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Instrumental   Listen
adjective
Instrumental  adj.  
1.
Acting as an instrument; serving as a means; contributing to promote; conductive; helpful; serviceable; as, he was instrumental in conducting the business. "The head is not more native to the heart, The hand more instrumental to the mouth."
2.
(Mus.) Pertaining to, made by, or prepared for, an instrument, esp. a musical instrument; as, instrumental music, distinguished from vocal music. "He defended the use of instrumental music in public worship." "Sweet voices mix'd with instrumental sounds."
3.
(Gram.) Applied to a case expressing means or agency; as, the instrumental case. This is found in Sanskrit and Russian as a separate case, but in Greek it was merged into the dative, and in Latin into the ablative. In Old English it was a separate case, but has disappeared, leaving only a few anomalous forms.
Instrumental errors, those errors in instrumental measurements, etc., which arise, exclusively from lack of mathematical accuracy in an instrument.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Instrumental" Quotes from Famous Books



... 'explorin',' as he calls it. Just why he left this ranch life he never told me exactly, but I know he had his first case of real gold fever in forty-nine, and has never gotten over it. His father was a United States marshal, and was instrumental in gathering in a number of the most notorious criminals of his day. One of Dad's favorite stories is of the capture of a ...
— Buffalo Roost • F. H. Cheley

... nature of the connection between the two actions, we find good grounds for expecting ['a] priori that the participle will be in the instrumental case, when such exists in the language: and when not, in some case allied to it, ...
— A Handbook of the English Language • Robert Gordon Latham

... monarchy of the Britons, which he sung in the front of battle, excited their courage, and justified their depredations; and the songster claimed for his legitimate prize the fairest heifer of the spoil. His subordinate ministers, the masters and disciples of vocal and instrumental music, visited, in their respective circuits, the royal, the noble, and the plebeian houses; and the public poverty, almost exhausted by the clergy, was oppressed by the importunate demands of the bards. Their rank and merit were ascertained by solemn trials, and the strong belief ...
— The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Volume 3 • Edward Gibbon

... As United States Minister to England he had publicly declared that if Spain refused to sell us that coveted island we should be justified in wresting it from her by force; as Presidential candidate he had confidentially avowed, amid the first blushes of his new honor, "If I can be instrumental in settling the slavery question upon the terms I have mentioned, and then add Cuba to the Union, I shall, if President, be willing to give up the ghost, and let Breckinridge take the government." Thus, even excluding the more problematical chances which lay hidden in filibustering ...
— Abraham Lincoln, A History, Volume 2 • John George Nicolay and John Hay

... rotund aspect conveying the idea of extreme comfort and good living. Now, we do not draw the reader's attention to that bird because of its rarity, but because of the fact that it was unwittingly instrumental in influencing the fortunes of the ...
— The Wild Man of the West - A Tale of the Rocky Mountains • R.M. Ballantyne

... to see his people so gladly thronging around him, Mrs. Pringle had no less pleasure also in her thrice-welcome reception. It was an understood thing, that she had been mainly instrumental in enabling the minister to get his great Indian legacy; and in whatever estimation she may have been previously held for her economy and management, she was now looked up to as a personage skilled in the law, and particularly versed in testamentary erudition. Accordingly, in the customary ...
— The Ayrshire Legatees • John Galt

... matter. This disputed question must here be left open, but it may be mentioned in the same connection that we found the remains of birds' nests in many places among the rocks. Possibly the occupants of these nests may have been instrumental in the conveyance ...
— The South Pole, Volumes 1 and 2 • Roald Amundsen

... Francesco Guinigi, one of his companions said to him: "What shall I give you if you will let me give you a blow on the nose?" Castruccio answered: "A helmet." Having put to death a citizen of Lucca who had been instrumental in raising him to power, and being told that he had done wrong to kill one of his old friends, he answered that people deceived themselves; he had only killed a new enemy. Castruccio praised greatly those men who intended to take ...
— The Prince • Niccolo Machiavelli

... influential patrons, who had been instrumental in bringing her to Norwich, removed their business to Worcester, Mass. She followed them, and, as usual, I followed her. The business of her patrons was the manufacture of pistols, a patented, six-barrelled, self-cocking revolver, the first ...
— Confessions of Boyhood • John Albee

... the ordinary small boys to show them a lead. What with Tempest to befriend me at headquarters, and my prestige as a scholar, and the fact that I knew a pretty good deal about school already, it was as likely as not I might be instrumental in helping one or two lame dogs over the stiles of their ...
— Tom, Dick and Harry • Talbot Baines Reed

... really believe the Old Testament was inspired? A. "I greatly acknowledge our indebtedness to men like Voltaire and Thomas Paine, whose bold denial and cutting wit were so instrumental in bringing about this glorious era of freedom, so congenial and blissful, particularly to the ...
— Lectures of Col. R. G. Ingersoll, Volume I • Robert Green Ingersoll

... honor the wifehood of our native land. It is the fountain of all truth and righteousness, and if the fountain should become impure, all is lost. One more reason: Before I was sent to the prison I was an evangelist, and was instrumental in the hands of God of persuading hundreds of people to abandon a wicked life and seek the good. During my imprisonment I received many letters from these men and women who had been benefited on account of ...
— The Twin Hells • John N. Reynolds

... many in this class, yet the few are good; and Clark must be regarded as the inventor of the modern English hymn-tune, regarded, that is, as a pure melody in the scale with harmonic interpretation of instrumental rather than true vocal suggestion. His tunes are pathetic, melodious, and of truly national and popular character, the best of them almost unaccountably free from the indefinable secular taint that such qualities are apt to introduce, and which the ...
— A Practical Discourse on Some Principles of Hymn-Singing • Robert Bridges

... ungrateful," said the princess. "In case the unpleasant affair which has called me to Rome is settled satisfactorily, I shall make over to you, as the one chiefly instrumental in effecting this settlement, the yearly allowance intended for me by the prince. For myself I retain nothing further, and wish nothing further, than ...
— Manasseh - A Romance of Transylvania • Maurus Jokai

... continue in a period of unbounded prosperity. This prosperity is not the creature of law, but undoubtedly the laws under which we work have been instrumental in creating the conditions which made it possible, and by unwise legislation it would be easy enough to destroy it. There will undoubtedly be periods of depression. The wave will recede; but the tide will advance. This Nation is seated on a continent flanked by two great oceans. It is composed ...
— State of the Union Addresses of Theodore Roosevelt • Theodore Roosevelt

... English Catholics are oblivious, tracts are published in thousands for general reading, and given to travellers in the railcars, and steamboats. Nor has a higher class of literature been overlooked. The gifted superior of the Congregation of St. Paul has been mainly instrumental in getting up and superintending the labours of the Catholic Publication Society, which, in addition to the multitude of valuable works it has published, sends forth its monthly magazine, well entitled The Catholic World, ...
— An Illustrated History of Ireland from AD 400 to 1800 • Mary Frances Cusack

... States was foremost in upholding the right of expatriation, and was principally instrumental in overthrowing the doctrine of perpetual allegiance. Congress has declared the right of expatriation to be a natural and inherent right of all people; but while many other nations have enacted laws providing what formalities shall be necessary to work a change of ...
— A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents: Ulysses S. Grant • James D. Richardson

... charge against the phonograph has been that it was so much better adapted for reproducing song than pure instrumental music that it was tending to identify the art of music in the minds of most men with song alone. This tendency was dangerous. For song is not all of music, nor even its most important part. The voice is naturally more limited in range, ...
— The Joyful Heart • Robert Haven Schauffler

... and Mozart raised instrumental composition in Germany to an astonishing elevation; and Beethoven may be said not only to have maintained the art in that stupendous altitude, but even in some respects to have brought it to a still higher ...
— Sketch of Handel and Beethoven • Thomas Hanly Ball

... I., 1822. Laud is represented as mainly instrumental in the conduct of the whole of this nefarious proceeding, especially in procuring the ...
— Books Condemned to be Burnt • James Anson Farrer

... careful study of a large number of the songs or instrumental pieces of a people will reveal a quite definite general scheme of construction which can be accepted as representative of that people alone; and if such an analysis be made of the music of many peoples and the findings ...
— The Tinguian - Social, Religious, and Economic Life of a Philippine Tribe • Fay-Cooper Cole

... attempt a detailed statement of the amelioration of those legal hardships under which women labored, is beyond the scope or purpose of this article. I will only mention, in brief, the more important provisions he was instrumental in passing in the face of ridicule and violent opposition. These amendments were: The abolition of simple dower, giving to widows instead, a fee simple interest; procuring for women the right to their own earnings; abolishing tenancy by courtesy, ...
— History of Woman Suffrage, Volume I • Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Matilda Joslyn Gage

... Tarkas, "forty years ago you were instrumental in bringing about the torture and death of a woman named Gozava. I have just discovered that the warrior who loved that woman has learned of your part in the transaction. He may not kill you, Sarkoja, it is not our custom, but there is nothing to prevent him tying one end of ...
— A Princess of Mars • Edgar Rice Burroughs

... looking men, with long flowing beards, in robes of most costly materials; the genuflexions are numerous and very low, incense is much used, and there are some good pictures, but no statuary and no organ or other instrumental music; but the chanting is peculiar and ...
— A Journey in Russia in 1858 • Robert Heywood

... nettle danger, we have plucked the flower safety"—we cannot repress our feelings of indignation against those who precipitated us into that danger, and of gratitude towards those who, under Divine Providence, have been instrumental in extricating us from it, not only rapidly, but with credit; not merely with credit, but with glory. To appreciate our present position, we must refer to that which we occupied some twelve or eighteen months ago; and that ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. 327 - Vol. 53, January, 1843 • Various

... length the rapidly changing kaleidoscope of his mind seemed to settle, to group its varied imaginings about a definite idea,—the idea that he had been all but openly accused, in the presence of Miss Darrow, of being instrumental in her father's death. For a moment, as he faced Maitland, whom he instinctively felt to be a rival, he looked so dark and sinister that one could easily have believed him capable ...
— The Darrow Enigma • Melvin L. Severy

... region, and sing hallelujahs to the LORD, forever. He rather sensibly imagines that such everlasting singing may in time produce hoarseness, so he prepares his vocal organs for the long concert by a vigorous discipline while here, and at the same time cultivates instrumental music, having a dim idea that the LORD has an ear for melody, and will let him, when he is tired of singing, vary the exercise "wid de banjo and de bones." This is all he knows; and his owner, however well-disposed he may be, cannot teach him ...
— Among the Pines - or, South in Secession Time • James R. Gilmore

... with The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals. Sir Charles Bell in his Anatomy of Expression had contended that many of man's facial muscles had been specially created for the sole purpose of being instrumental in the expression of his emotions. Darwin claimed that a natural explanation, consistent with the doctrine of evolution, could in many cases be given and would in other cases be afforded by an extension ...
— Evolution in Modern Thought • Ernst Haeckel

... that part of the poet's reluctance to embrace the creed of his contemporaries arises from the fact that he, in his secret heart, still hankers for his old title of priest. He knows that it is the imaginative faculty of the poet that has been largely instrumental in building up every religious system. The system that holds sway in society is apt to be the one that he himself has just outgrown; he has, accordingly, an artist's impatience for its immaturity. There is much truth to the poet's nature in ...
— The Poet's Poet • Elizabeth Atkins

... power, as prime minister and director of the king's policy, coincided with the downfall of Spanish power, and before the commencement of the Peninsular War he was associated in the minds of the people with national corruption and national degradation. He was, moreover, directly instrumental in the betrayal of Spain to France. By the Treaty of Fontainebleau, October 27, 1807, Portugal was to be divided between the King of Etruria and Godoy as Prince of the Algarves, Portuguese America was to fall to the King of Spain, and to bring this about Napoleon's troops were to enter Spain ...
— The Works of Lord Byron, Volume 2 • George Gordon Byron

... tell me what further he had to say. "You write down our country," he replied, in a passionate tone, "our mountains, our pasturing places, and the rain which falls from heaven; other people have done this before you, but I at least will never become instrumental to the ruin of my country." I assured him that I had no bad intentions towards the Bedouins, and told him he must be convinced that I liked them too well for that; "on the contrary," I added, "had I not occasionally written down some prayers ever since we left Taba, ...
— Travels in Syria and the Holy Land • John Burckhardt

... task, and Maxwell started back to his study, feeling that kind of satisfaction (and it is a very deep kind) which a man feels when he has been even partly instrumental in finding an unemployed ...
— In His Steps • Charles M. Sheldon

... called the "Professor" because he was the singing-master of the village and gave lessons in instrumental and vocal music. The love of music was another bond of union between Strout and Stiles, for the latter was a skilful, if not educated, ...
— Quincy Adams Sawyer and Mason's Corner Folks - A Picture of New England Home Life • Charles Felton Pidgin

... though of course your lands are forfeit. You understand we must have lands for the veterans' program when this campaign is over—" Santa Anna smiled then. "Besides, since Ord here has told me how instrumental you were in the abandonment of the Alamo, I think the Emperor will agree to mercy in your case. You know, don Jaime, your compatriots had me worried back there. The Alamo might have been a tough nut to ...
— Remember the Alamo • R. R. Fehrenbach

... no trajectory needed. We were almost over Archimedes now. I could drop us with a visible, instrumental course. My mind was whirling with a confusion of thoughts. What could we do? What could we dare attempt to do? I met ...
— Astounding Stories of Super-Science April 1930 • Various

... talked about the way ruin stared him in the face and the need there was for retrenchment, turning over a new leaf, facing facts and kindred things. Also, which was more important, he wrote to his wife's banker brother—he who had been instrumental in getting the papers sent in years ago. To this influential person he said a good deal about the state of the family finances, the need there was for clearing matters up and starting on a better basis, and his own determination to face things fairly and set to work in earnest. ...
— The Good Comrade • Una L. Silberrad

... me," Dame Margaret said warmly; "he has been my adviser and my friend. I have learned to confide in him implicitly. It was he who secured for me in the first place the friendship of Count Charles, and then that of his friends. He was instrumental in securing for us the assistance of the Italian who warned and afterwards sheltered us—one of the adventures that I have not yet told, because I did not think that I could do so without saying more than that person would like known; but Guy rendered him a service ...
— At Agincourt • G. A. Henty

... strongly enough to him. Make him understand that Mr. Smith would never have heard of the mine unless Mr. Kenyon and you had discovered it, and that he is very glad indeed to have such a good opportunity of investing his money; so that, naturally, he wishes those who have been instrumental in helping him to this investment to share in its profits. I imagine you can make all this clear enough, so that your friend will suspect nothing. Don't ...
— A Woman Intervenes • Robert Barr

... during the closing session of the forty-fourth Congress. He was an eminent lawyer, and, at the time, stood at the head of the American bar. His name is inseparably associated with many important reforms in legal procedure during the last half century. He had been instrumental in securing the appointment of a committee of distinguished jurists, chosen from the leading nations, to prepare the outlines of an international code. His report accompanying the plan, to the preparation of which he had given much thought and ...
— Something of Men I Have Known - With Some Papers of a General Nature, Political, Historical, and Retrospective • Adlai E. Stevenson

... has been instrumental too this day In purchasing the Music-Girl. He manag'd The whole affair. We should reward him for it. It will encourage others.—In a word, Your ...
— The Comedies of Terence • Publius Terentius Afer

... An instrumental performer makes a bad tone, and the conductor laughs at him, saying it sounds like a wolf howling or an ass braying. If the remark is accompanied by a smile, the performer straightens up and tries to overcome the fault; but if the comment is made ...
— Essentials in Conducting • Karl Wilson Gehrkens

... the masqueraders throw off their disguise, and, mitres, stoles, chasubles flung in the air, "disclose to view the defenders of the country in the national uniform." Peals of laughter, shouts and enthusiasm, while the instrumental din becomes louder! The procession, now in full blast, demands the carmagnole, and the Convention consents; even some of the deputies descend from their benches and cut the pigeon-wing with the merry prostitutes.—To wind up, the Convention decrees that it will attend that ...
— The Origins of Contemporary France, Volume 4 (of 6) - The French Revolution, Volume 3 (of 3) • Hippolyte A. Taine

... he, "at that time French Ambassador at Vienna, and sharer in the admiration which the Lichnowskis and others of high rank felt for Beethoven, proposed to him to pay his homage to the hero [Napoleon] in a grand instrumental work, he found the artist in the best disposition thereto; perhaps such thoughts had already occurred to his mind. In the year 1802, in autumn, he put his hand already to the work, began first in the following year earnestly to labor upon it, and, with ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 5, No. 30, April, 1860 • Various

... education of the blacks cited the customs of the Greeks and Romans, who enslaved not the minds and wills, but only the bodies of men. Nor did these benefactors fail to mention the cases of ancient slaves, who, having the advantages of education, became poets, teachers, and philosophers, instrumental in the diffusion of knowledge among the higher classes. There was still the idea of Cotton Mather, who was willing to treat his servants as part of the family, and to employ such of them as were competent to teach his children lessons ...
— The Education Of The Negro Prior To 1861 • Carter Godwin Woodson

... good ground for attack in the coarseness of the attempts which had been made in that form, and of the interpreters. Christophe had for long shared their dislike: the stupidity of the actors who delivered these recitations spoken to an instrumental accompaniment, without bothering about the accompaniment, without trying to merge their voices in it, rather, on the contrary, trying to prevent anything being heard but themselves, was calculated to revolt any musical ear. But since he had tasted the beauty of Corinne's harmonious ...
— Jean-Christophe, Vol. I • Romain Rolland

... I am great, we have k'kowanaTHA, I make great, I aggrandize. With at inserted we have a simulative or pretentious form, as katkowanaTHA, I make myself great, I pretend to be great. The same affix is used to give an instrumental sense; as from keriios, I kill, we have keriiohTHA, I kill him with such ...
— The Iroquois Book of Rites • Horatio Hale

... the departing teacher's effects. For the schoolhouse had been partly furnished by the managers, and the only cumbersome article possessed by the master, in addition to the packing-case of books, was a cottage piano that he had bought at an auction during the year in which he thought of learning instrumental music. But the enthusiasm having waned he had never acquired any skill in playing, and the purchased article had been a perpetual trouble to him ever since ...
— Jude the Obscure • Thomas Hardy

... it intimated lately, that George Denbigh was in some way or other instrumental in saving her life once; and that to her gratitude, and to my resemblance to the colonel, am I indebted to a consideration with Miss Moseley, which, although it has been the means of buoying me up with false hopes, I can never regret, from the pleasure her society has afforded me. I have remarked, ...
— Precaution • James Fenimore Cooper

... remind you that while you were doing your best to make the party to your second engagement believe that you were in love with her, you got her brother, an habitual inebriate, drunk, and were, so far, instrumental in breaking down the weak will with which he was struggling against his propensity. It is only fair to you that I should add that you persuaded me you got him only a little drunker than he already got himself, and that you meant to have looked after him, but ...
— Henry James, Jr. • William Dean Howells

... fire, as is continually nourished and supply'd by the materials convey'd into the stomach, and fomented by the bellows of the lungs; and in so contriving the most admirable fabrick of Animals, as to make the very spending and wasting of that fire, to be instrumental to the procuring and collecting more materials to augment and cherish it self, which indeed seems to be the principal end of all the contrivances ...
— Micrographia • Robert Hooke

... himself within reach of a benevolent American officer, then a prisoner in the city, Colonel Peter Schuyler, who generously ministered to his necessities, and who was instrumental in procuring his release from the French commander, when he himself was exchanged after the capture of Frontenac. Putnam, on his return home, gallantly conducted through the wilderness the sorely tried Mrs. Howe and her children, whose adventures in Indian captivity and among ...
— Great Men and Famous Women. Vol. 2 of 8 • Various

... also a Suffragette Club which is known as the Civic League, and is also instrumental in promoting public welfare. The Mothers' Clubs or Associations too, are better developed than those in many a large city; a fact which rather agreeably surprised me and proves how decidedly progressive are the women ...
— Reno - A Book of Short Stories and Information • Lilyan Stratton

... there is no such Thing in the Book. I have said indeed, that we often saw an evident Good spring up from a palpable Evil, and given Instances to prove, that, by the wonderful Direction of unsearchable Providence, Robbers, Murderers, and the worst of Malefactors were sometimes made instrumental to great Deliverances in Distress, and remarkable Blessings, which God wrought and conferr'd on the Innocent and Industrious; but as to the Crimes themselves, I have never spoke of them, but with the utmost Detestation, and on all Occasions urg'd the ...
— A Letter to Dion • Bernard Mandeville

... that he who lives by the sword shall perish by the sword? Can one, who professes the peaceable doctrines of the Gospel, be a soldier, when it is his duty not so much as to go to law? and shall he, who is not to revenge his own wrongs, be instrumental in bringing others into chains, ...
— A Portraiture of Quakerism, Volume III (of 3) • Thomas Clarkson

... time Billy could stand up in the more enviable capacity. Neither Daniel nor Lottie would listen to any objection to such a groomsman on the score of his extreme youth, for, as they said, Billy had been quite as instrumental in bringing them together as any agent, save the Divinity shaping the ends and tying all the knots in which there are heartstrings concerned, ...
— A Brace Of Boys - 1867, From "Little Brother" • Fitz Hugh Ludlow

... below the platform. The rest were opposite the table, next to the body-guard. The Emperor's children had a place assigned to them in the gallery from which they could look down on the feast. A concert, vocal and instrumental, accompanied the dinner. At the end the officiating bishop said ...
— The Happy Days of the Empress Marie Louise • Imbert De Saint-Amand

... became interested in the history of music. In his valuable monograph on "Music in Shakespeare's Time"* he shows a minute knowledge of Elizabethan music, — madrigals, dances, catches, and other forms of instrumental and vocal music. He took great delight in following out through Shakespeare's plays the dramatist's knowledge and appreciation of the art of music. Indeed, all the people of that time were "enthusiastic lovers of the art. There were professorships of music in the universities, ...
— Sidney Lanier • Edwin Mims

... less from astronomical experts. Every additional total eclipse which happens testifies to the fact that the time and thoughts of these latter classes of people will be to an increasing degree dedicated to instrumental work rather than to simple naked eye or even telescopic observation. The spectroscope and the camera are steadily ousting the simple telescope of every sort and unassisted eye ...
— The Story of Eclipses • George Chambers

... London may be divided into Vocal and Instrumental. As for the latter they are at present under a very great Disorder. A Freeman of London has the Privilege of disturbing a whole Street for an Hour together, with the Twanking of a Brass-Kettle or a Frying-Pan. The Watchman's ...
— The Spectator, Volume 2. • Addison and Steele

... writing for a moderate compass, a song-composer, almost alone of all composers, is provided with a means of reacting gradually upon instrumental music and of tuning anew the ear of our generation, so that it shall no longer find satisfaction in the shrill tones of extreme voice registers and the euphony of strong, easily and comfortably attained middle tones shall again be universally perceived. ...
— The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Vol. VIII • Various

... the best living performers, vocal and instrumental, and to a finer voice than yours I never listened; but you need study and practice, for your execution is faulty. You have a splendid instrument; but you do not yet understand its ...
— Vashti - or, Until Death Us Do Part • Augusta J. Evans Wilson

... in the judicial proceedings proclaimed their regret. The jurors signed a paper expressing their repentance, and pleading that they had laboured under a delusion. What ought to have been considered still more conclusive, many of those who had confessed themselves witches, and had been instrumental in accusing others, retracted all they had said, and confessed that they had acted under the influence of terror. Yet the vanity of superior intelligence and knowledge was so great in the two Mathers that they resisted all conviction. ...
— The Wonders of the Invisible World • Cotton Mather

... be infamous—infamous without power in the language for comparison—if we should requite their humanity by stirring up servile strife. I should be the first to take arms against the slaves in such revolt, and give my life rather than be instrumental in bringing misery ...
— The Iron Game - A Tale of the War • Henry Francis Keenan

... to be bringing down some elevated piece of crockery. Simon could see nothing with his eyes, but his ears made up for them: if ever Dr. Elliotson produced clairvoyance in the sisters Okey, the same sharpened apprehensions ministered to the inner man of Simon Jennings through the instrumental magnet of his inordinately covetous desires. Therefore, though his retina bore no picture of the scene, the feelers of his mind went forth, informing him of every thing ...
— The Complete Prose Works of Martin Farquhar Tupper • Martin Farquhar Tupper

... Dr. Wilkins, Bishop of Chester in the reign of Charles II., was chiefly instrumental in the foundation of the Royal Society. Among his works was a treatise to prove that "It is probable there may be another habitable world in the moon, with a discourse concerning the possibility of a passage thither." Burnet ("Hist. of his Own Times," Anno 1661) ...
— Letters of Horace Walpole - Volume II • Horace Walpole

... replied, "I feel no resentment towards them, and I desire to meet in Paradise those who have been chiefly instrumental in taking ...
— Celebrated Crimes, Complete • Alexandre Dumas, Pere

... of these facts—made more poignant by the airy declaration of the Democratic Presidential candidate, that the great National question of the Tariff is a mere "local issue,"—was largely instrumental, in connection with the insolent aggressiveness of the Southern leaders, in Congress, in occasioning their defeat in the Presidential contest of 1880, the Republican candidate receiving 214 electoral votes, while the ...
— The Great Conspiracy, Complete • John Alexander Logan

... physician about her. He spoke in admiration of her published works, and I tried to give him a description of her personal characteristics. The night before, in my hours of sleeplessness, I recounted the names of friends who I thought had been most instrumental in moulding my character, and Mrs. Prentiss led the list. How little did I dream that already her feet had safely touched "the shining shore"! In all the three and thirty years of our acquaintance ...
— The Life and Letters of Elizabeth Prentiss • George L. Prentiss

... the piano and rattled off a brilliant overture; then made Beulah join her in several instrumental duets. As the latter rose, Mr. ...
— Beulah • Augusta J. Evans

... resumed, after a little pause, "you may feel somewhat musical. There is to be a vocal and instrumental concert to-night. What say you to going there? I think I could enjoy ...
— After the Storm • T. S. Arthur

... Amelie explaining by what fatal deception she had been instrumental in destroying the lives of four men, when she intended to save the life of one. Then, as if ashamed of having broken the pledge she had made to Amelie, and above all to herself, she ordered fresh post-horses and returned ...
— The Companions of Jehu • Alexandre Dumas, pere

... not yet taught her to separate them from those of love; in the present moments, however, it was not the certainty of his guilt, but the apprehension of his death (of a death also, to which she herself, however innocently, appeared to have been in some degree instrumental) that oppressed her. This fear increased, as the means of certainty concerning it approached; and, when she came within view of Theresa's cottage, she was so much disordered, and her resolution failed her so entirely, that, unable to proceed, ...
— The Mysteries of Udolpho • Ann Radcliffe

... Cromwell. Like his father, who was hanged for participation in the Gunpowder Plot, Digby was a political creature, and during the Civil War he was imprisoned for several years. When freed, Digby left England to settle in France. Spending much time at the court of the Queen Dowager, who had been instrumental in securing his release, and exposed to the vigorous intellectual currents of Paris and Montpellier, Digby labored upon a treatise of greater scientific substance and merit than his more famous work on "the powder of sympathy." Published in 1644 under ...
— Medical Investigation in Seventeenth Century England - Papers Read at a Clark Library Seminar, October 14, 1967 • Charles W. Bodemer

... thousand other ways is made manifest the result of the application of science to the arts. Germany is taking a prominent part in this warfare for industrial supremacy, and that she expects her technical schools to be largely instrumental in answering many of the problems of the present and the future cannot be doubted, especially when one is made aware of the diversity and extent of the schools of a technical character ...
— The Condition and Tendencies of Technical Education in Germany • Arthur Henry Chamberlain

... Curtain draws up, and discovers several sitting at a Banquet. An Entertainment of Instrumental Musick, Compos'd by Signior Finger: Then a Song, set by Mr. John Eccles, and ...
— The City Bride (1696) - Or The Merry Cuckold • Joseph Harris

... under the presidency of the Reverend Benjamin Waugh. At the commencement of the next triennial term I became the chairman, and continued to be such for eighteen years. It was our duty to put into practice the scheme of instruction which Huxley was mainly instrumental in settling. We were thus able indirectly to improve both the means and methods of teaching. The subjects of instruction have all been retained in the Curriculum of the London School Board, except, perhaps, "mensuration" and "social economy." The most ...
— The Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley Volume 2 • Leonard Huxley

... close to drowning, but it was Jack who had been instrumental in rescuing him when he caught that cramp in the cold water of the lake; and, so far as appearances went, Joel was feeling as he declared, "just prime." He ran after the loftiest flies that were knocked his way as though he had the speed of the wind; yes, and ...
— Jack Winters' Baseball Team - Or, The Rivals of the Diamond • Mark Overton

... variety of tone; and although both Jacobi and Henrik protested that they could not discover any way of accounting for this supernatural phenomenon, still they did not escape the suspicion of being instrumental in the witchcraft, spite of all the means they used to establish their innocence. The opinion, however, was universally adopted, that good and not bad elves had been thus busily at work; and the fruit, therefore, was ...
— The Home • Fredrika Bremer

... going down now at a lively rate, thanks to the lessons she had from him, and she'll soon be at the bottom. It was that incident as much as any one thing that determined me I'd live my own life, and the whole of it, and let him work out his own damnation as fast as he could. I didn't want to be instrumental in continuing his life as such a source of ...
— The Fate of Felix Brand • Florence Finch Kelly

... this subject, we are enabled to state that the pieces to be performed on this occasion will be selected from the very highest order of musical composition—the Messiah of Handel, the Creation of Haydn, &c. That besides those, a number of the choicest compositions vocal and instrumental, by Handel, Graun, Pergolesse, &c. will be performed, and that, in order to make the exhibition as perfect as possible, every attainable assistance will be brought in to give magnificence to the performances and "swell the ...
— The Mirror of Taste, and Dramatic Censor, Vol. I, No. 5, May 1810 • Various

... Sallie Stuart, motored through the beautiful Sleepy Hollow country, spending several weeks at the home of Major Ted Eyck, an old friend of the Stuarts. There many diverting experiences fell to their lot, and before leaving the hospitable major's home they were instrumental in saving it from ...
— The Automobile Girls At Washington • Laura Dent Crane

... school and should be given the dignity and the consideration of a credit course, as it is in many progressive high schools. It cannot be urged that the subject is finished in the elementary schools. Pupils in fact receive only an introductory training in vocal music. The whole field of instrumental music remains untouched. It seems the city ought to consider the question of whether the course ought not to be much expanded and continued throughout the high school period as an elective subject. However, in considering the question it should ...
— What the Schools Teach and Might Teach • John Franklin Bobbitt

... funny to hear the hum of satisfaction when any well-known movement of Beethoven or Mozart was attacked. The orchestra was perfect, at its best I think in the "scherzos" which they took in beautiful style—so light and sure. I liked the instrumental part much better than the singing. French voices, the women's particularly, are thin, as a rule. I think they sacrifice too much to the "diction,"—don't bring out the voices enough—but the style and training are perfect of ...
— My First Years As A Frenchwoman, 1876-1879 • Mary King Waddington

... year of William E. Gladstone's stay at Eton, in 1827, and seven years after Praed's venture, he was largely instrumental in launching the Eton Miscellany, professedly edited by Bartholomew Bouverie, and Mr. Gladstone became a most frequent, voluminous and valuable contributor to its pages. He wrote articles of every kind—prologues, epilogues, ...
— The Grand Old Man • Richard B. Cook

... present and many of them were delighted with the meeting, whose doctrines were entirely new to them, and made liberal contributions. The next day the speakers left in the stage with one of these, Judge John J. Ormond and his two daughters, of Tuscaloosa, Ala. He told Miss Anthony he had been instrumental in securing many laws favorable to women in that state and it would be a pleasure to him to see that their memorial was presented to the Alabama Legislature. When she reached home she sent it to him with the ...
— The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony (Volume 1 of 2) • Ida Husted Harper

... the Idumeans, and the other nations which were conquered by him—that it necessarily requires some special reason to account for it; and such a reason is furnished by the passage under consideration. Hyrcanus washed to be instrumental in the fulfilment of the prophecy contained in it; but in this he failed. He did not consider, 1. That the reception of Edom into the kingdom of God is here brought into connection with the restoration of the tabernacle of David, and hence could ...
— Christology of the Old Testament: And a Commentary on the Messianic Predictions, v. 1 • Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg

... had been instrumental in rescuing from infidelity many young men whose minds had become unsettled; that he was a devoted and laborious clergyman, exerting himself, without any cessation, for the ...
— Sunny Memories of Foreign Lands V2 • Harriet Beecher Stowe

... the relations between the Executive and the Assembly were not altogether cordial. The situation was made still more embarrassing by the ill feeling which existed between the Governor and the Secretary of the Territory. Indeed it is clear that Mr. Conway was instrumental in stirring up much of the opposition to Governor Lucas by confiding his private grievances to members of the Assembly, by deferring to the Assembly to the point of servility, and by affecting to set up an administrative department ...
— History of the Constitutions of Iowa • Benjamin F. Shambaugh

... not only because of the evidence against the prince, but because of the lofty way in which the latter had replied some weeks previously to an inquiry from the Ministero. Sansevero said his Raphael was in the possession of the Duke Scorpa, but the duke, who had been chiefly instrumental in discovering the sale of the picture, was unable to shield his friend. Sansevero was questioned again, and refused to say anything more. He had answered once, and that, in his opinion, was sufficient for ...
— The Title Market • Emily Post

... accept the idea of complete colonial autonomy on tax matters, while the colonists would accept nothing less. He hoped repeal would remove the immediate difficulty and parliament would avoid the taxation issue in the future. His brilliant presentation was instrumental in gaining repeal of the Stamp Act, but the ...
— The Road to Independence: Virginia 1763-1783 • Virginia State Dept. of Education

... Mr. Hartley till the guilty clerk left the establishment. This was at the special request of the merchant, who did not care to let Mr. Haynes suspect who had been instrumental in bringing his guilt ...
— The Telegraph Boy • Horatio Alger, Jr.

... possibility of anybody having stood with a chance of success against him in his own family borough. For a full appreciation of the advantages of a private seat in the House of Commons let us always go to those great Whig families who were mainly instrumental in carrying the Reform Bill. The house of Omnium had been very great on that occasion. It had given up much, and had retained for family use simply the single seat at Silverbridge. But that that seat should be seriously disputed hardly suggested itself as possible to the mind of any Palliser. ...
— Can You Forgive Her? • Anthony Trollope

... that he might enlist Dr. Stanhope on his side, before his enemies could outmanoeuvre him. On the other hand, the old dean had many many years ago, in the days of the doctor's clerical energies, been instrumental in assisting him in his views as to preferment; and many many years ago also, the two doctors, Stanhope and Grantly, had, as young parsons, been joyous together in the common-rooms of Oxford. Dr. Grantly, consequently, ...
— Barchester Towers • Anthony Trollope

... violent emotions please remember that Flora, in company with Jane, had been instrumental in saving Anthony Barraclough's life when they found him lying on the roadside bleeding like a stuck pig during the great retreat of 1918. After all, a girl is justified in feeling strongly about a ...
— Men of Affairs • Roland Pertwee

... Camperdown. Mr. Camperdown had striven hard,—to the great and almost permanent offence of Sir Florian,—to save Portray from its present condition of degradation; but he had striven in vain. Portray belonged to the harpy for her life; and moreover, he himself had been forced to be instrumental in paying over to the harpy a large sum of Eustace money almost immediately on her becoming a widow. Then had come the affair of the diamonds;—an affair of ten thousand pounds!—as Mr. Camperdown would exclaim to himself, throwing his eyes up to the ceiling. And now it seemed that ...
— The Eustace Diamonds • Anthony Trollope

... he set himself directly against the punishment of witchcraft. As premier of the English judiciary his example meant quite as much as his own rulings. And their cumulative effect was not slight. We know of no less than eleven trials where as presiding officer he was instrumental in securing a verdict of acquittal. In London, at Ipswich, at Bury, at Exeter, in Cornwall, and in other parts of the realm, these verdicts were rendered, and they could not fail to influence opinion and to affect the decisions of other judges. Three of the trials we shall go over briefly—those ...
— A History of Witchcraft in England from 1558 to 1718 • Wallace Notestein

... charged himself with the musical training of another niece, and he would probably not hesitate to send Mavis to Vienna for the best masters, should she presently display any natural talent. Her cousin Ruby sang like an angel from the age of ten; but Mavis so far exhibited more inclination for instrumental music. ...
— The Devil's Garden • W. B. Maxwell

... destruction liberated that region from this annoyance. This event gave rise to the institution of the Pythian games, which were celebrated near Delphi. Besides the several contests mentioned by Ovid, singing, dancing, and instrumental music, formed part of the exercises of these games. The event which Ovid here places soon after the deluge, must have happened much later, since in the time of Deucalion, the worship of Apollo was ...
— The Metamorphoses of Ovid - Vol. I, Books I-VII • Publius Ovidius Naso

... Miss Knag justice, she had been mainly instrumental in bringing about this altered state of things, for, finding by daily experience, that there was no chance of the business thriving, or even continuing to exist, while Mr Mantalini had any hand in the expenditure, and having ...
— The Life And Adventures Of Nicholas Nickleby • Charles Dickens

... the geological periods the life of man represents but a small portion, just as the existence of man as recorded in history is but a modern period of his great life. The changes, then, which have taken place in the animals and plants and the climate in the different geological periods have been instrumental in determining the age of man; that is, if in a given stratum human remains are found, and the relative age of that stratum is known, it is easy to estimate ...
— History of Human Society • Frank W. Blackmar

... lie. It happened a good many years ago, and certainly they both met a violent end. I was instrumental in saving what property Frank Law left, but it didn't last Dave very long. He's right careless in money matters. Dave's a fine fellow in some ways—most ways, I believe, but—" The Judge lost himself ...
— Heart of the Sunset • Rex Beach

... knew that I had been in any way instrumental in bringing his case before the King. He took his freedom as the fulfillment of a right, and dreamed not that his little Gretchen had pleaded for him. But that he should know it, mattered not at all. He had his liberty, ...
— Monsieur Maurice • Amelia B. Edwards

... have to tell of the children," said Mrs. Waller. "To think of the little things telling you of their porridge and of those bowls being instrumental in restoring their father to us. It sounds like the most ...
— Mary Louise and Josie O'Gorman • Emma Speed Sampson

... you may remark, not an inch of space is lost; every hole and corner being turned to account: here and there, the cellars even: are converted into scenes of gaiety and diversion, where the master of the house entertains his customers with a succession of vocal and instrumental music, while they are taking ...
— Paris As It Was and As It Is • Francis W. Blagdon

... life was about them, and from the house came faintly the mellow notes of a piano, where the Colonel and Bob were watching out of shadow the enraptured light in Dale's face as Ann introduced him for the first time in his life to that type of instrumental music. ...
— Sunlight Patch • Credo Fitch Harris

... feature of the book is the antagonism displayed towards those who wish to bring about a union of the Presbyterian bodies. "Not all the cement outside of heaven," one man says, "could bring about a union of the Free and U.P. Churches." The Declaratory Act, secular teaching in schools, instrumental music, and such like, all come in for severe treatment or ...
— Literary Tours in The Highlands and Islands of Scotland • Daniel Turner Holmes

... of the student is advanced—a matter which I find is often neglected by teachers of music, though more so in the case of instrumental than vocal teachers. ...
— Voice Production in Singing and Speaking - Based on Scientific Principles (Fourth Edition, Revised and Enlarged) • Wesley Mills

... his—only he thrived on it and they withered. Dr. Fiddler was very nice about it, however. He assured Mr. Bingle that he was in no hurry for his money. Any time before the first of February would be perfectly satisfactory. He was only too glad to have been instrumental in dragging his old friend, Joseph Hooper from the ...
— Mr. Bingle • George Barr McCutcheon

... as a noble accession to his former name, Publius Valerius. He descended from Valerius, a man amongst the early citizens, reputed the principal reconciler of the differences betwixt the Romans and Sabines, and one that was most instrumental in persuading their kings to assent to peace and union. Thus descended, Publius Valerius, as it is said, whilst Rome remained under its kingly government, obtained as great a name from his eloquence as from his riches, ...
— Plutarch's Lives • A.H. Clough

... to be delivered to Montcalm. As the thoughts of those who are in misery seldom slumber, and the invention is never more lively than when it is stimulated by hope, however feeble and remote, he had even imagined that the parental feelings of Munro were to be made instrumental in seducing him from his duty to the king. For though the French commander bore a high character for courage and enterprise, he was also thought to be expert in those political practises which do not always respect the nicer obligations of morality, and which ...
— The Last of the Mohicans • James Fenimore Cooper

... always on their tongue." (De Fructu, p. 54-5.) Ascham, while lamenting in 1545 (Toxophilus, p. 29) 'that the laudable custom of England to teach children their plain song and prick-song' is 'so decayed throughout all the realm as it is,' denounces the great practise of instrumental music by older students: "the minstrelsy of lutes, pipes, harps, and all other that standeth by such nice, fine, minikin fingering, (such as the most part of scholars whom I know use, if they use any,) is far more fit, for the womanishness of it, to dwell in the Court among ladies, than for any ...
— Early English Meals and Manners • Various

... Looking For the Church," a work of marked ability and of great utility. It had a large sale in his day, and it is still sought after as a book of permanent value. It is a strong plea for Apostolic Order and Liturgical Worship, and it is safe to say that it has been instrumental in leading many an inquirer into the "old paths" and the Faith as "once delivered to the Saints." The Rev. Mr. Mines, after his ordination, became assistant minister in St. George's Church, New York city, under Rev. Dr. James Milnor. From here he went to the Danish West Indies and ...
— By the Golden Gate • Joseph Carey

... story begins, the Professor was captured by a band of Berees, and taken to their village, where he was instrumental in healing the chief's favorite daughter, and in gratitude, placed his warriors at the Professor's disposal to rescue his friends, who were about to be attacked by the ...
— The Wonder Island Boys: Conquest of the Savages • Roger Thompson Finlay

... Monts treated them with gentleness, nevertheless it is not unlikely that a compromise would have been better policy than an entire confiscation of their property, as these Basques afterwards, on their return to France, gave him serious inconvenience. They were instrumental mainly in wresting from him his charter ...
— Voyages of Samuel de Champlain, Vol. 2 • Samuel de Champlain

... of fighting. In general, those who have been the greatest sufferers by the indulgence of selfish passion, have been the most earnest supporters of any moral law which offered a means of bridling passion. Women were powerfully instrumental in inducing the northern conquerors to adopt the creed of Christianity, a creed so much more favourable to women than any that preceded it. The conversion of the Anglo-Saxons and of the Franks may be said to have been ...
— The Subjection of Women • John Stuart Mill

... among our former masters, who could not take kindly to our new citizenship, we naturally sought friendship and political alliance with those claiming to be our best friends—those who had been instrumental in obtaining our freedom. These new friends came largely from the Federal army, interspersed with many adventurers who followed in the wake of that army, seeking strange fields in which to ply their vocations. Many of these new-comers proved to be true friends to the Negro of the ...
— Twentieth Century Negro Literature - Or, A Cyclopedia of Thought on the Vital Topics Relating - to the American Negro • Various

... were exempt, had continual need of some powerful friend at court. When his protector, M. de Choiseul, was dismissed, he saw clearly enough that the only person on whom he could henceforward depend to aid and support him, was she who had been chiefly instrumental in removing his first patron. With these ideas he addressed to me the following letter of condolence or, to speak more correctly, of congratulation. It was as follows:— "MADAME LA COMTESSE,—Fame, with her hundred tongues, has announced ...
— "Written by Herself" • Baron Etienne Leon Lamothe-Langon

... Spalding, with whose name every American boy is familiar, has been prevailed upon to commit to print events which were instrumental in guiding the destinies of the National League during the trying period of its early days. To write upon base ball in a historical manner, and yet not fall into the habit of quoting interminable statistics, is a feat ...
— Spalding's Official Baseball Guide - 1913 • John B. Foster

... attained to prominence in the king's favorite science of astronomy. The Alfonsine Tables were chiefly the work of Isaac ibn Sid, a Toledo chazan (precentor). In general, the results reached by Jewish scholarship at Alfonso's court were of the utmost importance, having been largely instrumental in establishing in the age of Tycho de Brahe and Kepler the fundamental principles of astronomy and a correct view of the orbits of the heavenly bodies. Equal suggestiveness characterizes Jewish research in mathematics, a science to which, rising above the level ...
— Jewish Literature and Other Essays • Gustav Karpeles

... barn-like structure, built of imported pine boards, and raised clear of the ground, was simply stunning. An instrumental uproar, screaming, grunting, whining, sobbing, scraping, squeaking some kind of lively air; while a grand piano, operated upon by a bony, red-faced woman with bad-tempered nostrils, rained hard notes like hail through the tempest of fiddles. The ...
— Victory • Joseph Conrad

... would sacrifice, in many instances, his respect for the laws to the common feelings of humanity; and there must be a strange vice in that legislation from which can proceed laws in whose execution a man cannot be instrumental without forfeiting his self-esteem and incurring the contempt ...
— The Prose Works of William Wordsworth • William Wordsworth

... country owes a debt of gratitude to Mr. DAWES for his manly attack on the wretches who have crippled the war, robbed the soldier, swindled the tax-payers, and aided the enemy by their wicked rapacity. Let it be remembered that whatever his sentiments may have been, every man who has been instrumental, directly or indirectly, in cheating the treasury and the my during this period of distress, has been one of its enemies, and far more deadly than if he had been openly enlisted under the banners ...
— Continental Monthly - Volume 1 - Issue 3 • Various

... as clear an abstract as I can give you of a most complicated affair, in which I have been a most unfortunate actor, having to my infinite grief, which I shall feel till the man is at peace, been instrumental in protracting his misery a fortnight, by what I meant as the kindest thing I could do. I never knew poor Byng enough to bow to; but the great doubtfulness of his crime, and the extraordinariness of his sentence, the persecution of his enemies, who sacrifice him ...
— The Letters of Horace Walpole, Volume 2 • Horace Walpole

... now Chairman of the Indian Reform Association, Mr. Bazley, one of the members for Manchester, Mr. Ashworth, the President of the Chamber of Commerce of Manchester, and Mr. John Benjamin Smith, the Member for Stockport—present themselves at this moment to my eyes as those who have been largely instrumental in calling the attention of Parliament and of the country to this great question of the reform of our ...
— Speeches on Questions of Public Policy, Volume 1 • John Bright

... was largely instrumental in getting the thing up, and though he worked like a Trojan to make the affair go, still kept himself personally in the background. He consorted with Captain Stinson and Mathews, middle-aged individuals who ...
— The Woman from Outside - [on Swan River] • Hulbert Footner

... those who have leisure, are too averse from giving themselves trouble, to investigate a subject but too generally considered as tiresome and uninteresting. But if it be true, that we are really happy only in proportion as we ought to be so;— that is, in proportion as we are instrumental in promoting the happiness of others; no study surely can be so interesting, as that which teaches us how most effectually to contribute to the well-being of ...
— ESSAYS, Political, Economical and Philosophical. Volume 1. • Benjamin Rumford

... of the Motor Boat Club was quite flush at that particular time. On one of their former cruises, up on the Great Lakes, and in the vicinity of the Thousand Islands, these lads had been instrumental in bringing to justice a set of rogues, for whose apprehension a large reward had been offered by ...
— Motor Boat Boys Down the Coast - or Through Storm and Stress to Florida • Louis Arundel

... anger as would, I hoped, disincline him from any pursuit of her. If I could, by one stroke, restore him his diamonds and convince him, not of Marie's virtue, but of her faithlessness, I trusted to be humbly instrumental in freeing her from his importunity, and of restoring the jewels to the duchess—nay, of restoring to her also the undisturbed possession of her home and of the society of her husband. At this latter prospect I told myself that I ought to feel very satisfied, and rather to ...
— The Indiscretion of the Duchess • Anthony Hope

... heard Celestial voices to the midnight air, Sole, or responsive each to other's note, Singing their great Creator? Oft in bands, While they keep watch, or nightly rounding walk, With heav'nly touch of instrumental sounds, In full harmonic number join'd, their songs Divide the night, and lift ...
— Apparitions; or, The Mystery of Ghosts, Hobgoblins, and Haunted Houses Developed • Joseph Taylor

... princes on occasions so momentous to themselves and to their people. Joam VI., passionately fond of music, was dragged by a people, grateful for a boon granted that very day, to a theatre built by himself, where all the music vocal and instrumental was selected with exquisite taste, and where the piece presented was a decided favourite.[34] Yet it may be questioned whether there existed in his wide dominions one heart less at ease than his own. ...
— Journal of a Voyage to Brazil - And Residence There During Part of the Years 1821, 1822, 1823 • Maria Graham

... the charge of four departments: Justice, Police, Finance and Marine. He had previously filled the post of Intendant in Louisiana, and also at Louisburg. The disaffection and revolt caused by his rapacity in that city, were mainly instrumental in producing its downfall and surrender to the English commander, Pepperell, in 1745. Living at a time when tainted morals and official corruption ruled at court, he seems to have taken his standard of morality from the mother country; ...
— Picturesque Quebec • James MacPherson Le Moine

... degraded and neglected region, might not be stayed there, but might flow from thence to far-off lands. One then present, the Dowager Lady Rowley, was not long permitted to sow precious seed with her own hand, but was instrumental in the fulfilment of this petition, as it was through her leading that Miss Macpherson's voice was first heard in the ...
— God's Answers - A Record Of Miss Annie Macpherson's Work at the - Home of Industry, Spitalfields, London, and in Canada • Clara M. S. Lowe

... sandy moustache and the goatee that decorated his receding chin were both carefully waxed into sharp points—an indication that he possessed at least one vanity. Three days in the week he taught vocal and instrumental music to the ambitious young ladies of Cloverton. The other three days he rode to Pelham's Grove, ten miles away, and taught music to all who wished to acquire that desirable accomplishment. But the towns were small and the fees not large, so that Professor De Graf had much difficulty in ...
— Aunt Jane's Nieces • Edith Van Dyne

... and causing you to see such an interest and beauty in them as you never saw before. After we all assembled in the large double parlors and had some games, there were several who favored the company with instrumental and vocal music, when I thought it would be no more than proper to ask Penloe to play. After he had been seated at the piano a few minutes, I was a little in doubt whether I had not made a mistake in asking him, for he commenced playing with one hand and only touching one key at a time, more ...
— A California Girl • Edward Eldridge

... the Bahamas to the Windward Islands, and at three captured the United States schooner Arcade from Portland, Maine, to Port au Prince, Guadaloupe, loaded with stores. The master and half-owner of the schooner was Master of the barque Saxony at the time of the loss of the Central America, and was instrumental in saving lives on that occasion, for which a handsome telescope had been presented to him. I had the pleasure of returning the glass to him, captured among the other ...
— The Cruise of the Alabama and the Sumter • Raphael Semmes

... of those tones which with their intervals and their instrumental tone color appear like a wonderful mosaic of agreements and disagreements. Yet each disagreement resolves itself into a new agreement. Those tones seek one another. They have a life of their own, complete in itself. ...
— The Photoplay - A Psychological Study • Hugo Muensterberg

... the manse, and I could not but say that he seemed both discreet and sincere. Judge, however, what was brewing, when the same night Mr Lorimore came and told me, that Mr Heckletext was the suspected person anent the fact that had been instrumental, in the hand of a chastising Providence, to afflict me with the toothache, in order, as it afterwards came to pass, to bring the hidden hypocrisy of the ungodly preacher to light. It seems that the donsie lassie who was in fault, had gone to the kirk in the afternoon, ...
— The Annals of the Parish • John Galt

... and depends for effect on the occasion. Managers will be obstinate; actors are bent on display—the audience is inattentive and unruly. Their object is relaxation, and they are disappointed if mental exertion be required, when they expected only amusement. But if the theatre be made instrumental towards higher objects, the diversion, of the spectator will not be increased, but ennobled. It will be a diversion, but a poetical one. All art is dedicated to pleasure, and there can be no higher and worthier end than to make ...
— The Works of Frederich Schiller in English • Frederich Schiller

... in an old Jewish or Hebrew legend which appears in literature for the first time in Genesis vi. There we are told the Sons of God, that is, the angels, took to wives the daughters of men, and begat the giants and heroes, who were instrumental in bringing about the flood. The Rabbins held that the way in which the angels got possession of women was by laying hold of their hair; they accordingly warned women to cover their heads in public, so that the angels might not get possession of them. It was believed that the ...
— The Woman's Bible. • Elizabeth Cady Stanton

... at the man he had rescued. From him he glanced toward the figure of the young bullying cowboy whom he suspected of having been instrumental in causing ...
— Cowboy Dave • Frank V. Webster

... Voice being, like instrumental tone, a commixture of fundamental and overtones, and the manner in which the composite conformation of collective waves strikes the ear being largely determined by the cavities of resonance, the control ...
— The Voice - Its Production, Care and Preservation • Frank E. Miller

... more than most other men would have done. He was accustomed to throw himself into the projects on which he was employed with an enthusiasm almost poetic. He regarded them not merely as so much engineering, but as works which were to be instrumental in opening up the communications of the country and extending its civilization. Viewed in this light, his canals, roads, bridges, and harbours were unquestionably of great national importance, though their commercial results might ...
— The Life of Thomas Telford by Smiles • Samuel Smiles

... new tone in those Massachusetts guns. It was not the old lust of conquest, not the sullen roar of hatred and revenge, but a higher, clearer note of a people asserting their inalienable sovereignty. It is a happy circumstance that one of our native-born, Benjamin Franklin, was instrumental in bringing Lafayette to America; but beyond that it is fitting at this time to give a thought to our Commonwealth because his ideals, his character, his life, were all in sympathy with that great Revolution which was begun ...
— Have faith in Massachusetts; 2d ed. - A Collection of Speeches and Messages • Calvin Coolidge



Words linked to "Instrumental" :   implemental, instrument, instrumental music, instrumentality, musical instrument, subservient, instrumental role



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