"Why" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... to his feet, "why had he not mentioned it before? It would give him very great pleasure to show him the way to the side entrance." And the St. Bernard, everything wagging now, walked with the stranger to the corner, stopping stock still to point with his nose ...
— A Gentleman Vagabond and Some Others • F. Hopkinson Smith
... only to a fairly clever amateur? They realize that, no matter how much they may enjoy a performance, there is much greater fascination in being the performer. Not a musical person but would play if he could. Why, however, that "if"? It no longer exists. It has been eliminated. The charm, the fascination of playing a musical instrument yourself can be yours, and the only "if" to it is—if you have intelligence enough to ...
— The Pianolist - A Guide for Pianola Players • Gustav Kobb
... 'Why, there is your venerable guardian, Miss Kennedy!' drawled out Mr. Kingsland, as Mr. Falkirk came in sight. 'How charming! Patriarchal. And who is that beyond?—Dane ...
— Wych Hazel • Susan and Anna Warner
... upon his property, for all his friend Major Cant's trying to persuade him to take an adjoining house in Belgravia. No! he was content to stay where he was—Albert was snug; but if Mr. Brown thought of removing to Mayfair or Tyburnia, why then, a house next such a capital individual might be a desideratum:—he said it—an Army Captain that should not say it, but did not care,—stock-brokers and merchants were men of bottom; though probably ...
— Christmas Comes but Once A Year - Showing What Mr. Brown Did, Thought, and Intended to Do, - during that Festive Season. • Luke Limner
... conqueror, supposes that he alone enjoyed a secret and intimate commerce with the Supreme Being, who delegated the care of mortals to his subordinate deities; and thus assigns a very plausible reason why the subjects of Constantine should not presume to embrace the new religion of their ...
— The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Volume 2 • Edward Gibbon
... But why do I thus add to your distresses?—It is not, my dear Mrs. Norton, that I have so much feeling for my own calamity that I have none for your's: since your's is indeed an addition to my own. But you have one ...
— Clarissa, Volume 6 (of 9) - The History Of A Young Lady • Samuel Richardson
... of a country place, which is dependent upon a fresh-water pond for its water supply, finds that his drinking water is contaminated, that the taste and odor are such as to render the water unfit for use. There is no reason why he should not treat the supply, provided he is properly careful. When the nature of the polluting organism is definitely determined and the average temperature of the water observed, then the necessary formula can be decided upon. First, of course, ...
— The Home Medical Library, Volume V (of VI) • Various
... to be so sharp, sir," said John, remonstratively. "If you wos to tell me to cut my own throat, you know, I could scarce be expected for to do it without puttin' a few questions as to the reason why. You're a ...
— Jarwin and Cuffy • R.M. Ballantyne
... dispersed. Then the officers made a huzza, and the private soldiers succeeded them: directly after this, an officer rode before the regulars to the other side of the body, and hallooed after the militia of said Lexington, and said, "Lay down your arms, damn you, why don't you lay down your arms?"—and that there was not a gun fired till the militia of Lexington were dispersed. And ...
— The Military Journals of Two Private Soldiers, 1758-1775 - With Numerous Illustrative Notes • Abraham Tomlinson
... know why as a rule Bookish learning marks the fool? 'Tis because, though once befriended, Learning's pact with wisdom's ended. No philosophy e'er throve In a nightcap by the stove. Who the world would understand In the world must ...
— Library Of The World's Best Literature, Ancient And Modern, Vol. 5 • Various
... "Why, my lady," replied the poor woman, wiping her forehead, "every hard-working woman in Paris does the same with her children; and what can I do else? I must earn bread for these helpless ones, and to do that I must be out backwards and forwards, and to the furthest parts of the town, often ...
— Tales and Novels, Vol. 6 • Maria Edgeworth
... Why this magnificent concert God has arranged in our midst if it has no auditors? If God had made us only intelligent beings, he would have given us speech alone and without inflections. Let us further illustrate the role ...
— Delsarte System of Oratory • Various
... without another word, Bessie Lonsdale fainted in her chair. And as she lost consciousness she heard, dim and far away, the voice of Mr. Ford reply: "That—the fact that she hadn't an idea of it—and that alone, is why she has escaped." ...
— The Best Short Stories of 1920 - and the Yearbook of the American Short Story • Various
... one day upon a fellow contributor to the Edinburgh Review, found him reading a book preparatory to writing an account of it, and expostulated with him. "Why, how do you manage?" asked his friend. "I never," said the wit, "read a book before reviewing ...
— The Jest Book - The Choicest Anecdotes and Sayings • Mark Lemon
... restlessly, almost savagely, to Ronder. "Can you be happy and comfortable and at ease, when you see what Christ might be to human beings and what He is? Who thinks of Him, who cares for Him, who loves His sweetness and charity and tenderness? Why is something always in the way, always, always, always? Love! Charity! Doesn't such a place as this Cathedral breed hatred and malice and pride and jealousy? And isn't its very beauty a contempt?...And now what right have you to ...
— The Cathedral • Hugh Walpole
... itself. They are in the soul of the seer. But the odylic substance is acted upon by the nervo-vital emanations of the body of the seer, and reacts upon the brain centres by means of the optic nerves. That is why it is necessary to keep the crystal as free as possible from disturbing elements. For the same reason, when in use, the crystal should be overshadowed by the seer, and so placed that no direct rays of light ...
— How to Read the Crystal - or, Crystal and Seer • Sepharial
... the army set up a shout of joy. When Sigurd heard it he said, "Many a bad man will rejoice over my head this day." Then Thjostolf Alason went to where Sigurd was sitting, struck from his head a silk hat with silver fringes, and said. "Why wert thou so impudent, thou son of a slave! to dare to call ...
— Heimskringla - The Chronicle of the Kings of Norway • Snorri Sturluson
... and searching light that is seen only in Kerry. Looking down the drop of five or six hundred feet, the height is so great that the gannets flying close over the sea look like white butterflies, and the choughs like flies fluttering behind them. One wonders in these places why anyone is left in Dublin, or London, or Paris, when it would be better, one would think, to live in a tent or hut with this magnificent sea and sky, and to breathe this wonderful air, which is like ...
— In Wicklow and West Kerry • John M. Synge
... though," said Dickenson. "I never did understand why water should shoot up here at the highest part of a flat country. It ought to be found low down in the holes. ...
— The Kopje Garrison - A Story of the Boer War • George Manville Fenn
... times the Indian priests had an altar up yonder—upon which they used to sacrifice scores of human beings—so that the blood ran down the fissures of the rock like water after a shower of rain. Their plan was to cut open the breast of the victim, and tear out his heart while still alive. But why need I frighten you with a story that, by my faith, ...
— The Tiger Hunter • Mayne Reid
... thus far had something foolish in them, and her eyes seemed to say so. If it was the only chance, and his custom was to operate in such cases,—if he would have operated had she not been there, why did he ...
— The Web of Life • Robert Herrick
... by which to guide herself. She knew not distinctly why she had come to Capri. Her familiar self-reliance and cold disregard of anything but a few plain rules in regulating her conduct, were things of the past. She felt herself idly swayed by conflicting influences, unable ...
— The Emancipated • George Gissing
... thousand crowns a year, about ten thousand pounds sterling; and that to say their princes were so rich, and their politicians so refined, was, in effect, a severe satire upon them, for not employing their wealth and their talents for the advantage of their country. I asked why their cardinals and princes did not invite and encourage industrious people to settle and cultivate the Campania of Rome, which is a desert? why they did not raise a subscription to drain the marshes in the neighbourhood of the city, and thus meliorate the air, which is rendered extremely ...
— Travels Through France and Italy • Tobias Smollett
... author of this book is a member of the Marshpee Tribe, not by birth, but by adoption. How he has become one of that unfortunate people, and why he concerns himself about their affairs, will now be explained to the satisfaction of the reader. He wishes to say in the first place, that the causes of the prevalent prejudice against his race have been ...
— Indian Nullification of the Unconstitutional Laws of Massachusetts - Relative to the Marshpee Tribe: or, The Pretended Riot Explained • William Apes
... 'if you've been shot yourself, that explains. But as for contentment, why, sir, you see, it smarts, as you say. And then, I have a good wife, you see, and a bit of a ...
— Lay Morals • Robert Louis Stevenson
... coming upon me for the shedding the blood of my relations. And now, O thou most impudent body of mine, how long wilt thou retain a soul that ought to die, in order to appease the ghosts of my brother and my mother? Why dost thou not give it all up at once? And why do I deliver up my blood drop by drop to those whom I have so wickedly murdered?" In saying which last words he died, having reigned a year. He was called a lover of the Grecians; and ...
— The Antiquities of the Jews • Flavius Josephus
... moment: "It's curious," she reflected, "but do you know, Scott, I never thought of doing that. It never occurred to me to do it! Why didn't ...
— The Danger Mark • Robert W. Chambers
... McCall's Magazine regularly we believe there are many times this number who would subscribe had they an opportunity of seeing a copy. We will send—without charge—a recent issue to every lady who asks us—a postal card will do. When you see a copy you will know why so many ladies look upon McCall's Magazine ...
— Wholesale Price List of Newspapers and Periodicals • D. D. Cottrell's Subscription Agency
... Sir Robert, firmly. "It is better so. Why should we try to prolong pain? Good-bye, Frank, till we meet again. You must be a man now, young as you are. I leave your ...
— In Honour's Cause - A Tale of the Days of George the First • George Manville Fenn
... me whence it came, This languor of my soul to-day, And why I muse in piteous frame While all the glowing world is gay, I could not tell, I only mourn, And wonder how to life it stirred, The memory of that distant morn, As then I wondered had I heard That grief could ever sink to sleep Nor aye ...
— Atma - A Romance • Caroline Augusta Frazer
... where he is popularly supposed to be undisturbed. Mr. King is neither such a virtuous saint, nor so engrossed in his art, as to resent the companionship of such a vision of loveliness—simply because it comes in the form of good flesh and blood. Why be ...
— The Eyes of the World • Harold Bell Wright
... think it a great pity that society does not hold the expectant mother in the same reverence as in your community. That is certainly a lesson we can learn from the Mormons. And that explains why your children, born of polygamous mothers, are stronger physically, and more universally endowed mentally, than the average children ...
— A Woman of the World - Her Counsel to Other People's Sons and Daughters • Ella Wheeler Wilcox
... me as in the German Maerchen. When the landlady came in to see me in the morning, after asking how I had slept, the first thing she said was, "But, sir, don't you want another 'pillar'?" I looked bewildered, and said: "Why, what shall I do with another pillar? and where will you put it?" She then touched the pillows under my head and said, "Well, sir, you shall have another 'pillar' to-morrow." "How shall I ever learn English," I said to myself, "if a 'pillar' means ...
— My Autobiography - A Fragment • F. Max Mueller
... she interrupted; "it is here in your arms or by your side that I find both; nowhere else. But why do you ...
— Elsie at Nantucket • Martha Finley
... "war times," began to hunger for the flesh-pots of Egypt. Manna was tasteless now; the task-master was better than the wilderness and the scant fare. Oh! to sit by the flesh-pots and grow fat, as in the days when they did eat thereof! Why continue the conflict? Why waste valuable lives? Why think of still fighting when flour was a hundred dollars a barrel, coffee twenty dollars a pound, cloth fifty dollars a yard, and good whiskey and brandy not to be purchased at any price? Could patriotism ...
— Mohun, or, The Last Days of Lee • John Esten Cooke
... Why did the wild cattle feed on the grassy uplands at night instead of during the day? Where did they spend the day? When do the flesh-eating animals sleep? When do they hunt? Can they live without flesh to eat? Do you know whether they kill more ...
— The Tree-Dwellers • Katharine Elizabeth Dopp
... pay in Nabob-land, but I understand Indian histories no better than stocks. The council rebelled against the governors and sent a deputation, the Lord knows why, to the Nabob, who cut off the said deputies' heads, and then, I think, was disnabob'd himself, and Clive's old friend reinstated. There is another rebellion in Minorca, where Johnson [has renounced his allegiance ...
— The Letters of Horace Walpole Volume 3 • Horace Walpole
... my lady," replied the tar, "and why shouldn't I be? I've come all the way from Yankee America, to visit my native dust-heap, which never produced, beside its daily growth of what might be known the other side of the water, as nature's own pie-plant and sausage-improver, but one Sampson; but," added he, in a subdued voice, "may I ...
— Natalie - A Gem Among the Sea-Weeds • Ferna Vale
... "I do not see why," returned his wife Louise. "I think these pretty tributes for saving Mr. Jones' life are very appropriate. Of course neither Beth nor I had anything to do with that affair, but we are included in ...
— Aunt Jane's Nieces Out West • Edith Van Dyne
... all the time they was arranging their plans, and he heard all as they was saying. So Will Jones's wife Martha sends the lad to tell our Betty when the men was gone. She'd promised not to say anything herself, but that didn't bind the lad, so he came and told. What were we to do? Why, just the right thing were being ordered for us. Do ye remember ...
— Frank Oldfield - Lost and Found • T.P. Wilson
... spring, which is far better than it is in London; when the men cannot work they are hanging about the streets. It was with regret that I saw so many working on the Sunday desecrating the Sabbath. I inquired why they worked on Sunday; they told me it was to make up the time they lose through wet and other causes. I saw some working with only their trousers and shoes on, with a belt round their waist to keep their trousers up. Their naked back was exposed to the ...
— The Huguenots in France • Samuel Smiles
... "Gentlemen, I must disobey your wishes, for I can keep silence no more. You do not appear to lack wit, yet you do such actions as none but madmen could be capable of. Whatever befalls me I cannot forbear asking, 'Why you daub your faces with black, and how it is you are all blind of one eye?'" But they only answered that such questions were none of my business, and that I should do well to ...
— The Arabian Nights Entertainments • Andrew Lang.
... of its picturesque and vivid power. It is certainly a remarkable, if an offensive book. As with "Robinson Crusoe" and Defoe's other tales, we can hardly believe that we have not a real history before us. We feel that there is no reason why the events recorded should not have happened. There are no surprises; no unlooked-for catastrophes; no providential interpositions to punish the sinner or rescue the good man. Badman's pious wife is made to pay ...
— The Life of John Bunyan • Edmund Venables
... them. Poor things! they were in sad case, though how Cecile could break her heart over a fellow who had used her so vilely, I could never understand. He repented, they said. So much the better for him; but a pretty life he would have led her if he had recovered. Why, what is there for a French noble to do but to fight, dance attendance on the King, and be dissipated? There is no House of Lords, no Quarter-Sessions, no way of being useful; and if he tried to improve ...
— Stray Pearls • Charlotte M. Yonge
... the state of geographical knowledge in Europe in the fifteenth century? Why could not sailors have crossed the ocean before as well as then? Why were books of travel more abundant ...
— A Brief History of the United States • Barnes & Co.
... "Why, sky and earth and river, dear, and the little dicky birds all a-preening under this sweet, sunny veil of rain. Is not all this mystery of nature wonderful enough to ...
— The Hidden Children • Robert W. Chambers
... reason, in strawberry culture, when the vines are removed at the end of the fourth year, why the ground may not be thoroughly plowed and again planted ...
— One Thousand Questions in California Agriculture Answered • E.J. Wickson
... "Why, Miss Sallianna, sir—I don't care if you are paying your addresses! I say she's an odious old thing!—to be giving herself airs, and setting her ...
— The Last of the Foresters • John Esten Cooke
... subject dropped. A lady conversing with Father Philip on the same occasion said that if confession were to be practised, Protestant ministers ought to be like ours. 'Why?' asked Father Philip. 'Because,' answered the lady, 'if they have wives, no one will confess to them for fear of their repeating to their wives, straight off, the ...
— Studies from Court and Cloister • J.M. Stone
... in contact with a flame, its temperature rises seriously and may approach that of the base of the flame itself. In the case of coal-gas this phenomenon is not objectionable, is even advantageous, and it explains why a burner made of steatite, which conducts heat badly, in always more economical (of heat and therefore of light) than an iron one. In the case of acetylene the same rule should, and undoubtedly does, apply also; but it is ...
— Acetylene, The Principles Of Its Generation And Use • F. H. Leeds and W. J. Atkinson Butterfield
... "Poor Sue! She simply lives to do people good, and I can understand exactly how she feels toward them. I'll be round bright and early to-morrow to thank her. Why ...
— The Daughter of the Storage - And Other Things in Prose and Verse • William Dean Howells
... the petition to the Commons on the 15th January, Colonel Robert Tichborne, a member of the council, explained the reason why the petition varied in title from other petitions from the city, purporting, as it did, to come from the commons of the city alone, and not from the mayor, aldermen and commons, and with the petition presented a narrative of the proceedings that had taken place in the ...
— London and the Kingdom - Volume II • Reginald R. Sharpe
... the keyhole; and, while there, a feeling of vastness came over him such as we experience by the ever-moving sea, when the storm breaks forth; and it brought tears into his eyes. He did not himself know why he wept, yet a kind of pleasant feeling mingled with his tears. "How wonderfully glorious it would be to sit with the student under such a tree;" but that was out of the question, he must be content to look through the keyhole, and be ...
— Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen • Hans Christian Andersen
... worship returned here with double force. The rock, though on one side a high perpendicular wall, in no place overhung so as to form a shelter, in no place could it be more than a screen from the elements. Why then had it been selected for such a purpose? Was it merely from being a central situation and a conspicuous object? Or did there belong to it some inheritance of superstition from old times? It is impossible to look at the stone without asking, ...
— Recollections of a Tour Made in Scotland A.D. 1803 • Dorothy Wordsworth
... of a clerk of the supreme court, feels that her birth authorizes her to claim issue from a parliamentary family. This conviction explains why the lady, who is somewhat blotched as to complexion, endeavors to assume in her own person the majesty of a court whose decrees are recorded in her father's pothooks. She takes snuff, holds herself as stiff as a ramrod, poses for a person of consideration, ...
— Modeste Mignon • Honore de Balzac
... garden?' When told that there was a shrubbery to the extent of several miles: 'That is making a very foolish use of the ground; a little of it is very well.' When it was proposed that we should walk on the pleasure-ground; 'Don't let us fatigue ourselves. Why should we walk there? Here's a fine tree, let's get to the top of it.' But upon the whole, he was very much pleased. He said, 'This is one of the places I do not regret having come to see. It is a very stately place, indeed; in the house magnificence is not sacrificed to convenience, ...
— Life Of Johnson, Volume 4 (of 6) • Boswell
... contemplating this painful picture, Aunt Rachel enters the room to inquire if Lorenzo breakfasts with them. "Why! old mas'r, what ail ye dis mornin'? Ye don't seems nohow. Not a stripe like what ye was yesterday; somethin' gi 'h de wrong way, and mas'r done know what i' is," she mutters to herself, looking ...
— Our World, or, The Slaveholders Daughter • F. Colburn Adams
... been said, "has for its province the world of phenomena, and deals exclusively with their relations, consequences, or sequences. It can never tell us what a thing really and intrinsically is, but only why it has become so; it can only, in other words, refer us to one inscrutable as the ground and explanation of another inscrutable." "A science," says Schopenhauer, "anybody can learn, one perhaps with more, another with less trouble; but from ...
— The Nuttall Encyclopaedia - Being a Concise and Comprehensive Dictionary of General Knowledge • Edited by Rev. James Wood
... post-offices and newsboys. I have given warning that if any of the latter come within my grounds with his French things, I will souse him in the river, and hold him there till he shall be thoroughly chilled into a dislike of these parts. You will readily imagine why we are here. The excitements and distractions of city life for the last few months were too much for us, and there are some things that can only be enjoyed apart from the world. Here, we subside gradually ...
— The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine, June 1844 - Volume 23, Number 6 • Various
... people, or lovers of work, and no power on earth will make them so. The Colony's resources are, consequently, not a quarter developed, and are not likely to be by a strict application of the theory of the "Philippines for the Filipinos." But why worry about their lethargy, if, with it, they are on the way to "perfect contentment"?—that summit of human happiness which no one attains. Ideal government may reach a point where its exactions tend to ...
— The Philippine Islands • John Foreman
... they let him be king?" said Bevis; "I would not, if I were them. Why ever do they put up with him, and his cruelty and greediness? I will tell the thrush and the starling not to endure ...
— Wood Magic - A Fable • Richard Jefferies
... lots of water in all the cricks," offered old man Adams from his place by the fire. "Then with this cloud-bust an' downpour today, it ain't real nice travellin'. That would be about all that's holdin' Hap up. An' I'm tellin' you why: Did you ever hear a man tell of a stick-up party on a night like this? No, sir! These here stick-up gents got more sense than that; they'd be settin' nice an' snug an' dry ...
— Six Feet Four • Jackson Gregory
... speak truth, you would never have had it else; there were so many things in yours to put me out of humor. Thus, you see, it was on no design to repair anything that offended you. You only show me how industrious you are to find faults in me: why will you not suffer me to ...
— The Best of the World's Classics, Restricted to Prose, Vol. IV (of X)—Great Britain and Ireland II • Various
... Michael Angelo? "Non vero ma ben trovato" should be your motto; and if you refuse to kill your heroine on the Saturday night because, forsooth, she really did, despite all dramatic propriety, survive till Monday morning—why, please yourself; but do not bring your ...
— Archibald Malmaison • Julian Hawthorne
... meantime Petruchio was settling with himself the mode of courtship he should pursue; and he said, "I will woo her with some spirit when she comes. If she rails at me, why then I will tell her she sings as sweetly as a nightingale; and if she frowns, I will say she looks as clear as roses newly washed with dew. If she will not speak a word, I will praise the eloquence of her language; and if she bids me leave her, I will give ...
— Tales from Shakespeare • Charles Lamb and Mary Lamb
... the serum poured out by the irritated skin into which it is inserted. It increases in thickness as well as in diameter, and the eggs which now fill it grow also,—when mature, each being half as large as a perfect flea. Thus it is seen why the sand-flea cannot deposit its eggs as do the rest of the family. Probably it has no more food than it carries away within itself on quitting the egg, and therefore cannot provide the material for its greater development. Not only men and ...
— The Western World - Picturesque Sketches of Nature and Natural History in North - and South America • W.H.G. Kingston
... head straight when she should leave the temporary ways. By the mast, for the vessel had but one, stood Gilbert Warde, watching all that was done, with the profoundly ignorant interest which landsmen always show in nautical matters. It seemed very slow to him, and he wondered why the man with the long beard, far up the beach, did not let go, so that the boat might launch herself. And while he was trying to solve the problem, something happened which he could not understand: a chorus of wild yells went up ...
— Via Crucis • F. Marion Crawford
... honest man that I know no more about it than you do.' After considering a little, she made a sensible remark, and followed it by an embarrassing request. 'A great deal,' she said, 'must depend on the executioner. I am not afraid of death, Doctor. Why should I be? My anxiety about my little girl is set at rest; I have nothing left to live for. But I don't like pain. Would you mind telling the executioner to be careful? Or would it be better if I spoke to him myself?' I said I thought it would come with ...
— The Legacy of Cain • Wilkie Collins
... the thing," objected Carol, nestling close to her father; "it wouldn't be mine. What is the use? Haven't I almost everything already, and am I not the happiest girl in the world this year, with Uncle Jack and Donald at home? You know very well it is more blessed to give than to receive; so why won't you let me do it? You never look half as happy when you are getting your presents as when you are giving us ours. Now, Papa, submit, or I shall have to be very ...
— The Bird's Christmas Carol • Kate Douglas Wiggin
... could be adduced of the fallacy of perfection implied in the minds of most critics at the mention of Giorgione's name; yet if we accept the Louvre "Concert," if we accept the Hermitage "Judith," why dispute Giorgione's claim on the ground of "weakness of construction"? This "Venus and Cupid" is vastly inferior in quality to the Dresden "Venus,"—let us frankly admit it,—but it is none the less characteristic of the artist, who must not be judged by the ...
— Giorgione • Herbert Cook
... "Why truly choose such as have a long time given testimony by their actions to be promoters of Common Freedom, whether they be Members in Church Fellowship, or not in Church Fellowship, for ...
— The Digger Movement in the Days of the Commonwealth • Lewis H. Berens
... do more to help all our children read. Forty percent—40 percent—of our 8-year-olds cannot read on their own. That's why we have just launched the America Reads initiative, to build a citizen army of one million volunteer tutors to make sure every child can read independently by the end of the 3rd grade. We will use thousands of AmeriCorps volunteers to mobilize this citizen army. We want at ...
— State of the Union Addresses of William J. Clinton • William J. Clinton
... began, and was at once acknowledged by the Speaker, for it was a maiden speech, and as such was entitled to precedence by the courteous custom of the House, 'I know why the Right Honourable Member from the City did not conclude his speech with a proposal. The only way to conclude such a speech appropriately would be ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain
... interferes to prevent the circulation of spurious coin.' Counterfeit coin is more readily detected than a fictitious paper currency, yet no sane man would advocate the repeal of the laws which prohibit it. Why, then, permit the unlimited manufacture of paper money of ...
— The Continental Monthly, Vol. IV. October, 1863, No. IV. - Devoted to Literature and National Policy. • Various
... time to answer, raised the bottle to his lips, exclaiming: "Here's to the unification of Germany!" which sentiment the gurgling of an astonishingly long drink seemed to emphasize. The Count then handed the bottle back to his nephew, who, shaking it, ejaculated, "Why, we can't pledge you in return—there is nothing left!" to which came the waggish response, "I beg pardon; it was so dark I couldn't see"; nevertheless there was a little remaining, ...
— The Memoirs of General Philip H. Sheridan, Vol. II., Part 6 • P. H. Sheridan
... enunciated. "The door was locked. Why—why should the woman want to lock her bedroom door when ...
— A Sheaf of Corn • Mary E. Mann
... that is why I found him uncongenial. Anyhow, we were quite unsuited to each other—we hadn't ...
— Joanna Godden • Sheila Kaye-Smith
... The ways of Deity to man are indeed past finding out. Why, the long and dreadful struggle of a kindred people, the awful bloodshed and havoc of four weary years, leaving us at the close measurably where we were at the beginning, is one of the mysteries which should prove to us that there ...
— Marse Henry, Complete - An Autobiography • Henry Watterson
... even cold, but it brought her no disquiet. Marriage! That was the only vision it conjured up. The death of the Deemster had hastened things—that was the meaning of the urgency. Port Mooar was near to Ballure—that was why she had to go so far. They would have to face gossip, perhaps backbiting, perhaps even abuse—that was the reason she had to be brave. Why and how the Deemster's death should affect her marriage with Philip was a matter she did ...
— The Manxman - A Novel - 1895 • Hall Caine
... star that hasna got its tail cuttit aff yet!" Exquisite astronomical speculation! Stars, like puppies, are born with tails, and in due time have them docked. Take an example of a story where there is no display of any one's wit or humour, and yet it is a good story, and one can't exactly say why:—An English traveller had gone on a fine Highland road so long, without having seen an indication of fellow-travellers, that he became astonished at the solitude of the country; and no doubt before the Highlands were so much frequented as they are in our time, the roads sometimes ...
— Reminiscences of Scottish Life and Character • Edward Bannerman Ramsay
... come when she looked down upon him, bleeding and helpless, in the sand. Undoubtedly she had thought he was dying. But why, when she saw his eyes open a little later, had she cried out her gratitude to God? What had worked the sudden transformation in her? Why had she labored to save the life she had so atrociously coveted ...
— The Flaming Forest • James Oliver Curwood
... "Why? They were all consumed with curiosity about you. Alice has advertised our romantic story, you see." She clasped her hands together and adopted a pose in caricature of the play heroine in an ...
— Who Cares? • Cosmo Hamilton
... Shakespeare and Milton, Hazlitt maintains that the arts reach their perfection in the early periods and are not continually progressive like the sciences—an idea which he frequently comes back to in his writings, notably in the "Round Table" paper, "Why the Arts are ...
— Hazlitt on English Literature - An Introduction to the Appreciation of Literature • Jacob Zeitlin
... jitters to see him pointing his weapon at her. I don't know why I stood there watching him take careful aim, but I did. Then he squeezed the handle of his weapon; there was a little puff of steam, and Fancy Long was gone! And in her place was one of those writhing, black, rope-armed horrors like the ...
— A Martian Odyssey • Stanley Grauman Weinbaum
... sudden change of temperature, resulting in a shrinkage or expansion in some too susceptible part of the frame. Therefore, concluded that illustrious Philosopher, neither good conduct nor bad conduct is a fit subject, in any sober estimation, for either praise or blame. For why should you praise, for example, the integrity of a Square who faithfully defends the interests of his client, when you ought in reality rather to admire the exact precision of his right angles? Or again, why blame ...
— Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions (Illustrated) • Edwin A. Abbott
... autocratic state par excellence. If there were no other reason, this should be sufficient to make every true democrat an enemy of Austria. Furthermore, it is this characteristic which makes us comprehend why the Habsburg monarchy is fighting side by side with German autocracy and imperialism against the allied ...
— Independent Bohemia • Vladimir Nosek
... "Why should they be giving it to us? Besides, there is no room on the Snark for it. We could not eat a tithe of it. The rest would spoil. Maybe they are inviting us to the feast. At any rate, that they should give all that ...
— The Cruise of the Snark • Jack London
... multiply in peace. They conquered the desert; they prospered with the years that brought settlers, cattle-men, sheep-herders, all hostile to their religion and their livelihood. Nor did they ever fail to succor the sick and unfortunate. What are our toils and perils compared to theirs? Why should we forsake the path of duty, and turn from mercy because of a cut-throat outlaw? I like not the sign of the times, but I am a Mormon; I ...
— The Heritage of the Desert • Zane Grey
... "Why, a woman's mind 's no more 'n a feather in a gale of wind at her time o' life; though to tell her so 's the sure way to make ...
— Children of the Mist • Eden Phillpotts
... interior in person. "The tongue is well, and the pulse begins to lower again. Ah! the bleeding did you good. Phlebotomy is a sovereign specific for southern constitutions. But that madcap Lawton absolutely refused to be blooded for a fall he had from his horse last night. Why, George, your case is becoming singular," continued the doctor, instinctively throwing aside his wig. "Your pulse even and soft, your skin moist, but your eye fiery, and cheek flushed. Oh! I must examine more closely into ...
— The Spy • James Fenimore Cooper
... and makes my living, and I keeps so busy I don't think back on the old days much, but if anybody ask me why the Texas Negroes been kept down so much I can tell them. If they set like I did on the bank at that ferry across the Sabine, and see all that long line of covered wagons, miles and miles of them, crossing that river and going west with all they got ...
— Slave Narratives, Oklahoma - A Folk History of Slavery in the United States From - Interviews with Former Slaves • Various
... away. It is the hour when trade grows dull and tradesmen grow duller; it is the hour that Howell loveth not and Stultz cannot abide; though the first may be consoled by the ghosts of his departed millions of mouchoirs, and the second by the vision of coming millions of shooting-jackets. Oh, why that sigh, my gloomy Mr. Gunter? Oh, why that frown, my gentle ...
— The Young Duke • Benjamin Disraeli
... saw immediately possibilities in the idea. Years of working and scheming and praying to raise her ever increasing family on the inadequate and varying income of her inventor husband had ultimated in keen sensibilities for opportunities. "Why, I think I can do that," she said. "I'll make a sort of shirred bag into which your toes will fit and so lengthen the slipper and cover the stitching with a bow. I hope I can find a needle strong enough to go through the leather." ...
— Suzanna Stirs the Fire • Emily Calvin Blake
... the senses. Indeed, neither by Brahmacharya, nor by the study of the Vedas, nor by (religious) rites, nor by weapons, can any one prevent death. Hearing of the slaughter of Bhishma and Drona, those heroes accomplished in weapons, respected by all the worlds, and invincible in battle, why O Sanjaya, do I yet live? In consequence of the death of Bhishma and Drona, O Sanjaya, we will henceforth have to live as dependants on that prosperity beholding which in Yudhishthira we had before been so jealous. Indeed, this destruction ...
— The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 2 • Kisari Mohan Ganguli
... "Why, you dance beautifully!" exclaimed Mr. Bennet, when the music stopped. "I verily believe," very softly, "that you were fibbing when you said ...
— The Heart of Arethusa • Francis Barton Fox
... part and take care of himself. The Author listened to the various speeches without speaking and became satisfied that it would end in every one looking out for himself in case of hard times. He went over to their camp again the next night and wished to ask them why they were steering so nearly due north. He said to them that they were going toward Salt Lake rather than California, and that the Bennet party did not feel inclined to follow them any farther in that direction. They replied that their map told them to ...
— Death Valley in '49 • William Lewis Manly
... do not imitate our neighbors in all their policy; neither do we like to see so often those who set at naught the laws of friendly states. Why art ...
— The Headsman - The Abbaye des Vignerons • James Fenimore Cooper
... life" is resolving itself at the present into another book, in twenty green leaves. You work like a Trojan at Ventnor, but you do that everywhere; and that's why you are ...
— The Letters of Charles Dickens - Vol. 2 (of 3), 1857-1870 • Charles Dickens
... feeling bitterly sorry for me," she said. "But you must let me speak— that is all I ask. It is all love asks. I cannot bear that you should not share my thoughts. That is the thing that has hurt—hurt so all these months, these long hard months, when I could not see you, and did not know why I could not. Don't shake so, please! Hear me to the end, and we shall both be the better after. I felt it all so cruelly, because I did not—and I do not—understand. I rebelled, but not against you. I rebelled against myself, against what you called ...
— The Judgment House • Gilbert Parker
... Kahekili and Prince Kamalau. And with the Princess was Ella Higginsworth, who rightly claimed higher chief blood lines through the Kauai descent than belonged to the reigning family, and Dora Niles, and Emily Lowcroft, and . . . oh, why enumerate them all! Ella Higginsworth and I had been room-mates at the Royal Chief School. And there was a great resting time for an hour—no luau, for the luau awaited them at the Parkers'—but beer and stronger drinks for the men, and lemonade, ...
— On the Makaloa Mat/Island Tales • Jack London
... muscle but of Colonel Manners, who replied, with great simplicity, "Why, that's because that's the tune ...
— The Diary and Letters of Madam D'Arblay Volume 2 • Madame D'Arblay
... "That's why I came to see you," he explained. "Of course, if it's necessary to confide also in your neighbor over there, I'll do it; but I thought that perhaps you could suggest some less ...
— The Wall Street Girl • Frederick Orin Bartlett
... "Why, man," cried my father, angrily, "did I not tell you they were tame! And now you have lost us good provender!" He raised ...
— Sir John Constantine • Prosper Paleologus Constantine
... don't know that I can. But one principal reason why I hurried here, after getting Simmons' telegram last night, is this: In the newspapers there is a good deal of mention of a Mr. John Horbury, manager of a bank in this town. He, too, you tell me, has disappeared. Now, I happen to possess a remarkably good memory, and ...
— The Chestermarke Instinct • J. S. Fletcher
... a faint smile, as he released his hold; "it can come to no harm in thy keeping, child. For an instant I thought that rougher hands had seized it. But why remove it?" ...
— The Prairie Chief • R.M. Ballantyne
... interesting conversation with Mr. Balfour this afternoon. "It's sad to me," said he, "that we are so unpopular, so much more unpopular than the French, in your country. Why is it? The old ...
— The Life and Letters of Walter H. Page, Volume II • Burton J. Hendrick
... "Why, no," said the paper-hanger detective. "Not under it, because it wasn't located nowhere to have an under to it. Mr. Bilton hadn't signed on ...
— Philo Gubb Correspondence-School Detective • Ellis Parker Butler
... "Why, Grandfather, here is the very arm!" interrupted Charley, in great wonderment. "And did Sir William Phips put in these screws with his own hands? I am sure he did it beautifully! But how came a governor to know how ...
— Grandfather's Chair • Nathaniel Hawthorne
... and uncertainty through contrary and confusing courses, he rushes headlong and falls into woeful shipwreck, and shatters his life. So that from these points of view it is worse to be diseased in mind than body, for the latter only suffer, but the former do ill as well as suffer ill. But why need I speak of our various passions? The very times bring them to our mind. Do you see yon great and promiscuous crowd jostling against one another and surging round the rostrum and forum? They ...
— Plutarch's Morals • Plutarch
... not pray, grandfather?" she said, regarding him uneasily. "Sister Anastasia and good Father Anselm always taught me to utter an Ave and cross myself during a thunderstorm. Why do ...
— Windsor Castle • William Harrison Ainsworth
... precise contents, if the very details of its construction, can at this distance of time be only conjecturally ascertained,—what right has any one to appeal to "the Sections of Ammonius," as to a known document? Why above all do Tischendorf, Tregelles, and the rest deliberately claim "Ammonius" for their ally on an occasion like the present; seeing that they must needs be perfectly well aware that they have no means whatever of knowing (except from the precarious evidence ...
— The Last Twelve Verses of the Gospel According to S. Mark • John Burgon
... down. I'm gettin' to be an' old man," he went on, "an' what with some investments I've got, an' a hoss-trade once in a while, I guess I c'n manage to keep the fire goin' in the kitchin stove fer Polly an' me, an' the' ain't no reason why I sh'd keep my sign up much of any longer. Of course," he said, "if I was to go on as I be now I'd want ye to stay jest as you are; but, as I was sayin', you're to a consid'able extent independent. You hain't no speciul ties to ...
— David Harum - A Story of American Life • Edward Noyes Westcott
... minstrel," said Wong Pao, with dignified condescension. "Why do you persist in exercising your illustrious talent outside ...
— Kai Lung's Golden Hours • Ernest Bramah
... a lie, Rivenoak, as it may be; but I am not likely to turn pale, seeing that I was born pale. What's your ar'n'd, and why do you come among light bark canoes, on logs that are ...
— The Deerslayer • James Fenimore Cooper
... "Do you know why we ran away? To escape the conscription. If you give us up, all our adventures, our dangers, our escapes, will be as nothing, and we shall ...
— The Valiant Runaways • Gertrude Atherton
... now passed without striking events, and the greatest discontent was caused by the long inactivity. Kambula and Gingihlovo had shown how British troops, when steady, could defeat great masses of the enemy; and it was inexplicable to all why a British force of some 15,000 men could remain for weeks inactive within but four days' march of the stronghold of the enemy. So great had the discontent become, both in England and Natal, at the extraordinary inaction of the British troops, that the ...
— Our Soldiers - Gallant Deeds of the British Army during Victoria's Reign • W.H.G. Kingston
... on one that this is the home of these people, their home as it was their fathers' and their fathers' home before them. They are contented and happy. Why leave their sun-kissed, wind-swept heights, seven thousand feet high, for ...
— I Married a Ranger • Dama Margaret Smith
... where Joe lay sleeping heavily, after convincing himself of the reason why the turning had come to an end where it did, for the vein had run upward, gradually growing thinner till, at some thirty feet up, as far as he could make out by his dim light, the men had ceased working, probably from the supply not ...
— Sappers and Miners - The Flood beneath the Sea • George Manville Fenn
... pleased with the rod, on the whole. He attached the line, with a fly at the end, in order to give it a thorough trial, and gave a scientific "cast" into an imaginary pool. It was a splendid rod, just right for him; how he wished he was up above Gusset Weir at that moment! Why, he could— ...
— The Fifth Form at Saint Dominic's - A School Story • Talbot Baines Reed
... description on the statesmen and the nation, and to inspirit and sustain the struggling Catholics. A powerful argument for throwing open the British army and navy to men of all religions, was drawn from these foreign experiences; and, if such men were worthy to hold military commissions, why not also to sit in ...
— A Popular History of Ireland - From the earliest period to the emancipation of the Catholics • Thomas D'Arcy McGee
... and we went for a motor ride together out to Aranjuez, where we saw the Palacio Real, and then on to Toledo where we visited the wonderful cathedral and the great Elcazar. I did not get back to the hotel till past ten o'clock that night, but I found Duperre anxious and perturbed. Why, I failed to understand, except that he seemed filled with annoyance that his plans ...
— The Golden Face - A Great 'Crook' Romance • William Le Queux
... doubt as to the sincerity of the organized farmers, why did their pioneer business agency spend its substance in educational directions instead of solely along the straight commercial lines of the concerns with which it was in competition? The very mould into which it poured its energies shaped special difficulties, ...
— Deep Furrows • Hopkins Moorhouse
... deep for me sometimes," he said. "I'm not subtle, Elizabeth. I daresay I'm stupid in lots of things. But I'm not stupid about this. I'm not trying to get a promise, you know. I only want you to know how things are. I don't want to know why he went away, or why he doesn't come back. I only want you to face the facts. I'd be good to you," he finished, in a low tone. "I'd spend my life thinking of ways to ...
— The Breaking Point • Mary Roberts Rinehart
... came, she would come to us gladly. We had it all arranged. You won't want to marry for a year or so, yet. You'll want to have some happy sweetheart days first. And you'll want to make a lot of those pretty, useless, nonsensical things other girls make when they marry. That's why I advised you to save your burglar money,—so you would have it for this. We'll have Aunt Grace come right away, so you can take a little freedom to be happy, and to make your plans. And you can initiate Aunt Grace into the mysteries of ...
— Prudence of the Parsonage • Ethel Hueston
... on the sofa, said, "Of course not. What silly things you children do ask! Why can't you amuse yourselves in the nursery? It is very hard you should come and disturb me for ...
— A Great Emergency and Other Tales - A Great Emergency; A Very Ill-Tempered Family; Our Field; Madam Liberality • Juliana Horatia Gatty Ewing
... within rifle range from the angles of the square, whilst 2,000 yards west of its western face a tall peak, called Coles Kop, rises abruptly from the encircling plain, and dominates the entire terrain. The isolation of this hill was doubtless the reason why it was not occupied by the Boers. They were in strength everywhere along the hilly ramparts around Colesberg. French, therefore, perceiving the formidable nature of this "natural fortress,"[260] contented himself ...
— History of the War in South Africa 1899-1902 v. 1 (of 4) - Compiled by Direction of His Majesty's Government • Frederick Maurice
... casualties incident to human life. On sugar plantations the profit is much more on each individual; but the risk is greater, and the deaths are generally calculated at one-third of the gang in ten years: this is the cause why slaves on sugar plantations are so miserably fed and clad, for their being rendered less wretched would not make them less susceptible to the epidemic. Each acre of well-cultivated land produces from one and a half to two bales of cotton, and even the first year the ...
— A Ramble of Six Thousand Miles through the United States of America • S. A. Ferrall
... head. She had no illusions, but she said, 'Then why not pretend it's me. Tell her all you do. Ask her advice—you needn't ...
— THE MISSES MALLETT • E. H. YOUNG
... a sword, a fatal blade, Unthwarted, subtle as the air, And I could meet it unafraid If I might only meet it fair. Yet how I wonder why the Smith Who wrought that steel of subtle grain Should also be contented with So blunt and mean a ...
— Twenty • Stella Benson
... Where art thou, my beloved Son, Where art thou, worse to me than dead? Oh find me, prosperous or undone! Or, if the grave be now thy bed, Why am I ignorant of the same 5 That I may rest; and neither blame Nor ...
— The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth, Vol. III • William Wordsworth
... Why doesn't The World Factbook include information on states, departments, provinces, etc., in the ...
— The 2004 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency
... No delusion could possibly be more marked, for he would talk of little else, so I filled in the papers without the slightest hesitation. When his wife arrived, after he had left, I put some questions to her to complete the form. 'What is his age?' I asked. 'Fifty,' said she. 'Fifty!' I cried. 'Why, the man I examined could not have been more than thirty! And so it came out that the real Mr. Cooper had never called upon me at all, but that by one of those coincidences which take a man's breath away another Cooper, ...
— Round the Red Lamp - Being Facts and Fancies of Medical Life • Arthur Conan Doyle
... why, seeking for a party, I cannot accept the present action against the Irish establishment as materially affecting my choice; but I must add that the Church question does not, in point of statesmanship, appear to me to be either the most important or ...
— Memoirs of James Robert Hope-Scott, Volume 2 • Robert Ornsby
... we say, "The house is building," the advocates of the new theory ask, "Building what?" We might ask, in turn, when you say, "The field ploughs well,"—"Ploughs what?" "Wheat sells well,"—"Sells what?" If usage allows us to say, "Wheat sells at a dollar," in a sense that is not active, why may we not say, "Wheat is selling at a dollar," in a sense that is not active?'—Hart's 'Grammar,' p. 76. 'The prevailing practice of the best authors is in favor of the simple form; as, "The house is building."'—Wells' 'School Grammar,' p. 148. 'Several other ...
— The Verbalist • Thomas Embly Osmun, (AKA Alfred Ayres)
... "Why," inquired the skipper, when we had both a good laugh at Garry and his account of the Boisson episode, "have they left, then, the ...
— The Ghost Ship - A Mystery of the Sea • John C. Hutcheson
... that?" cried Ralph stoutly, as the man's words endorsed the character so lately given of him. "If," argued Ralph to himself, "the fellow were the honest, brave soldier, why should he fear treachery from the brother-officer with whom he said he had ...
— The Black Tor - A Tale of the Reign of James the First • George Manville Fenn
... "Why, the governor hath resolved upon a day, or rather a week, of holiday and of thanksgiving for the mercies God hath showed us. Think of it, Pris! A whole week of ...
— Standish of Standish - A story of the Pilgrims • Jane G. Austin
... walked rapidly but for a few blocks; his dinner had been too insufficient to give him strength, after the first aimless anger had subsided. Then came the question what to do with himself. Why hadn't he gone with the fellows? More than likely some of them had contrived a way to get a dinner. Why had he persisted in sullenly leaving ...
— Ester Ried Yet Speaking • Isabella Alden
... and achieve more. There is a higher civilization, a greater emphasis on the value of human life and character, and a stronger endeavour for the utmost development of all human material, if we may so call the souls and faculties of men. Why should there be this correspondence between Jesus of Nazareth and human life? It is best brought out, when we realize what he has made of Christian society, and contrast it with what the various religions have left or produced in other regions—the atrophy ...
— The Jesus of History • T. R. Glover
... Tell me how Wales was made so happy as T' inherit such a haven: but, first of all, How we may steal from hence; and for the gap That we shall make in time, from our hence-going, And our return, t' excuse:—but, first, how get hence: Why should excuse be born or e'er begot? We'll talk ...
— Shakespeare: His Life, Art, And Characters, Volume I. • H. N. Hudson
... the good of each that we should exchange. The Great Spirit, who is all-wise, as well as all-good, has seen fit to scatter His children over a wide world, and He has given some of them too much of one thing, some of them too much of another. Why has He done so? May we not think that it is for the purpose of causing His children to move about the world, and mingle, and help each other, and so increase Love? Some of the bad children prefer to move about and steal. But there is no need. It is easier ...
— The Big Otter • R.M. Ballantyne
... "Why not make my contribution equal to yours and call it an even two hundred thousand dollars?" ...
— Mrs. Raffles - Being the Adventures of an Amateur Crackswoman • John Kendrick Bangs
... their antiquity, and what is called their Attic neatness, and yet have never noticed the same quality in Cato. It was the distinguishing character, say they, of Lysias and Hyperides. I own it, and I admire them for it: but why not allow a share of it to Cato? They are fond, they tell us, of the Attic style of Eloquence: and their choice is certainly judicious, provided they borrow the blood and the healthy juices, as well as the bones and membranes. What they recommend, however, is, ...
— Cicero's Brutus or History of Famous Orators; also His Orator, or Accomplished Speaker. • Marcus Tullius Cicero
... that white, yellow, or striped roses are diseased when the color of the type species is red. Nobody thinks of saying that double flowers are evidences of disease in the plant, or that diminution in the size of leaves or variation in their form is a disease. Why then should it be said that because leaves may become of some other color than green, or become party-colored, therefore they are diseased? If it be said that flowers are not leaves, and that therefore the analogy is not a good one, the reply is, that flowers ...
— Scientific American, Volume XLIII., No. 25, December 18, 1880 • Various
... at that time dwelt a basketmaker named Didymus Farrow. Why he was called Didymus ...
— Miriam's Schooling and Other Papers - Gideon; Samuel; Saul; Miriam's Schooling; and Michael Trevanion • Mark Rutherford
... see that the sixty-four lights add up an even number vertically and horizontally, but that all the diagonal lines, except fourteen are of a number that is odd? Why is this?" ...
— Amusements in Mathematics • Henry Ernest Dudeney
... It was ridiculous; she never had heard of such customs! "Well, then, why not ask Tornik?" she suggested. "He is not an Italian." The princess demurred. It might be possible to ask Tornik—still it was better not. Unless Nina wanted to marry Tornik? Apparently there was little use in pursuing this subject further, so she laughed ...
— The Title Market • Emily Post
... in his saddle, but, as he approached, made a respectful obeisance to the president, which the latter acknowledged by a cold salute. Then, addressing his prisoner in a tone of severity, Gasca abruptly inquired, - "Why he had thrown the country into such confusion; - raising the banner of revolt; killing the viceroy; usurping the government; and obstinately refusing the offers of grace that had been ...
— The History Of The Conquest Of Peru • William H. Prescott
... you're kin' o' cur'ous, now, to know why I hain't writ. Wal, I've ben where a litt'ry taste don't somehow seem to git Th' encouragement a feller'd think, thet's used to public schools, An' where sech things ez paper 'n' ink air clean agin the rules: A kind o' vicyvarsy house, built ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell • James Lowell
... the knowledge of the particulars out of which they were induced and collected; and that it was not the light of those causes which discovered particulars, but only the particulars being first found, men did fall on glossing and discoursing of the causes; which is the reason why the learning that now is hath the curse of barrenness, and is courtesanlike, for pleasure, and not for fruit. Nay to compare it rightly, the strange fiction of the poets of the transformation of Scylla seemeth to be a lively ...
— Valerius Terminus: of the Interpretation of Nature • Sir Francis Bacon
... But why question this fact when we can refer to the ancient and once glorious kingdoms of Meroe, Nubia, and Ethiopia, and to the prowess and skill of other ancient and interior African Nations? And among the existing nations of interior Africa, there is seen a manifold ...
— History of the Negro Race in America From 1619 to 1880. Vol 1 - Negroes as Slaves, as Soldiers, and as Citizens • George W. Williams
... Why am I going away?... I want a time to come when I must shudder at myself. Shudder as deeply as you can only when nothing has been left untried. Just as you have had to do when you looked back upon your life. Or have ...
— The Lonely Way—Intermezzo—Countess Mizzie - Three Plays • Arthur Schnitzler
... of not knowing why. Then the trial—"Jon Farmer 8267, we show you a copy of The Mushroom Farmers' Journal of 21 January 2204. We call your attention to the article Experiments With Red Lake Mushrooms in Rock Soil. This article discusses with favor some policies of the Dictatorium ...
— Out of the Earth • George Edrich
... justice of all human beings towards women. You will think you take generous views of her; but you will never begin to know through what a strange sea of feeling she passed before she accepted you. As she stood there in front of you the other day, she plunged into it. She said 'Why not?' to something which, a few hours earlier, had been inconceivable. She turned about on a thousand gathered prejudices and traditions as on a pivot, and looked where she had never looked hitherto. When I think of it—when ...
— The American • Henry James
... last sermon I partly considered the dialogue of which this is the concluding portion, and found that it consisted of an audacious question: 'Why cannot I follow Thee now?' which really meant a contradiction of our Lord; of a rash vow; 'I will lay down my life for Thy sake'—and of a sad forecast: 'The cock shall not crow till thou hast denied Me thrice.' I paused in the middle of considering ...
— Expositions of Holy Scripture - St. John Chapters I to XIV • Alexander Maclaren
... being quite free from yellow fever. But the heat in summer, and the number of poisonous insects, are great drawbacks. Of these, the alacrans, or scorpions, which haunt all the houses, are amongst the worst. Their bite is poisonous, and, to a child, deadly, which is one of the many reasons why these estates are left entirely to the charge of an agent, and though visited occasionally by the proprietor, rarely lived in by the family. The effects are more or less violent in different constitutions. Some persons will remain ...
— Life in Mexico • Frances Calderon de la Barca
... the space of a moment[?]. I smote them, I slew them, so that one of them cried to another, saying, "It is no man" [superhuman]. Mighty was he who was among them, Soutech, the most glorious. Baal was in my limbs; why was every enemy weak? his hand was in all my limbs. They knew not how to hold the bow and the spear. As soon as they saw him, they fled far away with speed, but his Majesty was upon them like a greyhound. He slew them, so that they ...
— Egyptian Literature
... the Building of Opera Houses A Study of Influences The First Italian Opera House in New York Early Impresarios and Singers Da Ponte, Montressor, Rivafinoli Signorina Pedrotti and Fornasari Why Do Men Become Opera-Managers? Addison and Italian ...
— Chapters of Opera • Henry Edward Krehbiel
... Gilmore play captain for a while, while you take the rest you have so well earned. Why, you've been working like a steam-engine ever since you landed in Luzon. Gilbert Pennington says he never dreamed there was so much fight in you, and predicts that you'll come out a brigadier general by the time Aguinaldo and his army ...
— The Campaign of the Jungle - or, Under Lawton through Luzon • Edward Stratemeyer
... snow in ordinary scenery which such men do not like. But when the same qualities are exhibited on a magnificent Alpine scale and in a position where they interfere with no feeling of life, I see not why they should be neglected, as they have hitherto been, unless that the difficulty of reconciling the brilliancy of snow with a picturesque light and shade, is so great that most good artists disguise or avoid the greater part of upper Alpine scenery, and hint at the glacier ...
— Modern Painters Volume I (of V) • John Ruskin
... "'O foolish man! why such unwillingness to believe in and to serve thy God, the God of the Universe? What did He more for Moses His servant, and for David? Since thy birth, has He not had for thee the most tender solicitude; and when he saw thee of an age ...
— Celebrated Travels and Travellers - Part I. The Exploration of the World • Jules Verne
... "But why should you hesitate? You have only to wait for the year to roll by and then turn your troubles over to the natives. Young Browne can't marry Miss Ruthven inside of a year, simply because there is no Miss ...
— The Man From Brodney's • George Barr McCutcheon
... showed the risk, just as plainly as the map also showed it, to be a mattress factory, a class prohibited by the Guardian, and there were Smith's own interwoven initials. Then, suddenly, at the sight of the hieroglyph, he remembered. "Why, you passed this line yourself, Mr. O'Connor," was on his lips to say. But he did not say it. For by the cold light in the eyes of the Vice-President he ...
— White Ashes • Sidney R. Kennedy and Alden C. Noble
... folly to remain with them longer than was absolutely necessary. They could not gain a word of information from the woman or children as to how they had arrived at such a pitiable plight, what they had done with the stolen provisions, why their friends had abandoned them, or what had become ...
— Under the Great Bear • Kirk Munroe
... ever spent any portion of their time in the province of Archangel unless compelled to do so. In addition to this liberty and freedom, there was also the stimulating effect of the cold, rigorous climate and therefore it is more readily understood why the peasants of this region are more energetic, more intelligent, more independent and better educated than the inhabitants of the ...
— The History of the American Expedition Fighting the Bolsheviki - Campaigning in North Russia 1918-1919 • Joel R. Moore
... It may be asked, "Why this ugly word—spoliation? It is not only coarse, but it wounds and irritates; it turns calm and moderate men against you, and ...
— Sophisms of the Protectionists • Frederic Bastiat
... wandered on, "you are wondering why the deuce I tell you all this. Fact is, you'd hear it all if I didn't, and a good deal more that isn't true besides. But I believe you're the sort of chap to ...
— The Inheritors • Joseph Conrad
... And why had Lara cross'd the bounding main?— Left by his sire too young such loss to know, Lord of himself; that heritage of woe. In him, inexplicably mix'd, appear'd Much to be loved and hated, sought and ...
— The Life of Lord Byron • John Galt
... with pity and grief to the poor woman's tale of woe, and impatiently said, "Why did not your husband follow the black thieves and bring ...
— The Forest King - Wild Hunter of the Adaca • Hervey Keyes |
