Online dictionaryOnline dictionary
Synonyms, antonyms, pronunciation

  Home
English Dictionary      examples: 'day', 'get rid of', 'New York Bay'




General knowledge   /dʒˈɛnərəl nˈɑlədʒ/   Listen
General knowledge

noun
1.
Knowledge that is available to anyone.  Synonym: public knowledge.






WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University








Advanced search
     Find words:
Starting with
Ending with
Containing
Matching a pattern  

Synonyms
Antonyms
Quotes
Words linked to  

only single words



Share |
Add this dictionary
to your browser search bar





"General knowledge" Quotes from Famous Books



... begin with the savages who rank at the bottom of the social scale, we are told that the secrecy with which among the Australian aborigines personal names are often kept from general knowledge "arises in great measure from the belief that an enemy, who knows your name, has in it something which he can use magically to your detriment." "An Australian black," says another writer, "is always very unwilling ...
— The Golden Bough - A study of magic and religion • Sir James George Frazer

... concealment of knowledge, for it results in a serious retardation of the general growth and development of science in its broader aspects, and renders it much more difficult for the universities to train men properly for such industries, since all the text-books and general knowledge available would in all probability be far behind the actual manufacturing practice. Fortunately, the policy of industrial secrecy is becoming more generally regarded in the light of reason, and there is a growing inclination among manufacturers to disclose the details of investigations, ...
— Popular Science Monthly Volume 86

... that he must get a little more accurate scientific knowledge. The period for general study had now passed by, and the period for special trade reading had set in. This was well. A lad cannot do better than lay a good foundation of general knowledge and general literature during the period when he is engaged in forming his mind: a young man once fairly launched in life may safely confine himself for a time to the studies that bear directly upon his own special chosen subject. The thing that ...
— Biographies of Working Men • Grant Allen

... other western innovations proceeded apace, modern literature and systems of education were introduced, and the old competitive examinations for office, in the Confucian literature and philosophy, were replaced by examinations in modern science and general knowledge. Yet most surprising of all was the great political revolution which converted an autocratic empire which had existed for four or five thousand years into a modern constitutional republic of advanced type. This is the most surprising political overturn ...
— A History of The Nations and Empires Involved and a Study - of the Events Culminating in The Great Conflict • Logan Marshall

... Sphere that the Fenachrone shall pass," he said finally. "What you ask of us we can do. I have only a general knowledge of rays, as they are not in the province of the Orlon family; but the student Rovol, of the family Rovol of Rays, has all present knowledge of such phenomena. Tomorrow I will bring you together, and I have little doubt that he will be able, with ...
— Skylark Three • Edward Elmer Smith

... taken place, and bade him follow him, assuring him that good fortune would be the result. Conversation soon showed that the stranger was a man of much cleverness and general knowledge, and the Chian persuaded him to remain, and to undertake ...
— The Iliad of Homer • Homer

... removed the tube of the dictaphone from his lips as I entered. "Weener, although a rigid adherence to fact compels me to claim some acquaintance with general knowledge and a slight cognizance of abnormal psychology, I must admit bafflement at the spectacle of your mottled complexion once more in these rooms sacred to the perpetuation of truth and the dissemination of enlightenment. Everyday ...
— Greener Than You Think • Ward Moore

... which he seized upon the phenomena of the exterior world. As they broke upon him, these phenomena were discerned with wonderful quickness of perception, and made to contribute important principles to the stock of general knowledge. This lucidity of spirit, this quick convertibility of facts to principles, distinguish him from the dawn to the close of his sublime enterprise, insomuch that, with all the sallying ardor of his imagination, his ultimate ...
— Christopher Columbus and His Monument Columbia • Various

... of his general knowledge of mankind in other respects, as he politically did in France over his conquered subjects, in respecting ancient habits, and gradually weaned them from their natural prejudices instead of violently forcing all men to become Frenchmen, all men would have fought for him, and not ...
— The Memoirs of Louis XV. and XVI., Volume 7 • Madame du Hausset, and of an Unknown English Girl and the Princess Lamballe

... Fifthly: Some general knowledge of this horrid rebellion and murder, with the consequences they had upon these nations, may be a warning to our people not to believe a lie, and to mistrust those deluding spirits, who, under pretence of a purer ...
— The Prose Works of Jonathan Swift, D. D., Volume IV: - Swift's Writings on Religion and the Church, Volume II • Jonathan Swift

... uniformity in the scope and requirement of the work for this degree. The Doctor's degree should stand in this country, as it does in Europe, for research, and a general knowledge of philosophy, with ability to open up original sources of information. The student should be a resident graduate for at least one year, and after rigorous examination be required to contribute something to the advancement of ...
— Colleges in America • John Marshall Barker

... so as to be able to touch upon them in his book.) So Shakspeare, Otway, and I believe Rowe, to whom he was naturally directed by Johnson's Lives, and these not read lately, are to stand him in stead of a general knowledge of the subject. God bless his dear ...
— The Best Letters of Charles Lamb • Charles Lamb

... psychological and interpretative history, should teach us what we are likely to do and what we ought to do in all typical situations with which we are likely to be confronted. How far we are as yet from such a general knowledge in regard to ourselves needs hardly to be suggested. The third element in this aspect of the teaching of patriotism is something more tangible and more immediately practical. Our ideals have to some extent at least been crystallized in our institutions, where they will still further ...
— The Psychology of Nations - A Contribution to the Philosophy of History • G.E. Partridge

... questioning when I sifted it all down and thought it over, I was surprised at how much information I did get. If I didn't learn facts which could be put into words, I was left with a very definite impression and a very wide general knowledge. ...
— One Way Out - A Middle-class New-Englander Emigrates to America • William Carleton

... himself: 'You will, as I said before, feel satisfied that I did my best, but it was an unlucky examination for me. It has done me a great deal of good in one way. It has enabled me to see where I am particularly deficient, viz. general knowledge of history, and a thorough acquaintance with Greek and Roman customs, law courts and expressions, and Greek and Roman writers. I do not find myself wanting in making out a stiff bit of Greek or Latin if I have time, but I must read History ...
— Life of John Coleridge Patteson • Charlotte M. Yonge

... considerable, and his tact was so perfect that he could converse face to face with statesmen; doctors, and generals upon campaigns, theology, or jurisprudence, without betraying any remarkable deficiency. He was very industrious, endeavoring to make up by hard study for his lack of general knowledge, and to sustain with credit the burthen of his daily functions. At the same time, by the King's desire, he appeared constantly at the frequent banquets, masquerades, tourneys and festivities, for which Brussels at that epoch was remarkable. It ...
— The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-1566 • John Lothrop Motley

... the two places; and he who had gone through a winter at one of them, must have had a very tolerable foretaste of what was to be suffered at the other. This particular experience, therefore, added to his general knowledge, as well as to his character, contributed largely to Stephen's influence in the consultations that took place between the two masters, at which he ...
— The Sea Lions - The Lost Sealers • James Fenimore Cooper

... the average woman's life is devoted to home-making and the rearing of children. Usually she is poorly prepared for this work. The early years of a girl's life are spent in the acquisition of a store of general knowledge, especially that derived from books and related to subjects generally considered necessary to "culture." During this period, her time is so occupied with her studies that her mother thinks it would be an imposition to ask her to do any housework, so the girl grows up without ...
— Herself - Talks with Women Concerning Themselves • E. B. Lowry

... the year in aid of science and to increase the sum of general knowledge and further the interests of commerce and civilization. Extensive and much-needed soundings have been made for hydrographic purposes and to fix the proper routes of ocean telegraphs. Further surveys of the great ...
— A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents: Ulysses S. Grant • James D. Richardson

... recording were Descartes and Gassendi, whose mathematical researches in their application to astronomy were of much value; Fabricius, Torricelli, and Maraldi, who by their observations and investigations added many facts to the general knowledge of the science; and Bayer, to whom belongs the distinction of having ...
— The Astronomy of Milton's 'Paradise Lost' • Thomas Orchard

... masters. Addison is now despised by some who perhaps would never have seen his defects but by the lights which he afforded them. That he always wrote as he would think it necessary to write now, cannot be affirmed; his instructions were such as the characters of his readers made proper. That general knowledge which now circulates in common talk was in his time rarely to be found. Men not professing learning were not ashamed of ignorance; and, in the female world, any acquaintance with books was distinguished only to be censured. His purpose was to infuse literary curiosity, ...
— Lives of the Poets: Addison, Savage, and Swift • Samuel Johnson

... all its magnificence, is not a product of the nascent stages of speech. In the college, which is its stronghold, it has so inspired professors of English that their ideal is to be critical rather than creative till they prefer the minute reading of a few masterpieces to a wide general knowledge, and a typical university announces that "in every case the examiners will treat mere knowledge of books as less important than the ability to write good English" that will parse and that is spelled, punctuated, capitalized, and paragraphed aright. Good professors ...
— Youth: Its Education, Regimen, and Hygiene • G. Stanley Hall

... motor on the earth myself," Cora agreed, "but, of course, a little experience like this adds to our general knowledge. I ...
— The Motor Girls Through New England - or, Held by the Gypsies • Margaret Penrose

... strong expressions of love, some pretty warm ones of the upbraiding kind; but what most alarmed him was a hint that it was in her (Miss Matthews's) power to make Amelia as miserable as herself. Besides the general knowledge of ...
— Amelia (Complete) • Henry Fielding

... for every five or six years of service. This state of affairs is even more exaggerated in strictly educational institutions. Columbia University has recently instituted a series of lectures to be given by its professors to its professors, so that they may have a general knowledge of the work being done in other fields besides their own at their own university. This is equally important for teachers and heads of departments in elementary schools. It is now admitted by most educators that elementary schools and young children present more pedagogical ...
— Civics and Health • William H. Allen

... High and Low Society," published in 1864, "gag" is duly included, and defined to be "language introduced by an actor into his part." Long before this, however, the word had issued from the stage-door, and its signification had become a matter of general knowledge. ...
— A Book of the Play - Studies and Illustrations of Histrionic Story, Life, and Character • Dutton Cook

... to simple syllogisms, it was an original dogma of the Platonic school, and an early dogma of the Peripatetic, that science, strictly so called, was only conversant with, and was exclusively contained in, universals; and the doctrine of Aristotle, which taught that all our general knowledge is only an induction from an observation of particulars, was too easily forgotten or perverted by his followers. It thus obtained almost the force of an acknowledged principle that everything to be known must be known under some general form or notion. Hence the exaggerated ...
— Review of the Work of Mr John Stuart Mill Entitled, 'Examination of Sir William Hamilton's Philosophy.' • George Grote

... Those arts or sciences which are peculiar to certain professions, need not be deeply known by those who are not intended for those professions. As, for instance; fortification and navigation; of both which, a superficial and general knowledge, such as the common course of conversation, with a very little inquiry on your part, will give you, is sufficient. Though, by the way, a little more knowledge of fortification may be of some use to you; as ...
— The PG Edition of Chesterfield's Letters to His Son • The Earl of Chesterfield

... now its own standards and ideals. It has a language of its own, a telephonese that is quite unintelligible to outsiders. It has as many separate branches of study as medicine or law. There are few men, half a dozen at most, who can now be said to have a general knowledge of telephony. And no matter how wise a telephone expert may be, he can never reach perfection, because of the amazing variety of things that touch or concern ...
— The History of the Telephone • Herbert N. Casson

... received his early education in several private schools, and before the age of fourteen years had learned Latin, Greek and some Hebrew, in addition to acquiring much general knowledge. At the age of sixteen years and a half he entered Trinity College, Cambridge, and studied mathematics, partly under the tuition of Sir G. B. Airy. In 1825 he gained a Trinity scholarship. De Morgan's love of wide reading ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 8, Slice 2 - "Demijohn" to "Destructor" • Various

... same lesson in Armenian, and your general knowledge of languages; as for your manners and appearance I will say nothing," said the man in black, with ...
— Lavengro - The Scholar, The Gypsy, The Priest • George Borrow

... himself, some time after midnight, clear of the lofty range of mountains, a limb of the Spanish Pyrenees, in one of whose recesses the convent stood. The country in front, and on both sides of him, was still mountainous, but the elevations were less; and Paco, who had a good general knowledge of the geography of his native province, through most parts of which his avocations as muleteer had often caused him to travel, conjectured that he was on the extreme verge of Navarre and about to enter the province of Guipuzcoa. He had deemed it prudent to avoid all ...
— Blackwoods Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 59, No. 365, March, 1846 • Various

... that thorough drilling in Greek, Latin and English which was to be the foundation of the pupils' culture; and, this done, he would have required the University to offer scope for the fullest development of any special aptitude which the pupil might display. In brief, the school was to train in general knowledge; the University was to specialize. In 1868 he wrote: "An admirable English mathematician told me that he should never recover the loss of the two years which after his degree he wasted without fit instruction ...
— Matthew Arnold • G. W. E. Russell

... suffers from life can do without this reflection, just as no one can exist without sleep. The more difficult the science of natural laws becomes, the more fervently we yearn for the image of this simplification, if only for an instant; and the greater becomes the tension between each man's general knowledge of things and his moral and spiritual faculties. Art is with us to ...
— Thoughts out of Season (Part One) • Friedrich Nietzsche

... of general knowledge that the three girls were very fond of one another, and supported each other in every way; it was even said that the two elder ones had made certain sacrifices for the sake of the idol of the household, Aglaya. In society they not only disliked asserting themselves, but were actually retiring. ...
— The Idiot • (AKA Feodor Dostoevsky) Fyodor Dostoyevsky

... whom he had grown up. Yet his loneliness only added to his zeal for study. He had left school when still very young, and he now found himself ignorant of much that he wished to know. As a man of the world he had found plenty of gaps in his general knowledge. Writing to his friend Captain Rickson, he says: 'When a man leaves his studies at fifteen, he will never be justly called a man of letters. I am endeavouring to repair the damages of my education, and have a person to teach me Latin and mathematics.' From his experience in his own profession, also, ...
— The Winning of Canada: A Chronicle of Wolf • William Wood

... ad interim work of four centuries. Such a remarkable process of development, so deepening in us a sense of the guiding hand of God, ought to show some sign of its working, in the literature of the period. However clear, from our general knowledge, the tendencies which were at work in that period, we could not feel assured of our correct interpretation of this most important epoch, in the absence of some such sign, in a writing of ...
— The Right and Wrong Uses of the Bible • R. Heber Newton

... experiments, a child may acquire a general knowledge of solution, evaporation, and saturation, without the formality of a lecture, or the apparatus of a chemist. In all your attempts to instruct him in chemistry, the greatest care should be taken that ...
— Practical Education, Volume II • Maria Edgeworth

... amount of land tilled or of the products derived from the tillage; and only in few cases have we trustworthy estimates of the population of the tribe or tribes practicing agriculture. Only a rough approximation of the truth can be reached from the scanty data available and from a general knowledge of ...
— Indian Linguistic Families Of America, North Of Mexico • John Wesley Powell

... physical ear) will be very ready to admit. In the general tenor of his poetry, he is ABOVE the Singer,— he is the Seer and Revealer, who sees great truths beyond the bounds of the territory of general knowledge, instead of working over truths within that territory; and no seer of modern times has had his eyes more clearly purged with euphrasy and rue. Poetry is with him, in the language of Mr. E. Paxton Hood ('Eclectic and Congregational Rev.', Dec., 1868), "no jingle of words, or pretty ...
— Introduction to Robert Browning • Hiram Corson

... the credit of my sagacity that I fetched Mr. Dale here fully primed, and roused the neighbourhood, which I did, and so fixed our gentleman, neat as a prodded eel on a pair of prongs—namely, the positive fact and the general knowledge of it. But, mark me, my friend. We understand one another at a nod. This boy, young Squire Crossjay, is a good stiff hearty kind of a Saxon boy, out of whom you may cut as gallant a fellow as ever ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith

... a person disposed to the relief of the people without fraud to the revenue; and this was expressed by the President and Council as follows, with relation to the remissions granted in the province of Bahar: "That the general knowledge of Mahomed Reza Khan, in all matters relative to the dewanny revenues, induced us to consent to such deductions being made from the general state of that province at the last poonah as may be deemed ...
— The Works Of The Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. IX. (of 12) • Edmund Burke

... There is generally a due proportion kept in 'the music of men's lives.' ... Of many of the facts of this distressing case we are not ignorant; but God knows they are not for a newspaper. Fortunately they fall within very general knowledge, in London at least; if they had not they would never have found their way to us. But there is a respect due to certain wrongs and sufferings that would be outraged by uncovering them." It was all very mysterious, very ...
— The Works Of Lord Byron, Vol. 3 (of 7) • Lord Byron

... to be like unto God in omniscience and the general knowledge of all things which may be communicated to a creature, as in Christ it is ...
— The Literary Remains Of Samuel Taylor Coleridge • Edited By Henry Nelson Coleridge

... shock until she was really in need of rest and nourishment. Of course Cora made light of her own predicament. She admitted she had been frightened when she found the boat gone, and Laurel sick, but tried to laugh and call it just one more experience, that would add to her general knowledge. But her face was white, and even Belle and Bess who had risen from prostration to over-joy could not ...
— The Motor Girls On Cedar Lake - The Hermit of Fern Island • Margaret Penrose

... for Mr. Selden's. George, who wished to save him from any embarrassment, answered his ring himself, and immediately conducted him to his room, where for an hour or so they discussed their favorite books and authors. At, last, George, astonished at Billy's general knowledge of men and things, exclaimed, "Why, Bender. I do believe you are almost as good a scholar as I, who have been through college. ...
— The English Orphans • Mary Jane Holmes

... to some extent the initial difficulties of the draftsman, and has a fair general knowledge of the laws of design, but no acquaintance with their application to the art of wood-carving, then the two factors which will most immediately affect his progress (apart from natural aptitude) are his opportunities for practise, ...
— Wood-Carving - Design and Workmanship • George Jack

... who was walking alone, heard Danjou's remark as well as others, in spite of the warnings passed from mouth to mouth, 'Take care—there he is.' It signified to him the beginning of his fall in estimation, consequent on the general knowledge of his folly ...
— The Immortal - Or, One Of The "Forty." (L'immortel) - 1877 • Alphonse Daudet

... was sent for to the old farm-house. Instead of the old stone floor, there was a carpet laid down, and an air of smartness over every thing, which he had never seen before. It turned out, that the old man's daughter had married: a smartish man, the husband, was in the room, and to show his general knowledge of things, and acquaintance with the world, he advocated the water-cure, and questioned my medical friend as to his opinion. A voice from the chimney-corner (the settle in it) cried out, "It ain't na'tral." My friend had not before seen the old man, he was so retired into ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 61, No. 378, April, 1847 • Various

... Toys, and some Elementary Lessons in General Knowledge which they teach. Illustrated. ...
— Legends of the Saxon Saints • Aubrey de Vere

... their report, and presuming on his general knowledge of Bluecher's character and shrewdly deducing the exact state of affairs Napoleon was already acting as if he possessed absolute and accurate information. The drums were beating the long roll as they rode through the ...
— The Eagle of the Empire - A Story of Waterloo • Cyrus Townsend Brady

... to have their attention awaken'd to acts of daring Vice, or pre-eminent Virtue, may think the mean, base, cowardly, hypocritical Character not sufficiently interesting to claim their particular notice;—and that the exposing to the general knowledge of the World, those miserable, sneaking qualities which have not courage to rise into general notice, and are too mean to be long the topics of any conversion, is drawing aside the veil where it ought to be covered with thicker folds.—But when the mean Character, conscious ...
— The First of April - Or, The Triumphs of Folly: A Poem Dedicated to a Celebrated - Duchess. By the author of The Diaboliad. • William Combe

... true to him, and taken his share of the troubles, it would have been bad enough; but it was gradually dawning upon Dexter that the boy he had half-idolised for his cleverness and general knowledge was a contemptible, ill-humoured bully—a despicable young tyrant, ready to seize every ...
— Quicksilver - The Boy With No Skid To His Wheel • George Manville Fenn

... aspiring to deep and solid erudition, or to divert men of talents from the prosecution of more important studies, the editors would be among the last to make any addition to the stock already in circulation; but, convinced that, on the contrary, works of that kind promote the advancement of general knowledge, they have no scruple whatever in offering this to the American people; and so firm do they feel in the conviction of its utility, that they let it go into the world, unaided by any of those arts, or specious ...
— The Mirror of Taste, and Dramatic Censor - Volume I, Number 1 • Stephen Cullen Carpenter

... similar relation to the world of fact. For the rough purposes of every day the network picture will do, but the finer your purpose the less it will serve, and for an ideally fine purpose, for absolute and general knowledge that will be as true for a man at a distance with a telescope as for a man with a microscope, it will not serve ...
— First and Last Things • H. G. Wells

... unlike some young wives, did not think it interesting to profess utter ignorance of domestic matters; on the contrary, she had an ambition to excel as a housekeeper. She had a general knowledge of many things, but every housekeeper knows that practice only brings perfection. It is one thing to watch Bridget making bread a few times, and another thing entirely to make it one's self. So much of Ruey's knowledge was ...
— Divers Women • Pansy and Mrs. C.M. Livingston

... the supernatural, even for the pseudo-supernatural, is as pathetic as it is profound. Wherefore I regret that I can make no concessions to it. The following theory of table-turning came to me as I experimented, from my general knowledge of psychology. I have not compared it with the theories of the Psychical Society, which I have never read, preferring to jot down the impressions of an independent observer, which, if they should at all coincide with the explanations of the spook-hunters, will irrefutably ...
— Without Prejudice • Israel Zangwill

... from Spain to Cairo, in Egypt, from fanaticism and persecution. There he studied the Greek and Chaldaic languages, becoming master of both after seven years' attention. His fame spread through the country. His scientific standing and his general knowledge were universally recognized, and his books were not only valued by his brethren in faith, but by all the cultured ...
— Hebraic Literature; Translations from the Talmud, Midrashim and - Kabbala • Various

... Waugh, J.P., who had been at the School under Dr. Butterton and had retained a strong interest in education. These prizes were to be awarded on the result of two papers, one on a specially prepared subject in English Literature and one on a general knowledge of the whole. ...
— A History of Giggleswick School - From its Foundation 1499 to 1912 • Edward Allen Bell

... butterfly, and at G an American skipper; and finally, at H, the egg of a moth known as mania maura. In all this you see a delicacy of symmetry, structure, and carving, not accessible to the eye, but clearly unfolded. We may, from our general knowledge, form a correct notion of the average relation in size existing between butterflies and their eggs; so that we can compare. Now there is a group of extremely minute, insect-like forms that are the parasites of birds. Many of them are just ...
— Scientific American Supplement, Vol. XIX, No. 470, Jan. 3, 1885 • Various

... the Consul and then, with his leave, to the army, whereby that terror which eclipses were wont to breed in ignorant minds was entirely taken off and the soldiers more and more disposed to confide in officers of so great wisdom and of such general knowledge. This eclipse is often identified with that of June 21, 168 B.C., but Johnson gives reasons why this cannot be the case and that the eclipse in question was that which happened on the night of June 10-11, 167 B.C., ...
— The Story of Eclipses • George Chambers

... pretty idea of the positions of Huxley and Haeckel by which to confound the poor old Bible? If by education we mean the exposition of some special branch of the physical sciences, the statement may be true. If we mean men and women with a general knowledge of life and letters, with a social consciousness and humanitarian sympathies, it is ridiculously wide of the truth. There is everywhere a hunger for a satisfying explanation of life. There are restlessness and impatience with dogma and creed, there is a growing indifference to the ...
— Mountain Meditations - and some subjects of the day and the war • L. Lind-af-Hageby

... consist of small patches of coffee. The total area of European and native holdings in 1890-91 was 146,676 acres. There are no means whatever of ascertaining from the returns at my command even approximately the amount of coffee produced. A reasonable calculation, however, based on a general knowledge of the circumstances, makes it probable that the European production of coffee may be put down at about an average of 120,000 cwts. a-year, and the native production at about 172,000 cwts., and if we put the average value ...
— Gold, Sport, And Coffee Planting In Mysore • Robert H. Elliot

... story of the "Prodigal Daughter," who sat before a mirror when the Devil made his second appearance, yet the world of story-book literature, even though its creators were sometimes either careless or ignorant of facts, now also emphasized the value of general knowledge, which it endeavored to pour in increasing quantity into the nursery. Miss More had started the stream of goody-goody books, while Miss Edgeworth, Mrs. Barbauld, and Thomas Day were the originators of the deluge of conversational ...
— Forgotten Books of the American Nursery - A History of the Development of the American Story-Book • Rosalie V. Halsey

... life anew. With an only son (the youth before us) then a mere boy, and no other family, Colonel Ralph Colleton did not hesitate at such an exile. He had found out the worthlessness of men's professions at a period not very remote from the general knowledge of his loss of fortune: and having no other connection claiming from him either countenance or support, and but a single relative from whom separation might be painful, he felt, comparatively speaking, but few of the privations usually following such a removal. An elder ...
— Guy Rivers: A Tale of Georgia • William Gilmore Simms

... own imposing classical allusions and pictorial imagery. Drifting along from thought to thought, he reflected on the probable consequences of the general knowledge of Maurice Kirkwood's story, if ...
— A Mortal Antipathy • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

... works of Bartholocci, Wolf, De Rossi, Rodriguez de Castro, by which it will be at once ascertained that Israelites have always kept pace in useful learning with their neighbours, and that all circumstances considered, they possess in most instances fully as much general knowledge as falls to the share of their non-Israelite fellow-subjects in a corresponding grade of society.' And in corroboration of this statement, I beg to inform your Excellency that many of the Israelites in His Imperial Majesty's dominions have distinguished themselves by their ...
— Diaries of Sir Moses and Lady Montefiore, Volume I • Sir Moses Montefiore

... collection admits, the longest is the Poet's Complaint of his Muse, part of which I do not understand; and in that which is less obscure, I find little to commend. The language is often gross, and the numbers are harsh. Otway had not much cultivated versification, nor much replenished his mind with general knowledge. His principal power was in moving the passions, to which Dryden[81], in his latter years, left an illustrious testimony. He appears, by some of his verses, to have been a zealous royalist, and had what was in those times the common reward of ...
— Lives of the Poets, Vol. 1 • Samuel Johnson

... the intervening period in the same vivid way, as there is no one figure pervading it which can be taken in at a glance; and besides, most of the things that happened in that period are forgotten, and all that remains of it is the general knowledge that we have lived through it—a mere notion of abstract existence, not a direct vision of some particular experience. It is this that causes some single event of long ago to appear as though it took place but yesterday: the intervening time vanishes, and ...
— Counsels and Maxims - From The Essays Of Arthur Schopenhauer • Arthur Schopenhauer

... doubtful forms. His {51} general tendency will be to make many species, for he will become impressed, just like the pigeon or poultry fancier before alluded to, with the amount of difference in the forms which he is continually studying; and he has little general knowledge of analogical variation in other groups and in other countries, by which to correct his first impressions. As he extends the range of his observations, he will meet with more cases of difficulty; for he will encounter a greater number of closely-allied forms. But if his observations be widely ...
— On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection • Charles Darwin

... forest, where the traveller, with great difficulty, finds a few narrow paths to guide his wandering steps. It was this, however, that inspired him with the design of clearing this part of the English history, by removing the rubbish, and carrying on the thread so as to give, at least, a general knowledge of the earlier history." Then he went back to Julius Caesar's account of his invasion of Britain, for the purpose of showing how the Saxons came to send troops into this country, and now the conquest which had cost ...
— The Huguenots in France • Samuel Smiles

... dark manoeuvres of those enemies, who by intercepters and spies had got at last some general knowledge of my operations, I had been defrauded not only of the sum of six hundred pounds sterling due to me, but also of a livelihood, which had rendered me hitherto, yearly, three hundred pounds sterling. However, I did not apply to the Commissioners for the above sum; ...
— The Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution, Vol. IX • Various

... of the most significant symptoms was the relatively large demand which suddenly arose for the translations of foreign works and similar publications in the Chinese language which philanthropic societies, such as that "for the Diffusion of Christian and General Knowledge amongst the Chinese," had been trying for some time past to popularize, though hitherto with scant success. Chinese newspapers published in the treaty ports spread the ferment of new ideas far into the interior. Fifteen hundred young men of good family applied to enter the foreign university ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 6, Slice 2 - "Chicago, University of" to "Chiton" • Various

... Edmund was killed because Coleman had told him too many secrets did not come to general knowledge till the trial of Lord Stafford in 1680. The hypothesis—Godfrey slain because, through Coleman, he knew too many Catholic secrets—is practically that of Mr. Pollock. It certainly does supply a motive for Godfrey's assassination. Hot-headed Catholics who knew, or suspected, ...
— The Valet's Tragedy and Other Stories • Andrew Lang

... of the true value of science in education. We don't all want to be made into first-class anatomists like Owen, still less into first-class practical surgeons, like Sir Henry Thompson. But what we do all want is a competent general knowledge (amongst other things) of anatomy at large, and especially of human anatomy; of physiology at large, and especially of human physiology. We don't all want to be analytical chemists: but what we do all want is to know as much about oxygen and carbon ...
— Post-Prandial Philosophy • Grant Allen

... that Institution, supposing him consistent, distinctly holds that nothing is known for certain about the Supreme Being; nothing such, as to have any claim to be regarded as a material addition to the stock of general knowledge existing in the world. If on the other hand it turns out that something considerable is known about the Supreme Being, whether from Reason or Revelation, then the Institution in question professes every science, ...
— The Idea of a University Defined and Illustrated: In Nine - Discourses Delivered to the Catholics of Dublin • John Henry Newman

... English ones, for none of our countrymen trouble their heads about them. To use a very trite image, collect, like the bee, your store from every quarter. In some companies ('parmi les fermiers generaux nommement') you may, by proper inquiries, get a general knowledge, at least, of 'les affaires des finances'. When you are with 'des gens de robe', suck them with regard to the constitution, and civil government, and 'sic de caeteris'. This shows you the advantage of keeping a great deal of different French company; an advantage much superior ...
— The PG Edition of Chesterfield's Letters to His Son • The Earl of Chesterfield

... European states, less apt than ourselves to talk about the weather, had taken it up as a study, and had made various contributions to the general knowledge of the subject; but in that year England began to act. The officials who now and then emerge from the Admiralty under the title of the "Board of Visitors," to see what is in progress at the Greenwich Observatory, were reminded by Mr. Airy, ...
— Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Volume 1, No. 2, July, 1850. • Various

... amnesia for the period of her stupor, including the stay at the hospital. She could summon memories of her childhood, however. Her brothers she did not recognize and said, "They must be small." She recalled the fall on the ice and coming home with headache, toothache and pain in the back. Her general knowledge was limited but she could read and write. Her expression and appearance was that of a young person, only her atrophic breasts and the fat on her buttocks betraying her age. She had been well for four years at the time the report ...
— Benign Stupors - A Study of a New Manic-Depressive Reaction Type • August Hoch

... said the other day that I thought the condition of the treasury, on the 1st of January next, would be as good as the Bank of England, I had not then before the actual figures or tables, but only spoke from a general knowledge of the facts. Since then I have given the matter a good deal of attention, and now have some carefully prepared tables, founded upon late information, giving the exact comparison of the condition of the Bank of England, the Bank of France, the Bank of Germany, the Bank of Belgium, ...
— Recollections of Forty Years in the House, Senate and Cabinet - An Autobiography. • John Sherman

... health, he had not been able to read much, compared with others: for instance, he said he had not read much, compared with Dr. Warburton[102]. Upon which the King said, that he heard Dr. Warburton was a man of such general knowledge, that you could scarce talk with him on any subject on which he was not qualified to speak; and that his learning resembled Garrick's acting, in its universality[103]. His Majesty then talked of the controversy between Warburton and Lowth, which he seemed to have read, and asked ...
— Life Of Johnson, Vol. 2 • Boswell, Edited by Birkbeck Hill

... influenced the thought of his time; no author of that time is likely to exercise a more enduring influence upon succeeding generations. Of all the men of that busy and brilliant age, Burke has advanced the most steadily in the general knowledge and favor. While other men, his rivals in eloquence, his peers in the opinions of his contemporaries, come year by year to be less used as influences and appealed to as authorities, the wisdom of Burke is more frequently drawn upon and more widely appreciated than ever. The world ...
— A History of the Four Georges and of William IV, Volume III (of 4) • Justin McCarthy and Justin Huntly McCarthy

... favour, sir," he said, when he raised his eyes. "Do not act on impulse. Thus far, you have only a general knowledge of my position. Hear the case for and against me, in its details, before you take me into your office. Let my claim on your benevolence be recognised by your sound reason as well as by your excellent ...
— No Thoroughfare • Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins

... unintentionally interfering with the employment of a personal friend of my own, than whom no one could have been more fitted to command an undertaking of the kind, from his amiable disposition, his extensive experience, and his general knowledge and acquirements. ...
— Journals Of Expeditions Of Discovery Into Central • Edward John Eyre

... progress of taste and literature, than the general prosperity of the people. But the promotion of taste and literature cannot be primary objects of political institutions; and if they could, it might be doubted whether, in the long course of things, as much is not gained by a wide diffusion of general knowledge, as is lost by diminishing the number of those who are enabled by fortune and leisure to devote themselves exclusively to scientific and literary pursuits. However this may be, it is to be considered that it is the spirit ...
— The Great Speeches and Orations of Daniel Webster • Daniel Webster

... made an innovation known as the "Cleveland plan" which seeks to minimize school routine, red tape and frequent examinations. Great stress is put on domestic and manual training courses, and promotion in the grammar schools is made dependent on the general knowledge and development of the pupil as estimated by a teacher who is supposed to make a careful study of the individual. There are in Cleveland 120 public schools and 44 public libraries. The principal institutions of higher education are the Western Reserve University ...
— The Greatest Highway in the World • Anonymous

... not in Pope's works such poignant discoveries of wit, or such a general knowledge of the humours and characters of men, as in the Prologues and Epilogues of Dryden, which are the best records of the whims and capricious oddities of the times in ...
— The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland (1753),Vol. V. • Theophilus Cibber

... having fed it.[479] One possessed of wisdom should wed a maiden born in a high family, endued with auspicious indications, and of full age. Begetting children upon her and thus perpetuating one's race by that means, one should make over one's sons to a good preceptor for acquiring general knowledge, O Bharata, as also a knowledge of the especial customs of the family, O monarch. The daughters that one may beget should be bestowed upon youths of respectable families, that are again possessed of intelligence. Sons should ...
— The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 4 • Kisari Mohan Ganguli

... construction of the body and the laws of health which is the basis of the medical profession. Not that a woman should undertake the minute and extensive investigation requisite for a physician; but she should gain a general knowledge of first principles, as a guide to her judgment in emergencies when she can rely ...
— The American Woman's Home • Catherine E. Beecher and Harriet Beecher Stowe

... in all the University that does not possess something precious, either for its intrinsic beauty or for its historical interest. And it is not hard to find these treasures: they are gladly shown to all who care to see; though it might be thought, from the small general knowledge of their existence, that they are so jealously guarded as to make it next to impossible to gain access to them. In the Bodleian Library alone are countless objects of the greatest beauty and interest spread out beneath glass cases ...
— Oxford • Frederick Douglas How

... nearest approximation to a name for what I mean, which we possess, is "physical geography." The Germans have a better, "Erdkunde," ("earth knowledge" or "geology" in its etymological sense,) that is to say, a general knowledge of the earth, and what is on it, in it, and about it. If any one who has had experience of the ways of young children will call to mind their questions, he will find that so far as they can be put into ...
— Lay Sermons, Addresses and Reviews • Thomas Henry Huxley

... explored and their literature ransacked by students who have got through the early years of drudgery inseparable from the peculiar nature of the written language, and who are prepared to devote themselves, not, as we do now, to a general knowledge of the whole, but to a thorough acquaintance with some ...
— China and the Chinese • Herbert Allen Giles

... satire, whose sharp edge, however painful to the patient, is of such high utility in lopping off the excrescences of bad taste, and levelling to its native clay the heavy growth of dulness. Still less could I find any trace of that graceful familiarity of learned allusion and general knowledge which mark the best European reviews, and which make one feel in such perfectly good company while perusing them. But this is a tone not to be found either in the writings or conversation of Americans; as distant from pedantry as from ignorance, it is not learning itself, but the effect of it; and ...
— Domestic Manners of the Americans • Fanny Trollope

... mechanical turn, and we think of making him an engineer. I shall try and find out for him some less classical school, perhaps Bruce Castle. I certainly should like to see more diversity in education than there is in any ordinary school—no exercising of the observing or reasoning faculties, no general knowledge acquired—I must think it a wretched system. On the other hand, a boy who has learnt to stick at Latin and conquer its difficulties, ought to be able to stick at any labour. I should always be glad ...
— The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, Volume I • Francis Darwin

... English, we have to go back more than half a century to the works of Raffles and Crawfurd. Fortunately, the former has enriched his "History" with unusually full and interesting extracts from Javanese works. But since Raffles was in Java immense advances have been made, not only in our general knowledge of oriental languages, but especially in the interpretation of literature by means of antiquarian remains. It is not that his account is rendered worthless by these recent researches. On the contrary, in this latest work, Vreede's "Catalogue," we find ...
— A Visit to Java - With an Account of the Founding of Singapore • W. Basil Worsfold

... given a wide circulation. Several of the influential advisers of the Emperor became students of Occidental science and political economy. In five years, 1893-1898, the book sales of one society—that for the Diffusion of Christian and General Knowledge Among the Chinese—leaped from $817 to $18,457, while every mission press was run to its utmost capacity to supply the ...
— An Inevitable Awakening • ARTHUR JUDSON BROWN

... my papers; and though I know it's no good and that this is my last chance, I'm not going to neglect anything that could possibly help. I've got a splendid memory for statistics, and if they'll only ask a few statistics in the general knowledge paper I may have some luck to-morrow. Good-night, Lidderdale, I'm sorry to have inflicted myself ...
— The Altar Steps • Compton MacKenzie

... of the Middle Age, in respect to art and letters, may thus be regarded as of interest rather to the history of culture than to that of general knowledge. A like remark holds good of the Renaissance. Theories of antiquity are studied, countless treatises in many forms are written upon them, but no really new Ideas as regards aesthetic science appear ...
— Aesthetic as Science of Expression and General Linguistic • Benedetto Croce

... another thought on Leonard, peasant-born and self-taught, took his seat, and began to talk to Burley upon a political question, which made then the war-cry between the two great parliamentary parties. It was a subject in which Burley showed much general knowledge; and Randal, seeming to differ from him, drew forth alike his information and his argumentative powers. The conversation ...
— My Novel, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... have known everything, I think? For it is quite startling, I must tell you, quite startling and humiliating, to observe how you combine such large tracts of experience of outer and inner life, of books and men, of the world and the arts of it; curious knowledge as well as general knowledge ... and deep thinking as well as wide acquisition, ... and you, looking none the older for it all!—yes, and being besides a man of genius and working your faculty and not wasting yourself over a surface or away ...
— The Letters of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Barrett, Vol. 1 (of 2) 1845-1846 • Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Barrett

... you can't, and I think it would be a good thing for you, because Percival has a general knowledge of the roads ahead, and knows a few people who ...
— Rodney The Partisan • Harry Castlemon

... offspring, revived in Italy and Europe the precepts of the healing art. [66] The success of each professor must have been influenced by personal and accidental causes; but we may form a less fanciful estimate of their general knowledge of anatomy, [67] botany, [68] and chemistry, [69] the threefold basis of their theory and practice. A superstitious reverence for the dead confined both the Greeks and the Arabians to the dissection ...
— The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Volume 5 • Edward Gibbon

... The immortal Press, l. 270. The discovery of the art of printing has had so great influence on human affairs, that from thence may be dated a new aera in the history of mankind. As by the diffusion of general knowledge, both of the arts of taste and of useful sciences, the public mind has become improved to so great a degree, that though new impositions have been perpetually produced, the arts of detecting them ...
— The Temple of Nature; or, the Origin of Society - A Poem, with Philosophical Notes • Erasmus Darwin

... account of the boat's run was rendered difficult from being constantly wet with the sea breaking over us but, as we advanced towards the land, the sea became smoother and I was enabled to form a sketch of the islands which will serve to give a general knowledge of their extent and position. Those we were near appeared fruitful and hilly, some very mountainous and all of a ...
— A Voyage to the South Sea • William Bligh

... knows of her famous visit to the Pope, and how he died a few hours later; while it would be mere repetition of general knowledge to enlarge on her sojourn with the Doge, and his subsequent demise. Let us touch ever so lightly on her three children, Poco, Confuoco, and Strepitoso. How could they help being beautiful with such a mother, poor mites, branded from birth ...
— Terribly Intimate Portraits • Noel Coward

... waverings of the mind I pass over in silence, first, because they arise from the compounding of the emotions already described; secondly, because many of them have no distinctive names, which shows that it is sufficient for practical purposes to have merely a general knowledge of them. However, it is established from the definitions of the emotions, which we have set forth, that they all spring from desire, pleasure, or pain, or, rather, that there is nothing besides these three; wherefore each is wont to be called ...
— The Ethics • Benedict de Spinoza

... thing I remember of him is meeting him at a lunch in Boston, given us by that genius of hospitality, the tragically destined Ralph Keeler, author of one of the most unjustly forgotten books, 'Vagabond Adventures', a true bit of picaresque autobiography. Keeler never had any money, to the general knowledge, and he never borrowed, and he could not have had credit at the restaurant where he invited us to feast at his expense. There was T. B. Aldrich, there was J. T. Fields, much the oldest of our company, who had just freed himself from the trammels of the publishing business, and ...
— Henry James, Jr. • William Dean Howells

... future portion of this work. We have now to contemplate the tedious, yet finally successful efforts of the Portuguese nation, in its age of energetic heroism, to discover a maritime passage to that long famed commercial region, some general knowledge of which had been preserved ever since the days of the Persian, Macedonian, and Roman empires. Of all the great events which have occurred in the modern ages, previous to our own times, the voyages and discoveries which were made by the Europeans, in the fifteenth and sixteenth ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. II • Robert Kerr

... Cicero, and translated a great deal of Homer. Terence, Virgil, Horace, Ovid, and Juvenal, I had read over and over again." He also studied geography, natural history, and natural philosophy, and obtained a considerable acquaintance with general knowledge. At sixteen he was articled to a clerk in Chancery; worked hard; was admitted to the bar; and his industry and perseverance ensured success. He became Solicitor- General under the Fox administration in 1806, and steadily worked his way to the highest celebrity in his profession. ...
— Self Help • Samuel Smiles

... priestcraft. For a long time the range of scientific inquiry was so limited that the same individual was able to grasp it entire. But one branch after another has sprung up, diverging more and more into the realms of the unknown, until no one mind can hope to obtain even a general knowledge ...
— The Continental Monthly, Vol. 3, No. 1 January 1863 - Devoted To Literature And National Policy • Various

... emperor directed Count Romanzoff to inquire whether, if he should offer his mediation to effect a pacification between the United States and Great Britain, Mr. Adams was aware of any objection on the part of his government. He replied, that, speaking only from a general knowledge of its sentiments, the proposal of the emperor would be considered a new evidence of his regard and friendship for the United States, whatever determination might be formed. Under this assurance, the offer was made, transmitted, and immediately accepted. In July, 1813, Mr. Gallatin and Mr. Bayard, ...
— Memoir of the Life of John Quincy Adams. • Josiah Quincy

... sometimes devote a whole lifetime in trying to establish a single hypothesis. But the college student in preparing an argument must obtain his evidence in a few days. There are several sources at his disposal. The first available source is his fund of general knowledge and experience. If a man can establish a statement by saying that he personally knows it to be true, he has valuable proof. Then the people with whom the student comes in contact constitute another source of evidence. ...
— Practical Argumentation • George K. Pattee

... by ten years of good work, and she, as a young married woman, had understood what she had meant when she had been a child. Reanda was now admittedly, in his department, the first painter in Rome, and that was fame in those days. His high education and general knowledge of all artistic matters made him an interesting companion in such work as Francesca had undertaken, and he had, moreover, a personal charm of manner and voice which ...
— Casa Braccio, Volumes 1 and 2 (of 2) • F. Marion Crawford

... Englishman' is a satirical chronicler. His style is not less lively than severe—not subtle enough for irony, but caustic, free, and full of earnest meaning. This volume is also an admirable manual, skilfully adapted to the purpose of diffusing a general knowledge of history and the working ...
— A New Illustrated Edition of J. S. Rarey's Art of Taming Horses • J. S. Rarey

... this principle to the elements of general knowledge is equally necessary, as its application to written language. The difficulty of remembering the many thousands of unconnected characters in Chinese literature, is an exact emblem of what will always be the case with children in respect to their general ...
— A Practical Enquiry into the Philosophy of Education • James Gall

... Every Girl Needs to Know" we found how important it is that girls should have a good deal of general knowledge of the cutting and fitting of clothes, design, what constitutes right line and beauty, the characteristics and uses of materials, and what is called style, which is really often only good design and good ...
— The Canadian Girl at Work - A Book of Vocational Guidance • Marjory MacMurchy

... were given him principally, I think, because if they had not been given him he would have taken them. He was very young and small, but sturdily built, and he had a general knowledge which was entertaining, except when he happened to know more about anything than you did. It was impossible to force him to respect your years, for he knew all about you, from the number of lines that had been cut off your last story to the amount of your very ...
— Van Bibber and Others • Richard Harding Davis

... So much for the general form; we may note a few facts of general knowledge, in connection with the rabbit's life-activity. In a day of the rabbit's life a considerable amount of work is done— the animal runs hither and thither, for instance; in other words, a certain mass of matter is ...
— Text Book of Biology, Part 1: Vertebrata • H. G. Wells

... greatest politeness, begged him to take some refreshment. Popanilla returned to his hotel with a great admiration of the manner in which refined philosophy in Vraibleusia was applied to the common purposes of life; and found that he had that morning acquired a general knowledge of the chief arts and sciences, eaten some hundred sandwiches, and tasted ...
— The Voyage of Captain Popanilla • Benjamin Disraeli

... and had that indescribable air of patient martyrdom which some women know how to make so very effective. Lillie had good general knowledge of the science of martyrdom,—a little spice and flavor of it had been gently infused at times into her demeanor ever since she had been at Springdale. She could do the uncomplaining sufferer with the happiest ...
— Pink and White Tyranny - A Society Novel • Harriet Beecher Stowe

... Emerson and of the "transcendental" leaders, and her critical papers were the best then published, and were fitly succeeded by those of her scholarly friend, George Ripley. It was her review in the Tribune of Browning's early dramas and the "Bells and Pomegranates" that introduced him to such general knowledge and appreciation among cultivated readers in this country that it is not less true of Browning than of Carlyle that he was first better known in ...
— From the Easy Chair, vol. 1 • George William Curtis

... life during his thirteen years in the merchant service are lost: what voyages he made, how he fared, whether he advanced in general knowledge, all is gone. The only fact known is that in May 1755, when Cook was twenty-seven years of age, and mate of a vessel of Messrs. Walker, then in the Thames, he, to avoid the press, then active on account of the outbreak of the war with France, volunteered on board H.M.S. Eagle, ...
— Captain Cook's Journal During the First Voyage Round the World • James Cook

... further intellectual refinement, sure forerunner of moral improvement, to hasten the coming of the great day, when the dawn of general knowledge shall chase away the lazy, lingering mists of ignorance and error, even from the base of the great social pyramid, is indeed a high calling, in which the most splendid talents and consummate virtue may well press onward, eager to bear a part. From the Masonic ranks ought to go forth ...
— Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry • Albert Pike

... are my opinions. If Lord Liverpool takes simply the claims of the scholar, Copleston's are fully equal to mine. So, too, in general knowledge the world would give it in favor of him. If Lord Liverpool looks to professional merits, mine are to Copleston's as the Andes to a molehill. There is no comparison between us; Copleston is no theologue; I ...
— My New Curate • P.A. Sheehan

... separate living existence. The necessary division of labour is the only reason that can be advanced in excuse of specialisms; but it will be readily agreed to, that that practitioner who has first laid within himself the foundation of a general knowledge of matters relationary to his subject, will always be found to pursue the speciality according to the ...
— Surgical Anatomy • Joseph Maclise

... the testimony of others, having had the opportunity of closely examining for himself their habits and character in familiar visits to their tents, and by allowing his door to be free of access to all those encamped near Southampton, when they have needed his help and advice. Thus has he gained a general knowledge of their vicious habits, their comparative virtues, and their unhappy modes of life, which he hopes the following pages will fully prove, and be the means of placing their character in the light of truth, and of correcting various ...
— The Gipsies' Advocate - or, Observations on the Origin, Character, Manners, and Habits of - The English Gipsies • James Crabb

... any citizen of a country allied with France in the present struggle, above all to any English man or woman who is provided with at least some general knowledge of the Battle of the Marne, the journey across France from Paris to Nancy can never fail to be one of poignant interest. Up to a point beyond Chalons, the "Ligne de l'Est" follows in general the course of the great river, and therefore the line of the battle. You pass La Fertee-sous-Jouarre, ...
— Towards The Goal • Mrs. Humphry Ward

... God's will for us. If we but practice them the results can be only beneficial. As a result of such a study of God's word the general knowledge of God and ...
— And Judas Iscariot - Together with other evangelistic addresses • J. Wilbur Chapman

... of continuous professional study from the Renaissance down to the present day. But their reputation is not due to any literary merit. Vitruvius, however able as an architect, was a man of little general knowledge, and far from handy with his pen. His style varies between immoderate diffuseness and obscure brevity; sometimes he is barely intelligible, and he never writes with grace. Where in his introductory chapters or elsewhere he ventures beyond ...
— Latin Literature • J. W. Mackail

... not omit to glance at, however difficult or in fact impossible it is to give a really distinct idea of it. On the eastern coast of the Black Sea—which, previously almost unknown, was first opened up to more general knowledge by Mithradates—the region of Colchis on the Phasis (Mingrelia and Imeretia) with the important commercial town of Dioscurias was wrested from the native princes and converted into a satrapy of Pontus. Of still greater moment were his enterprises ...
— The History of Rome (Volumes 1-5) • Theodor Mommsen

... will have remarked that in our recent correspondence I have, with a definite purpose, endeavoured to impart to you such a general knowledge of our business as was practicable, without ...
— Skipper Worse • Alexander Lange Kielland

... this composition after much assiduous practice, did not mean that I could play equally difficult or even considerably less difficult music with ease by sight. The repertoire of even the best amateur is apt to be a small one. He gains his general knowledge of music ...
— The Pianolist - A Guide for Pianola Players • Gustav Kobb

... Vossius some time after, that if his son had a dislike to long voyages, he would nevertheless have him study Commerce and Navigation rather than the quibbles of the Law: "Not but a general knowledge of public law, and the laws of his own country, may be of use to him whatever manner of life he chuses: but I would not have him make it his principal study; and remember Horace's precept, to keep his eye ever on the mark. If it is out of regard to me he wants to translate the Tragedy ...
— The Life of the Truly Eminent and Learned Hugo Grotius • Jean Levesque de Burigny

... not qualified as a first-class scout. After the boy has passed the examination, the local council may secure the merit badge for him by presenting the facts to the National Council. These badges are intended to stimulate the boy's interest in the life about him and are given for general knowledge. The wearing of these badges does not signify that a scout is qualified to make his living by the knowledge gained in ...
— Boy Scouts Handbook - The First Edition, 1911 • Boy Scouts of America

... was being done at each mine and factory and shipyard. He knew exactly how many ships had been built or were under construction, and approximately how far along the hulls of the big ones were completed. He was also able to get a very good general knowledge of the size and structural description of ...
— Man of Many Minds • E. Everett Evans

... landlord, "when I said I knew the British language perfectly, I perhaps went too far there are, of course, some obsolete terms in the British tongue, which I don't understand. Dar, Dar—what is it? Darmod Cotterel amongst the rest; but to a general knowledge of the Welsh language I think I may lay some pretensions; were I not well acquainted with it, I should not have carried off the prize at various eisteddfodau, as I have done. I am a ...
— Wild Wales - Its People, Language and Scenery • George Borrow

... choice of the facts and the way in which they are presented, than in logical and convincing argument. It is all the easier to influence him by the well-timed transmission of skilfully disposed facts, since his usually very limited general knowledge and his complete ignorance of European affairs deprive him of the simplest premises for a critical judgment of the facts presented to him from the enemy side. It is quite incredible what the American public will ...
— My Three Years in America • Johann Heinrich Andreas Hermann Albrecht Graf von Bernstorff

... broad platform of human liberty and progress I was bound to give him the right hand of fellowship. I would do it a thousand times over. I do not know Colonel Ingersoll's religious views precisely, but I have a general knowledge of them. He has the same right to free thought and free speech that I have. I am not that kind of a coward who has to kick a man before he shakes hands with him. If I did so I would have to kick the Methodists, ...
— The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Volume VIII. - Interviews • Robert Green Ingersoll

... into any calculation over period of years before the introduction of the system, in order to compare it with the state of matters during the last four years, or have you made that comparison just from your general knowledge?-Just from my general knowledge. I did not make the calculation so accurately for the previous period as for ...
— Second Shetland Truck System Report • William Guthrie

... accompany them still: but prudence forbids me to explain myself further. God knows I do not at this time speak from any motives of party heat. I deliver the genuine sentiments of my heart. However superior to me, in general knowledge and experience, the respectable body of this House may be, yet I claim to know more of America than most of you; having seen and been conversant in that country. The people, I believe, are as truly loyal as any subjects the King has; but a people jealous of their liberties, and who will vindicate ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, v. 13 • Various

... Henty a vast amount of research and study to substantiate his facts and make his situations, characters, places, and points of time authentic. To the reader it means a benefit which is incalculable, not only as a means of passing a pleasant hour, but in reviving or imparting a general knowledge of the history and geography, the manners and customs of ...
— The Golden Canyon - Contents: The Golden Canyon; The Stone Chest • G. A. Henty

... difference in the qualifications of those who undertook this great charge, some being more fitted for it than others; but this we say with the utmost confidence, after an intimate acquaintance with the working of some of the larger orphanages, and a general knowledge of others, that they have been managed with a laboriousness, a patience, a wisdom, and a kindness, deserving of the highest praise. Those in charge acted as parents, so far as that was possible, but in the nature ...
— Life and Work in Benares and Kumaon, 1839-1877 • James Kennedy

... on expectantly when the war started, because there was a general knowledge of the conditions existing in Europe and the undercurrent was felt by students of international affairs. But that Russia would revolt and the Czar abdicate, as he did in March, 1917, and the iron-ruled country would set up a government ...
— Kelly Miller's History of the World War for Human Rights • Kelly Miller

... improved the telescope. Chladni first investigated the nature of fiery meteors and brought the study of acoustics to perfection. Alexander von Humboldt immensely promoted the observation of the changes of the atmosphere and the general knowledge of the nature of the earth. Werner and Leopold von Buch also distinguished themselves among the investigators of the construction of the earth and mountains. Scheele, Gmelin, Liebig, etc., were noted chemists. Oken, upon the whole, chiefly promoted ...
— Germany from the Earliest Period Vol. 4 • Wolfgang Menzel, Trans. Mrs. George Horrocks

... for the reasons above given, a full chronological narration of the contentions between the Saxon and Danish lines of kings which took place during this interval would be of little interest or value, some general knowledge of the state of the kingdom at this time is important, and may best be communicated in connection with ...
— King Alfred of England - Makers of History • Jacob Abbott

... Beside Coleman's general knowledge of the Plot, Oates mentioned several circumstances showing the special interest that he had taken in it; that he had written letters which the witness had carried to St. Omers, in which were these 'expressions of the king, calling him tyrant, ...
— The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine, May 1844 - Volume 23, Number 5 • Various

... importance of a good general knowledge of which can hardly be overrated, J. P. Mahaffy's History of Greek Literature, two volumes, and G. A. Simcox's Latin Literature, two volumes, may be commended. On the literature of modern languages, to refer only to works written in English, Saintsbury's Primer of ...
— A Book for All Readers • Ainsworth Rand Spofford

... tombstones of the end of the seventh century, there is the epitaph of a daughter of a potter. [Footnote: Roberts, vol. i. p. 76.] These writings testify to the general knowledge of reading, just as much as our epitaphs testify to the same state of education. The Athenian potter's daughter of the seventh century B.C. had her epitaph, but the grave-stones of highlanders, chiefs or commoners, were usually uninscribed till about the end of the ...
— Homer and His Age • Andrew Lang

... factor to which no particular name can be attached, though it may be called a department of common sense. But it is a mental power or attitude easily recognizable in those who possess it, and perhaps atrophied by the very atmosphere of the study. It goes with the open air with a general knowledge of men and with that rapid recognition of the way in which things "fit in" which is necessarily developed ...
— First and Last • H. Belloc

... type of humanity we all encounter from day to day, at whose funeral I shall carry a banner and beat a tom-tom. He is the man who knows it all. In his grave, human forethought, and general knowledge, and mortal perfection and everything worth knowing, shall one day lie down and die. He never makes mistakes, nor loses his temper, nor gets the worst of an argument, nor is worsted in a bargain. He ...
— A String of Amber Beads • Martha Everts Holden

... that, as I think you all will some day feel, then you will surely feel likewise that it will be a good deed—I do not say a necessary duty, but still a good deed and praiseworthy—to help physical science forward; and to add your contributions, however small, to our general knowledge of the earth. And how much may be done for science by British officers, especially on foreign stations, I need not point out. I know that much has been done, chivalrously and well, by officers; and that men of science owe them, and give them, hearty thanks for their labours. But I should ...
— Health and Education • Charles Kingsley

... said the young soldier, whose general knowledge was a little more extensive than that of the seaman, "that the Gulf Stream may have something to do ...
— Blue Lights - Hot Work in the Soudan • R.M. Ballantyne

... left Bratti's shop, not only with the dagger at his side, but also with a general knowledge of Tito's conduct and position— of his early sale of the jewels, his immediate quiet settlement of himself at Florence, his marriage, ...
— Romola • George Eliot

... making good use of your spare time, in reading useful works. You should remember never to waste a minute; always be doing something. Try and find out what things you have most taste for, as they are what you should study most; but get a general knowledge of all the sciences. Whatever else you learn, don't forget mathematics and the sciences more immediately deduced from them, (at the head of which stands astronomy,) if you have any love of truth—and if you have not, you have none of your mother's blood in you. Mathematics ...
— Successful Exploration Through the Interior of Australia • William John Wills

... silent cedars stood witnesses, he wept there till his strong frame shook, with what he no more than the rocks would shew anywhere else. It never was shewn. He was just as he had been. Nobody guessed, unless his mother, the feeling that had wrought and was working within him; and she only from general knowledge of his nature. But the purpose of life had grown yet stronger and struck yet deeper roots instead of being shaken by this storm. The day of his setting off for Mannahatta was not once changed after it had ...
— Hills of the Shatemuc • Susan Warner

... with a hump-backed old man, an unsightly mass of disease, who seemed to be a traditional link of Luchow. I might say that this scholastic old wag spoke nothing but Chinese, and I, as the reader knows, spoke no Chinese, so that the amount of general knowledge derived one from the other was therefore limited. But he would not go, despite the frequent deprecations of T'ong and my coolies, and my vehement rhetoric in explanation that his presence was distasteful to me, and at the end of the episode I found it imperative ...
— Across China on Foot • Edwin Dingle

... pretensions to be thought a man of genius, of taste, or even of general knowledge. He merely understands the mechanical and instrumental part of learning. He is a critic of the last age, when the different editions of an author, or the dates of his several performances were all that occupied the inquiries of a profound scholar, and the spirit of the writer or the beauties ...
— The Spirit of the Age - Contemporary Portraits • William Hazlitt

... this department is the Decline and Fall of Gibbon. And to this class may in part [Footnote 1] be referred the Historical Sketches of Voltaire. Histories of this class proceed upon principles of selection, presupposing in the reader a general knowledge of the great cardinal incidents, and bringing forward into especial notice those only which are susceptible of ...
— Theological Essays and Other Papers v2 • Thomas de Quincey

... translation of the Iliad naturally became less. The Silver Age arrived with the problem unsolved. It was a period when writers abounded who would have been better employed on translation than on any attempt at original work. Further, in spite of the general knowledge of Greek, a translation of Homer would have its value in the schools both as a handbook for the subject-matter and as a ...
— Post-Augustan Poetry - From Seneca to Juvenal • H.E. Butler

... with their variety of climate and products. Physiology and temperance principles permeate the whole course of study. In addition to these are the direct lessons, provided by the practice work, in neatness, promptness and cleanliness. It will therefore be necessary to have a wide general knowledge before entering upon a course in ...
— Public School Domestic Science • Mrs. J. Hoodless

... all Protestants; and we recommended it earnestly to them, and made them promise that they would never make any distinction of Papist or Protestant in their exhorting the savages to turn Christians, but teach them the general knowledge of the true God, and of their Saviour Jesus Christ; and they likewise promised us that they would never have any differences or disputes one ...
— The Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe • Daniel Defoe

... and being now ready for sea the men were sent on shore upon an expedition that disgraced the whole company. What Hudson's sentiments or motives with regard to this transaction were we can only conjecture from a general knowledge of his character, as we have no account of it from himself. But it seems highly probable that, if he did not project it, he at least gave his consent to its perpetration. The account is in the words of Juet, as ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 11 • Various



Words linked to "General knowledge" :   surface, light, public knowledge, cognition, open, knowledge, noesis, common knowledge



Copyright © 2024 Dictionary One.com