sanguinetti's soft voice, yet loud enough to be heard by all present. "He shall have a caning then for his impertinence." And he called loudly to the post-boy for his whip. But at that insult Garnache's brain seemed to take fire, and his cautious resolutions were reduced to ashes by the conflagration. He stepped forward, and, virulent of tone and terrific of mien, he announced that since Monsieur Sanguinetti took that tone with him, he ...
— St. Martin's Summer • Rafael Sabatini
... Kickses, bind them about with packthread, and cover them with close paste proportionable to the fashion of a Cannon with Carriages, lay them in places convenient as you see them in Ships of war, with such holes and trains of powder that they may all take Fire; Place your Ship firm in the great Charger; then make a salt round about it, and stick therein egg-shells full of sweet water, you may by a great Pin take all the meat out of the egg by blowing, and then fill it up with the rose-water, then in another ...
— The accomplisht cook - or, The art & mystery of cookery • Robert May
... ponder the society column not because we are snobs, but because our imaginations take fire; the dry narrowness and hard conditions of our lives are soothed as we contemplate those who have no excuse not to be benefactors; and what they should be, our imaginations, benevolent to ourselves, assure us that ...
— From the Easy Chair, vol. 1 • George William Curtis
... having been wet when compressed into the ship. Hemp has been known to ignite from the same cause; and the dockyard of Brest was set on fire by this means in 1757. New painted canvas or tarpaulin, laid by before it is completely dry, will take fire; and two Russian frigates were nearly burnt by the accidental combination of a small quantity of soot, of burnt fir wood, hemp, and oil, ...
— Narratives of Shipwrecks of the Royal Navy; between 1793 and 1849 • William O. S. Gilly
... try and make a blaze after the old-fashioned method used by some South Sea islanders. But evidently the boy did not twirl the stick fast enough to produce sufficient heat to make the fine tinder smoke, and then take fire. Giraffe's ambition was commendable, however, and so Thad said nothing; only crept away again, after touching Allan on ...
— The Boy Scouts' First Camp Fire - or, Scouting with the Silver Fox Patrol • Herbert Carter |
