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Obligatory   /əblˈɪgətˌɔri/   Listen
Obligatory

adjective
1.
Morally or legally constraining or binding.  "An obligatory contribution"
2.
Required by obligation or compulsion or convention.






WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University








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"Obligatory" Quotes from Famous Books



... satisfied that these provisions greatly extend the provisions of the Covenant; for the first time[6] there is {79} introduced in the League system a definite military commitment—definite in the sense that it is obligatory, and not in the sense that it is defined as to extent ...
— The Geneva Protocol • David Hunter Miller

... accompanied an American lady to a German Opera House. The taking-off of hats in the German Schausspielhaus is obligatory, and again I would it were so in England. But the American lady is accustomed to disregard rules made by mere man. She explained to the doorkeeper that she was going to wear her hat. He, on his side, explained to her that she was not: they were both a bit short with one ...
— Idle Ideas in 1905 • Jerome K. Jerome

... themselves to the people of all the other States, as the other party. One State cannot change the compact, or any of its terms or provisions, yet it may rescind the compact at pleasure! It would be abuse of language to call such an instrument a compact, because it would be obligatory upon none. Without the constitutional right to nullify a law of Congress by the ultimate judgment of the State against it, how could the constitutional power of secession arise? It is said, from a violation of ...
— The Continental Monthly, Vol. 3 No 2, February 1863 - Devoted To Literature And National Policy • Various

... into an iota after the old fashion, this word will then agree with other words meaning good; for dion, not deon, signifies the good, and is a term of praise; and the author of names has not contradicted himself, but in all these various appellations, deon (obligatory), ophelimon (advantageous), lusiteloun (profitable), kerdaleon (gainful), agathon (good), sumpheron (expedient), euporon (plenteous), the same conception is implied of the ordering or all-pervading principle which is praised, and the restraining and ...
— Cratylus • Plato

... legally, the business does not include any matter which does not appear upon the notice convening the meeting, signed by the Vicar and churchwardens. This usually announces that churchwardens will be elected and the accounts produced; the latter, since church rates were abolished, is not obligatory, and only subscribers have a right to question them. The proceedings are not legal unless three full days have elapsed since the publication of the notice on a Sunday before morning service, the following Thursday being thus the earliest day on which the meeting can ...
— Grain and Chaff from an English Manor • Arthur H. Savory

... typical case, but many of the wanderers never return to the fold; they are lost sheep. If the doctrine were demonstrated to be true its acceptance would, of course, be obligatory, but how can one bring himself to assent to a series of assumptions when such a course is accompanied by such a ...
— In His Image • William Jennings Bryan

... on ministers of the gospel to be faithful in the discharge of their pastoral and ministerial duties, and it is also obligatory on the members to esteem ministers highly for their works' sake, and to render them a righteous ...
— The Book of Religions • John Hayward

... processes of its formation, discriminate as well as we can, by all fair tests, whether it be entirely correct, or wholly erroneous, or partly true and partly false. Both of these methods of investigation are necessary to a full understanding of the subject. Both are obligatory upon the earnest inquirer. Whoso would bravely face his beliefs and intelligently comprehend them, with their grounds and their issues, with a devout desire for the pure truth, whatsoever it may be, putting his trust in the God who ...
— The Destiny of the Soul - A Critical History of the Doctrine of a Future Life • William Rounseville Alger

... point of abstaining from work at least one hour every Saturday and on the days that were the Jewish holidays according to Jacob's calendar. On the other hand, work was considered obligatory on Sundays and on Christian holidays. Tearing up some papers or starting a fire ...
— In Those Days - The Story of an Old Man • Jehudah Steinberg

... doing it when known. Intellectual culture does not touch the conscience. It provides no motives to overcome the weakness of the will, and with wider knowledge it brings also new temptations. The sense of duty is present in each detail of life; the obligatory "must" which binds the will to the course which right principle has marked out for it produces a fibre like the fibre of the oak. The educated Greeks knew little of it. They had courage and genius and enthusiasm, but they had no horror of immorality as such. The Stoics saw what ...
— Caesar: A Sketch • James Anthony Froude

... nearly every custom of our barbarian ancestors in historic times survives in some form today. We make ourselves look formidable in battle—for that matter, we fight. Our women paint their faces. We feel it obligatory to dress more or less alike, inventing the most ingenious reasons for it and actually despising and persecuting those who do not care to conform. Within the memory of living persons bearded men were stoned in the streets; and a clergyman in New York who wore his beard as Christ wore ...
— The Shadow On The Dial, and Other Essays - 1909 • Ambrose Bierce

... everywhere, beside and beyond these general disturbing influences, there were found the special and individual lack of any sound hygienic theory and practice, and a persistent antagonism to the sanitary regulations which were made obligatory. That the time for sleep should begin early, and be uninterrupted for eight hours, was a rule stoutly resisted and habitually disobeyed by many a pale-faced, nervous girl, who, when remonstrated with, had invariably at her tongue's ...
— The Education of American Girls • Anna Callender Brackett

... them as they are arranges them for the best never enters into their minds; and instead of finding any superior strength in it, they rather expect to discover another Atlas of the world who is stronger and more everlasting and more containing than the good;—of the obligatory and containing power of the good they think nothing; and yet this is the principle which I would fain learn if any one would teach me. But as I have failed either to discover myself, or to learn of any one else, the nature of the ...
— Phaedo - The Last Hours Of Socrates • Plato

... will, it is presumed, satisfy every impartial mind that the Government of Spain had no justifiable cause for declining to ratify the treaty. A treaty concluded in conformity with instructions is obligatory, in good faith, in all its stipulations, according to the true intent and meaning of the parties. Each party is bound to ratify it. If either could set it aside without the consent of the other, there would be no longer any rules applicable to such transactions ...
— Complete State of the Union Addresses from 1790 to the Present • Various

... tremendous character of the economic problems of the country to be one of the chief problems of industrial and general political agitation and propaganda; and of equal importance to this, technical education, and administrative and scientific technical experience. The Congress makes it obligatory on all the members of the party mercilessly to fight that particular obnoxious form, the ignorant conceit which deems the working class capable of solving all problems without the assistance in the most responsible cases of specialists ...
— The Practice and Theory of Bolshevism • Bertrand Russell

... system influenced by customary law; judicial review of legislative acts, except with respect to federal decrees of general obligatory character; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, ...
— The 2000 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency.

... before the 26th Day of next Month, they will save me the Trouble of sending, and themselves of paying a MONITOR, who will at least remind them that in ancient Times People were desired to "OWE NO MAN ANY THING, BUT TO LOVE ONE ANOTHER": Which I believe is as obligatory, I am sure as necessary, to be observed now as it was then; especially considering Mr. Bray's repeated Losses by Fire, his having a large Family to maintain, and also being a long Time out ...
— The Olden Time Series, Vol. 4: Quaint and Curious Advertisements • Henry M. Brooks

... Britons; in all, fifty-three expeditions; among which those he undertook against the Saxons, the Lombards, and the Arabs were long and difficult wars. It were undesirable to recount them in detail, for the relation would be monotonous and useless; but it is obligatory to make fully known their causes, their characteristic incidents, and ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 4 • Various

... should you not then speak and teach the doctrine or the little Word? But the kingdom of God does not consist in talk or words, but in deeds, in works and practice.' He taught them to distinguish between what was obligatory and what was free, between what was to be observed or what was not. Charity must be practised, he said, even in essentials, since no man must compel his brother by force, but must let the Word operate on the hearts of the weak and erring, and ...
— Life of Luther • Julius Koestlin

... adequate instruction, as all would become Christians and would pay the same tribute, there being no opportunity for the aforesaid practice. Moreover, restitution of the amounts collected would be obligatory in the places where there is no teaching. Over this subject of payment of tributes I have had various arguments with the bishop, as your Majesty will see by the papers which are sent herewith. By them your Majesty may understand more accurately all that ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume VIII (of 55), 1591-1593 • Emma Helen Blair

... negroes are 'the black peas' which Americans detest. But that is a matter of social custom; the law, however, does not distinguish them from other citizens.... To love, not to love ... that is elusive and capricious, but justice is obligatory, like an axiom...." ...
— The Shield • Various

... greater extent, in some departments of human labor than in others. It is applicable to the business of teaching, and though I confess that it is somewhat less absolute and imperious here, still it is obligatory, I believe, to a far greater extent than teachers have been generally ...
— The Teacher • Jacob Abbott

... course. When his father was ill he never waited on him or sat up a single night with him. If duty was disagreeable to him Clem paid homage to it afar off, but pleaded exemption. He admitted that waiting on the sick is obligatory on people who are fitted for it, and is very charming. Nothing was more beautiful to him than tender, filial care spending itself for a beloved object. But it was not his vocation. His nerves were more finely ordered than those of mankind generally, and ...
— Mark Rutherford's Deliverance • Mark Rutherford

... of things at the present time. The principle of compulsory military service, obligatory upon every able-bodied male between the ages of sixteen and sixty, is still the fundamental principle of English Law, both Common Law and Statute Law. It has been obscured by the pernicious voluntary principle, which, in the much-abused name of Liberty, has shifted a universal ...
— Freedom In Service - Six Essays on Matters Concerning Britain's Safety and Good Government • Fossey John Cobb Hearnshaw

... between camps British and camps Dutch in the neighbourhood of the border was curious. The Boers were prepared, taking their ease. The British were in suspense. Disaffection was visible on all sides, and yet inaction, irritating inaction, was obligatory. Morning, noon, and night a perennial sand-storm blew; overhead, the sun grilled and scorched. Meals, edibles, and liquids were diluted with 10 per cent. of grit, and when perchance Tommy strove to strain his hardly-earned beer—to make a filter of a butter-cloth—phut! would come a gust of wind ...
— South Africa and the Transvaal War, Vol. 2 (of 6) - From the Commencement of the War to the Battle of Colenso, - 15th Dec. 1899 • Louis Creswicke

... Pagan converts. The elders at Jerusalem, good men as they were, did not take this view; they could not bear to receive into complete Christian fellowship men who offended their prejudices in regard to matters which they regarded as sacred and obligatory as baptism itself. They would measure Christianity by their traditions; and the smaller the point of difference seemed to the enlightened Paul, the bitterer were the contests,—even as many of the schisms which subsequently divided ...
— Beacon Lights of History, Volume II • John Lord

... tables the meal was consumed in a silence which Bob learned later came nearer being obligatory than a matter of choice. Conversation was discouraged by the good-natured fat woman, Mrs. Hallowell. Talk delayed; and when ...
— The Rules of the Game • Stewart Edward White

... troubles may be avoided. Again, the practical difficulty adverted to above does not come in the way when a single man happens to sustain an abdominal wound on the march. Under such circumstances an exploration may be not only justifiable, but obligatory, and the general rules of surgery must be followed rather than such incomplete indications as ...
— Surgical Experiences in South Africa, 1899-1900 • George Henry Makins

... legislature, to be elected in the representative districts on the first Monday in June, 1857. The convention was to be held at the capital of the territory, on the second Monday of July following. It submitted to the convention five propositions to be answered, which, if accepted, were to become obligatory on the United States and the State of Minnesota. They were ...
— The History of Minnesota and Tales of the Frontier • Charles E. Flandrau

... regard to which I ever had to chide him, and in that I had perforce to let him have his own way, because I do not believe that he could restrain himself. He had served the term in the army which is, or was then, obligatory on all Servians; and on the road or in camp he was rather more of a "peace at any price" man than ever was the late Mr. John Bright himself. When the first fight occurred, Andreas claimed to be allowed ...
— The Idler, Volume III., Issue XIII., February 1893 - An Illustrated Monthly. Edited By Jerome K. Jerome & Robert Barr • Various

... sit in judgment between peoples as between individuals, from time to time conditions more repellant than war may confront a nation, and to remove such conditions as the solemn dictates of reason and religion impose was as righteous and obligatory. Let the life of a nation or the integrity of its territory be menaced, let the honor of a nation be assailed, let the grievous crime against humanity be perpetrated within reach of a nation's flag or a ...
— The Story of the Philippines and Our New Possessions, • Murat Halstead

... obligatory to take the train, we would pray your Excellency's permission to save the money. We should like to save the money, to give it to the father. The father is very poor. Fifty ...
— The Cardinal's Snuff-Box • Henry Harland

... secular, industrial, and compulsory for all classes. The age of obligatory school attendance to be raised to sixteen. Unification and systematisation of intermediate and higher education, both general and technical, and all such education to be free. Free maintenance for all attending State schools. Abolition of school rates, ...
— British Socialism - An Examination of Its Doctrines, Policy, Aims and Practical Proposals • J. Ellis Barker

... of our obligatory fast, and enabled to look with contempt upon the humble prickly pears, which for many a long day had been our only food. Daily now we came across herds of fat buffaloes, and great was our sport in pursuing the huge lord of the prairies. One of them, by-the-bye, gored my horse to ...
— Monsieur Violet • Frederick Marryat

... Canyon must be passed before they came to Gunnison Valley. Beyond this, walls of sandstone about one thousand feet high hemmed the river in for some sixty miles, but the stream was not dangerous and the party moved on quickly, though the absence of rapids and swift water made rowing obligatory. At the foot of this gorge, called from its winding character, Labyrinth Canyon, there was a brief expansion before the next walls closed upon them. These were closer than any seen above, but the river, though ...
— The Romance of the Colorado River • Frederick S. Dellenbaugh

... frontal instead of a coronal tonsure for monks; in a shorter Lenten fast, which made up the forty days by including Sundays, and began on Monday instead of Wednesday; in a different time for Easter, dependent on a more ancient method of reckoning; in the absence of special or obligatory Easter communion; in the regular celebration of the Holy Supper with what were ...
— Chronicles of Strathearn • Various

... of Iconium and Lystra gave him so advantageous a character of the young man, that the apostle, being deprived of St. Barnaby, took him for the companion of his labors, but first circumcised him at Lystra. For though the Jewish ceremonies ceased to be obligatory from the death of Christ, it was still lawful to use them (but not as of precept and obligation) till about the time of the destruction of Jerusalem with the temple, that the synagogue might be buried with honor. Therefore St. Paul refused to circumcise ...
— The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Principal Saints - January, February, March • Alban Butler

... state—whether from the exchequer of the emperor or from that of the senate and the state did indeed spend as much as six or eight thousand pounds upon a particular celebration. But, both in Rome itself and in the provinces, it was practically obligatory that the public officer who had charge of a given festival for the year should spend liberally of his own upon it. No man either at Rome or in a provincial city could permit himself to be elected to such a public position unless he was prepared ...
— Life in the Roman World of Nero and St. Paul • T. G. Tucker

... and food products, lands, prisons, and charities. They restricted trusts, monopolies, and lotteries. Modifications of the old jury system were introduced. Juries were made optional in civil cases, and not always obligatory in criminal cases. Juries of less than twelve were sometimes allowed, and a unanimous vote by a jury was not always required. Growing wealth and the consequent multiplication of litigants necessitated an increase in the number of judges in most courts. Efforts were made, with some success, ...
— History of the United States, Volume 5 • E. Benjamin Andrews

... you could have made me that would make it obligatory on my part to answer your question. In that reply I see there is hope for you. So I will tell you ...
— The Bishop of Cottontown - A Story of the Southern Cotton Mills • John Trotwood Moore

... recently wrecked. Under this plan the various towns allowed a company to open a certain number of clean, tidy drinking- places; obliged them to purchase pure liquors; forbade them, under penalties, to sell to any man who had already taken too much; made it also obligatory to sell something to eat at the same time with something to drink; and, best of all, restricted the profits of these establishments to a moderate percentage,—seven or eight per cent., if I re- member rightly,—all the surplus receipts going to public purposes, and especially ...
— Volume I • Andrew Dickson White

... sufficient size to catch solid waste matter, and these must be removed or the fitting discarded. All 90 deg. bends, whether Ts or elbows, are tapped to give the pipe that connects with them a pitch of at least 1/4 inch to the foot. Except where obligatory, 90 deg. fittings should not be used. To make a bend of 90 deg. a Y-branch, a nipple and a 45 deg. bend should be used, or two 45 deg. bends will make a long easy sweep of the drainage pipes and ...
— Elements of Plumbing • Samuel Dibble

... consistent with their position and their property; and it was expected from them that they should take a dignified part in the chivalrous exercises and celebrations of their times. It followed, that feudal Knighthood was a distinction which, if not conferred for the sake of honour, became obligatory; and fines, accordingly, were imposed upon men qualified for Knighthood who, notwithstanding, were found not to be Knights. In the course of time, as the rigour of the feudal system abated, the numbers of the military tenants of small tenures greatly ...
— The Handbook to English Heraldry • Charles Boutell

... information, to charging me with having broken parole and thus to throw a veil over his own injustice. Hence it might have been that he did not seek to know whether, being restricted to the plantation of Madame D'Arifat, I still admitted the obligatory part of the parole to be binding; and that the expression in my answer—the parole which I had given, implying that it existed no longer, passed without question. However this might be, I thenceforward declined accepting any invitations beyond the ...
— A Voyage to Terra Australis Volume 2 • Matthew Flinders

... homiletics, bacteriologics, jurisprudences, cosmographies, strategies—their name is legion—and freed themselves from all this harmful, stupifying ballast—the simple law of love, natural to man, accessible to all and solving all questions and perplexities, would of itself become clear and obligatory. ...
— A Letter to a Hindu • Leo Tolstoy

... chance passing of two hunters who succored him and set him upon the right path. On arriving in Orange he found political and social conditions there much worse than before, many of the colonists declining to take the obligatory oath of allegiance to the British Crown after the Battle of Alamance, preferring to carve out for themselves new homes along the western waters. Some sixteen families of this stamp, indignant at the injustices and oppressions of ...
— The Conquest of the Old Southwest • Archibald Henderson

... a country with that of distinguished men who have arisen from some millions of the rest of the people, and then calculate the percentage. It is also necessary to take into account the means employed in the education of the individuals. If education is obligatory and gratuitous in a country, this factor will ...
— The Sexual Question - A Scientific, psychological, hygienic and sociological study • August Forel

... past among us smile a little when they find Dr. Johnson addressing his own step-daughter as "Dear Madam," and being her "most humble servant" though in the course of the letter he may use the most affectionate and intimate expressions. But the manners of yester-year made it obligatory to make your letters—unless they were merely what were called "cards" of invitation, message, etc.—to some extent substantive. You gave the news of the day, if your correspondent was not likely to know it; the news of the place, ...
— A Letter Book - Selected with an Introduction on the History and Art of Letter-Writing • George Saintsbury

... comfort. The thought of saving money, however, seems never to have entered his poetical mind, and after his unexpected death, due to paralysis of the heart, it was found that hardly any provision had been made for his family. Even the life insurance, which is obligatory on every civil servant, and the pension granted by the Duke, gave my mother but a very small income, fabulously small, when one considers that she had to bring up two children on it. It has been a riddle to me ever since how she ...
— My Autobiography - A Fragment • F. Max Mueller

... second. This was quite a new light to M. Sichap, who had hithered considered the double "Pan, pan," an indispensable adjunct to the pantomime of firing a gun; much as my young brother and I had once imagined "Ug, ug," an obligatory commencement to any remark made by a Red ...
— The Days Before Yesterday • Lord Frederick Hamilton

... easily make these Hostels obligatory on all our girls who don't live at their own homes," he said. "That ought to keep them off the streets, if anything can. I don't see how even Miss Babs Wheeler can have the ...
— The Wife of Sir Isaac Harman • H. G. (Herbert George) Wells

... very beneficent action is now required by law in Germany and Switzerland, by which holidays are obligatory in all public and private schools when the temperature reaches a certain height. These heat-holidays are called hitzlenien, and are worthy of adoption in other schools. In Basle new regulations have just been issued concerning heat-holidays. When the temperature rises to seventy-seven ...
— Buchanan's Journal of Man, March 1887 - Volume 1, Number 2 • Various

... explaining again and again that in a country like this, where everybody works, nobody over works, and that when the few hours of obligatory labor are passed in the mornings, people need not do anything unless they choose. Their working-dresses are very simple, but in all sorts of gay colors, like those you saw in the Greek play at Harvard, with straw hats for the men, and fillets of ribbon for the girls, and sandals for both. I speak ...
— Through the Eye of the Needle - A Romance • W. D. Howells

... the avenue, turned down to the right and wandered along the bank of the Gave as far as the donkey would go, and then sketched a church steeple in despair. But such a mistake is quite unnecessary; and they would doubtless have remedied theirs, if they had not found it obligatory at last to push behind in order to make the donkey move homewards. Although very hoarse and tired when they arrived, they had voice enough left to say they "wouldn't go sketching ...
— Twixt France and Spain • E. Ernest Bilbrough

... father's house in October, 1852. I visited the family in December following. Then and there we discussed the subject of marriage more fully between ourselves; and deeming it a duty obligatory upon us, by an intelligent regard for our future happiness, to survey, before consummating an engagement even, the whole field of difficulties, embarrassments, trials, insults and persecutions, which ...
— The American Prejudice Against Color - An Authentic Narrative, Showing How Easily The Nation Got - Into An Uproar. • William G. Allen

... so full a persuasion of their certainty and obligation. The great principle of morality, 'To do as one would be done to,' is more commended than practised. But the breach of this rule cannot be a greater vice, than to teach others, that it is no moral rule, nor obligatory, would be thought madness, and contrary to that interest men sacrifice to, when they break it themselves. Perhaps CONSCIENCE will be urged as checking us for such breaches, and so the internal obligation and establishment of ...
— An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding, Volume I. - MDCXC, Based on the 2nd Edition, Books I. and II. (of 4) • John Locke

... are still in circulation amongst us, and I have learned some new ones to-day. The naivete of one of them is extreme; but I can do more than allude to it. One of our party transgressed a custom which the Mahommedans have absurdly made obligatory. Great indignation was excited, even amongst the escort sent for our protection by En-Noor; and one of them exclaimed: "If he do the same thing again, and do not follow the way of us Muslims, I will send an ...
— Narrative of a Mission to Central Africa Performed in the Years 1850-51, Volume 1 • James Richardson

... and had just appeared in print. It was called "Euthanasia, or the Ethics of Suicide." This book was an apology or plea for self-destruction. In it the baron laid down those occasions when he considered suicide pardonable, and when obligatory. To support his arguments and to show that suicide was a noble act, he quoted Plato, Cicero, Shakespeare, and even misquoted the Bible. He gave a list of poisons, and the amount of each necessary to kill a human being. To show how one can depart from life with the least pain, ...
— Real Soldiers of Fortune • Richard Harding Davis

... methods beyond the conventions which have the sanction of the majority of a community, may be rash and blameworthy sometimes, but they are not necessarily dishonorable, and may even occasionally be obligatory on conscience." ...
— Jailed for Freedom • Doris Stevens

... Arthur's nameless enemies and not from King Arthur. King Arthur might not be historical, but at least he was legendary. Hengist and Horsa were not even legendary, for they left no legend. Anybody could see what was obligatory on the representative of Arthur; he was bound to be chivalrous, that is, to be European. But nobody could imagine what was obligatory on the representative of Horsa, unless it were to be horsy. That was perhaps the only part of the Anglo-Saxon programme that the contemporary English really ...
— The Crimes of England • G.K. Chesterton

... observations because there is a great probability that many of the posterity of Cain joined themselves to the holy patriarchs. But their privileges were not those of an obligatory service toward them on the part of the Church, but mere toleration of them as individuals who had lost the promise that the blessed seed was to spring from their flesh and blood. To forfeit the promise was no trifle; still, even that curse was so mitigated as ...
— Commentary on Genesis, Vol. II - Luther on Sin and the Flood • Martin Luther

... nutritious, gaseous, fluid and solid, as human nature, bent on contemplation and an evening lounge, can require. Perfect equality is to be the rule; no rising, or notice taken, when anybody enters or leaves. Let the entering man take his place and pipe, without obligatory remarks: if he cannot smoke, which is Seckendorf's case for instance, let him at least affect to do so, and not ruffle the established stream of things. And so, Puff, slowly Pff!—and any comfortable speech that is in you; or none, if you ...
— History Of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Volume V. (of XXI.) • Thomas Carlyle

... fight[163] is continued in the second volume of the First Part by the expected delivery of harangues from the two claimants, and the obligatory, but to Artane very unwelcome, single combat. He is, of course, vanquished and pardoned by his foe,[164] making, if not full, sufficient confession; and it is not surprising to hear that the King of Pontus requests to see no more of him. The rest—for it must never ...
— A History of the French Novel, Vol. 1 - From the Beginning to 1800 • George Saintsbury

... The state commissioner of education also sent a letter giving school reasons for using the cards. Results from 415 schools having shown that nearly half the children had optical defects, it is proposed to secure state legislation that will make eye tests obligatory in all schools. Such a test in Massachusetts recently discovered twenty-two per cent of the school children with defective vision, and from forty to fifty thousand in need of immediate ...
— Civics and Health • William H. Allen

... classical curriculum," which Matthew Arnold satirized, fought hard and long for its monopoly; but gradually it had to yield. Butler's first concession was to relax the absurd rule which had made Latin versification obligatory on every boy in the School, whatever his gifts or tastes. At the same time he introduced the regular teaching of Natural Science, and in 1869 he created a "Modern Side." An even more important feature of his rule was the official encouragement given ...
— Prime Ministers and Some Others - A Book of Reminiscences • George W. E. Russell

... press the packages upon the first soldier he met. At times the recipient, smiling courteously, would thank him with a few words, revealing his superior breeding—afterwards passing the gift on to others clad in cloaks as coarse and badly cut as his own. The mobilization, universally obligatory, often caused him ...
— The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse • Vicente Blasco Ibanez

... becomes necessary to state briefly the points at issue in this case, which were all fully argued by the counsel on both sides. Mr. Mason's brief, which really covered the whole case, was that the acts of the Legislature were not obligatory, 1, because they were not within the general scope of legislative power; 2, because they violated certain provisions of the Constitution of New Hampshire restraining legislative power; 3, because they violated the Constitution of the United States. ...
— Daniel Webster • Henry Cabot Lodge

... rather fine-looking race of natives of yellowish-brown complexion. Women of incredible corpulence were dawdling about through the cultivated grounds, and the doctor greatly surprised his companions by informing them that this rotundity, which is highly esteemed in that region, was obtained by an obligatory diet ...
— Five Weeks in a Balloon • Jules Verne

... protests, which received courteous answers, but the process continued. In 1891, the Finnish Committee at St. Petersburg, which had directed the affairs of Finland, was abolished, and Russian censorship abolished the free press. The Russian language was made obligatory, and the Finns who could afford it emigrated to the United States and settled in ...
— The Story of Russia • R. Van Bergen

... himself for his imposture; she was not deceived so grossly after all; and then if a fraud, was not the fraud piety itself? - and what could be more obligatory than to keep alive in the heart of a daughter that filial trust and honour which, even although misplaced, became her like a jewel of the mind? There might be another thought, a shade of cowardice, a selfish desire to please; poor Dick was merely human; and what would ...
— Tales and Fantasies • Robert Louis Stevenson

... the inevitable. He had sealed a Mandate decreeing the dissolution of Parliament which would be promulgated as soon as it had received the counter-signature of the acting Premier, Dr. Wu Ting-fang, such counter-signature being obligatory under Article 45 ...
— The Fight For The Republic in China • Bertram Lenox Putnam Weale

... neither cared nor ventured to remove. The aedileship was the particular magistracy which was saddled with this expenditure on account of its traditional connection with the conduct of the public games; and although it was neither in its curule nor plebeian form an obligatory step in the scale of the magistracies, yet, as it was held before the praetorship and the consulship, it was manifest that the brilliant display given to the people by the occupant of this office might ...
— A History of Rome, Vol 1 - During the late Republic and early Principate • A H.J. Greenidge

... that all our faculties should co-operate in His worship; but they are to co-operate according to the will of Him that gave them, according to the order which His wisdom has established. As ceremonies prudential or convenient are less obligatory than positive ordinances, as bodily worship is only the token to others or ourselves of mental adoration, so Fancy is always to act in subordination to Reason. We may take Fancy for a companion, but must follow Reason as our guide. ...
— Life Of Johnson, Vol. 2 • Boswell

... proportion divinely approved, in imitation of Jacob's vow to give a tenth to God of all that he should receive at his hand; and because the Jews were required to pay a tithe of their yearly increase for the support of the Levites. Arguments have been adduced to show that this ratio in charity is obligatory on all; at the same time, it has been acknowledged not to be enjoined in the New Testament. We think, however, the ground untenable; and all efforts to designate this or any other fixed proportion as universally binding, both inexpedient ...
— The Faithful Steward - Or, Systematic Beneficence an Essential of Christian Character • Sereno D. Clark

... guaranteed to make no hostile movements against natives in the direction of the Colony without permission of the Governor, unless circumstances of violence, or the inroad of tribes, rendered immediate action obligatory. ...
— South Africa and the Transvaal War, Vol. 1 (of 6) - From the Foundation of Cape Colony to the Boer Ultimatum - of 9th Oct. 1899 • Louis Creswicke

... at first sight appear strange that whilst the apostles, and those who acted with them at this meeting, condemned the doctrine of the Judaizers, and affirmed that circumcision was not obligatory on the Gentiles, they, at the same time, required the converts from paganism to observe a part of the Hebrew ritual; and it may seem quite as extraordinary that, in a letter which was the fruit of ...
— The Ancient Church - Its History, Doctrine, Worship, and Constitution • W.D. [William Dool] Killen

... manners and customs of the Hindoos are very peculiar. They always defecate upon the open ground, and will not use privies or latrines This is a matter of religious obligation with them. It is also obligatory upon them to go to stool every morning; to use the left hand only in wiping themselves; to wash their fundaments after stool; to wash their whole persons and clothing every day; and, finally, also to rinse their mouths with water, and this they often do after washing in foul tanks, or still ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 458, October 11, 1884 • Various

... 1849. These commentaries include both of the two great schools of interpretation, the earlier of which was accepted until the twelfth century A.D., when it was set aside by China's most brilliant scholar, Chu Hsi, who substituted the interpretation still in vogue, and obligatory at the public competitive examinations which admit ...
— China and the Chinese • Herbert Allen Giles

... the Deaconess Movement." Regulations were suggested concerning homes and their connection with the Conference boards, conditions of admission were agreed upon, and a Course of Study and Plan for Training recommended.[89] Of course the recommendations set forth in the "Plan" are not obligatory, but there has been remarkable unanimity so far ...
— Deaconesses in Europe - and their Lessons for America • Jane M. Bancroft

... a circulation as it can, this institution will, for its own sake, redeem its notes at par, wherever issued, when it can safely do so; and that in most cases, it has actually done this; but that to make this obligatory would not only be unjust to the bank, but would be highly impolitic, by counteracting the natural and most efficient corrective of the over issues of banks, and the overtrading of individuals; and would be ...
— The American Quarterly Review, No. 17, March 1831 • Various

... Bohemian associates he kept up intimate relations with one only, and that was Whelpdale. This was in a measure obligatory, for Whelpdale frequently came to see him, and it would have been difficult to repel a man who was always making known how highly he esteemed the privilege of Milvain's friendship, and whose company on the whole was agreeable enough. At the present ...
— New Grub Street • George Gissing

... "would obviously be the destruction of all confidence. How much nobler and safer is the doctrine of the Scriptures, and of the unsophisticated language of man's moral constitution, that truth is obligatory on its own account, and that he who undertakes to signify to another, no matter in what form, and no matter what may be the right in the case to know the truth, is bound to signify according to the convictions of his own mind! He is not always bound to speak, but whenever he does speak he is solemnly ...
— A Lie Never Justifiable • H. Clay Trumbull

... built, was so sacred that it would only be reluctantly destroyed. As he enters the actual theatre he will pay nothing for his seat; his attendance is an act of worship, and from the social point of view obligatory; the entrance fee is therefore paid for him ...
— Ancient Art and Ritual • Jane Ellen Harrison

... north. There are two good specimens of Venetian palazzetti, one fantastic, the other classical; and there is a rough pavement, which is still wanting in Patras. A visit to the silk-shop of Garafuglia Papaiouanou was obligatory: here the golden-hued threads reminded me of the Indian Tussur-moth. Also de rigueur was the purchase of nougat and raki, the local mandorlato ...
— To the Gold Coast for Gold - A Personal Narrative in Two Volumes.—Vol. I • Richard F. Burton

... In the technical branches of the service only about 40 per cent. were Yugoslavs, for a preference was given to Germans and Magyars. Out of 116 chief engineers only two were Yugoslavs. Serbo-Croat was an obligatory language; but German, as in the army, was the language of command. Thus one sees that, in spite of not being favoured, the Yugoslavs of the Adriatic, who are natural sailors, constituted more than half the personnel ...
— The Birth of Yugoslavia, Volume 2 • Henry Baerlein

... right of the people to make and to alter their constitutions of government; but the constitution which at any time exists, till changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole people, is sacredly obligatory upon all. The very idea of the power and the right of the people to establish government presupposes the duty of every individual to obey the ...
— Key-Notes of American Liberty • Various

... class, as it does on the Continent; it really was the dearer of the two, the fee in the private class being only a guinea, while the fee of the public class was a guinea and a half. The public class was the ordinary class taken for graduation and other purposes, and obligatory by academic authority; the private was a special class, undertaken, with the permission of the Senatus, for those who wished to push the subject further; and to harmonise this account of them with what has been previously ...
— Life of Adam Smith • John Rae

... included in the term of active service, the latter to start only with the age of eighteen (Clause 90); in other words, the Jewish cantonists were compelled to serve an additional term of six years over and above the obligatory twenty-five years. Moreover, at the examination of Jewish conscripts, all that was demanded for their enlistment was "that they be free from any disease or defect incompatible with military service, but the other qualifications required by the ...
— History of the Jews in Russia and Poland. Volume II • S.M. Dubnow

... right in demanding that an artist should take an intelligent attitude to his work, but you confuse two things: solving a problem and stating a problem correctly. It is only the second that is obligatory for the artist. In "Anna Karenin" and "Evgeny Onyegin" not a single problem is solved, but they satisfy you completely because all the problems are correctly stated in them. It is the business of the judge to put the ...
— Letters of Anton Chekhov • Anton Chekhov

... and looking through the peat stacks he saw St. Peter's rising above a rim of pearl-coloured mountains, and before he was aware of it he had begun to consider how he might write a letter to Rome. Was it not a fact that celibacy had only been made obligatory in Ireland ...
— The Untilled Field • George Moore

... The Rules of Ethics are of two kinds. The first are imposed under a penalty. These are Laws proper, or Obligatory Morality. ...
— Moral Science; A Compendium of Ethics • Alexander Bain

... with a remark on the apparent tendency of the wide options in the Commissioners' scheme. No one subject is obligatory; and the choice is so wide that by a very narrow range of acquirements a man may sometimes succeed. No doubt, as a rule, it requires a considerable mixture of subjects: both sciences and literature have to be included. But I find ...
— Practical Essays • Alexander Bain

... a very ill-regulated place; but even the most irritable of tourists, meeting it on his way southward, will be disposed to consider it good-naturedly. There is far too much bustling and scrambling, and the facilities afforded you for the obligatory process of ripping open your luggage before the officers of the Italian custom-house are much scantier than should be; but for myself there is something that deprecates irritation in the shabby green and grey uniforms of all the Italian officials who stand loafing about and watching ...
— Italian Hours • Henry James

... drawn by our Ministers, contained professions of attachment to the alliance, and declared that the treaty should not be obligatory till His Britannic Majesty shall have agreed to accept the terms of a peace between France and Britain, proposed or accepted by his Most Christian Majesty, and shall be ready to conclude with him such treaty. The preamble, agreed ...
— The Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution, Vol. XI • Various

... Graham's Town, South Africa, gave a grand dinner at the Opera Colonnade to his friends and relatives, resolved (according to the fashion of the time) to fill them all to the full with generous Bacchus by obligatory toasts, he himself pretending to prefer his own bottle of brown sherry,—in fact, dishonest toast and water; but that sort of practical joke was also a fashion of the day. The result, of course, was what he desired; everybody but himself had too much, whilst his ...
— My Life as an Author • Martin Farquhar Tupper

... the inward assurance of GOD'S pardon is in this connexion outwardly mediated by words of Absolution audibly pronounced. In medieval times there grew up a regular system of the confessional and an elaborate science of the guidance and direction of souls. Recourse to sacramental confession was made obligatory for all Christians at least once in the year. [Footnote: This is still the formal rule of the Church of Rome.] The system came to be attended by many superstitions and abuses, frequently it was exploited in the interests of a corrupt sacerdotalism, sometimes it was ...
— Religious Reality • A.E.J. Rawlinson

... past two or three years has been a Michigan man who has had in mind the benefit of his locality, the State of Michigan and the United States. It was his privilege to introduce the first bill into a state legislature that became a law making it obligatory upon state authorities to plant useful trees along the roadside throughout the entire state that he represented so well in the Senate. I take pleasure in calling upon that member to respond to the eloquent words of the Mayor's representative. I would ask Senator ...
— Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the Sixth Annual Meeting. Rochester, New York, September 1 and 2, 1915 • Various

... he had discovered, was obligatory upon the students and upon those clerical members of the faculty who conducted the services. Personally he was drawn thither by the peculiar flavour which the exercises gave his daily life. It was ...
— The Mayor of Warwick • Herbert M. Hopkins

... required to give validity to any compact, so far as it might comprehend those objects. A treaty, therefore, which required an appropriation of money or any act of Congress to carry it into effect, had not acquired its obligatory form until the house of representatives had exercised its powers in the case. They were at full liberty to make, or to withhold, such appropriation, or other law, without incurring the imputation of violating any existing obligation, or breaking the ...
— Washington and the American Republic, Vol. 3. • Benson J. Lossing

... proper, to change these agents individually, or the organization of them in form or function whenever they please: that all the acts done by those agents under the authority of the nation, are the acts of the nation, are obligatory on them, and enure to their use, and can in no wise be annulled or affected by any change in the form of the government, or of the persons administering it. Consequently the Treaties between the United States and France were not treaties between the United States and Louis Capet, ...
— From Isolation to Leadership, Revised - A Review of American Foreign Policy • John Holladay Latane

... not satisfactory; but it may be made so. One must make some change in the facts, inventing some reason to oblige the prince to cause or permit the two enemies to meet. They must, for instance, be together in the army or in other obligatory functions, a circumstance the prince himself cannot hinder without endangering his State. For example, the absence of either of them might be responsible for the disappearance of innumerable persons of his party from the army or cause grumbling among the soldiers ...
— Theodicy - Essays on the Goodness of God, the Freedom of Man and the Origin of Evil • G. W. Leibniz

... In the Astor Club (or is it the Palm Club? Or has the name been changed since spring?) one finds the higher type of nocturnal rounder. Evening clothes are obligatory for all. Champagne and expensive wines constitute the only beverages served. The orchestra is composed of very creditable musicians; and the lady patrons, chosen by the management by standards of pulchritude rather than of social standing, are attestations ...
— Europe After 8:15 • H. L. Mencken, George Jean Nathan and Willard Huntington Wright

... Narrow-gauge Railway will take Visitors to the newly-acquired forward area (not obligatory). This part of the programme ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 153, Oct. 24, 1917 • Various

... treasure at Dover Point; up the Piscataqua River; and, while he and his companions were thus engaged, the owner of the land came upon them, and compelled Hatch's client to give him a note for a sum of money. The object was to inquire whether this note was obligatory. Hatch says that there are a hundred people now resident in Portsmouth, who, at one time or another, have dug for treasure. The process is, in the first place, to find out the site of the treasure by the divining-rod. A circle ...
— Passages From The American Notebooks, Volume 2. • Nathaniel Hawthorne

... and the laws by which this territory should be governed; and among other provisions, slavery is prohibited in it. We do not question the power of the States, by agreement among themselves, to pass this ordinance, nor its obligatory force in the territory, while the confederation or league of the States in their separate ...
— Report of the Decision of the Supreme Court of the United States, and the Opinions of the Judges Thereof, in the Case of Dred Scott versus John F.A. Sandford • Benjamin C. Howard

... that is to say, the physical basis of existence, are assured, the law of solidarity takes precedence over the law of the struggle for existence, and when they are not assured, the contrary is true. Among savages, infanticide and parricide are not only permitted but are obligatory and sanctioned by religion if the tribe inhabits an island where food is scarce (for instance, in Polynesia), and they are immoral and criminal acts on continents where the food supply is more abundant ...
— Socialism and Modern Science (Darwin, Spencer, Marx) • Enrico Ferri

... by its use it is easy after rubbing and water polishing to produce an even surface on which to apply the varnish. The previous application of this undercoat was thus an advantage in the case of coarse, uneven surfaces that it formed a first and sort of obligatory initial stage in the process of japanning. This initial coating is still applied in many instances. But it has its drawbacks, and these drawbacks are incidental to the nature of the priming coat which consists of size and whiting. The coats or layers of japan proper, that is of varnish ...
— Handbook on Japanning: 2nd Edition - For Ironware, Tinware, Wood, Etc. With Sections on Tinplating and - Galvanizing • William N. Brown

... unto your Lordship (pardon my presumption, great Lord, from so meane a man to so great a person) I could not without some impiety present it to any other; such a sad priviledge have the bequests of the dead, and so obligatory they are, more than the requests of the living. In the hope of this honourable acceptance I ...
— A Life of William Shakespeare - with portraits and facsimiles • Sidney Lee

... they encumber somewhat the Attic neatness and simplicity of the original. We ought to say, that La Fontaine boldly broke with the tradition which had been making Alexandrines—lines of six feet—obligatory in French verse. He rhymes irregularly, at choice, and makes his verses long or short, as pleases him. The closing verse of the present piece is, in accordance with the intended majesty of the representation, ...
— Classic French Course in English • William Cleaver Wilkinson

... provision of the legislature, it was made obligatory upon every planter to support all the superannuated, infirm, or diseased on the estate, who were such at this time of emancipation. Those who have become so since 1834, fall upon the hands ...
— The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Omnibus • American Anti-Slavery Society

... article was admissible to make up the dowry to an even number, and so avoid giving one or three, or more odd numbers of articles. Conscious as they were of the existence of some Supreme Being, but worshipping no God, true or false, the white man's religion which makes such a worship obligatory through a mediator found easy access among so susceptible a people; and with equal ease they likewise adopted the civilization of the white man. But the Natives received not only the white man's civilization and his religion, but have even gullibly imbibed ...
— Native Life in South Africa, Before and Since • Solomon Tshekisho Plaatje

... are made not only from the artifices and triumphs of the successful, but from the struggles and failures of the unfortunate as well; and I have endeavored to make clear both the philosophy and the application of all the principles so deduced. Though in theory these rules are obligatory on all who essay the short story, they are frequently and knowingly evaded or violated by the masters of the art, whose genius is great enough to excuse their disregard of the conventions, or whose skill is sufficient to smooth ...
— Short Story Writing - A Practical Treatise on the Art of The Short Story • Charles Raymond Barrett

... undertake to demand from them the said account, in that said event I constitute them my heirs. And when this my will is fulfilled and observed, and that herein contained, to that part of my properties remaining and its rights and disposal, inasmuch as I have no obligatory heir, either forbears or descendants, I establish and appoint my soul as heir of the said remainder of my properties, its rights and disposal, so that what pertains to that inheritance, shall be given into the power of the said ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898: Volume XVII, 1609-1616 • Various

... Fast," which, he explains, was kept "either seven years the same day that her day falleth in March, and then begin, or one year with bread and water." Whatever fasts a vowess might neglect as non-obligatory, it seems probable that she would not willingly forgo any opportunity of showing reverence to the Blessed Virgin, who, in the belief of St. Augustine, had taken vows of chastity before the ...
— The Customs of Old England • F. J. Snell

... combinations of persons with an "evil end."[1] So, "full freedom of association" is now guaranteed in Switzerland; and in Germany the trade guilds are largely recognized, but membership must not be compulsory. In Austria a strict governmental control is exercised, and the principle of obligatory guilds is unreservedly accepted. There does not appear to be any legislation upon strikes except in Great Britain, France, and Italy, such matters being left largely to the political or police authorities. Strikes ...
— Popular Law-making • Frederic Jesup Stimson

... of Britain were formed into eight articles; to which Mons. Mesnager, having transmitted them to his court and received new powers from thence, had orders to give his master's consent, by way of answers to the several points, to be obligatory only after a general peace. These demands, together with the answers of the French King, were drawn up and signed by Mons. Mesnager, and Her Majesty's two principal secretaries of state; whereof I shall here present an ...
— The Prose Works of Jonathan Swift, Vol. X. • Jonathan Swift



Words linked to "Obligatory" :   de rigueur, compulsory, imposed, necessary, incumbent on, bounden, prerequisite, required, mandatory, optional, indispensable



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