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Merely   /mˈɪrli/   Listen
Merely

adverb
1.
And nothing more.  Synonyms: but, just, only, simply.  "It is simply a matter of time" , "Just a scratch" , "He was only a child" , "Hopes that last but a moment"






WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University








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"Merely" Quotes from Famous Books



... thing, which lies so near us that we can take it into our grasp by merely reaching out a hand; which is as close to us as the air and the sunlight, has been by the sad, misguided efforts, very often of the best and noblest-minded men, who knew how precious a thing it was, so guarded, so wrapped up, made so remote from, so alien to, life and thought, ...
— From a College Window • Arthur Christopher Benson

... and was very well satisfied with matters generally as they then stood. But I was soon to learn that my young master was only anxious to carry out the plans of his father, and was determined to punish, or, as they pleased to term it, "break me," merely because I was related to Ben—because I was able to read and write as well if not better ...
— Biography of a Slave - Being the Experiences of Rev. Charles Thompson • Charles Thompson

... of all tree tragedies is represented by the chestnut. Once a dominant species in many parts of the East, it is now merely a wreck of its former self. In whole states along the Atlantic Seaboard, it has been wiped out by a fungus disease introduced from Japan some 25 years ago. Pennsylvania allows no chestnut trees to be shipped outside its limits for ...
— Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the Sixth Annual Meeting. Rochester, New York, September 1 and 2, 1915 • Various

... not imagine, with a shudder, that these remarks are the prelude to something that will harrow up your feelings. Not so. They are merely the apology, if apology be needed, for the ...
— The Lighthouse • R.M. Ballantyne

... on more serious things, and merely pushed the trap aside as he pulled out the drawer with an excited gesture, which sent it and all its contents clattering ...
— Under the Lilacs • Louisa May Alcott

... short, thick necks are peculiarly subject to attacks of cerebral congestion. Simple congestion, however, is merely a functional affection, and in a slight or moderate degree involves no immediate danger. Extreme engorgement, on the contrary, may be followed by rupture of previously weakened arteries and capillaries and cause immediate death, designated then as ...
— Special Report on Diseases of the Horse • United States Department of Agriculture

... "It was merely unnecessary," she replied. "I have already laid too many burdens on your shoulders, without wishing to ...
— I Will Repay • Baroness Emmuska Orczy

... you have softened the word a little, in mercy to our ears. But we Italians are not afraid of such sounds; and I know the name.—'Giac Smeet'—Il Capitano Giac Smeet—I have long suspected my English master of ignorance, for he was merely one of our Leghorn pilots, who has sailed in a bastimento de guerra of your country—he called your ...
— The Wing-and-Wing - Le Feu-Follet • J. Fenimore Cooper

... accustomed to look on these foreign religionists merely in the light of compassion, as people for whom we must send the missionary, make the regular collection and offer the periodic prayer; and we make maps of the world in which we paint in all the religions which ...
— Memoranda Sacra • J. Rendel Harris

... Rama's glorious and happy reign and promises blessings to those who read and hear the Ramayan, would be sufficient to show that, when these verses were added, the poem was considered to be finished. The Uttarakanda or Last Book is merely an appendix or a supplement and relates only events antecedent and subsequent to those described in the original poem. Indian scholars however, led by reverential love of tradition, unanimously ascribe this Last Book to Valmiki, and regard it as ...
— The Ramayana • VALMIKI

... the firm explained to John Harrington, one of the soundest and most influential of journalists, "just on chance,—it was neither introduced nor recommended. One of our readers was immensely taken with it and advised us to accept it. The author gave no name, and merely requested all communications to be made through his secretary, a Miss Armitage, as he wished for the time being to remain anonymous. We drew up an Agreement on these lines which was signed for the author by Miss Armitage,—she also corrected and ...
— Innocent - Her Fancy and His Fact • Marie Corelli

... however, and endeavoured to comfort her a little by raising the hope that her husband might have merely lost himself in the woods of the island, and would yet, perhaps, be found alive and well. But, although their intentions were kindly, they could comfort neither Peggy nor themselves with such a hope; for their experience ...
— The Coxswain's Bride - also, Jack Frost and Sons; and, A Double Rescue • R.M. Ballantyne

... persons did the same, and each was convinced that there was no odor about his Majesty's bed. In spite of so many witnesses to the contrary, the Emperor, not because he made it a point of honor not to have what he had asserted proved false, but merely from a caprice to which he was very subject, persisted in his first idea, and required his bed to be changed. Seeing that it was necessary to obey, I sent this bed to the Tuileries, and had the one which was there brought to the chateau of Saint-Cloud. ...
— The Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte • Bourrienne, Constant, and Stewarton

... the exquisite figure of Perdita appears as a very rough sketch under the name of Fawnia. She loves her Dorastus not merely because he is lovable, but because "hoping in time to be advaunced from the daughter of a poore farmer to be the wife of a riche king." Dorastus comes to her disguised as a shepherd, and as she ...
— The English Novel in the Time of Shakespeare • J. J. Jusserand

... lower end of each of the strips of wood is firmly placed a strip about two inches wide, to which is hinged the shelf that forms the desk. This is upheld when open by brass chains, and is thus made firm. When it is desired to close it, it is merely shut to the wall, the chains falling into place. The ledge upon which the lid is hinged forms a firm place for the inkstand and other necessary fitments ...
— Social Life - or, The Manners and Customs of Polite Society • Maud C. Cooke

... Adelaide as the thong for the rector's buckle; and Adelaide watched on her own account to see if he would look at Leam or at her. But Edgar kept his eyes discreetly guided, and no one caught a wandering glance anywhere: he merely laughed and put it by as a good joke, looking as if he had devoted himself to celibacy for life, and that the Hill would never receive another mistress than the one whom it ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. XVII. No. 101. May, 1876. • Various

... "Well, she merely asked me if I thought you 'd be mortally offended, if she offered to take it off your hands, as you 'd never worn it. You don't like it, and in another season it will be all out of fashion," said Polly from ...
— An Old-fashioned Girl • Louisa May Alcott

... often adduced,—that if he had been consulted at the creation of the world, he could have advised some things for the better. If this saying were really uttered—which there are strong reasons to doubt—it is probable that the king had no blasphemous intention in view, but that he was merely ridiculing the then received ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 19, - Issue 553, June 23, 1832 • Various

... together with all their charms, have power to tempt away any knight from another. He differs from a just historian as a joiner does from a carpenter; the one does things plainly and substantially for use, and the other carves and polishes merely for show ...
— Character Writings of the 17th Century • Various

... cabals, but his energy, tact, and persistence made him the victor, and won the friendship of the leading men of his time. Such of his music as still exists is of a pleasing and melodious character, full of vivacity and lire, and at times indicates a more deep and serious power than that of merely creating catching and tuneful airs. He was the inventor of the operatic overture, and introduced several new instruments into the orchestra. Apart from his splendid administrative faculty, he is entitled to rank as an original and gifted, if not a ...
— Great Italian and French Composers • George T. Ferris

... now take place in secret. By its present attitude, society is not accomplishing its purpose and preventing all sexual relationships except those which conform to its institutionalized standards. It is merely forcing what should be always the most dignified of human relationships into the shamefulness of concealment and furtiveness. Moreover, because it visits its wrath on the child born of unions which are not strictly conventionalized, it prevents the birth of children from mothers who might be of ...
— Taboo and Genetics • Melvin Moses Knight, Iva Lowther Peters, and Phyllis Mary Blanchard

... at her through the gloom, but she could not see his eyes behind their glasses. "Well," he said somewhat brusquely at length, "to be quite honest, I fear—mind you, I only fear—some trouble, possibly merely some delicacy, of the lungs. Without a careful examination I cannot speak definitely. But I think there is little room for doubt that the tendency ...
— The Bars of Iron • Ethel May Dell

... by the shock (cried puss) "Was ever cat attended thus! The open drawer was left, I see, Merely to prove a nest for me, For soon as I was well composed, Then came the maid, and it was closed. How smooth those 'kerchiefs, and how sweet Oh what a delicate retreat! I will resign myself to rest Till Sol declining in the west, Shall call to ...
— The Humourous Poetry of the English Language • James Parton

... first that the Clerk who had originated the Idea was a person of some position; and so the Idea continued to enjoy a certain amount of eulogy and commendation; but when it was subsequently divulged that the Clerk was merely a nobody, and only had a salary of five and twenty shillings a week on account of his having no lord for a relation, it was at once seen that the Idea, although ingenious, was really, on being looked into, hardly a practicable one. However, ...
— The Strand Magazine, Volume V, Issue 26, February 1893 - An Illustrated Monthly • Various

... holy impulse and is really songs of praise. What difference can it make whether it take the shape of exhortation, or of passionate exclamation, or of scientific statement? These are forms merely. Through them we express, at last, the fact that God ...
— Some Winter Days in Iowa • Frederick John Lazell

... by the Messageries Maritimes, on quite a different plan: it is merely for mail-service and does not do any trading. Its handsome steamer travels in three weeks from Sydney to Noumea and Port Vila, visits about three plantations and leaves the islands after one week. This ...
— Two Years with the Natives in the Western Pacific • Felix Speiser

... loneliness and want? The fact of the matter was that the thing which seemed so easy to his intellect, was impossible to his character. Thyrsis could not have anything to do with these people without hypocrisy; merely to sit and talk pleasantly with them was to lie. They were to him the enemy, the thing he was in life to fight. And he hated all that they stood for in the world—he hated their ideas and their institutions, their virtues as well ...
— Love's Pilgrimage • Upton Sinclair

... subvert the liberties of a great community REQUIRE TIME to mature them for execution. An army, so large as seriously to menace those liberties, could only be formed by progressive augmentations; which would suppose, not merely a temporary combination between the legislature and executive, but a continued conspiracy for a series of time. Is it probable that such a combination would exist at all? Is it probable that it would be persevered in, and ...
— The Federalist Papers • Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison

... against one." Here he fell into a flood of tears, which he sometimes was wont to do. This extremity of emotion was of a singular character. It was not actually the result of penitence, and far less that of absolute hypocrisy, but arose merely from the temperature of that remarkable man, whose deep policy, and ardent enthusiasm, were intermingled with a strain of hypochondriacal passion, which often led him to exhibit scenes of this sort, though seldom, as now, ...
— Woodstock; or, The Cavalier • Sir Walter Scott

... first—above everything else. It has been remarked concerning certain ones who were struggling for an earthly existence, that if they would only get saved "all these things" (all earthly necessities) would be added unto them. But it is not those who merely get saved that can claim this promise; it is those who keep saved and carry out the principles of the plan of righteousness. "Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness" in everything. Lose ...
— Food for the Lambs; or, Helps for Young Christians • Charles Ebert Orr

... held a new place. Lazarus himself, strangely enough, did not resent his holding it. The boy was allowed to be near Loristan as he had never dared to hope to be near. It was not merely that he was allowed to serve him in many ways, but he was taken into the intimacy which had before enclosed only the three. Loristan talked to him as he talked to Marco, drawing him within the circle which ...
— The Lost Prince • Frances Hodgson Burnett

... Pauline felt the need of being alone for a brief period in order to go over quietly in her own conscience all the varied pathetic scenes of that evening. It was not a process of analysis. Her mind was incapable of that. It was merely a quiet rehearsal of all the facts, that their vividness might be made more vivid, and their effect brought home more tenderly to her heart. For a long hour she sat on the foot of her bed, now weeping, now smiling, now tossing her lovely head ...
— The Bastonnais - Tale of the American Invasion of Canada in 1775-76 • John Lesperance

... Bench, my Lord Chief-Justice Keeling being Judge. Here I stood bare, not challenging, though I might well enough, to be covered. But here were several fine trials; among others, several brought in for making it their trade to set houses on fire merely to get plunder; and all proved by the two little boys spoken of yesterday by Sir R. Ford, who did give so good account of particulars that I never heard children in my life. And I confess, though I was unsatisfied with the force given to ...
— Diary of Samuel Pepys, Complete • Samuel Pepys

... London Press who would allow his servant girl to remain out all night on a public common in England in time of profound peace in the company of a score of soldiers. If he did, he would feel that he had exposed the girl to the loss of her character. This is not merely admitted, but acted upon by all decent people who live in garrison towns or in the neighbourhood of barracks. Why, then, should they suppose that when the same men are released from all the restraints of civilisation, and sent forth to ...
— The War in South Africa - Its Cause and Conduct • Arthur Conan Doyle

... fashionable circle like a falling star, and he never reappeared therein. True, it did occur to Frau von Baldereck, rather late in the day, that it would be proper occasionally to invite the young man, to prove that he had not been tolerated merely as—what he was not, and some other families thought the same; but as these invitations came, as before said, rather late, and as Anton declined them, his fate was that of many a greater man—society forgot him. For a short time the two chief hatchers of the ...
— Debit and Credit - Translated from the German of Gustav Freytag • Gustav Freytag

... age of forty-five, I succeeded in achieving the most sublime folly of my life. I should have taken a degree in madness and been raised to a professor's chair in some college of lunacy! Herbert, at the age of forty-five I fell in love with and married a girl of sixteen out of a log cabin! merely, forsooth, because she had a pearly skin like the leaf of the white japonica, soft gray eyes like a timid fawn's and a voice like a cooing turtle dove's! because those delicate cheeks flushed and those soft eyes fell when ...
— Hidden Hand • Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte Southworth

... company in which Richard rode. Nearly all were of the independent party in religious polity, all holding, or imagining they held, the same or nearly the same tenets. The opinions of most of them, however, were merely the opinions of the man to whose influences they had been first and principally subjected: to say what their belief was, would be to say what they were, which is deeper judgment than a man can reach. In Roger Heywood and ...
— St. George and St. Michael • George MacDonald

... not to him I would have chosen if choice had been permitted me. The union I need scarcely say was unhappy—most unhappy—though my discomforts were scrupulously concealed, and I was looked upon as a devoted wife, and my husband as a model of conjugal affection. But this was merely the surface—internally all was strife and misery. Erelong my dislike of my husband increased to absolute hate, while on his part, though he still regarded me with as much passion as heretofore, he became frantically jealous—and above all of Edward Braddyll ...
— The Lancashire Witches - A Romance of Pendle Forest • William Harrison Ainsworth

... addressed to her by subscribing himself "your very humble and obedient son," and Marie insisted that his wife should follow his example; but Anne refused to make such a concession, declaring that as the Queen-mother merely signed herself "your very affectionate mother," she would, on her side, do no more than subscribe herself "your very affectionate daughter." Nor was this the only subject of dispute, for Anne of Austria also insisted that as reigning Queen she had a right to precedence over a Princess, who, ...
— The Life of Marie de Medicis, Vol. 3 (of 3) • Julia Pardoe

... That Wilhelm would not, under any circumstances, use a penny of the money for himself he knew perfectly well, and in the end it was all the same whether the poor received it from his hand or Wilhelm's. He merely wrote down some addresses which Wilhelm gave him of people to whom he gave regular assistance, and whom he recommended ...
— The Malady of the Century • Max Nordau

... happy and pre-eminent saints, who were saints, as he termed them, indeed—Men who had stormed the inner treasure-house of Heaven, and possessed themselves of its choicest jewels. All other sects he treated with the utmost contempt, as merely quarrelling, as he expressed it, like hogs over a trough about husks and acorns; under which derogatory terms, he included alike the usual rites and ceremonies of public devotion, the ordinances of the established churches of Christianity, and the observances, nay, the forbearances, ...
— Woodstock; or, The Cavalier • Sir Walter Scott

... bother to follow it. If the tale reaches Mekin, it may not be believed. It may not ever be linked to Kandar. And if some day it is believed, by then Kandar will be long occupied. Perhaps it will be resigned to its status. It will be a valuable subject world. Mekin will not destroy it merely to punish scattered, forgotten men who will never know that they ...
— Talents, Incorporated • William Fitzgerald Jenkins

... not designed as a history of the war, or even as a complete account of all the incidents in which the writer bore a part, but merely his recollection of events, corrected by a reference to his own memoranda, which may assist the future historian when he comes to describe the whole, and account for the motives and reasons which influenced some of the actors in the ...
— Memoirs of Three Civil War Generals, Complete • U. S. Grant, W. T. Sherman, P. H. Sheridan

... in which the author lived early in this century. They do this the more faithfully on account of the very deficiency with which they have been sometimes charged—namely, that they make no attempt to raise the standard of human life, but merely represent it as it was. They certainly were not written to support any theory or inculcate any particular moral, except indeed the great moral which is to be equally gathered from an observation of the course of actual ...
— Memoir of Jane Austen • James Edward Austen-Leigh

... destination to the enjoyment of the Beatific Vision, and all the gifts bestowed upon them for the attainment of this end were due to them, so that had they persevered during life they should have merited eternal happiness as a reward for their good works. When, however, man sinned by disobedience he not merely lost gratuitous or supernatural endowments, but his whole nature was weakened and corrupted by Original Sin which, in the system of Baius, was to be identified with concupiscence, and which was transmitted from father to son according to the ordinary laws of heredity. This concupiscence, ...
— History of the Catholic Church from the Renaissance to the French • Rev. James MacCaffrey

... the bare doctrine of supremacy, right or wrong. It was not fully understood that there must be a radical difference between the government of places settled and populated by white colonists and of places merely exploited by white traders. All the prerogatives of the Crown and Parliament were theoretically valid over both classes of dependency, and to abandon any of them seemed to most men of that day to be inconsistent with Imperial ...
— The Framework of Home Rule • Erskine Childers

... was merely putting it as the Act directs. Very well then, supposing you agree, nothing more is necessary than an appearance—a purely formal appearance—at the Old ...
— Sir John Constantine • Prosper Paleologus Constantine

... eyes. "Just now I'm overcome at seeing you, J. Elfreda. How we have missed you!" Depth of feeling for the moment checked Emma's irrepressible flow of humor. Next to Grace, in her regard, came the one-time stout girl, now merely plump and ...
— Grace Harlowe's Return to Overton Campus • Jessie Graham Flower

... illustrated by the life of Mary. She was considerate of others. She was submissive. As has been said, "In the very outset of the Bible, submission is revealed as her peculiar lot and destiny. If you were merely to look at the words as they stand declaring the results of the fall, you would be inclined to call that vocation of obedience a curse but in the spirit of Christ it is transformed, like labor, into a blessing." The origin or root of Mariolatry ...
— The True Woman • Justin D. Fulton

... lords it bids resign; and turn their wands, Like Moses', into serpents in their hands. These sink, as divers, for renown; and boast, With pride inverted, of their honours lost. But against reason sure 'tis equal sin, To boast of merely being out, or in. What numbers here, through odd ambition, strive To seem the most transported things alive! As if by joy, desert was understood; And all the fortunate were wise and good. Hence aching bosoms wear a visage gay, And stifled ...
— The Poetical Works of Edward Young, Volume 2 • Edward Young

... utter anything distinctly. He was heard, indeed, to mutter something about national defections, right-hand extremes, and left-hand failings off; but, as May Hettly observed, his head was carried at the time; and it is probable that these expressions occurred to him merely out of general habit, and that he died in the full spirit of charity with all men. About an hour afterwards ...
— The Heart of Mid-Lothian, Complete, Illustrated • Sir Walter Scott

... simpletons as, by doing infinitely more than was necessary, to encounter infinite risks of detection, to no purpose; sagacious enough to out-do all that sagacity has ever done, as shown by the effects, and yet not sagacious enough to be merely specious: and finally, he must believe that these illiterate impostors had the art in all their various writings, which evidently proceed from different minds, to preserve the same inimitable marks of reality, truth, ...
— Reason and Faith; Their Claims and Conflicts • Henry Rogers

... loathsome positions. Judging from the noise and confusion that accompanied their efforts, Claire could well understand why this was so, and she expected to find Lily Condor resentful. But to her surprise Mrs. Condor merely ...
— The Blood Red Dawn • Charles Caldwell Dobie

... (Mind, the drumstick merely); Put it in a tub Filled with water nearly; Set it out of doors, In a place that's shady; Let it stand a week (Three days if for a lady); Drop a spoonful of it In a five-pail kettle, Which may be made of tin Or any baser metal; Fill the kettle up, Set it on ...
— The Book of Humorous Verse • Various

... others. I feel ashamed as I write it even to you. They bother me to put anecdotes of adventures into our Report, but I cannot. You know no one lands on these places but myself, and it would be no good to tell stories merely to catch somebody's ear. It was easier to do so when the Bishop and I went together, but I am not training up anyone to be the visitor, and so I don't wish anybody else to go with me. Besides Mr. Pritt and Mr. Dudley are bad swimmers, and Mr. Kerr not first-rate. My constant thought ...
— Life of John Coleridge Patteson • Charlotte M. Yonge

... upon with affection were exactly those which a modern theorist leaves out of consideration as accidental and transitory; the solemn gestures of the mancipation; the nicely adjusted questions and answers of the verbal contract; the endless formalities of pleading and procedure. The Jus Gentium was merely a system forced on his attention by a political necessity. He loved it as little as he loved the foreigners from whose institutions it was derived and for whose benefit it was intended. A complete revolution in his ideas was required before it could challenge his respect, but so complete was ...
— Ancient Law - Its Connection to the History of Early Society • Sir Henry James Sumner Maine

... we, too, were dying and the race fast approaching extinction, when the Great Truth was revealed to us, that mind is all. Many more died before we perfected our powers, but at last we were able to defy death when we fully understood that death was merely ...
— Thuvia, Maid of Mars • Edgar Rice Burroughs

... cheek bones and tapering slightly up the sides of the forehead and downward to the jaw bones is the face of the pure Thoracic. (See Chart 4) This must not be mistaken for the pointed chin nor the pointed head, but is merely a sloping of the face upward and downward from the cheek bones as a result of the unusual width of the nose section. (See ...
— How to Analyze People on Sight - Through the Science of Human Analysis: The Five Human Types • Elsie Lincoln Benedict and Ralph Paine Benedict

... me feel rather sarcastic—it would have made any man feel sarcastic. I said, "Oh, nothing. Merely lit the fire in the drawing-room; and not only lit it, but piled coals on it. It is not Sunday, so far as I am aware." It is our rule to have the drawing-room fire lit on Sundays only. We are rather exclusive, and some other people seem to be rather stuck-up, and between ...
— Eliza • Barry Pain

... nothing. He merely shook hands with her. Then he walked towards the door, haltingly. He used his sword like a walking stick, with his one able hand. Denise had to open the door for him. He was on the threshold, when Mademoiselle ...
— The Isle of Unrest • Henry Seton Merriman

... here long ago if there were no importunate people in the world. I was stopped on my way by an old bore of rank, who asked me news of the court, merely to be able himself to detail to me the most absurd things that can well be imagined about it. You know that those great newsmongers are the curse of provincial towns, and that they have no greater anxiety than to spread, everywhere abroad all ...
— The Countess of Escarbagnas • Moliere

... she waited, half expecting him to say something, meaning to be angry if he said it. Such was her crude idea of coquettishness. But John Gilbart merely shook hands, waited until the door closed behind her, and ...
— The White Wolf and Other Fireside Tales • Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch

... indecency. To-day he noted in the humorous press (speaking more particularly of Punch) a total absence of vulgarity and a fairer treatment, which made this department of warfare always pleasing"—which is all very true if we admit that the function of ridicule and banter as political weapons is to be merely "pleasing." At any rate, if it be so, it is the knell of all great satire—with the corresponding effect of making the more caustic and grosser sides of men like Swift impossible. Yet, on the other hand, so late as 1860, according to Sir Theodore Martin, Punch more than any other paper reflected ...
— The History of "Punch" • M. H. Spielmann

... Dog Rose, is generally thought to merely signify a flower of lower quality than the nobler ...
— Herbal Simples Approved for Modern Uses of Cure • William Thomas Fernie

... a psychotherapist," said the dark-skinned young man. He looked too young to be practicing a profession, barely nineteen, but that could be merely a sign of talent, Donahue reflected. The new teaching and testing methods ...
— The Man Who Staked the Stars • Charles Dye

... detachment. On my return to the office, I wrote down the substance of what Mr. Hastings had said to me, and requested Mr. James Miller, my deputy, to seal it up with his own seal, and write upon it, that he had then done so at my request. He was no further informed of my motive for this than merely that it contained the substance of a conversation which had passed between me and another gentleman, which, in case that conversation should hereafter become the subject of inquiry, I wished to be able to adduce the memorandum then made of it, in corroboration of my ...
— The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. X. (of 12) • Edmund Burke

... a lover's jealousy; for Harley and Beatrice now conversed in a low tone, and Beatrice seemed agitated, and Harley earnest. Randal himself grew more and more perplexed. Was Lord L'Estrange really enamoured of the marchesa? If so, farewell to all hopes of Frank's marriage with her! Or was he merely playing a part in Riccabocca's interest; pretending to be the lover, in order to obtain an influence over her mind, rule her through her ambition, and secure an ally against her brother? Was this finesse compatible with Randal's ...
— My Novel, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... merely nodded his head. His captives had told him the truth. But that number of white men would not be likely to attack at once so strong a band as his own. A full company of regular cavalry would hardly have been enough to ...
— The Talking Leaves - An Indian Story • William O. Stoddard

... asked to have the Catholic religion introduced into Holland and Zealand. The Prince had simply referred them to the estates of these provinces. They had asked him to guarantee that the exercise of the Reformed religion should not be "procured" in the rest of the country. He had merely promised that the Catholic worship should not be prevented. The difference between the terms of the request and ...
— The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-1566 • John Lothrop Motley

... house; when he remembered the stern concentrated anger of Numerian, and the agony and despair of Antonina; when he thought on the spirit-broken repentance of the deceived father, and the fatal departure of the injured daughter, he felt as a man who had not merely committed an indiscretion, but had been guilty of a crime; he became convinced that he had incurred the fearful responsibility of destroying the happiness of a parent who was really virtuous, and a child ...
— Antonina • Wilkie Collins

... waxed nail. Blow on your hand and make magic passes, and cry "Dime, begone!" Open your hand so quickly that no one will see the dime stuck to the back of your nail, and show your empty hand. To make the dime reappear, you merely close you hand again and rub the dime ...
— My Book of Indoor Games • Clarence Squareman

... are far from possessing merely a passing interest for the curious. For the public librarian, whose wish it is to reach as large a proportion of the public as possible, they are full of valuable hints. They emphasize, for instance, the urgent necessity ...
— A Librarian's Open Shelf • Arthur E. Bostwick

... animistic habit of thought in viewing the events of life, whether it take the form of a belief in luck, as in gamblers and sporting men, or the form of a belief in supernatural interposition in mundane affairs, as in the case of the devotees of the anthropomorphic cults, or merely the tendency to give a teleological interpretation to evolution, to attribute a meliorative trend to the cosmic process, as in Tennyson's "through the ages one increasing purpose runs," tends, by retarding the prompt perception of relations ...
— Socialism: Positive and Negative • Robert Rives La Monte

... prevent misconstructions and consequent objections, I would observe that I have spoken of the bourgeoisie as a class, and that all such facts as refer to individuals serve merely as evidence of the way of thinking and acting of a class. Hence I have not entered upon the distinctions between the divers sections, subdivisions and parties of the bourgeoisie, which have a mere historical ...
— The Condition of the Working-Class in England in 1844 - with a Preface written in 1892 • Frederick Engels

... by his side in silence, in the full confidence that he with his man strength would stride over the seemingly impossible and provide. She was stripped to the naked woman heart of her, forced back to the sheer clinging instinct. She was simplified to the merely feminine as he was to the merely masculine. No other laws governed them but the crude necessity ...
— The Web of the Golden Spider • Frederick Orin Bartlett

... ship, but the topsails were at the mast-head, the fasts just ready to be cast off, and everything in the hurry and confusion of departure, so that he was hardly noticed; and the few who did inquire about the matter were told that it was merely a boy who had spent his advance and tried to run away. Had the owners of the vessel known anything of the matter, they would have interfered at once; but they either knew nothing of it, or heard, like the rest, that it was only an unruly boy who was sick of his bargain. As soon as the ...
— Two Years Before the Mast • Richard Henry Dana

... fully developed. At a very moderate estimation, the total number of three to six year old oysters which lie upon our beds will produce three hundred billions of eggs. This number added to that produced by the five millions of full grown oysters would give for every square meter of surface not merely 1,351 young oysters, but at least 1,535. In order to determine how many eggs oysters produce, they must be examined during their spawning season. This begins upon the Schleswig-Holstein beds in the middle ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 433, April 19, 1884 • Various

... punishment." Stooping, Mr. Coddington put his hand kindly on the lad's shoulder. "In so far as it is the consequence of misspent, wasted time it is, to be sure, a punishment; none of us can escape the direct results of our own actions. In another sense, however, it is merely a fresh opportunity—a chance to substitute success for failure, to make good at a different kind of work. It is in this light that you must try and regard it, son. I want to make a man of you if I can. I must make a man of you. You are the only child I have, and if I stand ...
— The Story of Leather • Sara Ware Bassett

... not gods, who were they? Would any human beings in their senses venture among such people as the Children of the Mist, merely to play off a huge practical joke of which the finale was likely to be so serious to themselves? The idea was preposterous, since they had nothing to gain by so doing, for Nam, it may be observed, was ignorant of the value of rubies, which to him were ...
— The People Of The Mist • H. Rider Haggard

... their contents would be superfluous, and I am not aware that anything has since occurred which should be added to the facts therein stated. Therefore I merely repeat, as applicable to the present time, the statement which will be found in my message to the Senate of September 12 last, that—Since March 3, 1887, no case has been reported to the Department of State wherein complaint was made of unfriendly or unlawful treatment of American fishing vessels ...
— Complete State of the Union Addresses from 1790 to the Present • Various

... whole. I have taken every poem on its own merits as poetry, its own technical merits as verse; and thus have included equally the frigid eighteenth-century conceits of "The Kiss" and the modern burlesque license of the comic fragments. But I have excluded everything which has an interest merely personal, or indeed any other interest than that of poetry; and I have thus omitted the famous "Ode on the Departing Year," in spite of the esteem in which Coleridge held it, and in spite of its ...
— Poems of Coleridge • Coleridge, ed Arthur Symons

... heard his bolts drawn, and made a terrified bound. He believed they were come to conduct him to the scaffold; so that when he saw merely and simply, instead of the executioner he expected, only his commissary of the preceding evening, attended by his clerk, he was ready to ...
— The Three Musketeers • Alexandre Dumas, Pere

... of course quite loyal in the matter; he merely bought the guineas as a matter of business, and sold them at a profit to ...
— Men of Invention and Industry • Samuel Smiles

... of this strange discourse, he felt more like an old Hebrew than he had done since he sat upon his nurse's knee, and heard legends about Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. What if Augustine were right after all? What if the Jehovah of the old Scriptures were not merely the national patron of the children of Abraham, as the Rabbis held; not merely, as Philo held, the Divine Wisdom which inspired a few elect sages, even among the heathen; but the Lord of the whole earth, and of the nations thereof?—And suddenly, for the first time in his life, passages from ...
— Hypatia - or, New Foes with an Old Face • Charles Kingsley

... gossip, than even a member of the Second Chamber of Berlin in the full consciousness of his dignity.... The men of the minor States are mostly mere caricatures of periwig diplomatists, who at once put on their official visage if I merely beg of them ...
— Beacon Lights of History, Volume X • John Lord

... FEDERAL JUDICIARY.—The Federal Constitution makes only slight reference to the structure of the Federal courts. It merely provides that the judicial power of the United States shall be vested in one Supreme Court, and in such inferior courts as Congress may from time to time ordain ...
— Problems in American Democracy • Thames Ross Williamson

... who hit upon many other contrivances, among the rest, weights and measures. But this worthy lived in the times of the Trojan war, and yet Homer makes no mention of dice—the astragaloi named by the poet being merely knuckle-bones. Dice, however, are mentioned by Aristophanes in his comedies, and so it seems that the invention must be placed between the times of the two poets, that is, about 2300 years ago. At any rate the cube or die has been in use as an instrument of play, at least, ...
— The Gaming Table: Its Votaries and Victims - Volume II (of II) • Andrew Steinmetz

... given an opportunity to study her. She was a tall woman, so tall and slender that these qualities first impressed those who saw her. Yet later, when one stood beside her, you discovered to your surprise that she was merely the average woman in height. It had been her carriage, her manner of holding her head, which gave the impression of unusual height. One might have thought her critical and stern had it not been that the expression of her eyes, which were gray and unusually large, was gentle ...
— Elizabeth Hobart at Exeter Hall • Jean K. Baird

... for many years there have been various farmers clubs, associations or granges. Until 1914 these were merely disorganized units. At the annual meeting of the Dominion Grange, however—December 17th and 18th, 1913—the advisability of consolidating for greater co-operation was discussed at some length. Representatives from the Western Grain Growers ...
— Deep Furrows • Hopkins Moorhouse

... Slyme; that he, Tigg, winked at the same, because of the strong metaphysical interest which these weaknesses possessed; and that in reference to his own personal advocacy of such small advances, he merely consulted the humour of his friend, without the least regard to his ...
— Life And Adventures Of Martin Chuzzlewit • Charles Dickens

... them from the cradle to the grave. The Irish peasant could not press his children to his breast, with the knowledge of being able to leave them the very humblest heritage won from his toil. Fathers and children, they could merely hope to obtain the temporary use of a spot of land on which to exercise ...
— The Romance of a Pro-Consul - Being The Personal Life And Memoirs Of The Right Hon. Sir - George Grey, K.C.B. • James Milne

... probably be his death, perhaps because a prophecy had been given at the Temple at Delphi that Sparta should be saved by the death of one of her kings of the race of Hercules. He was allowed by law to take with him 300 men, and these he chose most carefully, not merely for their strength and courage, but selecting those who had sons, so that no family might be altogether destroyed. These Spartans, with their helots or slaves, made up his own share of the numbers, but all the army ...
— The Junior Classics • Various

... thousand iii hundred lxxxx, in sicht of mony pepyll, besyde the castell of Petslego." On the occasion referred to, Boece tells us that a great tree was cast on shore, and was divided, by order of the "laird" of the ground, by means of a saw. Wonderful to relate, the tree was found not merely to be riddled with a "multitude of wormis," throwing themselves out of the holes of the tree, but some of the "wormis" had "baith heid, feit, and wyngis," but, adds the author, "they had ...
— Young Folks' Library, Volume XI (of 20) - Wonders of Earth, Sea and Sky • Various

... whereby it is made lawful to order their march, confines the operations to measures merely defensive to a sister State, and of whose danger there is certain ...
— Patrick Henry • Moses Coit Tyler

... says th' witness, 'th' Austhrich,—whom I will designate, f'r fear iv internaytional entanglements, merely as Colonel Schneider,—says to me, he says: "Th' letther pretindin' to be fr'm me is a forgery." "How's that?" says I. "Didn't ye write an' sign it?" I says. "I did," says he. "But some wan else sint it to ...
— Mr. Dooley: In the Hearts of His Countrymen • Finley Peter Dunne

... by W. Lawson, F.R.G.S. I read it all day, and at night sat for the examination. The results of my examinations were, failure in mathematics, but second class advanced grade certificates in all the others. I do not attach any credit to passing in physiography, but merely relate the circumstance as curiously showing what can be ...
— Men of Invention and Industry • Samuel Smiles

... word, idea, to its original sense, from which Mr LOCKE had perverted it, in making it stand for all our perceptions. By the terms of impression I would not be understood to express the manner, in which our lively perceptions are produced in the soul, but merely the perceptions themselves; for which there is no particular name either in the English or any other language, ...
— A Treatise of Human Nature • David Hume

... and others which I shall have occasion to mention in another place, are by no means such as to raise that insuperable obstacle which many suppose. They may all be overcome by resolution and perseverance. As regards merely the use of unpremeditated language, it is far from being a difficult attainment. A writer, whose opportunities of observation give weight to his opinion, says, in speaking of the style of the younger Pitt—"This profuse and interminable flow of words is not in itself either a rare ...
— Hints on Extemporaneous Preaching • Henry Ware

... artist bid his parents good-night, and was about to leave, but his mother detained him to show him the young goldfinches, hatched only the day before. Pollux obeyed her wish, not merely to please her, but because he liked to watch the gay little bird that sat warming and sheltering her nestlings. Close to the cage stood the huge wine-jar and his mother's cup, decorated by his own hand. His eye fell on these, and he pushed them aside in silence. ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers

... an open court in the capital of her dominions. It was said that 'trade was bad therefore,' and times of depression and want of employment were attributed to this cause. The nation is growing wiser. It is seen that true prosperity does not consist merely in the quick circulation of money—above all, certainly not in the transference of wealth gained from the tillers of the soil to the classes which minister ...
— Queen Victoria • Anonymous

... the Indians in that neighborhood, and appeared to be very friendly toward them, wished them success in everything, and told them that those settlers who were on the borders of their lands and constantly encroaching and committing depredations upon the Indians, were not of the government, but were merely squatters, who settled there of their own accord, and if they were cut off, there would be none to avenge them, and were advised to ...
— Legends, Traditions, and Laws of the Iroquois, or Six Nations, and History of the Tuscarora Indians • Elias Johnson



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