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Commence   Listen
verb
Commence  v. i.  (past & past part. commenced; pres. part. commencing)  
1.
To have a beginning or origin; to originate; to start; to begin. "Here the anthem doth commence." "His heaven commences ere the world be past."
2.
To begin to be, or to act as. (Archaic) "We commence judges ourselves."
3.
To take a degree at a university. (Eng.) "I question whether the formality of commencing was used in that age."






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Commence" Quotes from Famous Books



... guilt. But I do not think that we need go into the question of his guilt at all." When he said this, the other four all looked up at him in astonishment. "I thought that we had been summoned here for that purpose," said Mr Robarts. "Not at all, as I take it," said the doctor. "Were we to commence any such inquiry, the jury would have given their verdict before we could come to any conclusion; and it would be impossible for us to oppose that verdict, whether it declares this unfortunate gentleman ...
— The Last Chronicle of Barset • Anthony Trollope

... Spaniards saw in all this a connivance with the invaders. The latter no doubt conjectured rightly. Anda, acting upon the views of his party, precipitated matters by appearing with 14 Spanish soldiers and a crowd of native bowmen to commence the slaughter in the town of Guagua. The Chinese assembled there in great numbers, and Anda endeavoured in vain to induce them to surrender to him. He then sent a Spaniard, named Miguel Garces, with a message, offering ...
— The Philippine Islands • John Foreman

... that the stalls of the knights companions be decked with cloth of tissue, with their scutcheons set at the back; and that all be ready at the hour of tierce-hora tertia vespertina, as appointed by his majesty's own statute—at which time the eve of the feast shall be held to commence." ...
— Windsor Castle • William Harrison Ainsworth

... souvent qu'un terme propre a rendre une idee, nous aimons mieux affoiblir l'idee que de ne pas employer un terme noble.[3] Quelle perte pour ceux d'entre nos Ecrivains qui ont l'imagination forte, que celle de tant de mots que nous revoyons avec plaisir dans Amyot & dans Montagne. Ils ont commence par etre rejettes du beau style, parce qu'ils avoient passe dans le peuple; & ensuite rebutes par le peuple meme, qui a la longue est toujours le singe des Grands, ils sont devenus ...
— Society for Pure English, Tract 3 (1920) - A Few Practical Suggestions • Society for Pure English

... he made a sickening attempt at a smile. Poor fellow!—as I thought of HIS WIFE, I wondered that he could have heart to put on even the semblance of mirth. At last I ventured a home thrust. I determined to commence a series of covert insinuations, or innuendoes, about the oblong box—just to let him perceive, gradually, that I was NOT altogether the butt, or victim, of his little bit of pleasant mystification. My first observation was by way of opening a masked battery. I said something ...
— Stories by Modern American Authors • Julian Hawthorne

... railway system. This eminent engineer is a rare example of a self-taught genius. Born of parents too poor to give him any schooling, at eighteen years of age, when full grown, and following the occupation of a fireman, he was not ashamed to commence his education at an evening school. His steady industry and unconquerable perseverance ultimately won for him a position second to none in his profession. Looking at the influence of his labours on the whole human race, there are few names on the pages of history ...
— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. - From George III. to Victoria • E. Farr and E. H. Nolan

... granted him from the royal estate, inasmuch as he has made the expedition without any personal aid from the king. That he and two heirs be allowed to hold all the forts established by him, with the salary agreed upon with Velasco, and that such holding and salary commence with the fort of Cebu. That the title of high constable, for himself and heirs, of all lands discovered and colonized by him, be confirmed. That he may have two of the Ladrone Islands, with the title of adelantado, provided he conquer and colonize ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803, Volume II, 1521-1569 • Emma Helen Blair

... so far, told us that the additive law is obeyed in solid media, and that the increased ionisation attending the slowing down of the ray obtaining in gases, also obtains in solids; for, otherwise, the halo would not commence its development as a spherical shell or envelope. But here we learn that there is probably a certain difference in the course of events attending the immediate passage of the ray in the gas and in the solid. In the former, initial recombination ...
— The Birth-Time of the World and Other Scientific Essays • J. (John) Joly

... entreating the attention of the readers of The Daily News to an effort which has been making for some three years and a half, and which is making now, to introduce among the most miserable and neglected outcasts in London, some knowledge of the commonest principles of morality and religion; to commence their recognition as immortal human creatures, before the Gaol Chaplain becomes their only schoolmaster; to suggest to Society that its duty to this wretched throng, foredoomed to crime and punishment, rightfully begins at some distance ...
— Miscellaneous Papers • Charles Dickens

... don't know anybody, and I suppose we didn't take that into account. Well, I suppose it's like this: they thought it would be easy to get acquainted in the hotel, and commence having a good time right away. I don't know; my wife had the idea when they cooked it up amongst 'em that she was to come with us. But I SWEAR I don't know how to go about it. I can't seem to make up my mouth to speak to folks ...
— Henry James, Jr. • William Dean Howells

... made by one tribe it is often intended as a signal of defiance to some neighbouring one—an invitation to fight—and may be continued daily for weeks before hostilities commence; it is answered by a similar one. Many other signals by smoke are in use: for example, the presence of an enemy upon the coast—a wish to communicate with another party at a distance—or the want of assistance—may be denoted by making a small fire, which, as soon as it has given out ...
— Voyage Of H.M.S. Rattlesnake, Vol. 2 (of 2) • John MacGillivray

... Charlestown, Massachusetts, and with the pilot on board, proceeded to sea. But little time was allowed to send our adieus, for he soon left us, bearing with him some hasty scrawls, to the illegibility of one of which a very good friend of the writer can testify. Our commander was very anxious to commence his cruise, and having been delayed nearly one month for officers, put off upon it as soon as the ...
— Kathay: A Cruise in the China Seas • W. Hastings Macaulay

... thought no more about the matter. He then arranged with Leonard that he should visit the window at certain hours on alternate nights with himself, and appointed the following night as that on which the apprentice's duties should commence. ...
— Old Saint Paul's - A Tale of the Plague and the Fire • William Harrison Ainsworth

... which I had urged him to destroy, and that his impressions of dread while there were so great, though he had neither heard nor seen anything, that he was eager to have the walls bared and the floors removed as I had suggested. He had engaged persons for the work, and would commence ...
— The Boy Scouts Book of Stories • Various

... "Il etoit si ferme dans la persuasion de l'unite divine, qu'il fut impossible de le faire raisouner paisiblement sur la Trinite. On lui avoit donue un Nouveau Testament daus sa langue, il le lut, et s'expliquant, avec respect, sur ce livre, il commence par declarer que l'ayant examine fort soigneusement, il n'y avoit pas trouve un mot d'ou l'on fuit conclure qu'il y eut trois dieux." Histoire generale des Voyages, par l'Abbe A.F. Prevost. 4to. Paris. ...
— Biographical Memorials of James Oglethorpe • Thaddeus Mason Harris

... his ships to the south so as to reach the Canary Islands and commence his real westward voyage from there. The Canary Islands, as you will see by looking in your geography, are made up of seven islands and lie off the northern corner of Africa, some sixty miles or so west of Morocco. They were named Canaria by the Romans from the Latin canis, ...
— The True Story of Christopher Columbus • Elbridge S. Brooks

... of the CLUB is to commence with that of the Parliament. Mr. Banks[1090] desires to be admitted; he will be a very ...
— Life Of Johnson, Vol. 3 • Boswell, Edited by Birkbeck Hill

... employed as ever? Sir Thomas Lawrence, they tell me, has refused to commence any more pictures till he gets done with those that are on hand, and that he has raised his prices to some enormous sum. Is that true, and will you do me the favour to tell me what his prices really are, and what Sir W. Beechy, ...
— Raeburn • James L. Caw

... "I know the very job for you. Only one thing I must got to say to you, Sidney: you would got to commence small; so if what you are saying about auction pinocle and other monkey business goes, Sidney, all right. Otherwise the thing ...
— Abe and Mawruss - Being Further Adventures of Potash and Perlmutter • Montague Glass

... to crush Vespers and Compline, under the light of a street lamp, into the ten minutes before twelve o'clock, you'd see the absurdity of the whole thing more clearly. A strictly conscientious confrere of mine in England used always commence Prime about ten o'clock at night; but then he always lighted a candle, for consistency, before he uttered Jam lucis orto sidere. It is a wonder we were never taught the very translation of the ...
— My New Curate • P.A. Sheehan

... lands. Sometimes it was a sympathy based on a sense of nationality, and the Syrian and Cilician in Asia would feel joy and hope stirring in his heart at the doings of his brethren who had been deported to the far West. The series of organised revolts in the Roman provinces and protectorate which commence shortly after the fall of Carthage and close for the moment with the war of resistance to the Romans in Asia, forms a single connected chain. Dangerous risings had to be repressed at the Italian coast towns of Minturnae and Sinuessa; at the former place four hundred ...
— A History of Rome, Vol 1 - During the late Republic and early Principate • A H.J. Greenidge

... withdrawing; Italy had, with the consent of the Allies, and partly by her own desire, prepared a big military expedition. A considerable number of divisions were ready, as also were the ships to commence the transport. Georgia is a country of extraordinary natural resources, and it was thought that she would be able to furnish Italy with a great number of raw materials which she lacked. What surprised me was that not only men ...
— Peaceless Europe • Francesco Saverio Nitti

... boundary between Russia and Ukraine through the Kerch Strait and Sea of Azov remains unresolved despite a December 2003 framework agreement and on-going expert-level discussions; Kazakhstan and Russia boundary delimitation was ratified on November 2005 and field demarcation should commence in 2007; Russian Duma has not yet ratified 1990 Bering Sea Maritime ...
— The 2008 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency.

... thought. We go farther down the mountain and beat about to the right and left, and get entangled in brush and arrested by precipices, and finally, as the day is nearly spent, give up the search and leave the woods quite baffled, but resolved to return on the morrow. The next day we come back and commence operations in an opening in the woods well down on the side of the mountain where we gave up the search. Our box is soon swarming with the eager bees, and they go back toward the summit we have passed. We follow back and establish a new line, where the ground will permit; then another ...
— The Writings of John Burroughs • John Burroughs

... mine," he said, "and you can make it yours. Come, I want to talk with you about your future, because I have been thinking very seriously about my own. I want to ask your advice and to give you mine. I'll commence by asking yours. What do you think of me as a physician? I know you ...
— Henry James, Jr. • William Dean Howells

... shillings per diem; and for each able horse with a pack-saddle, or other saddle and furniture, two shillings per diem; and for each able horse without a saddle, eighteen pence per diem. 2. That the pay commence from the time of their joining the forces at Will's Creek, which must be on or before the 20th of May ensuing, and that a reasonable allowance be paid over and above for the time necessary for their travelling to Will's ...
— The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin • Benjamin Franklin

... the river on the South Side and formed a Camp. Soon after our arrival a raft Came down the N. fork on which was two men, they came too, I had the axes distributed and handled and men apotned. ready to commence building canoes on tomorrow, our axes are Small & badly Calculated to build Canoes of the large Pine, Capt Lewis Still very unwell, Several men taken Sick on the way down, I administered Salts Pils Galip, Tarter emetic &c. I feel unwell this evening, ...
— The Journals of Lewis and Clark • Meriwether Lewis et al

... article of news, which had once formed about one third of his paper, altogether disappeared. The Tatler had completely changed its character. It was now nothing but a series of essays on books, morals, and manners. Steele therefore resolved to bring it to a close, and to commence a new work on an improved plan. It was announced that this new work would be published daily. The undertaking was generally regarded as bold, or rather rash; but the event amply justified the confidence ...
— Critical and Historical Essays, Volume III (of 3) • Thomas Babington Macaulay

... to commence on a small scale. It is too common for young housekeepers to begin where their mothers ended. Buy all that is necessary to work skilfully with; adorn your house with all that will render it comfortable. Do not look at richer ...
— Choice Readings for the Home Circle • Anonymous

... one who is tolerant of the whims of a hired buffoon,—and, this time seating himself in his ebony chair, was about to commence dictating his Second Canto when Theos, yielding to his desire to speak aloud the idea that had just flashed across his ...
— Ardath - The Story of a Dead Self • Marie Corelli

... first efforts towards their realisation are made, and simultaneously the new belief will entirely lose its prestige. Its strength, in consequence, will only increase until the day when, having triumphed, its practical realisation shall commence. For this reason, while the new religion exerts to begin with, like all those that have preceded it, a destructive influence, it will be unable, in the future, to play a ...
— The Crowd • Gustave le Bon

... ROME.—Nothing in Italy is more extraordinary than the remains of the ancient aqueducts. At first, the Romans were contented with the water from the Tiber. Ancus Martius was the first to commence the building of aqueducts destined to convey the water of the fountain of Piconia from Tibur to Rome, a distance of some 33,000 paces. Appius Claudius continued the good work, and to him is due the completion of the celebrated Appian ...
— The Book of Household Management • Mrs. Isabella Beeton

... household,—mistress Upstill was as good as two men at least at appropriation,—they set out, Cast-down taking the lead, master Sycamore, John Croning, and the rest following, armed with crowbars, for the top of the great tower, ambitious to commence the overthrow by attacking the very summit, the high places of wickedness, the crown of pride; and after some devious wandering, at length found ...
— St. George and St. Michael • George MacDonald

... had the Constitution failed of adoption, it is not necessary to discuss; but this we know, that the success of Secretary Hamilton's plans was pronounced and complete before the European wars alluded to began. That success was seen in the early days of 1791, and war did not commence until 1792; and then it was not waged on that grand scale to which it subsequently reached. The war between France and England, which affected this country most, broke out in 1793, two years after Ames had written so encouragingly to Hamilton, and yet warning him to prepare ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 16, No. 97, November, 1865 • Various

... arrange a little heap of sand and pebbles, in imitation of a Nubian tomb. This they, call "preparing the grave for the traveller" and follow up the demonstration by an imperious demand for money. Burckhardt having watched his guide commence this operation, began quietly to imitate him, and then said, "Here is thy grave; as we are brothers, it is but fair that we should be buried together." The Arab could not help laughing, both graves were simultaneously destroyed, and remounting the camels, the cavalcade proceeded, better ...
— Celebrated Travels and Travellers - Part III. The Great Explorers of the Nineteenth Century • Jules Verne

... of the ladle commence to hiss and burn with a greenish flame; a cloud obscures the moon wholly, and the scene is lighted only by the fire under the melting-pot, the owl's eyes, and the phosphorescent glow of the decaying oaks. ...
— A Book of Operas - Their Histories, Their Plots, and Their Music • Henry Edward Krehbiel

... also a piebald pony which had caught his eye earlier in the day. The Intelligence officer held his peace, but, armed with this information, determined to watch future developments, and flung himself down on the roadside to snatch half an hour's sleep before the forward march should commence. ...
— On the Heels of De Wet • The Intelligence Officer

... to commence from the discovery of the tops of the mountains. Wherefore he did not presently go out of the ark, but stayed there above fourteen days still, signifying unto us, that we must not be therefore delivered so soon as the tops of the mountains are seen, but may ...
— The Works of John Bunyan • John Bunyan

... the attack and to support the Alabama brigade in our front, and which had given way and were stricken with fear, some of the boys of our regiment would laugh at them, and ask what they were running for, and would commence to say "Flicker! flicker! flicker!" like the bird called the yellowhammer, "Flicker! flicker! flicker!" As we advanced, on the edge of the battlefield, we saw a big fat colonel of the 23rd Tennessee regiment badly wounded, whose name, if I remember ...
— "Co. Aytch" - Maury Grays, First Tennessee Regiment - or, A Side Show of the Big Show • Sam R. Watkins

... amused themselves with the ghosts and witches it will be time to commence some of the many games which are always associated with Hallowe'en. "Bobbing for apples" is, of course, the most common of these games and great sport it is, too, to watch the awkward efforts of the guests as they try to pick up with their teeth the apples ...
— Perfect Behavior - A Guide for Ladies and Gentlemen in all Social Crises • Donald Ogden Stewart

... readiness, he would, perhaps, exempt me from notice; but, if caught lingering in the carre, I should be sure to come in for a special harangue. I had time to get seated, to enforce perfect silence, to take out my work, and to commence it amidst the profoundest and best trained hush, ere M. Emanuel entered with his vehement burst of latch and panel, and his deep, redundant bow, prophetic ...
— Villette • Charlotte Bronte

... hopeful Stork-brood, now to be divided; And they held with noisy clatter Solemnly their morning-feast. Nearer to observe this, Werner Had descended to the Rhine-bank, And he seemed in no great hurry To commence his composition. There he sat himself down gently On the insect-covered moss-bank. Shaded by a silvery willow, And it gave him much amusement Thus to be a silent witness Of ...
— The Trumpeter of Saekkingen - A Song from the Upper Rhine. • Joseph Victor von Scheffel

... Dale began, "we've no wish to commence this meeting with any unpleasantness. At the same time, Mr. Maraton, we did think that after that letter of ours you'd have seen your way clear to come up to London and cut short that visit to Mr. Foley. We were all there waiting ...
— A People's Man • E. Phillips Oppenheim

... Lectures on Shakspeare, such as he had delivered at the Royal Institution, London, and expressing a hope that his friends would obtain for him as many subscribers as they could. Great efforts were made to obtain these subscribers, and the lectures were accordingly advertised, to commence at the time appointed by the lecturer, and the place specified with the day and hour; of the whole of which arrangement Mr. C. had received due notice, and expressed ...
— Reminiscences of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey • Joseph Cottle

... shall we do and where shall we go? Dublin or Durham, Heidelberg, Bonn, All to escape the recalcitrant don? In what peaceful shade reclined Shall the cultured female mind E'er remunerated be By a Bachelor's Degree? Pheu, pheu! [1] Whence, O whence (here the antistrophe ought to commence), Whence shall we the privilege seek Due to our knowledge of Latin and Greek? Shall we tear our waving locks? Shall we rend our Sunday frocks? No, 'tis plain that nothing can Melt the so-called heart of man. While with loud triumphant ...
— Lyra Frivola • A. D. Godley

... We commence with the press correspondence of Mr. Barrett Channing Paine, who, at the period of the Glazier expedition, was a reporter on the staff of the Saint Paul Pioneer Press, and subsequently Managing Editor of the Saint Paul Globe. This gentleman accompanied Captain Glazier ...
— Sword and Pen - Ventures and Adventures of Willard Glazier • John Algernon Owens

... nature. One of his greatest admirers once owned to us that he seldom or never began a new poem without looking on in advance, and foreseeing with caution what length of intellectual adventure he was about to commence. Whoever will work hard at such poems will find much mind in them: they are a sort of quarry of ideas, but whoever goes there will find these ideas in such a jagged, ugly, useless shape that he ...
— English Critical Essays - Nineteenth Century • Various

... from July, 1791, to July, 1792.—Author travels again.—People begin to leave off sugar; petition Parliament.—Motion renewed in the Commons; debates; abolition resolved upon, but not to commence till 1796.—The Lords determine upon hearing evidence on the resolution; this evidence introduced; further hearing of it postponed to the ...
— The History of the Rise, Progress and Accomplishment of the - Abolition of the African Slave-Trade, by the British Parliament (1839) • Thomas Clarkson

... of these sheets of lava and their supporting rocks, whether granitic or lacustrine, and the materials carried away by the streams which flow along their beds. These points will be better understood when I come to give an account of the several groups; and in doing so I will commence ...
— Volcanoes: Past and Present • Edward Hull

... her sitting on the sofa beside Harriet. The lovely girl raised her thighs in the air. George rushed between them and his instrument pierced her to the quick. Harriet clapped her hand as a signal that we were to commence, and we all began to push for the very life. Harriet, by means of the mirror, had the whole voluptuous scene before her eyes. While she felt Ernestine's tongue in her salacious slit, she could see my instrument ...
— The Life and Amours of the Beautiful, Gay and Dashing Kate Percival - The Belle of the Delaware • Kate Percival

... successor would be elected by the Legislature that would be chosen in November, 1875. If Ames should be elected to the Governorship his successor in that office would be elected in November, 1877. In the event of his election to the Senate to succeed Senator Alcorn, his term as Senator would commence March 4, 1877, yet he could remain in the office of Governor until the meeting of Congress the following December, thus practically serving out ...
— The Facts of Reconstruction • John R. Lynch

... Sets you more distant than the morning-star. Such wonder is on you, and amaze, I look and marvel if I be Indeed the phantom, or are ye? The light is on your innocence Which fell from me. The fields ye still inhabit whence My world-acquainted treading strays, The country where I did commence; And though ye shine to me so near, So close to gross and visible sense,— Between us ...
— The Home Book of Verse, Vol. 3 (of 4) • Various

... "You will commence firing again in fifteen minutes. Pass it along." Down the line went the false order. Smiling inwardly, the shrewd aide-de-camp galloped away. Meantime the Australian G.O.C. had acted vigorously. Throwing out two regiments to hold the feinting force on his right, he then turned ...
— The Kangaroo Marines • R. W. Campbell

... for payments made by the servant on his account, it was argued that there was no contract precedent, and that by parol the party is not obliged; and, further, that, so far as appeared, the payments were made by the servant out of his own head and at no request, from which no duty could commence. /1/ ...
— The Common Law • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

... sense, which seem to be breaking out all over France: but this I foresee, that, before the end of this century, the trade of both king and priest will not be half so good a one as it has been. Du Clos, in his "Reflections," hath observed, and very truly, 'qu'il y a un germe de raison qui commence a se developper en France';—a developpement that must prove fatal to Regal and Papal pretensions. Prudence may, in many cases, recommend an occasional submission to either; but when that ignorance, upon which an implicit faith in both could only be founded, is once removed, God's Vicegerent, ...
— The PG Edition of Chesterfield's Letters to His Son • The Earl of Chesterfield

... America could not stand the tug of war with England; that MADISON was unpopular; and that the federalists, or British faction in America, were prevailing, especially in New-England; and that, being sure of conquest, they should commence the subjugation of the UNITED STATES by degrading its soldiery and seamen; as they have the brave Irish.—They may have been led into this error by our federal newspapers, which are generally vehicles of misinformation. The faction may impede, and embarrass for a time; but they ...
— A Journal of a Young Man of Massachusetts, 2nd ed. • Benjamin Waterhouse

... passed creating a Board of Ordnance and Fortifications, of which the commanding general of the army should be president, and appropriating quite a large sum of money to be expended, under the direct supervision of that board, to commence the work of fortification and armament of the sea-coast. After a very careful examination and full consideration and discussion, the board adopted the plans prepared by the Bureaus of Engineering and Ordnance, ...
— Forty-Six Years in the Army • John M. Schofield

... 17 66. MY DEAR MOTHER,—The delay which has taken place since my last Letter Dated 22d April 54 Makes it very difficult to Commence this Letter. I deeply regret the truble and anxoiety I must have cause you by not writing before. But they are known to my Attorney And the more private details I will keep for your own Ear. Of one thing rest Assured that although I have been in A humble conditoin ...
— Celebrated Claimants from Perkin Warbeck to Arthur Orton • Anonymous

... superstitions that he should always begin his novels on Christmas Eve. He has always done so, and he believes it brings him luck. Often it means the exercise of no small measure of self-control, for the story has matured in his mind and he is aching to commence it. But he vigorously adheres to his custom, and by the time he begins to write his book lies before him like a map. 'I could tell it you now, practically in the very words in which I shall write it,' he has said. Nevertheless, he takes infinite trouble ...
— When Winter Comes to Main Street • Grant Martin Overton

... moment when he despairs of arriving at any valuable result, after years of abstruse study, and is about to put the cup of poison to his lips. The church bells of Easter Sunday recall to his mind the scenes of his innocent childhood, and he puts aside the cup and resolves to commence a new career of life. At this moment, his evil genius, Mephistopheles, appears, and persuades him to abandon philosophy and to enjoy the pleasures of the world. Faust yields to his advice, and after many adventures ends his career in crime and in misery. Many parts of the poem are written in a ...
— Handbook of Universal Literature - From The Best and Latest Authorities • Anne C. Lynch Botta

... times of the year; but about the middle of June the travel would commence from the lower part of the State to the Springs, and then there was a perfect throng of visitors. They travelled in their own carriages and came in gangs, the whole family with carriage and riding horses and servants, sometimes three or four such gangs at a time. We had thirty-six stalls ...
— Home Life in Colonial Days • Alice Morse Earle

... moved around it so as to leave a hollow space, in the midst of a mass of people, in the centre of which was the spot marked out by Judge Wright, the Engineer of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company, for the commencement of the work. A moment's pause here occurred, while the spade, destined to commence the work, was selected by the committee of arrangements, and the spot for breaking ground was ...
— Life and Public Services of John Quincy Adams - Sixth President of the Unied States • William H. Seward

... long indeed: It lasted one whole season! The sparkling Winter gave no heed When ordered by Unreason To bring the early peas on. Now, where the dickens is the sense In calling that a year Which does no more than just commence Before the end is near? When I was young the year extended From month to month until it ended. I know not why the world has changed To something dark and dreary, And everything is now arranged To make a fellow weary. The Weather Man—I ...
— The Devil's Dictionary • Ambrose Bierce

... be so false? Dwells there such Baseness in a Brother's Heart? So much Dissimulation in the Earth? Is there such Perfidy among Mankind? It shocks my Faith—But yet it must be so— Yes, it was he, Monelia, shed thy Blood. This made him forward to commence our Friend, And with unusual Warmth engage to help us; It was for this so cheerful he resign'd To me the Honour of Command in War; The English Troops would never come so near; The Wounds were not inflicted by their Arms. All, all confirms ...
— Ponteach - The Savages of America • Robert Rogers

... a little more conversation with Mr. Corbeck as to his own movements, the details of the hotel and the room, and the means of identifying the goods. Then he went away to commence his inquiries, Mr. Corbeck impressing on him the necessity for secrecy lest the thief should get wind of his danger and destroy the lamps. Mr. Corbeck promised, when going away to attend to various matters of his own business, to return early in the ...
— The Jewel of Seven Stars • Bram Stoker

... saw what he was doing and laughed. "Yuh better wait till they commence to come," he said. "When yuh can stand on this little hill and count fifty or sixty outfits camped within two or three miles uh here, yuh might begin ...
— The Lure of the Dim Trails • by (AKA B. M. Sinclair) B. M. Bower

... may take back the surplus Americans; but if these be more than two hundred and fifty, Franklin says that he will nevertheless deliver them all in expectation that he will receive back an equivalent for the surplus. "We would thus wish to commence, by this first advance, that mutual confidence which it would be for the good of mankind that nations should maintain honorably with each other, tho' ...
— Benjamin Franklin • John Torrey Morse, Jr.

... binding-post, F, the terminal of the coil. Place 16-cp. lights in the receptacles and connect the fuses with a 110-volt lighting circuit. The apparatus is now ready for operation. Turn on switch, D, and the lamps, while C is open. The coil will commence to become warm, soon drying out the plaster-of-paris. To ...
— The Boy Mechanic: Volume 1 - 700 Things For Boys To Do • Popular Mechanics

... d'exercer une profession. Or, toute profession exige an apprentissage. Les Americains ne peuvent donc donner a la culture generale de l'intelligence que les premieres annees de la vie: a quinze ans ils entrent dans une carriere: ainsi leur education finit le plus souvent a l'epoque ou la notre commence." ...
— American Institutions and Their Influence • Alexis de Tocqueville et al

... has to depend upon is the issue of a struggle between pants and petticoats, it will need no further blow: it is pure matter of fashion and custom. Do not girls wear a Bloomer constantly till they are fourteen or fifteen, then generally commence the longer dress? And what reason can be given but custom, which, in so many articles of dress, is ever changing? How long is it since the dressing of ladies' hair for Court was a work of such absurd labour and nicety, that but few artists ...
— Lands of the Slave and the Free - Cuba, The United States, and Canada • Henry A. Murray

... respects, nothing can be more elegant than the diction of the praises heaped upon his patrons, for which he might himself plead the apology he uses for Maimbourg, "who, having enemies, made himself friends by panegyrics." Of these lively critical prefaces, which, when we commence, we can never lay aside till we have finished, Dr. Johnson has said with equal force and beauty,—"They have not the formality of a settled style, in which the first half of the sentence betrays the other. The clauses are never balanced, nor the periods modelled; every word seems to drop ...
— The Dramatic Works of John Dryden Vol. I. - With a Life of the Author • Sir Walter Scott

... the whole he seems to be quite as happy as the younger sons of most earls, to have as high feelings of honour; and, when the reader loses sight of him, he has money in his pocket honestly acquired to enable him to commence a journey quite as laudable as those which the younger sons of earls generally undertake. Surely all this is a manifestation of the kindness and providence of God, and yet he is not a religious person—up to the time when the reader loses sight of him he is decidedly not a religious person, ...
— The Romany Rye - A Sequel to 'Lavengro' • George Borrow

... wonderful in the exploration of the heavens. Now the soul is the mind of the mind. It can build and construct and look beyond and penetrate space, and create. It is the keenest, the sharpest tool possessed by man. But what would be said if a carpenter about to commence a piece of work examined his tools and deliberately cast away that with the finest edge? Such is the conduct of those who reject the inner mind or psyche altogether. So great is the value of the soul that it seems to me, if the soul lived and received its aspirations it ...
— The Story of My Heart • Richard Jefferies

... run home now, there's a dear," said the old lady. "We have several watchers for to-night. It will not be long now when he will commence to mend, or else he will die. Poor boy, please God that he gets well. Has he been good? Did he call for any particular young lady? Never fear, Betty, I'll keep the secret. He'll never know you were here unless you ...
— Betty Zane • Zane Grey

... bench, but so abstruse in its nature and so quaint in its expression, that the House never comprehended it, and the unfortunate minister who had to answer, even with twenty-four hours' study, was obliged to commence his reply by a conjectural interpretation of the query formally addressed to him. But though they were silent in the House, their views were otherwise powerfully represented. The weekly journal devoted to their principles was sedulously circulated among members of the House. It was called the ...
— Endymion • Benjamin Disraeli

... and hurled down the rocks which they had gathered for their forerunners; and while the stones came leaping and bounding with a noise like thunder, the men followed in thick and separate bands, and Mackay gave the signal to commence firing. ...
— Ringan Gilhaize - or The Covenanters • John Galt

... all the successive variations in a representative body, which biennial elections would naturally produce in both houses? Is it presumable, that every man, the instant he took his seat in the national Senate or House of Representatives, would commence a traitor to his constituents and to his country? Can it be supposed that there would not be found one man, discerning enough to detect so atrocious a conspiracy, or bold or honest enough to apprise his constituents of their danger? If such presumptions can fairly ...
— The Federalist Papers

... would have been all ready for the day of the opening of the Constituante, in order to commence, from the first, a creative work and give to the impoverished country ...
— Bolshevism - The Enemy of Political and Industrial Democracy • John Spargo

... attendance upon their royal charges in public, for they form part and parcel of the royal or imperial household to which they are attached, and if they do not occupy quarters in the palace, at any rate they take all their meals there, since their duties commence in the early morning, and only cease late ...
— The Secret Memoirs of the Courts of Europe: William II, Germany; Francis Joseph, Austria-Hungary, Volume I. (of 2) • Mme. La Marquise de Fontenoy

... average is no less than forty shillings sterling, per head, men, women and children, throughout the nation. Now as this expense of fifty millions was borrowed on the hopes of conquering America, and as it was avarice which first induced her to commence the war, how truly wretched and deplorable would the condition of this country be, were she, by her own remissness, to suffer an enemy of such a disposition, and so circumstanced, to reduce her ...
— The Writings Of Thomas Paine, Complete - With Index to Volumes I - IV • Thomas Paine

... of his death was received by Angelo Neumann, the director of the Richard Wagner Theatre, on the 14th, at Aachen, just as a performance of the "Rheingold" was about to commence. The director addressed ...
— Life of Wagner - Biographies of Musicians • Louis Nohl

... the sake of the fifty pounds reward; and secondly, and much more, for the sake of Helena Elmsdale. I had tormented Mr. Craven until he gave a reluctant consent to my desire. I had brooded over the matter until I became eager to commence my investigations, as a young soldier may be to face the enemy; and yet, when the evening came, and darkness with it; when I set my back to the more crowded thoroughfares, and found myself plodding along a lonely suburban road, with a keen ...
— The Uninhabited House • Mrs. J. H. Riddell

... have had enough, they whistle for the dogs, load their guns and commence the shoot. That is to say each of these gentlemen takes off his hat, sends it spinning through the air with all his strength and takes a pot-shot at it. The one who hits his hat most frequently is proclaimed king of the hunt and returns to Tarascon that evening in triumph, ...
— Tartarin de Tarascon • Alphonse Daudet

... imprudently done, at the moment when the boat was inclining towards us—and consequently being unable to descend the whole distance before it again receded,—I calculated that while the boat was retiring I ought to commence my descent, which would probably be completed by the time the returning wave brought it underneath; by which means I was, I believe, almost the only officer or soldier who reached the boat without being either severely bruised or immersed ...
— The Loss of the Kent, East Indiaman, in the Bay of Biscay - Narrated in a Letter to a Friend • Duncan McGregor

... with dialects much changed, of the portions which were left behind? This is the opinion, I believe, of several great ethnologists. Is it not true? If philological objections are raised to this, I ask (but in all humility), Did not these southward migrations commence long before the time of Tacitus? If so, may they not have commenced before the different Teutonic dialects were as distinct as they were in the historic period? And are we to suppose that the dialects did not alter during the long journeyings through many nations? Is it possible that the Thervings ...
— The Roman and the Teuton - A Series of Lectures delivered before the University of Cambridge • Charles Kingsley

... uttered a little sigh, the hearts of all beat faster. The step had quickened. The trees grew more thinly, came down to a mere bordering fringe of sumach. Cleave motioned to the bugler; the latter raised the bugle to his lips. Forward!—Commence—Firing! The two companies in blue, marched down that morning superfluously to picket a region where was no danger, received that blast and had their moment of stupour. Laughter died suddenly. A clock might have ticked twice while they sat or stood as ...
— The Long Roll • Mary Johnston

... settled. But on that night there was little sleep for either of them. For, on the day after the morrow was to commence their first separation since the time they had awakened in the tower, more than a ...
— Darkness and Dawn • George Allan England

... to commence on the morrow; therefore Albert had not an instant to lose in setting forth the programme of his hopes, expectations, and claims to notice. With this design he had engaged a box in the most conspicuous part of the theatre, and exerted himself to set off his personal attractions by the ...
— The Count of Monte Cristo • Alexandre Dumas, Pere

... breakfast; for he was now eager to commence the struggle. He longed to act, and yet he scarcely knew how to begin the campaign. First of all, he must study the enemy's position—gain some knowledge of the men he had to deal with, find out exactly who the Marquis de Valorsay and ...
— Baron Trigault's Vengeance - Volume 2 (of 2) • Emile Gaboriau

... as if she found something new in the tired, bright face. She could not understand why her mother—still too heated to commence eating her dinner—should radiate so definite an atmosphere of content, as she sat back a little breathless, after the flurry of serving. She herself felt injured and sore, not at the mere disappointment it caused her to put off John Tendon's visit, but because she ...
— Mother • Kathleen Norris

... actual wants of the recitation room. Testimonials have been received from a large number of the most flourishing classical institutions of the country, in which they have already been adopted as text-books, and the Principals of hundreds of schools have expressed their intention to commence their next term with these standard works. From every source but a single opinion has been expressed, viz.: that the publishers have more than fulfilled their promise in presenting a series of books which will be eagerly sought ...
— In the School-Room - Chapters in the Philosophy of Education • John S. Hart

... voice in these respects, practice is necessary. Commence, for example, with the lowest pitch the voice can comfortably sound, and repeat whole paragraphs and pages upon that key with gentle force. Then repeat the paragraph with increased force, taking care not to raise the pitch. Then ...
— McGuffey's Fifth Eclectic Reader • William Holmes McGuffey

... survive his triumph long. His unwearied activity induced him, at his great age, to commence a "Dictionary" upon a novel plan, which he prevailed upon the French Academy to take up. These labors brought on spitting of blood, followed by sleeplessness, to obviate which he took opium in considerable quantities. Condorcet says that the servant mistook ...
— Ancient and Modern Celebrated Freethinkers - Reprinted From an English Work, Entitled "Half-Hours With - The Freethinkers." • Charles Bradlaugh, A. Collins, and J. Watts

... to work and authorized formations of at least one infantry company and one cavalry troop in each county. Supplies would be furnished as quickly as possible. Each company would commence drilling at once. ...
— The Road to Independence: Virginia 1763-1783 • Virginia State Dept. of Education

... begin with any Number. When no time is specified, it will be understood that the subscriber desires to commence with the Number issued after ...
— Harper's Young People, September 7, 1880 - An Illustrated Weekly • Various

... refused, or receiving their resignations. After again endeavouring in vain to form an administration through the means of Lord Granville and Lord Bath, the King was obliged to consent to the demands of his ministers-and here may be said to commence the leaden rule of the Pelhams, which continued to influence the councils of this country, more or less, for so many years. Pitt took the inferior, but lucrative office of paymaster; and from this time no material change took place till the death ...
— The Letters of Horace Walpole, Volume 1 • Horace Walpole

... these places that clerks and other young men are ruined. They lose, and play again, hoping to make good their losses. In this way they squander their own means; and too frequently commence to steal from their employers, in the vain hope of ...
— Lights and Shadows of New York Life - or, the Sights and Sensations of the Great City • James D. McCabe

... Her shape, as well as general appearance, convinced him it was the "cinnamon" bear—a variety of the black, and one of the best tree-climbers of the kind. This was soon put beyond dispute, as Basil saw the animal throw her great paws around the trunk, and commence crawling upward! ...
— The Boy Hunters • Captain Mayne Reid

... dreadfully, saying: 'Come, Pansy,' 'Don't go there, Pansy,' till I went right off for sure 'thout telling one body, and then I got losted mos' right away, and I wished I could hear somebody say 'Come, Pansy,' but nobody did, so I jes' began to commence to holler, 'th all my might, and the lady camed right off; I think 'twas drefful good for ...
— Six Girls - A Home Story • Fannie Belle Irving

... Treatise upon it.—I am about to commence the study of the microscope. I want to know where I can purchase the most perfect instrument, and also the best Treatise upon it; this information will indeed be valuable to me, as it would enable me to go at once to the best sources without loss ...
— Notes & Queries, No. 14. Saturday, February 2, 1850 • Various

... avail himself of circumstances to commence an amicable correspondence with Austria, and he thus became the medium of communication between the hostile courts of Vienna and St. Petersburg. No more direct intelligence, however, existed between these two states ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, v. 13 • Various

... morning was the ever memorable Friday, December 22. It dawned chill and lowering. A wintry gale still swept the bay, and pierced the thin garments of the Pilgrims. The eventful hour had now come in which they were to leave the ship, and commence their new life of privation and hardship in the New World. It was the birth-day of New England. In the early morning, the whole ship's company assembled upon the deck of the Mayflower, men, women, and children, to offer their sacrifice of thanksgiving, and to implore divine protection ...
— King Philip - Makers of History • John S. C. (John Stevens Cabot) Abbott

... standing joke, but some authors use dashes all the time, making them do duty for commas, semicolons, and periods. They will write indifferently 4 or four and frequently their capital a's c's, m's, and n's cannot be distinguished from the small letters. They will commence a story telling that the "Captain" did so and so, and lo, on the next page the "captain" sinks into a common noun; and so with "Father," "mother," "Aunt," "uncle," etc. Just see what the story would look like if set ...
— The Building of a Book • Various

... widow of the late Captain Charles Cunningham, of the 10th Madras Native Infantry, should she remain with my daughter until the marriage of the latter, I bequeath an annuity of 150 pounds per annum, chargeable on the estate, and to commence at my daughter's marriage. All my other property in moneys, investments, jewels, and chattels of all sorts, is to be divided in equal portions between my daughter, Millicent Conyers Thorndyke, and my nephew, Mark Thorndyke. Should, ...
— Colonel Thorndyke's Secret • G. A. Henty

... rather jealous eye. Floyd came home, and they discussed plans, viewed every foot of soil, selected the finest spot, had the different kinds of rock examined, and finally discovered the right place for a quarry. There was so much preliminary work that they did not really commence until the ensuing spring, and the foundation only had been laid when Floyd's vacation came around again. Meanwhile, houses below them seemed to spring up as if by magic. The mystery and fame of the "castle" helped. No one knew quite ...
— Floyd Grandon's Honor • Amanda Minnie Douglas

... reservation, evincing a disposition to learn the arts of life, to engage in agriculture, and to have their children instructed in letters. To these every inducement is being held out to take up land, and actively commence tilling it. Thus far they have under cultivation but 100 acres, which have produced the past year a good crop of corn and potatoes. The wealth of these tribes consists in horses and mules, of which they own to the number, as reported by their agent, of 16,500, a great proportion of the ...
— The Indian Question (1874) • Francis A. Walker

... might be able to support my family without the aid of the church, and so feel myself thoroughly free and independent, I resolved to commence business as a printer. I bought a press, and type, and all the other requisites of a printing-office, and set to work. Elizabeth Pease, a good kind Quakeress of Darlington, gave me thirty pounds to help me in my undertaking, ...
— Modern Skepticism: A Journey Through the Land of Doubt and Back Again - A Life Story • Joseph Barker

... such regiment or company whilst in actual service; that no man should be entitled to his clothes for his own use, until he should have served three years, if unembodied, or one year, if embodied, after the delivery of the clothes; and that the full pay of the militia should commence from the date of his majesty's warrant for drawing them out. The difficulties which these successive regulations were made to obviate, will be amply recompenced by the good effects of a national militia, provided ...
— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.II. - From William and Mary to George II. • Tobias Smollett

... below them, ever following the same course as in collecting the taille, are likewise responsible. "After the former have been seized in their persons and property, the speculator fermier is authorized to commence action, under the principle of mutual responsibility, against the principal inhabitants of the parish." The effects of this system have just been described. Accordingly, "in Normandy," says the Rouen parliament,[5233] "unfortunates without bread are daily objects ...
— The Origins of Contemporary France, Volume 1 (of 6) - The Ancient Regime • Hippolyte A. Taine

... peculiarly to live and thrive on the open pampas. Other burrowing species seem always to fix upon some spot where there is a bank or a sudden depression in the soil, or where there is rank herbage, or a bush or tree, about the roots of which to begin their kennel. They are averse to commence digging on a clear level surface, either because it is not easy for them where they have nothing to rest their foreheads against while scratching, or because they possess a wary instinct that impels them ...
— The Naturalist in La Plata • W. H. Hudson

... great perplexity and fear—a person came, pretending to be a deputy sent from some of the principal citizens of London, to say to Essex that they were ready to espouse his cause. Essex immediately became urgent to commence the insurrection at once. Some of his friends, on the other hand, were in favor of abandoning the enterprise, and flying from the country; but Essex said he had rather be shot at the head of his bands, than to wander all his days beyond ...
— Queen Elizabeth - Makers of History • Jacob Abbott

... once stayed for a melancholy week "between seasons," sharing the echoing emptiness of the place with two maiden ladies, who talked all day to one another in frightened whispers. Henry's construction I have discarded for its amateurishness; his method being generally to commence a story at the end, and then, working backwards to the beginning, wind up with the middle. But in all other respects I have endeavoured to retain his method, which was individual; and this, I think, is the ...
— The Observations of Henry • Jerome K. Jerome

... continent, whatever may be their form, are daily becoming more and more sensitive to public opinion. The people already restive under their burdens, would soon discover that those burdens would be greatly diminished by the adoption of the American policy. Before long, some state would commence the experiment on a small scale, and its example would be followed by others. In time these conventions would give way to more extended pacific alliances, and a greater number of umpires would be selected; nor is it the vain hope ...
— A Visit To The United States In 1841 • Joseph Sturge

... Church" (p. 230). Some of his followers tried a gentler method of conversion, and were murdered by the Prussians, who clearly saw no reason why Christians should do all the killing. We have already seen that Sylvester II. called upon the Christian princes to commence a "holy war" against "the infidels" who held the holy places of Christianity. Gregory VII. strove to stir them up in like fashion, and had gathered together an army of upwards of 50,000 men, whom he proposed to lead ...
— The Freethinker's Text Book, Part II. - Christianity: Its Evidences, Its Origin, Its Morality, Its History • Annie Besant

... for Dinny followed him, getting closer still, with the result that in the course of the next hour Jack was driven right round the fire; and he was just about to commence a second tour when the General came, with Dick, to relieve the watch, and ...
— Off to the Wilds - Being the Adventures of Two Brothers • George Manville Fenn

... man than of little dumb beasts. 7. Their huts are made of the same material as the dams, and are round in shape. The walls are very thick, and the roofs are finished off with a thick layer of mud, sticks, and leaves. 8. They commence building their houses late in the summer, but do not get them finished before the early frosts. The freezing makes them tighter and stronger. 9. They obtain the wood for their dams and huts by gnawing through the branches of trees, and even through the trunks of small ones, with their sharp ...
— McGuffey's Third Eclectic Reader • William Holmes McGuffey

... Aunt, "Chautauqua meetings will commence the latter part of June, and I will expect you and Ralph to visit us then. I think Chautauqua a godsend to country women, especially farmers' wives; it takes them away from their monotonous daily toil and gives them new ...
— Mary at the Farm and Book of Recipes Compiled during Her Visit - among the "Pennsylvania Germans" • Edith M. Thomas

... be past and gone; Soon the silence spread its noiseless wing; Sleep will strike its tent and hurry on; Life commence its weary wandering, Ah me! ...
— Poems • Walter R. Cassels

... the new Commandant had probably other work for his beasts of burden to execute, and an absconder would be safe here for a few hours at least. But he must not stay. For him there was no rest. If he thought to escape, it behoved him to commence his journey at once. As he contemplated the meat and bread, something like a ray of hope entered his gloomy soul. Here was provision for his needs. The food before him represented the rations of six men. Was it not possible to cross the desert that lay between him and freedom ...
— For the Term of His Natural Life • Marcus Clarke

... harangue nae mair, But steek your gab for ever; Or try the wicked town of Ayr, For there they'll think you clever; Or, nae reflection on your lear, Ye may commence a shaver; Or to the Netherton^10 repair, An' turn a carpet ...
— Poems And Songs Of Robert Burns • Robert Burns

... the victims to be eaten, and they are eaten alive, that is to say, they are not previously put to death. The victim is tied to a stake, with his arms extended, the party collect in a circle around him, and the chief gives the order to commence eating. The chief enemy, when it is a prisoner, or the chief party injured in other cases, has the first selection; and after he has cut off his slice, others cut off pieces according to their taste and fancy, until all the flesh is devoured. It is either eaten raw ...
— John Rutherford, the White Chief • George Lillie Craik

... matters to the more important topic of business, one cannot help realising the difference between then and now. Business generally used to commence earlier than it does now and many of the European houses, particularly the Greek firms, opened their offices punctually at 9 o'clock, by which time both Burra Sahibs and assistants were at their desks. I have very often passed several contracts by the time offices open nowadays. The Hatkhola Jute ...
— Recollections of Calcutta for over Half a Century • Montague Massey

... upon for the school to commence arrived. All the young folks in the town were there. Those who lived out of the village,—the farmers' sons and daughters,—came in red, yellow, and green wagons. The girls wore close-fitting hoods with pink linings, which they called "kiss-me-if-ye-dares." Their cheeks ...
— Winning His Way • Charles Carleton Coffin

... Comfort komforti. Comfort komforto. Comic komika, ridinda. Coming veno. Comma komo. Command (milit.) komandi. Command ordoni. Commandant komandanto. Commander komandoro. Commandment ordono. Commemorate memorigi. Commence komenci. Commend lauxdi. Commendation lauxdo. Comment komentarii. Commentary komentario. Commerce komerco. Commercial man komercisto. Commission komisii. Commission komisio. Commission (brokerage) maklero. Commission ...
— English-Esperanto Dictionary • John Charles O'Connor and Charles Frederic Hayes

... Condition that have run into Excesses, has been that they had a regard to their Quality and Reputation in the Management of their Vices. Narrowness in their Circumstances has made many Youths, to supply themselves as Debauchees, commence Cheats and Rascals. The Father who allows his Son to his utmost ability avoids this latter Evil, which as to the World is much greater than the former. But the contrary Practice has prevail'd so much ...
— The Spectator, Volumes 1, 2 and 3 - With Translations and Index for the Series • Joseph Addison and Richard Steele

... his attention became drawn toward the struggle which was about to commence between Great Britain and America, and at a public meeting he made a short speech which attracted general attention. He was now but seventeen years of age, yet his pen was keenly felt in the interest ...
— Hidden Treasures - Why Some Succeed While Others Fail • Harry A. Lewis

... the three points necessary in the prosecution of this case, namely, in what manner we should determine the demarcation,—whether on a plane or spherical surface,—what location we should assign to the Cabo Verde islands, and from which one of them we should commence to measure the three hundred and seventy leagues; they in a matter so apparent, and of so little inconvenience or room for speculation, would not vote until Wednesday, May 4, a space of eleven days, and in order to cause confusion they voted that the first thing ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 • Emma Helen Blair

... was but one of many questions. The true source of the disorders of the commonwealth was the Senate itself. The administration of the empire was in the hands of men totally unfit to be trusted with it, and there he thought the reform must commence. He threw himself on the people, he was chosen tribune in 123, ten years exactly after Tiberius. He had studied the disposition of parties. He had seen his brother fall because the Equites and the senators, the great commoners and the nobles, were combined against ...
— Great Men and Famous Women. Vol. 5 of 8 • Various

... the first felt sure that the writer, when he sits down to commence his novel, should do so, not because he has to tell a story, but because he has a story to tell. The novelist's first novel will generally have sprung from the right cause. Some series of events, or some development ...
— Autobiography of Anthony Trollope • Anthony Trollope

... you, Cousin Sabina, to assort these forks and spoons for me. It will be something of a task, as they have to go to half a dozen different places. When you have got through I will look over them to see that all is right;" and she was hurrying off to commence some of the ...
— Graham's Magazine Vol XXXII. No. 3. March 1848 • Various

... through the raging surf. Still the most perfect discipline prevailed; not a man quitted his station. Here and there a few might be seen loosing their shoe-ties, or getting ready to cast off their flushing coats; but no other sign was observable that an awful struggle for life and death was about to commence. ...
— The Three Midshipmen • W.H.G. Kingston

... and his wife lived with even stricter economy than before, in order to lay by a little money with which he could,—at some future time, re-commence his own business, which was profitable. There was still only a single shop in town, and that was the one owned by his old employer, who had, in fact, built himself up on his downfall, when he took to ...
— The Lights and Shadows of Real Life • T.S. Arthur

... but you must write more yet. What say you to a series of poems in your own original way, steeped from end to end in Scottish superstition, but purified from its grossness by your own genius and taste? Do write me soon. I have a good mind to come and commence shepherd beside you, and aid you in making a yearly pastoral Gazette in prose and verse for our ain native ...
— The Modern Scottish Minstrel, Volume II. - The Songs of Scotland of the past half century • Various

... courts, and other baggage. This baggage-train was, of course, attended by a suitable escort. Vast multitudes of people assembled along the streets and at the gates of the city to see the grand procession commence its march. ...
— Peter the Great • Jacob Abbott

... To tell 'ee the slap-bang truth, I don't care if I see no trace of 'ee till the dancin' begins to commence to-night." ...
— I Saw Three Ships and Other Winter Tales • Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch

... Majesty to be prudent and firm. It is of all things necessary not to be suspected of any unfair dealing. Whilst Lord Melbourne holds his office, everything of course may be written to him as usual; but still the resolutions for the formation of the new Government will now commence, and it will never do, whilst they are going on, either for appearance or in reality, that Lord Melbourne should dine with your Majesty, as he did before this disturbance. It would create feeling, possibly lead to remonstrance, and throw a doubt upon the fairness and integrity ...
— The Letters of Queen Victoria, Volume 1 (of 3), 1837-1843) • Queen Victoria

... midnight drew near, and the mass was about to commence, a great number of candles were lighted on the high altar and in the side chapels, and the scene became more brilliant and animated. We looked down upon a perfect sea of heads, the women all wearing the national handkerchiefs, many of these of bright colours, and making them conspicuous among the ...
— Christmas: Its Origin and Associations - Together with Its Historical Events and Festive Celebrations During Nineteen Centuries • William Francis Dawson

... Brother Higbee ordered the two Indian interpreters, Carl Shirts, and Nephi Johnson to inform the Indians of the plan of operations, and place them in ambush, so that they could not be seen by the emigrants until the work of judgment should commence. This was done in order to make the emigrants believe that we had sent the Indians away. The orders were obeyed, and in five minutes not an Indian could be seen on the Meadows. They secreted themselves and lay ...
— The Mormon Menace - The Confessions of John Doyle Lee, Danite • John Doyle Lee

... complicated, first by the difficulty of correctly translating from that plane to this the recollection of what he has seen, and secondly by the utter inadequacy of ordinary language to express much of what he has to report. However, just as the explorer on the physical plane would probably commence his account of a country by some sort of general description of its scenery and characteristics, so it will be well to begin this slight sketch of the astral plane by endeavouring to give some idea ...
— The Astral Plane - Its Scenery, Inhabitants and Phenomena • C. W. Leadbeater

... rain rolled in from the sea and shut out the view. For the sake of form, as he said, he {63} erected a pile of stones and took possession of the coast in the name of the Hudson's Bay Company. Then, filled with the bitterness of a vain quest, Hearne turned his face towards the south to commence his long march ...
— Adventurers of the Far North - A Chronicle of the Frozen Seas • Stephen Leacock

... reflections, arising out of the present crisis, have forced themselves too strongly on my mind to be suppressed. You will join with me, I trust, in thinking that there are none under the influence of which the proceedings of a new and free government can more auspiciously commence. ...
— United States Presidents' Inaugural Speeches - From Washington to George W. Bush • Various

... wrote to your Reverence the state of the Christian church here. I shall now continue with what has happened since then; and it may all be summed up as new persecutions, labors, and hardships. I will commence with the five religious who, in the year twenty-nine, were taken prisoners on account of the faith. These are fathers Fray Bartolome Gutierrez, Fray Francisco de Jesus, Fray Vicente de San Antonio, all three Augustinians; Father Antonio Yxida, of our Society; and brother ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume XXIV, 1630-34 • Various

... Boyne—start a thing like that, and think of the talk it'll make! They'll commence at once saying that there was nobody but Worth to ...
— The Million-Dollar Suitcase • Alice MacGowan

... take a seat in the sun, down under the fence, across the street. It seems to me that if I could sit there awhile, and get warm, I could think better and write better. Toasting in the sunlight is conducive rather to reverie than thought, or I should be inclined to try it. This reluctance to commence labor, and this looking out of the window and longing for an accession of strength, or warmth, or inspiration, or something or other not easily named, calls back to ...
— Lessons in Life - A Series of Familiar Essays • Timothy Titcomb

... land question, then reform the poor-laws, then rearrange the Grand Jury laws, then commence to reclaim the land, which would pay ten ...
— Ireland as It Is - And as It Would be Under Home Rule • Robert John Buckley (AKA R.J.B.)

... two boys and the girl dashed down into the valley as fast as their legs could carry them. There was no desire in their youthful hearts to be made younger than they were, and for fear that their parents might think it well that they should commence their careers anew, they never said a word ...
— Children's Literature - A Textbook of Sources for Teachers and Teacher-Training Classes • Charles Madison Curry

... available. The railway route from Stanleyville to Mahagi, which will link the Congo and the Nile, is surveyed and would have been finished by this time but for the outbreak of the Great War. The Belgian Minister of the Colonies, with whom I travelled in the Congo assured me that his Government would commence the construction within the next two years, thus enabling the traveller to forego any hiking on ...
— An African Adventure • Isaac F. Marcosson

... ready to hear, if Mr Johnson is ready to commence, my dear,' said the collector, assuming the air of a profound critic. 'What sort of language do ...
— The Life And Adventures Of Nicholas Nickleby • Charles Dickens

... ten or eleven weeks after planting. An early bloom is taken as a sign of good crops. When the crop is an early one, picking may commence in the districts in which it ripens first in the latter half of July; but the usual date is the beginning of August, following on in the various districts in succession until the early part of September. The plant goes on fruiting as long as the weather is mild and open. It finishes in the ...
— Textiles • William H. Dooley

... novelty, but variety is unattainable. One day must be very like another in the life of a savage. Summoned by the calls of hunger and the returning light, he starts from his beloved indolence, and snatching up the remaining brand of his fire, hastens with his wife to the strand to commence their daily task. In general the canoe is assigned to her, into which she puts the fire and pushes off into deep water, to fish with hook and line, this being the province of the women. If she have a child at the breast, she takes it with her. And thus in her skiff, a piece ...
— A Complete Account of the Settlement at Port Jackson • Watkin Tench

... secure this result, the vocalist or speaker must begin by taking breath through the mouth, as we have already insisted, and at once, before there is time for any stiffening of parts, commence to intonate—i.e., as soon as enough air has been inhaled for the purpose intended. The correct position is facilitated when one taking breath through the mouth acts as if about to yawn. If this act be well imitated, the student will find, on looking into a hand-glass, that the ...
— Voice Production in Singing and Speaking - Based on Scientific Principles (Fourth Edition, Revised and Enlarged) • Wesley Mills

... Ahalala twenty-four hours they also had their tent and their frying-pan and their fire, and had pegged out their claim, and were ready to commence operations on the morrow. It was soon manifest to Caldigate and Dick Shand that they would have been very much astray without a 'boss' to direct them. Three or four hours had been passed in forming a judgment as to the spot on which they should commence to dig. And in ...
— John Caldigate • Anthony Trollope

... he had promised Willy to stay with him when he went to live at the stables on the Portslade Road. Summer was nearly over, hunting would soon commence, and he could keep a couple of hunters—Willy had calculated it out—for two and twenty shillings a week. He had ceased to paint, and when he went to the studio it was to play the piano or the violin. None knew of Lizzie, and all knew of Maggie. It was thought a ...
— Spring Days • George Moore

... told me I should now be able to gratify my curiosity by witnessing a Missouri slave-vendue. A man with a bell, which he rang most energetically at the door, shortly after summoned the company, the auction being about to commence. On a table inside, a negress, of a little over middle age, was standing, vacantly gazing with grief-worn countenance on the crowd that now thronged to the table. On the floor stood two children, of about the ages of ten and thirteen respectively. The auctioneer, with the customary volubility ...
— An Englishman's Travels in America - His Observations Of Life And Manners In The Free And Slave States • John Benwell

... last the latter was weary of waiting, he called his secretary, the Hebrew Eleazar, and commanded him to go to the prefecture in order to find out the reason of the defaulters' absence, and at the same time he gave the signal for the play to commence. ...
— Historical Miniatures • August Strindberg

... neither should I. Still, there is a charm in money. Every night before going to bed I tot up on my fingers the amount of the bequest I feel I ought to receive. It has reached two thousand pounds by this. Next visit will commence a fresh thousand." ...
— Molly Bawn • Margaret Wolfe Hamilton

... and commence the cuff on the sleeve-stitches as follows: Slip 1, (narrow, knit 2) 3 times, (narrow, knit 1) 14 times, narrow, knit 2, to end ...
— Handbook of Wool Knitting and Crochet • Anonymous

... Imperial Governments of Japan and Russia mutually engage to commence the withdrawal of their military forces from the territory of Manchuria simultaneously and immediately after the Treaty of Peace comes into operation, and within a period of eighteen months from that date, the Armies of the two countries shall be completely withdrawn ...
— A History of the Japanese People - From the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era • Frank Brinkley and Dairoku Kikuchi

... and thither they sent for advice, permission and aid, till all the wheels of the hierarchy were in motion, and the air quivered with portent and intent. Vain ado! Superfluous preparation! The very letter which gave them explicit and formal permission to begin to get ready to commence to put away the Hebrew, fell—by the mischievous Hathors!—fell into the hands ...
— The Yoke - A Romance of the Days when the Lord Redeemed the Children - of Israel from the Bondage of Egypt • Elizabeth Miller

... or divisions, their archers or light troops being Lombards or Navarrese and Provencals. These the constable placed foremost, to commence the fight and harass the Flemings by their missiles. But the Count d'Artois overruled this manoeuvre, and called it a Lombard trick, reproaching the Constable de Nesle with appreciating the Flemings too highly because of his connection with ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 07 • Various

... the first summons from the darkling earth Reached thee amid thy chambers, blanched their blue, And bared them of the glory—to drop down, To toil for man, to suffer or to die,— This is the same voice: can thy soul know change? Hail then, and hearken from the realms of help! Never may I commence my song, my due To God who best taught song by gift of thee, Except, with bent head and beseeching hand— That still, despite the distance and the dark, What was, again may be; some interchange Of grace, some splendour once ...
— Life of Robert Browning • William Sharp

... grants to princes and princesses allied to the royal family of England; and concluded by moving "that her majesty be enabled to grant an annual sum of L50,000 out of the consolidated fund, for a provision to Prince Albert, to commence on the day of his marriage with her majesty, and to continue during his life." The debate was adjourned for a few days, and on its resumption Mr. Hume moved as an amendment, that L21,000 be voted annually ...
— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. - From George III. to Victoria • E. Farr and E. H. Nolan

... the bad effect of this position on the siege artillery, commanded the frigates moored in the little road to commence a regular fire against the place. M. de Bragelonne offered himself at once to carry this order. But monseigneur refused to acquiesce in the vicomte's request. Monseigneur was right, for he loved and wished to spare the young nobleman. ...
— The Man in the Iron Mask • Alexandre Dumas, Pere

... became rapidly thin, and after a while its flesh so wasted, and became so flabby, that it might be said literally to hang on the bones. The fits of crying now increased in frequency and violence, coming on every time after the little one left the breast, when it would commence screaming violently, beat the air with its hands and feet, and nothing that was done could appease it. Having lasted for half an hour or more, it would fall asleep quite exhausted; the fit recurring again, when again it ...
— The Maternal Management of Children, in Health and Disease. • Thomas Bull, M.D.

... convictions fundamentally different, it has been my habit, and I may add, the impulse of my nature, to assign the grounds of my belief, rather than the belief itself; and not to express dissent, till I could establish some points of complete sympathy, some grounds common to both sides, from which to commence its explanation. ...
— Biographia Literaria • Samuel Taylor Coleridge



Words linked to "Commence" :   get, jump-start, strike out, introduce, get moving, set off, launch, get cracking, lead off, auspicate, embark, get going, get down, get rolling, jump off, end, enter, plunge, fall, attack, kick off, open, set about, get started, embark on, set out, begin, inaugurate



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