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Observation   Listen
noun
Observation  n.  
1.
The act or the faculty of observing or taking notice; the act of seeing, or of fixing the mind upon, anything. "My observation, which very seldom lies."
2.
The result of an act, or of acts, of observing; view; reflection; conclusion; judgment. "In matters of human prudence, we shall find the greatest advantage in making wise observations on our conduct."
3.
Hence: An expression of an opinion or judgment upon what one has observed; a remark. "That's a foolish observation." "To observations which ourselves we make We grow more partial for the observer's sake."
4.
Performance of what is prescribed; adherence in practice; observance. (Obs.) "We are to procure dispensation or leave to omit the observation of it in such circumstances."
5.
(Science)
(a)
The act of recognizing and noting some fact or occurrence in nature, as an aurora, a corona, or the structure of an animal.
(b)
Specifically, the act of measuring, with suitable instruments, some magnitude, as the time of an occultation, with a clock; the right ascension of a star, with a transit instrument and clock; the sun's altitude, or the distance of the moon from a star, with a sextant; the temperature, with a thermometer, etc.
(c)
The information so acquired; as, to record one's observations carefully. Note: When a phenomenon is scrutinized as it occurs in nature, the act is termed an observation. When the conditions under which the phenomenon occurs are artificial, or arranged beforehand by the observer, the process is called an experiment. Experiment includes observation.
To take an observation (Naut.), to ascertain the altitude of a heavenly body, with a view to fixing a vessel's position at sea.
Synonyms: Observance; notice; attention; remark; comment; note. See Observance.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Observation" Quotes from Famous Books



... escape their observation nor elude their criticism, from the creations in color lining the walls of the art gallery, to the most intricate mechanism of inventive genius in the basement. All would pass inspection, with drawing of comparison between the present, the ...
— At Fault • Kate Chopin

... the Lord God men have sinned, and to Him they are accountable. And they know it. Here again is something which does not come by observation or instruction, but by an inward sense which can neither be mistaken nor long denied. Sooner or later, men are compelled to acknowledge God, and to acknowledge that they have sinned against Him. As with David, when he cried out, "Against Thee, Thee only, ...
— Our Master • Bramwell Booth

... just coming on shore. They made the best of their way home in hurry enough; and giving the alarm to their comrades, they kept close all that day and the next, going out only at night to make their observation: but they had the good luck to be undiscovered, for wherever the savages went, they did not land that time on the island, but ...
— The Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe • Daniel Defoe

... I can point to you a dozen cases within my own range of observation to disprove the assertion—to young men who have gone astray in spite of the careful training and good example of religious homes—in spite of all the best of mothers and the wisest of ...
— Choice Readings for the Home Circle • Anonymous

... foresee, and had convinced me of, and yet when it come last year to be argued before the Duke of York I turned and said as the rest did. I answered nothing to it, but let it go, and so to other discourse of the ill state of things, of which all people are full of sorrow and observation, and so parted, and then by water, landing in Southwarke, home to the Tower, and so home, and there began to read "Potter's Discourse upon 1666," which pleases me mightily, and then broke off and to ...
— Diary of Samuel Pepys, Complete • Samuel Pepys

... whole days and nights! In the severe school to which life had put her, the little Huldy had developed an astonishing amount of character, of shrewdness, and perception, and a very fair philosophy of her own. To the elder woman's sad observation that it was mighty strange what made Sammy so "onthankful" and so "ha'sh" to his pappy, who had done so ...
— Southern Lights and Shadows • Edited by William Dean Howells & Henry Mills Alden

... decumbens. Carex flavescens. Carex gigantea, probably Pseudocyperus. Carex trigona, probably vulpina. Carex elata, probably atrata. Carex nemorosa, probably pendula. And he is of opinion that the seeds may be sown to advantage. Be this as may, the observation can only apply to situations in the north of Britain, where he has seen them wild; in this part of the island we have a number of kinds much better adapted to soil, ...
— The Botanist's Companion, Vol. II • William Salisbury

... ask what education is. Much is taught in colleges that is of no earthly use; much is taught that is hurtful. There are thousands of educated men who never graduated from any college or university. Every observant, thoughtful man is educating himself as long as he lives. Men are better then books. Observation is a great teacher. A man of talent learns slowly. He does not readily see the necessary relation that one fact bears to another. A man of genius, learning one fact, instantly sees hundreds of others. It is not necessary for such a man to attend college. The world is his university. ...
— The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Volume VIII. - Interviews • Robert Green Ingersoll

... surgeon's fingers first touched him, then relapsed into the spluttering, labored respiration of a man in liquor or in heavy pain. A stolid young man who carried the case of instruments freshly steaming from their antiseptic bath made an observation which the surgeon apparently did not hear. He was thinking, now, his thin face set in a frown, the upper teeth biting hard over the under lip and drawing up the pointed beard. While he thought, he watched the man extended on the chair, watched him like an alert ...
— The Web of Life • Robert Herrick

... swollen; the pseudopodia were gradually drawn in, with the exception of the more elongate one; this became active in movement and finer in diameter, until ultimately it formed a single flagellum at the anterior of a small monadiform flagellate. The process was repeated two or three times under my observation, so that I am convinced that it was not a developmental form of some rhizopod. Several of them were seen at different times during the summer, and they were always of the same size and form in the flagellated or amoeboid condition. I did ...
— Marine Protozoa from Woods Hole - Bulletin of the United States Fish Commission 21:415-468, 1901 • Gary N. Galkins

... managed as a national wildlife refuge and open to the public for wildlife-related recreation in the form of wildlife observation and photography, sport fishing, snorkeling, and scuba diving; the refuge is temporarily closed ...
— The 2004 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency

... and some of my learned friends put me in a periodical called The Lounger, a copy of which I here enclose you. I was, Sir, when I was first honoured with your notice, too obscure; now I tremble lest I should be ruined by being dragged too suddenly into the glare of learned and polite observation.' ...
— Robert Burns - Famous Scots Series • Gabriel Setoun

... which will enable the eye to comprehend more thoroughly the position of the veins. And this is actually the method in which, for the most part, the alabasters of St. Mark are employed; thus accomplishing a double good,—directing the spectator, in the first place, to close observation of the nature of the stone employed, and in the second, giving him a farther proof of the honesty of intention in the builder: for wherever similar veining is discovered in two pieces, the fact is declared that they have been cut from the same stone. It would have been easy to disguise ...
— Stones of Venice [introductions] • John Ruskin

... LONDON (London, Limbo and Sons, 1889), now obliterated under the long wash of Press-matter, the reflection—not unknown to philosophical observers, and natural perhaps in the mind of an Oriental Prince—produced by his observation of the march of London citizens Eastward at morn, Westward at eve, attributes their practice to a survival of the Zoroastrian form of worship. His Minister, favourable to the people or for the sake of fostering an idea in his Master's head, ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith

... we may regard the method as not consistently applied, we have no fault to find with the method and no sentiment but that of admiration for the fine powers of observation displayed in these articles. There seems to be nothing in the form of the eye that escapes his attention. The slightest variations in the form of the lids, in the positions of the eyeball, he notices ...
— The American Journal of Archaeology, 1893-1 • Various

... not joining 'truly' with 'good,' but with 'hard.' Not, that the hard thing is to be truly good, as though there were some truly good men, and there were others who were good but not truly good (this would be a very simple observation, and quite unworthy of Simonides); but you must suppose him to make a trajection of the word 'truly' (Greek), construing the saying of Pittacus thus (and let us imagine Pittacus to be speaking and Simonides answering him): 'O my friends,' says Pittacus, 'hard is it to be good,' ...
— Protagoras • Plato

... and again—"Whether men might not be attaching too rigid an importance?"...to a subject with a dotted tail apparently, for he gives it no other in the Note-book. But, as I apprehend, he had come to plead in behalf of women here, and had deduced something from positive observation. To Richard the scenes he witnessed were strange wild pictures, likely if anything to have increased his ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith

... that we do sell our chapel organ; and the next motion, carried nem. con., was that we do have a dinner. As to ornaments for the dinner table what affectation and expense do we see. But in the days of Walpole it was not amiss. "The last branch of our fashion into which the close observation of nature has been introduced is our desserts. Jellies, biscuits, sugar plums, and creams have long since given way to harlequins, gondoliers, Turks, Chinese, and shepherdesses of Saxon china. Meadows of cattle spread themselves over the table. Cottages in sugar, and temples ...
— Interludes - being Two Essays, a Story, and Some Verses • Horace Smith

... crop that required great skill to develop, a rare rose that all the rose-maniacs were after, a new theory that required a great deal of consideration and investigation, and accompanied with experiments that needed much observation, and any number of other t-i-o-n-shuns. Then I shouldn't be left alone evenings by the great inquiring mind of the family. Burt's going away, and, as his father says, has got into a scrape; so what's ...
— Nature's Serial Story • E. P. Roe

... in a village in which there still existed some memorials of the olden time, he—he, the chairman of the Pickwick Club—had discovered a strange and curious inscription of unquestionable antiquity, which had wholly escaped the observation of the many learned men who had preceded him. He could hardly trust the evidence of ...
— The Pickwick Papers • Charles Dickens

... 'Evening Walk' will illustrate Wordsworth's way of dealing with his earlier text in his later editions. This Poem showed from the first a minute observation of Nature—not only in her external form and colour, but also in her suggestiveness—though not in her symbolism; and we also find the same transition from Nature to Man, the same interest in rural life, and the ...
— The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth - Volume 1 of 8 • Edited by William Knight

... tarried to inspect one of the pools—formed of running water from the corrals—greeted me as I came up with this cheerful observation. ...
— The Last of the Plainsmen • Zane Grey

... a characteristic color to a flame, or has a spectrum of its own, can be identified even when other elements are present. Through the spectroscopic examination of certain minerals a number of elements have been discovered by the observation of lines which did not belong to any known element. A study of the substance then brought to light the new element. Rubidium and caesium were discovered in this way, rubidium having bright red lines and caesium a very intense blue line. Lithium colors the flame deep red, and has a bright red ...
— An Elementary Study of Chemistry • William McPherson

... the tax a man must pay for his virtues—they hold up a torch to his vices and render those frailties notorious in him which would pass without observation in another."—Lacon. ...
— The Verbalist • Thomas Embly Osmun, (AKA Alfred Ayres)

... ancient kingdoms,—the country inhabited by Israel and Judah. In the description which we are about to give of the principal towns, the buildings, the antiquities, the manners, the opinions, and the religious forms which meet the observation of the intelligent tourist in the Land of Canaan, we shall select the most striking facts from writers of all nations and sects, making no distinction but such as shall be dictated by a respect for the learning, the candour, and the ...
— Palestine or the Holy Land - From the Earliest Period to the Present Time • Michael Russell

... quietly mounted their horses, and were ordered to remain out of sight, while General Merritt, accompanied by two or three aides and myself, went out on a little tour of observation to a neighboring hill, from the summit of which we saw that the Indians were approaching almost directly towards us. Presently fifteen or twenty of them dashed off to the west in the direction from which we had come the night before; and upon closer observation ...
— The Life of Hon. William F. Cody - Known as Buffalo Bill The Famous Hunter, Scout and Guide • William F. Cody

... been found embedded in the heart of a deceased saint. The supposed miracle was, of course, the work of imagination; but this does not mean that those who reported it were deliberate liars. We know now that we must distinguish between observation and imagination, between the language of science and that of poetical metaphor; but in an age which abhorred rationalism this was not so clear[337]. Rationalism has its function in proving that such ...
— Christian Mysticism • William Ralph Inge

... good deal to his sister's quicker perceptions and habit of observation to guide his opinion in the affair that had burst on him, and was relieved that when Ivinghoe, like the well-bred young man that he was, went up to her, and taking her hand said, "I have been venturing to put my fate into the hands ...
— The Long Vacation • Charlotte M. Yonge

... the Chinese know nothing of anatomy from personal observation. Autopsies and dissection are against their superstitions, which declare the human body sacred, ...
— Stories in Light and Shadow • Bret Harte

... become aware of this observation of his person when the gate itself was opened, and there appeared before him, in the moonlight, the bent and crooked figure of an aged negress. She was clad in a calamanco raiment, and was further adorned with a variety of gaudily colored trimmings, ...
— Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates • Howard I. Pyle

... every one knows, was a believer in universal flux: time builds and destroys all things. From the few fragments that remain, it is not easy to discover how he arrived at his opinions, but there are some sayings that strongly suggest scientific observation as the source. ...
— Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays • Bertrand Russell

... lady was tall, and solid, and five-and-thirty. She presented to the general observation a cruel aquiline nose, an obstinate straight chin, magnificent dark hair and eyes, a serene splendor of fawn-colored apparel, and a lazy grace of movement which was attractive at first sight, but inexpressibly monotonous and wearisome on a longer ...
— Man and Wife • Wilkie Collins

... be emulating Wyatt in altering the accent of syllables, and coolly making the final iambus of a line out of such a word as "answer." It is no wonder that poets of the "correct" age thought him in need of rewriting; though even they could not mistake the force of observation and expression which characterises his Satires, and which very frequently reappears even in his dreamiest metaphysics, his most recondite love fancies, and his warmest and most passionate hymns to ...
— A History of English Literature - Elizabethan Literature • George Saintsbury

... was discovered on the weather bow, which, the captain said, was the coast of South America, and he carefully kept along shore in order to pass between the Falkland Islands and the main land; but at noon, when a meridian observation had been obtained, he found that what he had at first supposed to be the main land was in reality the Falkland Islands. We had for many days been sailing entirely by dead reckoning, while the current had set us out of our course. As we had not taken a full supply of water ...
— Dick Cheveley - His Adventures and Misadventures • W. H. G. Kingston

... influenced by any admiration of his character or of his abilities, but that they were impelled merely by idle curiosity. Whether it was so or not, I cannot help thinking that if they had been of the other sex, he would not have been so eager to escape from their observation, as in that case he would have repaid ...
— Life of Lord Byron, Vol. IV - With His Letters and Journals • Thomas Moore

... duties are those of the critic, and not those of the inquisitor, we will not stop to inquire how far the slightly Manichean doctrine implied in the concluding remark of M. Huc is received as orthodox by the Gallican Church; but, as a general observation, we may say, that there seems no reason why, with such a method of accounting for miracles, any should be disbelieved; nor do we understand how, under this system, any miracles can be adduced as ...
— The International Monthly, Volume 5, No. 3, March, 1852 • Various

... Place above my Description, and though I lost no Time the six Months I remain'd there, to view what Curiosities were to be seen, yet 'tis probable many Things worthy of Observation escaped my Diligence. I took a particular care not to make my self Public, but pass'd at my Lodgings under Disguise of a Merchant, yet abroad I acted the Marquess, not to be depriv'd of the Means of introducing my self into the best of Company. I found they were much divided in England as ...
— Memoirs of Major Alexander Ramkins (1718) • Daniel Defoe

... a tour of observation, ready for any adventure that might put an honest or dishonest penny into his pocket. About half an hour later he found himself on the leading retail street in Cincinnati. In front of him walked a lady, fashionably attired, holding a mother-of-pearl portemonnaie carelessly in her hand. He brushed ...
— The Young Adventurer - or Tom's Trip Across the Plains • Horatio Alger

... concrete psychological equivalents, heresy and schism would have been less frequent. It was, however, almost impossible for them to do so, because in their day theology was far more highly developed than psychology. Systematic observation of the workings of spirit was almost unknown. There existed no science of psychology as we know it. No clear notions attached to the terms "person" and "nature." They represented abstractions necessary to discursive reason rather ...
— Monophysitism Past and Present - A Study in Christology • A. A. Luce

... was buried on the spot which bears his name.[16] The French surveyed the eastern coast, and finally determined the position of the Frederick Henry Bay of Tasman. They examined the intricacies which had escaped the observation of earlier navigators, who erroneously numbered the islands on their charts, and thus overlooked the bays. They coasted between the main and the Schoutens, and gave the name of Fleurieu to the Oyster Bay of Cox. They then passed through a strait heretofore ...
— The History of Tasmania, Volume I (of 2) • John West

... for Oxford, but had had to contend against similar influences to those which had been employed in other constituencies, and was thus able to speak of the partisan conduct of the Lieutenant-Governor's emissaries from personal observation. He prepared a statement of the case against Sir Francis, which was laid before the House of Commons by Mr. Hume. The Colonial Secretary despatched a copy of it to Sir Francis for explanations. It is ...
— The Story of the Upper Canada Rebellion, Volume 1 • John Charles Dent

... reputation of a man who preserves it established and unspotted in the society whereof he is a member. All the learned clergy took my part, and I soon perceived that many of those who had before blamed my conduct now retracted. I made this observation upon a thousand other occasions. I even obliged the Court, some time after, to commend my proceedings, and took an opportunity to convince the Queen that it was my dignity, and not any want of respect ...
— The Memoirs of Cardinal de Retz, Complete • Jean Francois Paul de Gondi, Cardinal de Retz

... to paying taxes and duties—or any other levy from which an immediate and personal good is not promised—is too deeply rooted in human nature to be affected by statutes, and whenever it is possible to buy commodities that have escaped the observation of the revenue officers many are tempted to do so for the mere pleasure of defying the law. In the early part of this century the northern farmers and their wives were, in a way, providing themselves with laces, ...
— Myths And Legends Of Our Own Land, Complete • Charles M. Skinner

... cheerfully feasted you and all your friends. His acquaintance was large, and not, perhaps, very select. But Ayre insisted on the proper distinctions being observed, and was indebted to Rickmansworth's parties for many opportunities of observation. He was sure Haddington meant to marry Kate if he could; the scruples which had in some degree restrained his actions, though not his designs, at Millstead, had vanished, and he was pushing his suit, firmly and daringly ignoring the fact of the engagement. Kate did nothing ...
— Father Stafford • Anthony Hope

... chimera in its straight black hair depending behind, and its oblique eyes; but in other respects it diverges widely. On Egyptian monuments the sphinx never appears standing as in this fresco, but crouching in the attitude of reposeful observation. Its form also was always fuller and more rounded than the long-legged, attenuated spectre before us, and it was invariably wingless; whereas the Etruscan sphinx had short wings with curling points, spotted ...
— Roman Mosaics - Or, Studies in Rome and Its Neighbourhood • Hugh Macmillan

... into the Grove, and, to make him believe in her candor and impartiality, would give him feeble reasons for thinking his wife loved him still; taking care to overpower these reasons with some little piece of strong good-sense and subtle observation. ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 17, No. 103, May, 1866 • Various

... metals, and the open carriage door was upon the far side, so that it was conceivable that someone might have alighted unseen, as the darkness would by that time be drawing in. A steep embankment would instantly screen anyone who sprang out from the observation of the navvies. ...
— Tales of Terror and Mystery • Arthur Conan Doyle

... its authority"; so Montesquieu; we must now examine this saying a little more closely. What reasons does the philosopher give? "The people can only be guided by things of which it cannot be ignorant, and which fall, so to speak, within its own observation. It knows very well that a man has experience in war, and that he has had such and such successes; it is therefore quite capable of electing a general. It knows that a judge is industrious, that many of those who ...
— The Cult of Incompetence • Emile Faguet

... observation in reference to the commencement of the great work at Tahiti, is that, discouraged by so many years of fruitless toil, the directors of the Society entertained serious thoughts of abandoning the mission altogether. A few undeviating friends ...
— Captain Cook - His Life, Voyages, and Discoveries • W.H.G. Kingston

... friendly feeling for him because of the trouble that he took to make me comfortable and to help me pass the time. The first day out, seeing that I was interested when he took the sun, he turned the sextant over to me and showed me how to take an observation; and then how to work it out and fix the brig's position on the chart—and was a good deal surprised by my quickness in understanding his explanations (for I suppose that to him, with his rule-of-thumb knowledge of mathematics, the matter seemed complex), ...
— In the Sargasso Sea - A Novel • Thomas A. Janvier

... it's real enough," he answered, "no matter how far you look. But, just the same, it won't do any harm to extend our radius of observation. ...
— Darkness and Dawn • George Allan England

... eclipse upon record, was observed by the Chaldeans 721 years before the Christian era, and recorded by Ptolemy. The observation was made at Babylon the 19th of March.—In ancient days, for want of parchment to draw deeds upon, great estates were frequently conveyed from one family to another only by the ceremony of a turf and a stone, delivered before witnesses, and without any written agreement.—It ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction - Volume XII. F, No. 325, August 2, 1828. • Various

... clouds of yellow dust, coming from behind the highest and brushiest line of the embankment, attested to the truth of Jean's observation, and also to a ...
— To the Last Man • Zane Grey

... there a round shape, incompatible with the square shape. One may therefore say that the truth which is the square shape is not only above, but even against, the witness of our feeble sight.' It must be admitted that this observation is correct, and although it be true that the appearance of roundness comes simply from the effacement of the angles, which distance causes to disappear, it is true, notwithstanding, that the round and the ...
— Theodicy - Essays on the Goodness of God, the Freedom of Man and the Origin of Evil • G. W. Leibniz

... to that question will be somewhat of a staggerer to those who from distance, or from want of close observation, regard the Chinese as a down-trodden people, on a level with the Fellahin of Egypt in past times. For the answer, so far as my own experience goes, is that only so much can be got out of the Chinese people as the people themselves are ready and willing to ...
— China and the Chinese • Herbert Allen Giles

... the voice of the sea itself, she was half beside herself with delight. She kept time with her head and hands, with a degree of animation that made the people round her smile. She, quite unconscious of observation, swayed to the music, and ever and anon nodded her approbation to a fair-faced young gentleman, who seemed to be enjoying the concert very highly, though not to such a degree as to ...
— A Romance of the Republic • Lydia Maria Francis Child

... day. The accident which had befallen our barometer during the former expedition not being repaired, we are of course deprived of means to make any observations on the height of the country above the sea, otherwise than by careful observation of the several falls or rapids: I do not think that our station here is much above four hundred feet ...
— Journals of Two Expeditions into the Interior of New South Wales • John Oxley

... hope with a whole division. He crossed the peak of the Saint-Bernard without baggage or artillery, and took possession of Chatillon. The Austrians had left no troops in Piedmont, except the cavalry in barracks and a few posts of observation. There were no obstacles to contend with except those of nature. Operations were ...
— The Companions of Jehu • Alexandre Dumas

... one. Nature had already been set aside so thoroughly that, as with Dryden, Spenser was regarded as common-place and even puerile, and the record of real life or thought as no part of a poet's office. Such power of observation as Anne Bradstreet had was discouraged in the beginning, and though later it asserted itself in slight degree, her early work shows no trace of originality, being, as we are soon to see, merely a rhymed paraphrase of her reading. That she wrote verse, not included in any edition of her poems, ...
— Anne Bradstreet and Her Time • Helen Campbell

... operations upon male patients exposure of the body is inevitable, and demonstrations must be made which are unfitted for the observation of students of the opposite sex. These expositions, when made under the eye of such a conjoined assemblage, are shocking to the sense of decency, and entail the risk of unmanning the surgeon—of distracting his mind, ...
— History of Woman Suffrage, Volume III (of III) • Various

... the blinds pulled down at every window of the Carlton library, and I felt that by our foolish curiosity we had caused this gathering of political opponents to hold their conference in the dark. It is quite true that neither I nor X. had any ulterior motive in our observation of the meeting at the Carlton Club, but all the same I cannot pretend that the use of the opera-glass was ...
— Memoirs of Sir Wemyss Reid 1842-1885 • Stuart J. Reid, ed.

... fellow who is going to swear off Monday, and in the meanwhile drinks to excess, saw no reason why he should dress his wounds in the present, since, in time to save his life, he was going to give them every attention possible. That he was going to "get over" Barbara in a year he did not believe. But observation and common-sense told him that life without her must become easier and saner as time passed, and that to be forever caught up or thrown down by her varying moods toward him had ceased to be a self-respecting way of life. ...
— The Penalty • Gouverneur Morris

... person, very humble was his mien, Who took an observation of the interestin' scene; Closely scanned the umberellas, watched with joy the mighty trunks, And observed that all the ...
— The Book of Humorous Verse • Various

... habit of making-unnecessary communications to them, his present frankness told for so much the more, and it produced a very general excitement in the ship. All eyes were on the look-out for land, greatly increasing the chances of its being shortly seen. The observation came at noon, as is customary, and the governor found he was about thirty miles to the northward of the group of islands he was seeking. By his calculation, he was still to the eastward of it, and he hauled up, hoping to fall in with the land well to windward. After standing ...
— The Crater • James Fenimore Cooper

... indeed found in women who are under 25. It is rare for a woman, even though her sexual emotions may awaken at puberty or earlier, to experience the great passion of her life until after the age of 25 has been passed. In confirmation of this statement, which is supported by daily observation, it may be pointed out that nearly all the most passionate love-letters of women, as well as their most passionate devotions, have come from women who had passed, sometimes long passed, their first youth. ...
— Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 3 (of 6) • Havelock Ellis

... "Look, O God, look at THIS!"—the engineers whose poetry is too deep to look poetic have all done what they have done because the unconscious and automatic gifts of their senses, of the powers of their observation, have swung their souls free, given them long still reaches of thought and vast new orbits of desire, ...
— Crowds - A Moving-Picture of Democracy • Gerald Stanley Lee

... that the accounts in Hawthorne's diary are for the most part of a dispassionate objective character, as if he had come down from the moon to take an observation of mundane affairs. His letters to Miss Peabody were also dispassionate, but strongly subjective, and, like the one just quoted, mainly evolved from his imagination, like orchids living in the air. It was also about this time that Carlyle wrote to Emerson concerning ...
— The Life and Genius of Nathaniel Hawthorne • Frank Preston Stearns

... her own house about noon, which was at the time occupied by her husband and three tailors. But neither Andrew Jak nor the three tailors were sensible of the presence of the phantom warrior who was slain at Pinkie; so that, without attracting their observation, he led out the good-wife to the end of the house near the kiln. Here he showed her a company of eight women and four men. The women were busked in their plaids, and very seemly. The strangers saluted her, and said, "Welcome, Bessie; ...
— Letters On Demonology And Witchcraft • Sir Walter Scott

... observation and experience of the rising and the setting of the sun for a thousand centuries could only have confirmed the first natural belief that it revolved daily around the earth; nor by joining this experience with other experiences could any deduction ...
— Ancient and Modern Physics • Thomas E. Willson

... expedition to Bornou. They are, however, divided into a great number of tribes, are spread over a considerable extent of country, and are partly the guardians of the Bornou route. We must pay them some attention when they come under our observation. ...
— Narrative of a Mission to Central Africa Performed in the Years 1850-51, Volume 2 • James Richardson

... OBSERVATION 1. The following absurd phrases so common in the sacred desk and elsewhere, should be carefully avoided by all who regard common sense:—"Sing the two first and three last verses." Just as if there could be more than one first and one last. There may be a first two, a second two, &c.; ...
— English Grammar in Familiar Lectures • Samuel Kirkham

... they telegraphed to Millgrove, where Chrissie's mother lives, and the police there found the house shut up, and discovered that she is a German, and that her true name is Lange, not Lang. The detective said they have had Brackenfield under observation lately, for they suspected that somebody was heliographing messages with a mirror to the German camp. And who put that bicycle lamp in the Observatory window last spring? We have certainly had a spy in our midst. We ought to take this paper at ...
— A Patriotic Schoolgirl • Angela Brazil

... of the truth of this observation, and that the mere selfish cares and vulgar bustle of life are not sufficient to satisfy the immortal soul, however they ...
— Marriage • Susan Edmonstone Ferrier

... description may be compared, for accuracy of observation and dexterous presentment, with the steed in 'Venus and Adonis,' the paragon of horses in English verse. Both writers give ample ...
— Marmion • Sir Walter Scott

... old age after the manner of a commonplace-book, but displays itself in his Satires in all its direct fulness and freshness. Varro was in the best and fullest sense of the term a local antiquarian, who from the personal observation of many years knew his nation in its former idiosyncrasy and seclusion as well as in its modern state of transition and dispersion, and had supplemented and deepened his direct knowledge of the national ...
— The History of Rome (Volumes 1-5) • Theodor Mommsen

... important subjects, made now and then a remark, and whenever she spoke Corona turned to her and listened with the kindest attention, but the moment the elder lady had finished, the other resumed her own thread of observation without the slightest allusion to what she had ...
— The Associate Hermits • Frank R. Stockton

... the inhabitants of that land by their money if nothing more, and again they thought of transferring the seat of the conflict to the Red Sea. To the end that while engaged in these plans they might escape observation for the longest possible time or deceive Caesar in some way or slay him by treachery, they despatched men who carried letters to him in regard to peace, but money for his followers. Meantime, also, unknown ...
— Dio's Rome, Vol. III • Cassius Dio

... were a tantalizing blending of several qualities. I then resolved to study them on my own account. I pursued the Eternal Feminine in a spirit of purely scientific investigation. I knew you'd laugh sceptically at that, but it's a fact. I was impartial in my selection of subjects for observation—French, German, Spanish, as well as the home product. Nothing in petticoats escaped me. I devoted myself to the freshest ingenue as well as the experienced widow of three departed; and I may as well confess that the more I saw of her, the less I understood her. But ...
— Victorian Short Stories • Various

... The Doctor, whose observation of the bee-hunter had hitherto been exceedingly cursory, stared at the new speaker with a look which denoted ...
— The Prairie • J. Fenimore Cooper

... the private life of individual men or women is a subject that is for the newspaper taboo. It is not so with gossip, partly because in a small community no individual is so obscure that his private affairs escape observation and discussion; partly because the field is smaller. In small communities there is a perfectly amazing amount of personal information afloat among the individuals ...
— Introduction to the Science of Sociology • Robert E. Park

... judge not from my own remembrance and observation. My wife is dead, and I am such a busy man that I am not able to give my boy as much attention as I wish I could. My boy's health is the more important to me because ...
— Helping Himself • Horatio Alger

... always at full steam over some advertising dodge, that shouting, spitting, thigh-slapping fellow, that cynic with the soul of a policeman! Hector was under the impression that he ought to discover some amiable observation for the occasion. ...
— Nana, The Miller's Daughter, Captain Burle, Death of Olivier Becaille • Emile Zola

... mass of testimony establishing this position might be presented, but narrow space, and the importance of speedy publication, counsel brevity. Let the following proofs suffice. First, a few dates as points of observation. ...
— The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Omnibus • American Anti-Slavery Society

... end of August, 1914. We were somewhere about the middle of the North Sea when the observation balloon was sent up, and I had persuaded Rutherford to take me up with him in the basket. Five minutes ago I had been telling myself I was the luckiest R.N.V.R. Sub-Lieutenant in the Navy; and then suddenly the appalling thing ...
— The Man From the Clouds • J. Storer Clouston

... said, it was a very just observation: and she thought it a pity there was not a law, that every man who made a harlot of an honest woman, should be obliged to marry ...
— Pamela (Vol. II.) • Samuel Richardson

... man-of-war's-hawk, with his blood-red bill and raven plumage, would come sweeping round us in gradually diminishing circles, till you could distinctly mark the strange flashings of his eye; and then, as if satisfied with his observation, would sail up into the air and disappear from the view. Soon, other evidences of our vicinity to the land were apparent, and it was not long before the glad announcement of its being in sight was heard from aloft,—given with that peculiar prolongation ...
— Typee - A Romance of the South Sea • Herman Melville

... can usually be found by carefully tracing the primary circuit until a place is found where the insulation is defective. Reinsulate and make the above tests again to make sure everything is clear. If the ground can not be located by observation, the various parts of the primary circuit should be disconnected, and the transformer, ...
— Oxy-Acetylene Welding and Cutting • Harold P. Manly

... inhabitants. For the want of such persons has, in numerous instances, been very severely felt by those who have had occasion to come into the courts of law. Many instances have occurred, within my observation, where the persons accused might, by the assistance of a counsel who possessed the ability to penetrate the motives and intentions of the prosecutor, have escaped the punishment which he has been compelled to endure. Evidence is frequently ...
— The Present Picture of New South Wales (1811) • David Dickinson Mann

... accustomed to make and to carry out with the boys, she had nothing to substitute but dreams; and on these she lived, finding an idle distraction in them, until the habit grew disproportionate, and began to threaten the fine balance of her other faculties: her reason, her power of accurate observation and of assimilating every scrap of knowledge that came in her way. To fill up her empty days, she surrounded herself with a story, among the crowding incidents of which she lived, whatever she might ...
— The Beth Book - Being a Study of the Life of Elizabeth Caldwell Maclure, a Woman of Genius • Sarah Grand

... and high-sounding. A corresponding process of selection and exclusion was applied to the subject matter of poetry. Passion, lyric exaltation, delight in the concrete life of man and nature, passed out of fashion; in their stead came social satire, criticism, generalized observation. While the classical influence, as it is usually called, was at its height, with such men as Dryden and Pope to exemplify it, it did a great work; but toward the end of the eighth decade of the eighteenth century it had visibly run to seed. The feeble Hayley, the silly ...
— Lady of the Lake • Sir Walter Scott

... tried to do so in the past by object and nature lessons, but we must admit that they are not the means by which young children seek to know life, or by which they appreciate its beauty. We have been trying to kill too many birds with one stone in our economic way; "to train the powers of observation," "to teach a child to express himself," "to help a child to gain useful knowledge about living things," have been the most usual aims. And the method has been that of minute examination of a specimen from the plant or animal world, utterly detached from its surroundings, ...
— The Child Under Eight • E.R. Murray and Henrietta Brown Smith

... back towards Lindley. On the west, Hunter had crossed the Vaal at Windsorton, and Barton's Fusilier Brigade had fought a sharp action at Rooidam, while Mahon's Mafeking relief column had slipped past their flank, escaping the observation of the British public, but certainly not that of the Boers. The casualties in the Rooidam action were nine killed and thirty wounded, but the advance of the Fusiliers was irresistible, and for once the Boer loss, as they were hustled from kopje to kopje, appears ...
— The Great Boer War • Arthur Conan Doyle

... till supper-time, and then encamp. As long as we are marching, let Timasion, with the cavalry, gallop on in front, but without losing sight of us; and let him examine all closely in front, so that nothing may escape our observation." (At the same time too, he sent out some nimble fellows of the light-armed troops to the flanks and to the high tops, who were to give a signal if they espied anything anywhere; ordering them to burn everything inflammable which lay in their path.) "As for ourselves," ...
— Anabasis • Xenophon

... Might he not have forgotten her request? Was she not forcing the most trivial details to fit in with her apprehensions? Unfortunately for her own reassurance, she knew that her familiarity with Dick's processes was based on such minute observation, and that, to such intimacy as theirs, no indications were trivial. She was as certain as if he had spoken, that when he had left the house that morning he was weighing the possibility of using Darrow's ...
— Sanctuary • Edith Wharton

... of traveling in England, although much greater than in our own country, may, as we learned by experience, be brought, through economy, within the same compass. Indeed, it is my belief, from observation, that, with few exceptions, throughout Europe, where a traveler enjoys the same comfort and abundance as in America, he must pay the same prices. The principal difference is, that he only pays for what he gets, so that, if he be content with the necessities of life, without its luxuries, the ...
— Views a-foot • J. Bayard Taylor

... Mr. Hallam has remarked, "pass before our eyes like shadows over a magic glass." When the ceremony of the installation was over, the poet-professor went on a tour to the lakes of Cumberland and Westmoreland, and few of the beauties of the lake-country, since so famous, escaped his observation. This was to be his last excursion. While at dinner one day in the college-hall he was seized with an attack of gout in his stomach, which resisted all the powers of medicine, and proved fatal in less than a week. He died on the 30th of July, 1771, and was ...
— Select Poems of Thomas Gray • Thomas Gray

... observation, immediately assumed a circumspect air, and wanted explanations. Besides he had concealed nothing from them except the color of ...
— The Works of Guy de Maupassant, Volume VIII. • Guy de Maupassant

... Africa, engaged in medical and missionary labors and in making his famous and most useful explorations of the country. His own account of the beginnings of his work, taken from his Missionary Travels, shows the sincere and simple spirit of the man, and his natural powers of observation and description are seen in his own story of his first important discovery, that of Lake Ngami. The narrative of Thomas Hughes, the well-known English author, whose favorite subjects were manly men and their characteristic ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Vol. 17 • Charles Francis Horne

... universally paid by the parishioners to their clergyman, and the familiar intercourse and great influence which the latter possesses, in forming their minds and morals, are circumstances which have fallen under her own observation, not only in Eskdale, but in various other parts of Scotland; and she has felt a peculiar satisfaction in describing the simple and useful life of MR. and MRS. MARTIN, from the remembrance of many worthy couples in similar ...
— The Eskdale Herd-boy • Mrs Blackford

... army leaders during the Civil War, that he didn't think it wise to "swap horses while crossing a stream." Scientists use this method to draw conclusions when it is impossible to secure from actual observation or experiment a certain last step in the reasoning. The planet Mars and the earth are similar in practically all observable matters; they are about the same distance from the sun, they have the same surface conditions. The earth has ...
— Public Speaking • Clarence Stratton

... language and write other than simple lyrics. He drew the application as to himself alone, although his native genius makes it less true of him than of many another less gifted. The big point of this observation lies in his emphasis on ...
— Writing for Vaudeville • Brett Page

... Propaganda; Colonel Barberiche and Captain Pirelli of the Comando Supremo, and Signor Ugo Ojetti, in charge of works of art in the war zone, all have my grateful thanks for the exceptional facilities afforded me for observation on ...
— Italy at War and the Allies in the West • E. Alexander Powell

... prefer the moon for your observation,' replied Walpole; and the easy impertinence of his manner was almost too much ...
— Lord Kilgobbin • Charles Lever

... directions, not even a tree the bark or moss of which might have vouchsafed information. Suddenly I had an inspiration. Yes, the fog was coming from the northeast! So, by observing the drift of the droplets I could find at least an approximate meridian line. I went to the headlight, and an observation immediately confirmed my conjecture. I was now convinced that I was on that wild land where two months ago I had watched the goldfinches disporting themselves in the evening sun. But so as not to turn back to the south, I struck out at an angle of only about sixty degrees to my former ...
— Over Prairie Trails • Frederick Philip Grove

... however, did not lose his head or his powers of observation even when matters of life or death were in the balance. Whatever he did was always done deliberately and in ...
— The Hippodrome • Rachel Hayward

... a brigade, division and army corps, until upon the death of McPherson the command of the entire Army of the Tennessee devolved upon him in the midst of a hotly contested battle. He conceived that he had done his full duty as commander in that engagement; and I can bear testimony, from personal observation, that he had proved himself fully equal to all the lower positions which he had occupied as a soldier. I will not pretend to question the motive which actuated Sherman in taking an officer from another army ...
— Memoirs of Three Civil War Generals, Complete • U. S. Grant, W. T. Sherman, P. H. Sheridan

... knowledge, we shall try to know the home and parents better, and the disposition and surroundings of each child. We shall be ready at any time to render home knowledge more clear and accurate, to correct faulty observation and opinion. While the children will be encouraged to illustrate lessons from their own experience, we shall fall into the excellent habit of explaining new and difficult points by a direct appeal to what the pupils have seen ...
— The Elements of General Method - Based on the Principles of Herbart • Charles A. McMurry

... misanthropist, bluntly, in reply to some observation by Gervayse Hastings, "pray do not address me again. We have no right to talk together. Our minds have nothing in common. By what claim you appear at this banquet I cannot guess; but methinks, to a man who could say what you have just now said, my companions and myself must seem no more than shadows ...
— The Christmas Banquet (From "Mosses From An Old Manse") • Nathaniel Hawthorne

... which call for accurate observation and computation. Perhaps there is no one item connected with our economic life that would surprise us more than a knowledge of just what burdens the day's work. It is perhaps possible accurately to determine—albeit ...
— My Life and Work • Henry Ford

... proof that it would not be safe to trust to its neutrality. It had fifty thousand men in the Netherlands; six thousand posted in Breisgau; and thirty thousand men on their way from Bohemia. This powerful army of observation might at any moment be converted ...
— History of the French Revolution from 1789 to 1814 • F. A. M. Mignet

... and the grocer were visited in the same way, and Maine, rather embarrassed by the concentrated observation of the whole village, turned to pull her laden sled back, when suddenly a window was thrown open, ...
— The Green Satin Gown • Laura E. Richards

... the uninteresting quietness of its design is redeemed by more than ordinary attention to expression; it is one of the least attractive subjects in the Arena Chapel, and always sure to be passed over in any general observation of the series: nevertheless, however unfavourably it may at first contrast with the designs of later masters, and especially with Leonardo's, the reader should not fail to observe that Giotto's aim, had it been successful, was the higher of the two, as giving truer rendering of the ...
— Giotto and his works in Padua • John Ruskin

... observed the lawyer Herezuelo. "Should the unhappy widow bring the accusation she threatened, and the officers of the Inquisition find us all together, they will naturally suspect that the information is well founded. No; let us retire each one to his own house, avoiding observation as much as we can. There let us be together in spirit, praying for each other. We should fear no harm ...
— The Last Look - A Tale of the Spanish Inquisition • W.H.G. Kingston

... were every day becoming more valuable. In the first year of the war airplanes were used mainly for observation purposes: to find the location of enemy forts, trenches, troops, and batteries; and to direct the fire of the aviator's own batteries. Hundreds of photographs were taken by the airmen, rapidly developed, and within ...
— A School History of the Great War • Albert E. McKinley, Charles A. Coulomb, and Armand J. Gerson

... interest, that upon which John Flint's value and reputation were steadily mounting, was in less lovely and more destructive forms of insect life. Beside this last, a labor calling for the most unremitting, painstaking, persevering research, observation, and intelligence, the painted beauties of his butterflies were but as precious play. For in this last he was wringing from Nature's reluctant fingers some of her dearest and most deeply hidden secrets. ...
— Slippy McGee, Sometimes Known as the Butterfly Man • Marie Conway Oemler

... No form of regular remunerative employment commending itself to him, he spent the 10 years after leaving coll. in the study of books and nature, for the latter of which he had exceptional qualifications in the acuteness of his senses and his powers of observation. Though not a misanthropist, he appears in general to have preferred solitary communion with nature to human society. "The man I meet," he said, "is seldom so instructive as the silence which he breaks;" and he described himself as "a mystic, a transcendentalist, ...
— A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature • John W. Cousin

... to say from your own observation whether men who are so much in your debt deal more at your shop than others?-With some of the men who fish for me, the greatest difficulty I have is to prevent them from dealing,-not to get them to buy goods, but to get them ...
— Second Shetland Truck System Report • William Guthrie

... insane, nor a chronic invalid. In consequence she soon forgot that she differed in any way from other girls. A course of chalybeate tonics, generous diet, and proper care of her general health, soon restored her to her normal condition. After close observation for several years, she submitted to a thorough examination, although entirely free from any abnormal symptoms. The examination revealed the following physical condition: Weight, 105 pounds (her weight before leaving Ireland was 130); girth of chest, twenty-nine and a half inches; girth of ...
— Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 1 (of 6) • Havelock Ellis

... individuals each, were dispatched from Boston, each man with equipment weighing about thirty pounds. The destination was a fertile valley in northeastern Arizona, a land that had been described eloquently, probably after only casual observation. The end of the Santa Fe railroad was in northern New Mexico. There the first party purchased four wagons and a number of mules from a grading contractor, Pat Shanley, afterward a cattleman in ...
— Mormon Settlement in Arizona • James H. McClintock

... the yard, and there he paced up and down. Once he saw Jessica's face at a window, he was astonished to see how changed. It wore a grave, an apprehensive look. He fell to wondering, but, even as he wondered, his habit of observation made him take in every feature of the governor's house and garden, so that he could have reproduced all as it was mirrored in his eye. Presently he found himself again associating Radisson's comrade with the vague terror in Jessica's ...
— The Judgment House • Gilbert Parker

... first had merely conjectured and put together from various signs, became, by constant assiduous observation, complete certainty when the singer, after a tolerably long pause, joined in Josquin's hymn ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers

... emigrant. And in the stall- fed life of the successful ant-heap—with its regular meals, regular duties, regular pleasures, an even course of life, and fear excluded—the vicissitudes, delights, and havens of to-day will seem of epic breadth. This may seem a shallow observation; but the springs by which men are moved lie much on the surface. Bread, I believe, has always been considered first, but the circus comes close upon its heels. Bread we suppose to be given amply; the cry for circuses will be the ...
— Lay Morals • Robert Louis Stevenson

... sinful, in any other fashion—'Then,' as a great teacher told us a generation ago now, and nobody paid any attention to him, 'then they will begin and show you that they are your brethren by killing some of you.' And so self-preservation conjoins with loftier motives to make this sympathetic observation of the surrounding sorrows the plainest ...
— Expositions Of Holy Scripture - Volume I: St. Luke, Chaps. I to XII • Alexander Maclaren

... and made him the centre of things more effectively than more ordinary manners could have done? In recalling him the girl had an impatient sense of something commanding; of something, moreover, that held herself under observation. "One thinks him shy at first, or awkward—nothing of the sort! He is as proud as Lucifer. Very soon one sees that he is just looking out for his ...
— Helbeck of Bannisdale, Vol. I. • Mrs. Humphry Ward

... fancy, a sensitive and timorous observation of natural phenomena, rustling leaves, wavering shadows, apparent effects of unknown causes, each is a superstitious mother of beliefs. The Sonora Indians say that departed souls dwell among the ...
— The Destiny of the Soul - A Critical History of the Doctrine of a Future Life • William Rounseville Alger

... said the captain, soon after replying to Harry's rather frightened observation, the mulatto being very timid and of a cowardly nature, as the fact of his fainting when the cow invaded the cabin would readily tell—"I say, Mr Marline, I think it's time for us to give that joker down there ...
— The White Squall - A Story of the Sargasso Sea • John Conroy Hutcheson

... understood by the scientist, will pass away when the life of this universe has passed away, and only its soul is left in the silence. What then will be the value of the knowledge of its laws acquired by industry and observation? I pray that no reader or critic will imagine that by what I have said I intend to depreciate or disparage acquired knowledge, or the work of scientists. On the contrary, I hold that scientific men are the pioneers of modern thought. ...
— Light On The Path and Through the Gates of Gold • Mabel Collins

... comparatively, every day objects. A much more interesting source of observation, to my mind, were the very few existing relics of the once celebrated monastery of ST. EMMERAM—and a great portion of the remains of another old monastery, called ST. JAMES—which latter may indeed be designated the College of the Jacobites; as the few members who inhabit it were ...
— A Bibliographical, Antiquarian and Picturesque Tour in France and Germany, Volume Three • Thomas Frognall Dibdin

... master-minds of all time was the detection of that remarkable celestial movement known as the precession of the equinoxes. The inquiry which conducted to this discovery involved a most profound investigation, especially when it is remembered that in the days of Hipparchus the means of observation of the heavenly bodies were only of the rudest description, and the available observations of earlier dates were extremely scanty. We can but look with astonishment on the genius of the man who, in spite of ...
— Great Astronomers • R. S. Ball

... Notting Hill Gate; it passes the wall of Aubrey House, once the manor-house of Notting Hill. Though the name is a comparatively new one, the house is old and, to use the favourite word of older writers, much "secluded"; it is shut in from observation by its high wall and by the shady trees surrounding it. The building is very picturesque and the garden charming, yet many people pass it daily and ...
— The Kensington District - The Fascination of London • Geraldine Edith Mitton

... not. In a woman 'they ain't thar,' either. Miss Matoaca Brockenborough says from observation there is something to be said on both sides." She looked up. "You knew Miss Matoaca was going away with Miss Gibbie Gault and Mary Cary, didn't you? She hasn't been out of Yorkburg for years and is as excited about it as if ...
— Miss Gibbie Gault • Kate Langley Bosher

... been a less troublesome traveling companion than Nucky. He ate what was set before him, without comment. He sat for endless hours on the observation platform, smoking cigarettes, his keen eyes on the flying landscape. His blue Norfolk suit and his carefully chosen cap and linen restored a little of the adolescent look of which the flashy clothing of his own choosing ...
— The Enchanted Canyon • Honore Willsie Morrow

... a vast deal of exaggeration, but at the same time it must be confessed that, in some instances, the habits of the Gypsies in regard to food would seem, at the first glance, to favour the supposition. This observation chiefly holds good with respect to those of the Gypsy race who still continue in a wandering state, and who, doubtless, retain more of the ways and customs of their forefathers than those who have adopted a stationary life. There can be no doubt that the wanderers amongst the ...
— The Zincali - An Account of the Gypsies of Spain • George Borrow

... the strange man, in reply to the judge's last observation, "I am no counterfeit—an' I thank my good an' gracious God that I have been able to come in time to save this worthy and honest man's life. Condy Dalton," said he, "I can explain all; but in the mane time let me shake hands wid you, and ax your pardon ...
— The Black Prophet: A Tale Of Irish Famine • William Carleton

... the observation of the most superficial traveller of rank, that, at the Court of St. Cloud, want of morals is not atoned for by good breeding or good manners. The hideousness of vice, the pretensions of ambition, the vanity ...
— The Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte • Bourrienne, Constant, and Stewarton

... time for observation. Barop, the head-master, was already hastening down the steps, welcoming my mother and ourselves with his deep, musical tones, in a ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers

... than the health or strength of the citizens; or that the duty of taking care of the helpless might be an important element of education in a State. The physician himself (this is a delicate and subtle observation) should not be a man in robust health; he should have, in modern phraseology, a nervous temperament; he should have experience of disease in his own person, in order that his powers of observation may be quickened in ...
— The Republic • Plato

... in this day and there are some who possess the divinely flexible gift for a fresh turn of phrase, for delightful keenness of observation. It may be, too, that in other days the average writing was no better than the average of to-day. It is naturally the letters of those who had unusual gifts which have been preserved all these years, for the failures of a generation ...
— Etiquette • Emily Post

... should have been so balefully branded was more than the first lieutenant of the troop could understand. To be sure, the lieutenant's opportunities for observation had been limited. He had spent some years on detached service in the East, and had joined his comrades in Arizona but a fortnight ago, and here he was already becoming rapidly initiated in the science of scouting through mountain-wilds against the wariest ...
— Starlight Ranch - and Other Stories of Army Life on the Frontier • Charles King

... respect, not on the basis that its present assumptions and deductions are absolutely and for all time true, but on the ground that its method is for all time true—the method of discovery, the method of observation, research, experimentation, comparison, examination, testing, ...
— The Necessity of Atheism • Dr. D.M. Brooks

... he who sows thoughts will reap deeds, habits, character. The force of these words is exemplified in the proper study of music, which results in a rich harvest of self-restraint, self-reliance, industry, patience, perseverance, powers of observation, retentive memory, painstaking effort, strength of mind and character. To possess these qualities at their best abundant thought must be sown. Merely to ring changes on the emotions will not elevate to the heights. The musical education that educates makes of the reasoning ...
— For Every Music Lover - A Series of Practical Essays on Music • Aubertine Woodward Moore

... only took place with much difficulty, after many fruitless invitations, more usually given by the female. ("Observational Diary of the Habits of the Great Crested Grebe," Zoeologist, September, 1901.) It is exactly the same with savages. The observation of Foley (Bulletin de la Societe d'Anthropologie de Paris, November 6, 1879) that in savages "sexual erethism is very difficult" is of great significance and certainly in accordance with the ...
— Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 3 (of 6) • Havelock Ellis

... As usual, the observation burst harmlessly over the heads of most of the students in the class, who were preoccupied with more immediate things—with the evening's movies and the week-end's dance. But upon two young men in the class, it made a powerful impression. It crystallized within them certain vague conceptions ...
— Astounding Stories of Super-Science September 1930 • Various

... soldier had his fighting faculties especially developed, together with those parts of the brain which impart courage and steadiness of nerve. He who was intended for scientific investigation had his brain developed into a mathematical machine, or an instrument of observation. Poets and literary men had their heads bulging with the imaginative faculties. The heads of inventors were developed into a still ...
— Edison's Conquest of Mars • Garrett Putman Serviss

... constitution. The short round neck of the prize-fighter betrays his craft. The slender, arched, and graceful neck of the well-proportioned woman is the symbol of health and a well-controlled mind. Burke, in his Essay on the Beautiful, calls it the most beauteous object in nature. It is a common observation, that a sensual character is shown by the thick and coarse development of this portion ...
— The Physical Life of Woman: - Advice to the Maiden, Wife and Mother • Dr. George H Napheys

... My knowledge of the history of science is very vague, but I'm willing to bet that the first Law of Gravity ever dreamed up stated that things fell at such and such a speed, and accelerated at such and such a rate. That's not a law, but an observation that isn't even complete until you add 'on this planet.' On a planet with a different mass there will be a different observation. The law of ...
— The Ethical Engineer • Henry Maxwell Dempsey

... attitude, artificial and inoffensive, of the society he depicts in his greatest play. He enjoys the humours of his puppets, he is never angry with them. It is the attitude of an artist in expounding human nature, of an expert in observation of life: an attitude attainable but by very few, and disliked as a rule by the rest, who want to clap or to hiss—who can laugh but ...
— The Comedies of William Congreve - Volume 1 [of 2] • William Congreve



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