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Begin   /bɪgˈɪn/   Listen
Begin

verb
(past & past part. began, begun; pres. part. beginning)
1.
Take the first step or steps in carrying out an action.  Synonyms: commence, get, get down, set about, set out, start, start out.  "Who will start?" , "Get working as soon as the sun rises!" , "The first tourists began to arrive in Cambodia" , "He began early in the day" , "Let's get down to work now"
2.
Have a beginning, in a temporal, spatial, or evaluative sense.  Synonym: start.  "The second movement begins after the Allegro" , "Prices for these homes start at $250,000"
3.
Set in motion, cause to start.  Synonyms: commence, lead off, start.  "The Iraqis began hostilities" , "Begin a new chapter in your life"
4.
Begin to speak or say.
5.
Be the first item or point, constitute the beginning or start, come first in a series.  "A terrible murder begins the novel" , "The convocation ceremony officially begins the semester"
6.
Have a beginning, of a temporal event.  "The company's Asia tour begins next month"
7.
Have a beginning characterized in some specified way.  Synonym: start.  "My property begins with the three maple trees" , "Her day begins with a workout" , "The semester begins with a convocation ceremony"
8.
Begin an event that is implied and limited by the nature or inherent function of the direct object.  Synonym: start.  "She started the soup while it was still hot" , "We started physics in 10th grade"
9.
Achieve or accomplish in the least degree, usually used in the negative.  "You cannot even begin to understand the problem we had to deal with during the war"
10.
Begin to speak, understand, read, and write a language.  "We started French in fourth grade"



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"Begin" Quotes from Famous Books



... heart, and mind, and temper, which is essential to a woman's happiness, had to begin when it ought to have been completed—at her marriage. Most unfortunate it was for her, that ere the first twelvemonth of their wedded life had passed, Captain Rothesay was forced to depart for Jamaica, whence was derived his wife's little fortune; their whole fortune now, ...
— Olive - A Novel • Dinah Maria Craik, (AKA Dinah Maria Mulock)

... equally pertinent may be looked upon as possible witnesses for the Coroner's jury. That this may be done speedily and surely, I am going to ask you, every one of you, to retake the exact place in the building which you were occupying when you heard the first alarm. I will begin with the Curator himself. Mr. Jewett, will you be so good as to return to the room, and if possible to the precise spot, you were occupying when you first learned ...
— The Mystery of the Hasty Arrow • Anna Katharine Green

... not want to trouble you, for they told me you did not like to have women here." He laughed, and said: "I guess we'll all be glad enough to have you! Not many of your sort. First thing they all do is to begin to make trouble, and it always takes two men to wait on ...
— Half a Century • Jane Grey Cannon Swisshelm

... bishops in the matter of public extemporaneous prayer and they yielded. I bearded the poor, hunted president in his den, and yet was re-elected to my position. I was slowly winning a way, but quickly losing faith in the value of the way won. Was this the place to begin my life work? Was this the work which I was best fitted to do? What business had I, anyhow, to teach Greek when I had studied men? I grew sure that I had made a mistake. So I determined to leave Wilberforce and try elsewhere. Thus, the third ...
— Darkwater - Voices From Within The Veil • W. E. B. Du Bois

... the army marched through Bulgaria, traces of Peter and his army begin to appear. Refugees who had hidden in the woods came to the camps in rags and emaciation. The castle where Rinaldo sought refuge was pointed out to the new comers as the tomb of all his companions. The mountain at the foot of which Walter's ...
— Peter the Hermit - A Tale of Enthusiasm • Daniel A. Goodsell

... he asked. "We've had three Madame Jules within the last week. Ah," he said, interrupting himself, "here comes the funeral of Monsieur le Baron de Maulincour! A fine procession, that! He has soon followed his grandmother. Some families, when they begin to go, rattle down like a wager. Lots of bad blood ...
— Ferragus • Honore de Balzac

... good father," said the Fleming—"the refunding this money will reduce me to utter poverty. The Welsh have destroyed my substance; and this handful of money is all, God help me! on which I must begin the world again." ...
— The Betrothed • Sir Walter Scott

... English statesman to whom belonged much of the credit for the Constitution of Cadiz, thought out a way to punish the Spanish king for his perfidy. King Ferdinand was planning, with the Island of Cuba as a base, to begin a campaign that should return his rebellious American colonies to their allegiance, for they had taken advantage of disturbances in the Peninsula to declare their independence. England proposed to the United States that they, the two Anglo-Saxon nations whose ...
— Lineage, Life, and Labors of Jose Rizal, Philippine Patriot • Austin Craig

... for himself, he must yet, in arranging for Dorothy, contemplate the worst of threatening possibilities; and one thing was pretty certain, that matters must grow far worse before they could even begin to mend. ...
— St. George and St. Michael • George MacDonald

... and the day of her birth was the birthday of every earthborn goddess, the day of the beginning of the new year, with its returning life. When men observe only the actual growth of new green life from the ground, this birthday will be in spring; when they begin to know that the seasons depend on the sun, or when the heat of the sun causes great need of rain, it will be at midsummer, at the solstice, or in northern regions where men fear to lose the sun in midwinter, as with us. The frieze of the Parthenon is, then, ...
— Ancient Art and Ritual • Jane Ellen Harrison

... out till I was twenty-one. At the end of that time I was to receive a hundred dollars and a freedom suit to begin the world with. That wasn't a ...
— Paul the Peddler - The Fortunes of a Young Street Merchant • Horatio Alger, Jr.

... all three, just before dinner on the evening of the day she had called at Crow's Nest, "we must have a real conference—the kind you have told me about in your scout talks. How shall we begin, and where can we go to make sure no one ...
— The Girl Scouts at Bellaire - Or Maid Mary's Awakening • Lilian C. McNamara Garis

... "I begin to understand why it is that you fly," she said, as they came out upon the causeway and saw the stretch of ...
— Glory of Youth • Temple Bailey

... as yet, he would begin to formulate and ponder them only when he had better acquaintance with the ship and her company and had learned more about that ambiguous landfall which she was to make (as Phinuit had put it) "in the dark of ...
— Alias The Lone Wolf • Louis Joseph Vance

... would perfect the statue, Could man carve so as to answer volition. And how much nobler than petty cavils, Were a hope to find, in my spirit-travels, Some artist of another ambition, Who, having a block to carve, no bigger, Has spent his power on the opposite quest, And believed to begin at the feet was best— For so may I see, ere ...
— Christmas Eve • Robert Browning

... sympathy a little too strong, but that is the way men handle each other. She ought to know he wasn't sorry she was there. Why, of course she knew that! The girl wasn't a fool, and she must know a fellow would be plumb tickled to have her around every day. Well, anyway, he wasn't going to begin by letting her lead him around by the nose, and he wasn't going to crumple down on his knees and tell her to please walk ...
— The Long Shadow • B. M. Bower

... destroys your vigor. It is time that men should cease to confound power with crime, and call this union genius. Let your voice be heard proclaiming to the world that the reign of virtue is about to begin with your own; and hence forth those enemies whom vice has so much difficulty in suppressing will fall before a word uttered from your heart. No one has as yet calculated all that the good faith of a king of France may do for his people—that people ...
— Cinq Mars, Complete • Alfred de Vigny

... Well, that was very sensible of you. We'll finish our tea before we begin our talk. Come, Little-sing, eat your cake and drink your tea, and make yourself agreeable to ...
— The School Queens • L. T. Meade

... them to the Town Hall. {235} And I did, of course, entertain Philip's ambassadors as well, and on a very splendid scale, men of Athens. For when I saw that in their own country they prided themselves even on things like these, as showing their prosperity and splendour, I thought that I must begin by outdoing them in this respect, and displaying even greater magnificence. These incidents Aeschines will shortly bring forward to prove that 'Demosthenes himself voted thanks to us, and gave a banquet to the ambassadors', without telling you the precise time when the incidents ...
— The Public Orations of Demosthenes, volume 1 • Demosthenes

... the whole party should meet in Philadelphia about the Fourth of July, which was now less than a week off. They should go directly to the steam yacht, and the voyage was to begin as soon ...
— The Rover Boys on Treasure Isle - The Strange Cruise of the Steam Yacht • Edward Stratemeyer

... To begin with, it is very natural that she should have suffered in her maternal dignity, as well as in her conscience as a Christian, by having to put up with the company of a stranger who was her son's mistress. However large we may suppose the house where ...
— Saint Augustin • Louis Bertrand

... arbitrary being dealing out rewards and punishments grows dim, for we see the regular workings of Cause and Effect. We begin to talk of Energy, the Divine Essence, and the Reign of Law. We speak, as Matthew Arnold did, of "a Power, not ourselves, that makes for righteousness." But Emerson believed in a power that was in himself that made ...
— Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great Philosophers, Volume 8 • Elbert Hubbard

... up his contentions in the following phrases in his despatches of the early summer of 1877:—"Shere Ali has irrevocably slipped out of our hands; . . . I conceive that it is rather the disintegration and weakening, than the consolidation and establishment, of the Afghan power at which we must now begin to aim." As for the mountain barrier, in which men of the Lawrence school had been wont to trust, he termed it "a military mouse-trap," and he stated that Napoleon I. had once for all shown the futility of relying on a mountain range ...
— The Development of the European Nations, 1870-1914 (5th ed.) • John Holland Rose

... hereafter.' Yet this behest [promise] is given alonely unto them that sue the Lamb whithersoever He goeth above; and they which begin not that suing through the mire of the base court, shall never end it in the golden ...
— The White Rose of Langley - A Story of the Olden Time • Emily Sarah Holt

... To begin with, they have not improved his wardrobe. When he first came to the city he was neatly though coarsely dressed; now his clothes hang in rags about him, and, moreover, they are begrimed with mud and grease. His straw hat ...
— The Young Outlaw - or, Adrift in the Streets • Horatio Alger

... confederacies, acquire again that personal confidence and vigour, that social attachment, that use of arms, which, in former times, rendered a small tribe the seed of a great nation; and which may again enable the emancipated slave to begin the career of civil and commercial arts. When human nature appears in the utmost state of corruption, it has actually ...
— An Essay on the History of Civil Society, Eighth Edition • Adam Ferguson, L.L.D.

... come." Come it surely will, whether we ask or no. Indeed, God hath an eternal kingdom. For when did he not reign? When did he begin to reign? For his kingdom hath no beginning, neither shall it have any end. But that ye may know that in this prayer also we pray for ourselves, and not for God (For we do not say, "Thy kingdom come," as though we were asking that God may reign); we shall be ourselves his kingdom, if believing ...
— The World's Best Orations, Vol. 1 (of 10) • Various

... will go in the house and he will begin to explain; You will see some blankets rolled up on the floor; You may ask what it is and they will tell you out plain That it is the bedding on ...
— Cowboy Songs - and Other Frontier Ballads • Various

... absurd creatures," I said, "do be reasonable. To begin with, passing the doctor is an absolute necessity. That shuts you out. But even if you got through how do you think you would be helping your country? All the men would be falling in love with you; and that's bad enough as it is after working hours; it would be the ruin of discipline. And you ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 150, May 10, 1916 • Various

... accused, and will be accused. Nor has the contagion of this superstition seized cities only, but the lesser towns also, and the open country. Nevertheless it seemed to me that it may be restrained and corrected. It is certain that the temples, which were almost forsaken, begin to be more frequented; and the sacred solemnities, after a long intermission, are revived. Victims, likewise, are everywhere (passim) bought up; whereas, for some time, there were few to purchase them. ...
— Evidences of Christianity • William Paley

... hardly here, in the midst of a fleet of her enemies!—Remember, Raoul, your men will begin to complain if you place them too often in such risks to gratify your ...
— The Wing-and-Wing - Le Feu-Follet • J. Fenimore Cooper

... the letter to his wife—a letter that seemed curiously hard to begin. Pushing the writing materials from him he leant back further in his chair, and searching in his pockets found and filled a pipe with slow almost meticulous deliberation. Another search failed to produce the match ...
— The Shadow of the East • E. M. Hull

... begin to feel surer that God really trusts me," she said, "since he is going to let me have ...
— Saxe Holm's Stories • Helen Hunt Jackson

... his life first by its quantity. He belonged to the true race of the giants of learning; he took in knowledge at every pore, and his desires were insatiable. Not, perhaps, precocious in boyhood,—for it is not precocity to begin Latin at ten and Greek at eleven, to enter the Freshman class at twenty and the professional school at twenty-three,—he was equalled by few students in the tremendous rate at which he pursued every study, when once begun. With strong body and great constitutional industry, always ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. VI.,October, 1860.—No. XXXVI. - A Magazine Of Literature, Art, And Politics • Various

... "Well, to begin with, it would be useless to fit a needle to the projectile unless the latter was made to travel with the point forwards; but there is direct evidence that the barrel was rifled. You notice the little square projection ...
— The Red Thumb Mark • R. Austin Freeman

... of the reign of Claudius, Pliny was an eye-witness of the building operations at the harbour of Ostia, A.D. 42 (ix. 14): in 44 he practised in the law courts. Having decided on a military career, he would begin, according to the regulation of Claudius (Sueton. Claud. 25), with the command of a cohort of infantry. He was next praefectus alae (Plin. Ep. iii. 5, 3) under Corbulo, who was legatus of Germania Inferior, A.D. ...
— The Student's Companion to Latin Authors • George Middleton

... expressed a strong sense of the importance of that commerce to us. I told him I really could not foresee what would be the event of this detention; that the situation of the British funds, and the desire of their minister to begin to reduce the national debt, seemed to indicate that they could not wish a war. He thought so, but that neither were we in a condition to go to war. I told him, I was yet uninformed what Congress proposed to do on this subject, but that we should certainly ...
— Memoir, Correspondence, And Miscellanies, From The Papers Of Thomas Jefferson - Volume I • Thomas Jefferson

... himself, "so far I'm on the safe side; still, if he has humbugged me, I've paid him in his own coin. Maybe the whole haul, as he calls it, may be secured before they begin to ...
— The Black Prophet: A Tale Of Irish Famine • William Carleton

... and asked a Spartan who was in exile what kind of youth this young king was; and the Spartan made reply, "If you have any designs against Sparta, you had better begin them before the game chicken's spurs ...
— Aunt Charlotte's Stories of Greek History • Charlotte M. Yonge

... opportunities of taking counsel with him as to the best means to be adopted to further the Society's ends. He learned that four hundred copies of the Bible and the New Testament had arrived, and it was decided to begin operations at once. Mr Wilby recommended the booksellers as the best medium of distribution; but Borrow urged strongly that at least half of the available copies "should be entrusted to colporteurs," who were to receive a commission upon every copy sold. To this Mr Wilby agreed, provided the ...
— The Life of George Borrow • Herbert Jenkins

... paroxysm would pass, and she would grow calmer, drawing long, shuddering breaths as she struggled back to self-control. Then a quick panting would begin and grow faster and faster, till another burst of sobs shook her like a ...
— Miss Ludington's Sister • Edward Bellamy

... acute attacks with much vomiting and fever, all milk should be immediately stopped and rice water or barley water substituted. When vomiting ceases and the fever approaches normal and food is desired, begin with boiled skim milk in small amounts, well diluted with cereal water, and do not approach the normal amount of milk for twenty-four to forty-eight hours. In this way the weak digestive organs are not overtaxed and they gradually resume their usual work of ...
— The Mother and Her Child • William S. Sadler

... kissed willingly enough, though Maggie hung on his neck in rather a strangling fashion, while his blue eyes wandered toward the croft and the lambs and the river, where he promised himself he would begin to fish the first thing to-morrow morning. He was one of those lads that grow everywhere in England, and at twelve or thirteen years of age look as much alike as goslings,—a lad with a physiognomy in which it seems impossible to discern anything but ...
— Eighth Reader • James Baldwin

... him; I can shoot your heart and kill it! I can blow you strong, my brother, I can heal you, Hiawatha!" 130 "Hi-au-ha!" replied the chorus, "Way-ha-way!" the mystic chorus. "I myself, myself! the prophet! When I speak the wigwam trembles, Shakes the Sacred Lodge with terror, 135 Hands unseen begin to shake it! When I walk, the sky I tread on Bends and makes a noise beneath me! I can blow you strong, my brother! Rise and speak, O Hiawatha!" 140 "Hi-au-ha!" replied the chorus, "Way-ha-way!" ...
— The Song of Hiawatha - An Epic Poem • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

... laugh—'That is unkind! You know I never have a plot really, not the bona fide plot one looks for in a novel. An idea comes to me, or I to it', she says, airily, 'a scene—a situation—a young man, a young woman, and on that mental hint I begin to build', but the question naturally arises, she must make a beginning? 'Indeed, no', she replies; 'it has frequently happened to me that I have written the last chapter first, and so, as ...
— Mrs. Hungerford - Notable Women Authors of the Day • Helen C. Black

... To begin with, the words are not synonymous, although frequently used as such. Affinities are based upon mutual interests; mutual tastes and appetites; mutual stages of development; but these stages of development may be sense-conscious only; or they may be of a highly intellectual order. ...
— Sex=The Unknown Quantity - The Spiritual Function of Sex • Ali Nomad

... or, like the Macleod, lowering her into the dungeon beneath the drawing-room that you might the better enjoy the charms of Amaryllis—your gardener's daughter—above. Well, it's too late this afternoon to begin our "worry," but to-morrow morning we must start by flagging all the windows with towels, as the inquisitive lady is said to ...
— Border Ghost Stories • Howard Pease

... remarked. "On one side I hear and read that new building is much the best investment. That it costs so much less to maintain a new house and if you want to sell, you can find a purchaser quicker and at a better price. But no sooner do I begin to believe that building is the only wise course, than I run smack into an article on remodeling or meet some one I know whose experience in remodeling shows by actual figures a big saving compared with a new house of the same kind and size. In my own case, though, the more I study ...
— If You're Going to Live in the Country • Thomas H. Ormsbee and Richmond Huntley

... don't begin a sophistical argument He says when he is coming, and that's all I want to know here's a letter, I see, from that silly Mrs. Barker—her husband has quite given up drink, and earns good wages, sad the eldest ...
— Our Friend the Charlatan • George Gissing

... to begin their education, disasters came, too. Jacques, left without means at the death of his father, was apprenticed by his relatives to a cabinet-maker, and fed by charity, as Pierrette was soon to be at Saint-Jacques. Until the little girl was taken ...
— The Celibates - Includes: Pierrette, The Vicar of Tours, and The Two Brothers • Honore de Balzac

... your Ladiship contemplated prodigiously o'the Matter? For really, Madam, I begin to find my self in more hast than I ...
— The Fine Lady's Airs (1709) • Thomas Baker

... cover as a "fraud," and to say, "No one can look at the covers of the two publications and fail to see evidence of a design to deceive the public and to infringe upon the rights of the publisher and author"—that is, the rights of Messrs. Dodd, Mead would be well, as a rule, for other writers to begin with reputable, honorable publishers and to remain with them. A publisher can do more and better with a line of books than with isolated volumes. When an author's books are scattered, there is not sufficient inducement for any one to push them strongly, ...
— Taken Alive • E. P. Roe

... over to Peleg's in a body," continued the scout leader; "and while he sleeps clean up that dooryard of his so that in the morning he'll just rub his eyes and begin to think the fairies have paid him a visit in the night. And when he learns who did it perhaps he may feel something like you did, William. Don't you see, it'll be rubbing ...
— The Banner Boy Scouts - Or, The Struggle for Leadership • George A. Warren

... of the bowels, and even nursing of the breast; but there is probably no distinct voluntary action connected with any of these acts. All of his senses at birth are practically dormant, but as the days and weeks go by, they begin to awaken. ...
— The Mother and Her Child • William S. Sadler

... Absolute idealism, which is essentially a modern doctrine, does not begin with rhapsodies, but with a very sober analysis of familiar truths, conducted by the most sober of all philosophers, Immanuel Kant. This philosopher lived in Konigsberg, Germany, at the close of the eighteenth century. He is related to ...
— The Approach to Philosophy • Ralph Barton Perry

... indeed. He came to see that what he had called education was not a mistake. He came to understand that what was wrong was this: he had considered his education complete, finished, when he had only been prepared to begin. He had considered his schooling as an end to be gained when it was only a means to the end. He had considered his learning as wealth to hold when it was capital to invest. He had mistaken the thoughts that he received from others for Knowledge when they were given him only to ...
— Their Yesterdays • Harold Bell Wright

... the king said as he warmly embraced the young knight, "I shall begin to think that the fairies presided at your birth and gave you some charm to preserve your life alike against the wrath of men and of the elements. Never assuredly did anyone pass through so many dangers unscathed as ...
— In Freedom's Cause • G. A. Henty

... his back a bag had he, To bear what treasure he might win, And therewith now did he begin To go adown the winding stair; And found the walls all painted fair With images of many a thing, Warrior and priest, and queen and king, But nothing knew what they might be. Which things full clearly could he see, For lamps were hung up here and there Of strange ...
— The Earthly Paradise - A Poem • William Morris

... advertisement, which ends with a note that Their New Ports, just landed, being the only New Ports in Merchants Hands, and above One Half of all that is in London, will begin to be sold at the old prices the I2th inst. (April) at ...
— The Spectator, Volumes 1, 2 and 3 - With Translations and Index for the Series • Joseph Addison and Richard Steele

... any old things, coats and trousers and such, all worn out, have you? 'Cause if you have, I guess I'll begin a braided rug. When folks are poor, they've got to work, if they know ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 18, No. 109, November, 1866 • Various

... heavily handicapped than he by weight, an obstacle almost insurmountable. But his horse was good—Stokoe's horses had to be good—and it knew its master. Never hitherto had the pair refused any jump, and they were not like to begin now. With a rush and a scramble, and the clatter of four good feet against the stone coping, they were over; over and away, galloping hard for the North Countrie, the free wind whistling past their ears as they sped, Stokoe throwing up his arm and giving a mocking ...
— Stories of the Border Marches • John Lang and Jean Lang

... March Ney, being at Besancon, learned that Napoleon was at Lyons. To those who doubted whether his troops would fight against their old comrades he said, "They shall fight! I will take a musket from a grenadier and begin the action myself! I will run my sword to the hilt in the body of the first man who hesitates to fire." At the same time he wrote to the Minister of War at Paris that he hoped to see a fortunate ...
— The Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte • Bourrienne, Constant, and Stewarton

... "I believe I begin to see why Leyden showed such cocksureness," muttered Barry, taking his companion's arm and returning to the huts. He shouted to the man in the river to come out and gave orders for the others to be released; then, with a ...
— Gold Out of Celebes • Aylward Edward Dingle

... below,—waiting for him with hungry jaws, and eyes glancing greedily upward. Seeing the two men mounted upon the carcass of the whale, and one wielding an axe, they had gathered upon that side,—in the belief that the flensing was about to begin! ...
— The Ocean Waifs - A Story of Adventure on Land and Sea • Mayne Reid

... no member of the Congregatioun should be trubled in lief, landis, goodis, or possessionis by the Quene, hir Authoritie, nor any uther Justice within the realme, for any thing done in the lait innovatioun, till a Parliament (whiche should begin the tent of Januar nixt) ...
— The Works of John Knox, Vol. 1 (of 6) • John Knox

... protests, even the most legitimate, even that of the 10th of August, even that of July 14th, begin with the same troubles. Before the right gets set free, there is foam and tumult. In the beginning, the insurrection is a riot, just as a river is a torrent. Ordinarily it ends in that ocean: revolution. Sometimes, however, coming from those lofty mountains which dominate the moral horizon, ...
— Les Miserables - Complete in Five Volumes • Victor Hugo

... keen-eyed men from the West and South begin to appropriate land. The Eastern and Middle States pilgrims take up trades and mechanical occupations. All classes contribute recruits to the scattered thousands of miners. Greedy officials and sly schemers begin to prey on the vanishing property rights of the Dons. A strange, unsubstantial social ...
— The Little Lady of Lagunitas • Richard Henry Savage

... lily-leaves, and take a lane which winds among the meadows and gives a fitting avenue for the pretty thing we seek. But it is not safe to vary many days from the twentieth of May, for the plant is not long in perfection, and is past its prime when the lower blossoms begin to ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 10, No. 62, December, 1862 • Various

... borrowed from the other as either happened to want it; but with this additional disadvantage, that in the present case it is after all but an eye of glass. The definitions themselves will best illustrate our meaning. I will begin with that given by Bichat. "Life is the sum of all the functions by which death is resisted," in which I have in vain endeavoured to discover any other meaning than that life consists in being able to live. This ...
— Hints towards the formation of a more comprehensive theory of life. • Samuel Taylor Coleridge

... better safeguarded than in the treaty with Colombia which was ratified by the Senate at its last session. It is better in its terms than the treaties offered to us by the Republics of Nicaragua and Costa Rica. At last the right to begin this great undertaking is made available. Panama has done her part. All that remains is for the American Congress to do its part, and forthwith this Republic will enter upon the execution of a project colossal in its size and of well-nigh incalculable possibilities for ...
— Complete State of the Union Addresses from 1790 to the Present • Various

... your whole existence is again violently upset? If you understood that the efforts and dangers and struggles and tenacity of six long years were entirely wasted, and that the results you thought you had achieved did not exist—that you had to begin all over again—that once more you had to play a match with not only your life for stakes, but your honour as well—tell me, Fandor, would you not ...
— A Nest of Spies • Pierre Souvestre

... latter meat is used, add a little salt. Melt a quarter of a pound of butter, mix a little of it with the eggs—it should be just lukewarm. Set the remainder of the butter on the fire, in a frying or tin pan, when quite hot, turn in the eggs beaten to a froth, stir them until they begin to set. When brown on the under side, it is sufficiently cooked. The omelet should be cooked on a moderate fire, and in a pan small enough, to have the omelet an inch thick. When you take them up, lay a flat dish on them, then turn the pan ...
— The American Housewife • Anonymous

... that gits the one that's meant for 'em," said Reuben, "that's sure enough. If we did we'd stop movin' forward, I suppose, an' begin to balk. I haven't much life now, except in Molly, an' it's the things that pleases or hurt her that I feel the most. She's got a warm heart an' a hot temper like you used to have, Sarah, an' the world ain't easy ...
— The Miller Of Old Church • Ellen Glasgow

... least, must there be to an accepted draft? When does the responsibility of the drawer begin? That of the person drawn upon? How does the acceptance of a draft affect the responsibility of the drawer? If the draft is not accepted, to whom shall the holder look for pay? Are drafts negotiable ...
— Studies in Civics • James T. McCleary

... is no harmony in them to me.... I know my own mind, although you say I don't—and—I do know yours, too. And if a day ever comes that neither you nor I are longer able to think clearly and calmly with our minds, but begin to reason with our emotions, then I shall consider that we are really entering into a state of love—such as you sometimes have mentioned to me—and will honestly admit as much to you.... And if you then desire to wed me, no doubt that I shall desire it, too. And I promise ...
— The Hidden Children • Robert W. Chambers

... destiny, wretch that I am to break the heart of one who loves me. Tell her from me, that if she desires me to do so, and God in His mercy delivers me from this bed of death I will keep my promise to snatch her from the fate she dreads, and we will begin the new life in the new world of which ...
— Romance of Roman Villas - (The Renaissance) • Elizabeth W. (Elizbeth Williams) Champney

... for 700 more destitute Orphans, bereaved of both parents; and as God, who cares infinitely more for poor Orphans than I do, did not consider the time to have come for the building of another house, I might well be quiet. My heart longed indeed to begin to build; for there were not only 602 Orphans waiting for admission, when the last report was published but there had been application made for 125 more since then, so that on Dec. 31, 1854, 714 were ...
— A Narrative of Some of the Lord's Dealings with George Mueller - Written by Himself, Fourth Part • George Mueller

... not. I know ye were but an instrument in the hands of others; a churl must obey his lord; I would not bear heavily on such an one. But I begin to learn upon many sides that this great duty lieth on my youth and ignorance, to avenge my father. Prithee, then, good Carter, set aside the memory of my threatenings, and in pure good-will and honest penitence, give ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 8 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson

... done out of Measure, and with great Caution: When 'tis within your Sword, you must begin with your Left-foot, carrying it to that Side, and then bring the Right-foot to it's proper Line and Distance; and if your Adversary turns on the Outside, you must carry the Right-foot to that Side, and the Left in Guard, as well ...
— The Art of Fencing - The Use of the Small Sword • Monsieur L'Abbat

... former weeks' business; and in the evening I must do the necessary office work. Every day is the same, except Sunday, when I make up the book-keeping for the whole week and prepare statements and the like, to begin the usual round on Monday morning. It is a hell of a life and I wish it were done. I have some consolation in being able to call up at will those that I love. I have many a waking dream, while tramping the hills, about the comrades that have added to the joys of ...
— An Anarchist Woman • Hutchins Hapgood

... We shall begin by directing our attention to the suspended punka, which is usually hung from the ceiling, and put in movement by a cord. The object of this class of punka is to produce a downward current of air by swinging to and fro, and the ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 595, May 28, 1887 • Various

... hardier sort of operatives were at work in a damp clay cutting. "This is heavy work for sich chaps as these," said Jackson; "but I let 'em work bi'th lump here. I give'em so much clay apiece to shift, and they can begin when they like, an' drop it th' same. Th' men seem satisfied wi' that arrangement, an' they done wonders, considerin' th' nature o'th job. There's many o'th men that come on to this moor are badly off for suitable things for their feet. I've had to give lots ...
— Home-Life of the Lancashire Factory Folk during the Cotton Famine • Edwin Waugh

... your old wont still; a Man can begin no Discourse to you, be it of Prester John, but you ...
— The Works of Aphra Behn, Vol. II • Aphra Behn

... certain amount should be paid by the United States to each State that would abolish slavery before the first day of January, A. D. 1900. The amount was to be paid in bonds of the United States on which interest was to begin from the time of actual delivery to the States. The amendment was further to declare, that "all slaves who enjoyed actual freedom by the chances of war at any time before the end of the rebellion shall be forever free," but the individual owners, if loyal, shall be compensated ...
— Twenty Years of Congress, Vol. 1 (of 2) • James Gillespie Blaine

... Which now y'are bent to throw away In vain, untriumphable fray! Shall SAINTS in civil bloodshed wallow Of Saints, and let the CAUSE lie fallow? 505 The Cause for which we fought and swore So boldly, shall we now give o'er? Then, because quarrels still are seen With oaths and swearings to begin, The SOLEMN LEAGUE and COVENANT 510 Will seem a mere God-dam-me rant; And we, that took it, and have fought, As lewd as drunkards that fall out. For as we make war for the King Against himself the self-same thing, 515 Some will not stick to swear we ...
— Hudibras • Samuel Butler

... begged Bok to begin proceedings against the New York Evening Sun because of the libellous (?) articles written about him by "The Woman About Town," the editor admired the style rather than the contents, made her acquaintance, and secured her as a regular ...
— The Americanization of Edward Bok - The Autobiography of a Dutch Boy Fifty Years After • Edward William Bok

... as we disliked Delhi. To begin with creature comforts (and the well-being of the body produces a pair of couleur de rose spectacles for the mental eye), Laurie's Hotel at Agra is very much more comfortable than the den we abode in at Delhi, and after a good tiffin we set forth ...
— A Holiday in the Happy Valley with Pen and Pencil • T. R. Swinburne

... the letter m, with lips closed, and endeavoring to make the face vibrate. The tone should be kept well forward throughout the exercise, pressing firmly against the lips and hard palate. Later the exercise may begin with the humming m, and be developed, while the lips are opened gradually, into the tone of ah, still aiming to ...
— Talks on Talking • Grenville Kleiser

... of the causes which urged our Teutonic race to attack and destroy Rome. I shall take for this one lecture no special text-book: but suppose you all to be acquainted with the Germania of Tacitus, and with the 9th Chapter of Gibbon. And I shall begin, if you will allow me, by a parable, a myth, a saga, such as the men of whom I am going to tell you loved; and if it seem to any of you childish, bear in mind that what is childish need not therefore ...
— The Roman and the Teuton - A Series of Lectures delivered before the University of Cambridge • Charles Kingsley

... Harry admitted ironically. "So far Tom has gotten his training only in Colorado and in Arizona. I begin to realize that he isn't bright enough to have his own way among the bright men of Nevada. But Reade learns rapidly—-don't ...
— The Young Engineers in Nevada • H. Irving Hancock

... Begin blazing the trail at your first step up the mountain side. Even though there may be a trail already, you cannot be sure that it will continue; it is much safer to depend upon ...
— On the Trail - An Outdoor Book for Girls • Lina Beard and Adelia Belle Beard

... twain were less guileless than their seeming. She flashed out a revolver and issued an ultimatum. "I warns ye both now. I'm agoin' ter stand right hyar long enough ter count a hundred. If either one of ye's in sight at ther end of thet time, I'm ergoin' ter begin shootin'. Ef I sees ye ergin naggin' round me from now on, I'm goin' ter begin shootin' too,—an' ...
— A Pagan of the Hills • Charles Neville Buck

... and uncertain in this fluctuating world, as induce to keep me from engaging in such a state: and now, though they are more settled, and of late (which you will be glad to hear) considerably improved, I begin to think myself too far advanced in life for such youthful undertakings, not to mention some other petty reasons that are apt to startle the delicacy of difficult old bachelors. I am, however, not a little suspicious that, was I to pay a visit to Scotland, (which I have some thoughts of doing ...
— The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. in Nine Volumes - Volume the Eighth: The Lives of the Poets, Volume II • Samuel Johnson

... Lance, "if we build them for you; not otherwise. There is not a man on this island, outside our own party, who could complete the schooner, much less build the battery. Now, do you begin to understand that I was only speaking the truth when I spoke of your ...
— The Pirate Island - A Story of the South Pacific • Harry Collingwood

... other blue. We regretted the pocket-books; but their possession made the recipients who, boylike, took no heed for the cleansing fires of the morrow, feel grown-up at once. And they yearned for the advent of the first day of the year, that they might begin writing in their new diaries. For the Sister there was a miniature gold consecrated medal. It was a small tribute of our esteem, but one ...
— A Versailles Christmas-Tide • Mary Stuart Boyd

... and wise things, but the best and wisest thing he ever did was to begin to write the History of England. There had been English poems before this, but no English stories that were not written in poetry. So that Alfred's book was the first of all the thousands and thousands of English books ...
— Royal Children of English History • E. Nesbit

... had yet a year of health and life before me, I would not trouble any one to undo the black and dishonorable knot, that these guilty hands have tied, but I know too well that but little strength is left me. To begin at the beginning, Guy," he said, looking eagerly into the kind face of his listener, "boys make foolish attachments at school, that they sometimes regret all their lives. This, as you know, was my misfortune. Whatever diabolical attraction there was in that one ...
— Honor Edgeworth • Vera

... the Champagne, between the ragout of thrushes and the partridge with truffles, he fervently preached his new political creed. "The vessel of the revolution," he said, "can float into port only on waves of blood. We must begin with the members of the National Assembly and of the Legislative Assembly. That rubbish must ...
— The Miscellaneous Writings and Speeches of Lord Macaulay, Vol. 2 (of 4) - Contributions To The Edinburgh Review • Thomas Babington Macaulay

... down to the eyelids, and instead of leaving them attached at the lower angles, cut them completely away. Now take the skin off all round the skull, until the return of the skin of the side of the mouth is arrived at. Skin well under the jaw to the very tip, and now begin under-cutting at the sides, coming up to the return angle—keeping, however, well to the side of the skin. By cautious working you can skin in between the inner and outer skins until you can touch the tips of the lower teeth at the point of the jaw ...
— Practical Taxidermy • Montagu Browne

... begin to realize the sort of fool you are," he went on soberly. "They don't make better men out here; his little finger was worth more than your whole body. But killing you won't bring Sam back, and besides I reckon you 've told me the straight story, an' his shooting was ...
— Molly McDonald - A Tale of the Old Frontier • Randall Parrish

... in town has only stimulated me, Mary," she confessed; "just stimulated me and excited my brain. I must work it off somehow. Let us begin at the novel to-morrow." ...
— Mary Gray • Katharine Tynan

... "To begin with, I want to thank you for the way you gave your evidence," Hulton said to Featherstone, who had been one of the last to ...
— Carmen's Messenger • Harold Bindloss

... the cubs. As you have killed the vixen you had better stink the cubs out of the earth. I daresay they are old enough to look after themselves—at any rate I hope so. And now, Giles, we must shoot some of these hares when we begin on the partridges next week. There are too many of them, the tenants are complaining, ungrateful beggars as they are, seeing that I keep them ...
— The Mahatma and the Hare • H. Rider Haggard

... wonders did produce, But both were to no use: As yet the sorcerer's mimic power served for excuse. Try what the earth will do, said God, and lo! They struck the earth a fertile blow, And all the dust did straight to stir begin, One would have thought some sudden wind had been, But, lo! 'twas nimble life was got within! And all the little springs did move, And every dust did an armed vermin prove, Of an unknown and new-created kind, Such as the magic gods could neither make or find. ...
— Specimens with Memoirs of the Less-known British Poets, Complete • George Gilfillan

... is it? [With an outburst.] Oh Ella, I begin to wonder which is in the right—you ...
— John Gabriel Borkman • Henrik Ibsen

... yonder on the right," he said, "and from now on we had better begin to scour the country, covering every mile just as though we had a comb and meant ...
— The Aeroplane Boys on the Wing - Aeroplane Chums in the Tropics • John Luther Langworthy

... little amusement, you fellows. You shall have it. Get the swords. I am a gentleman and I will enjoy slaughtering this ambitious cocky-doodle-doo. He wishes to become mincemeat; I will gratify him. Yes, gentleman, get the swords and the fun shall begin." ...
— Cad Metti, The Female Detective Strategist - Dudie Dunne Again in the Field • Harlan Page Halsey

... "Well, to begin at the beginning, I went up to Cornwall upon some business, and I staid all night at a house just this side of the beautiful Idlewild Glen. In the evening I was invited to go to a Sunday-school celebration; I was very glad ...
— The Fairy Nightcaps • Frances Elizabeth Barrow

... resolved, the truth of the etymology will be ascertained by the concomitant history. If it be a Deity, or other personage, the truth will appear from his office and department; or with the attributes imputed to him. To begin, then, with antient Latium. If I should have occasion to speak of the Goddess Feronia, and of the city denominated from her, I should deduce the from Fer-On, ignis Dei Solis; and suppose the place to have been addicted to the worship of the Sun, ...
— A New System; or, an Analysis of Antient Mythology. Volume I. • Jacob Bryant

... begin with trouble here, Our life is but a span, And cruel death is always near, So frail a thing is man. 500 From the ...
— Handy Dictionary of Poetical Quotations • Various

... last on the 24th; since which yours of the 20th has been received. I must begin by correcting two errors in my last. It was false arithmetic to say, that two measures therein mentioned to have been carried by majorities of eleven, would have failed if the fourteen absentees (wherein a majority of six is ours) had ...
— Memoir, Correspondence, And Miscellanies, From The Papers Of Thomas Jefferson - Volume I • Thomas Jefferson

... of "overdone" to the steak, and the whole affair, even to me, was intolerable—me, who had the pleasures of house-cleaning in perspective to console me. The door was scarce shut behind him, when I entered into the business con amore. It was resolved to begin at the very attic and sweep, scrub, and wash down. Old boxes and trunks were dragged out of their places, and piles of forgotten dust swept out. The passengers in the street had a narrow chance for their beavers and fall bonnets, for every front window had an extra ...
— Trials and Confessions of a Housekeeper • T. S. Arthur

... speculated on things appertaining to the nature of the gods. He is said to have been a teacher of Pythagoras, which shows that he belongs to an uncertain period. He was not a Philosopher; his speculations belonged to those cosmogonical dreams which precede true philosophy, and begin again when philosophy goes to sleep, as we see in the speculations of the present day. Kallisthenes is mentioned in Plutarch's Life of Alexander, c. 55. He was thrown into prison on a charge of conspiring against Alexander. This Mucius the lawyer ([Greek: nomikos]), or jurisconsultus, as a ...
— Plutarch's Lives, Volume II • Aubrey Stewart & George Long

... a few other remarks and giving Edwin the promise, "If I ever return to the farm again, I will let you know and will take you back again," Mr. Hahn said, "Good-by," and Edwin was left behind to begin again the kind of life that had been so hard and bitter. The kindnesses shown him during the summer and the greater keenness of his judgment and understanding made the renewal of past cruelties even harder to bear than ...
— The Poorhouse Waif and His Divine Teacher • Isabel C. Byrum

... the moment when a good watch shows that the hour has arrived, and afterwards connect these points with the centre by a continuous line. Of course the style must have been accurately fixed in its true position before we begin. ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 8, Slice 3 - "Destructors" to "Diameter" • Various

... avenge themselves upon our devoted cranium, which, although hardened throughout its ligneous formation by many blows, would not be proof against their united efforts. And we scarcely know how or where to begin. The instincts and different phases, under which this interesting race appears, are so numerous, that far from complaining of the paucity of materials we have to work upon, we are overwhelmed by mental suggestions, and rapidly-dissolving views, ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 1, October 2, 1841 • Various

... bazar' and she, 'Canst thou repeat any verses?' 'Some small matter,' quoth I. Quoth she 'Then call a few to mind and let us hear some of them.' But I said, 'A visitor is bashful and timid; do thou begin.' 'True,' replied she and recited some verses of the poets, past and present, choosing their choicest pieces; and I listened not knowing whether more to marvel at her beauty and loveliness or at the charm of her style ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 4 • Richard F. Burton

... to Asgrim, "Here, now, we shall part safe and sound, and meet at the Thing, and there begin our quarrel over again." ...
— Njal's Saga • Unknown Icelanders

... himself of which he knew nothing, begin to assert themselves, and the man commonly reported to possess a strong will, is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. This factor, this man of business, this despiser of humbug, to whom the scruples of a sensitive conscience were a contempt, would now lie ...
— The Marquis of Lossie • George MacDonald

... is known to the Lord alone. But their position in general is known from the quarters in which they are. For the hells, like the heavens, are distinguished by their quarters; and in the spiritual world quarters are determined in accordance with loves; for in heaven all the quarters begin from the Lord as the sun, who is the East; and as the hells are opposite to the heavens their quarters begin from the opposite point, that is, from the west. (On this see the chapter on the four quarters in heaven, n. 141-153.) [2] For this reason ...
— Heaven and its Wonders and Hell • Emanuel Swedenborg

... Yorktown which opposed M'Clellan's advance. He told me the different dodges he had resorted to, to blind and deceive the latter as to his (Magruder's) strength; and he spoke of the intense relief and amusement with which he had at length seen M'Clellan with his magnified army begin to break ground before miserable earthworks, defended only by 8000 men. Hooker was in his regiment, and was "essentially a mean man and a liar." Of Lee and Longstreet he spoke in ...
— Three Months in the Southern States, April-June 1863 • Arthur J. L. (Lieut.-Col.) Fremantle

... with a deep breath, sitting down again and motioning us to follow her example, "it seems to me that you have a story to tell, too! But I'll tell mine first. Where shall I begin?" ...
— The Gloved Hand • Burton E. Stevenson

... gentlemen passengers were soon congregating on deck, many of them buckling on their swords and examining the locks of their pistols by the light of the binnacle lamp. Various opinions were offered. Some thought that Captain Winslow ought to begin the battle by firing a broadside into the stranger; but he declined the proposal, and suggested that it would be better to ascertain first whether she ...
— Ronald Morton, or the Fire Ships - A Story of the Last Naval War • W.H.G. Kingston

... white. The north wind is hot, the south wind cold. Our longest days are in summer; but in Australia, sir, the shortest days come in summer, and the longest in winter; and," says the Captain, "I can't begin to tell you how many curious didoes nature seems to cut, in that country; but, altogether, it's one of the queerest countries I ever did see, ...
— The Humors of Falconbridge - A Collection of Humorous and Every Day Scenes • Jonathan F. Kelley

... is a time of trial to all women, more or less painful according to individual disposition, when they first begin to grow old and lose their good looks. Youth and beauty make up so much of their personal value, so much of their natural raison d'etre, that when these are gone many feel as if their whole career was at an end, and as if nothing was left ...
— Modern Women and What is Said of Them - A Reprint of A Series of Articles in the Saturday Review (1868) • Anonymous

... all tell the truth—about each other! and then transact your business to the best of your ability on your own judgment. Never fear but that you will get experience enough, and that you will pay well for it too; and towards the time when you shall no longer need earthly goods, you will begin to know ...
— The Humbugs of the World • P. T. Barnum

... short glimpse of yesterday evening, she had thought to be an inscription. What a wonderful woman she is! What skill she shows; what secrecy and what purpose. If she cannot compass her end in one way, she will in another; and I begin to have, notwithstanding my repugnance and fear, a wholesome respect for her ability and the relentless determination which she shows in every action ...
— The Forsaken Inn - A Novel • Anna Katharine Green

... once were told or sung In many a smoky fireside nook Of Iceland, in the ancient day, By wandering Saga-man or Scald; Heimskringla is the volume called; And he who looks may find therein The story that I now begin." ...
— Tales of a Wayside Inn • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

... a day's shooting, if they have had luck, my good friends do not trouble themselves much over counting the heads of game they have brought home. They will perhaps begin by placing their victims in groups of neer (three) until they amount to three threes but should the number exceed nine they simply declare them to be jeho e (many) and do not care about knowing anything more precise as ...
— My Friends the Savages - Notes and Observations of a Perak settler (Malay Peninsula) • Giovanni Battista Cerruti

... the supplies generally begin in April, and the fish begin to be caught in April or May?-Yes; the summer ...
— Second Shetland Truck System Report • William Guthrie

... unsatisfactory, if we were to earnestly set about repairing the shanty, and thereby formally allow that it required such renovation. No one will dare to initiate such a serious thing. Besides, it is no one man's particular business to begin the work of mending; while we are always busy, and have acquired such an amazing notion of the value of our time, that we consider the necessary repairs would not be worth the time it would ...
— Brighter Britain! (Volume 1 of 2) - or Settler and Maori in Northern New Zealand • William Delisle Hay

... she called after him when he had reached the top of the stairs, "you know you haven't had much experience yet with a bunch of hard-boiled troupers; many a one will be jealous of you the minute you begin to climb, and maybe they'll get fresh and try to kid you, see? But don't you mind it—give it right back to them. Or tell me if they get too raw. Just remember I got a mean right when I ...
— Merton of the Movies • Harry Leon Wilson

... final draft of that Platform because of the opposition of a small but influential group led by the Rev. Charles Chauncey. As early as 1650, it had become evident that public opinion was favorable to such a change, and that some church would soon begin to put in practice a theory which was held by so many leading divines. Though the Half-Way Covenant was strenuously opposed by the New Haven colony as a whole, Peter Prudden, its second ablest minister, had, as early ...
— The Development of Religious Liberty in Connecticut • M. Louise Greene, Ph. D.



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