I could go on, much farther with St. Augustine, but I love to be as brief as may be.
One would think these Poets went upon absolute Certainty, and could demonstrate a Scheme of Infidelity.
You are so Beautiful So wondrous Fair, you justifie Rebellion; As if that faultless Face could make no Sin, But Heaven by looking on it must forgive.
If a Man would study to outrage Quality and Vertue, he could not do it more Effectually.
I know his Courage is extraordinary; But sure such Thoughts could never bear up against Solitude and a Candle!
I could cite more Plays to this purpose; But these are sufficient to show the Temper of the Stage.
The Greatness of his Spirit, the Feavour of his Blood, and the Rage of his Passion, could hardly fail of putting Force, and Vehemence into his Expressions.
I couldalledge more of his Courtship to the Order, but the Reader might possibly be tired, and therefore I shall proceed in the Third, place to his want of Modesty, and Regard to the Audience.
One would think the Dishonour of their own Sex, the Discovery of so much Lewdness, and the treating Human Nature so very Coarsly, could have little Satisfaction in't.
I could cite many more Authorities of this Kind, but being conscious of the Niceness of the Age, I shall forbear, and proceed to the Testimony of the Fathers.
I could make several other Material Objections against the Conduct of his Plays; But this being not necessary I shall observe in the 3d.
Lucian and Celsus could not have ridiculed the Resurrection better!
In the Old Batchelour, Vain-love asks Belmour, could you be content to go to Heaven?
She loved archaic phrases and grieved because fit words should perish, mourning them as men would mourn if, believing there were children of immortal lineage among them, they discovered these could die.
She did, especially in those later days, more than half believe we could delight in pouncing, with her own triumphant agility, on discoveries of remote relationships and evasive dates.
Indeed, his authoritative note in criticism was the less beguiling to her who could be outspoken herself, on high occasion, than some personal quality of sensitive receptiveness to life.
The harsher the discord she could lend the unfortunate twain, the more gustily she laughed, and in Happy Ending the choppy sea subsided into unimpeachable cadence: “Can trout allure the rod of yore In Itchen stream to dip?
Her multiplicity of detail had become so minute and comprehensive, especially as touching the Restoration, that even literary journals could seldom print her with any chance of backing from the average reader.
Certainly His ill-starred Majesty could have desired no liking more whole-hearted, albeit discriminating, more merrily tolerant than hers.
She could knock her lines into a wild ruin and rebuild, but that was after the first swift assembling of stone on stone.
No less pretentious scholar ever walked a world more suavely aware of her gracious charm, more happily oblivious of the breaches she could make in worn conventions if she brought up her artillery.
It was now nearly evening, and I had been riding my horse at a fast pace the whole day; I was afraid we could not reach the reserve water by night.
One old fool of a horse must needs jump into an empty rock basin; it was deep and funnel shaped, so that he could not stand when he got there, so he fell, and had knocked himself about terribly before we could get him out.
To this town was the first section of the Transcontinental telegraph line carried; and it was in those days the last place where I could get stores for my expedition.
At night they went away; their camp could not be far off, as we continually heard the sounds of voices and could see their camp fires.
On arriving, we fixed our camp close up to the large basins, but the horses could water a mile below, where some tea-tree grew, and where the water reappeared upon the surface after sinking beneath it.
Although the region now was all a plain, no views of any extent could be obtained, as the country still rolled on in endless undulations at various distances apart, just as in the scrubs.
The only information I could glean from them was that their word for travelling, or going, or coming, was "Peterman".
We had yet over eighty miles to travel to reach the Finniss, and had we not found water I am sure the three human beings of the party could never have got there.
It was of course a desperate thing to do, and I believe very few people would orcould rush madly into a totally unknown wilderness, where the nearest known water was 650 miles away.
Because I have a commission I could then intrust to you.
If he were seeking a position I could find a place for him.
But when, three months later, active operations for the extension and completion of the railroad commenced, it could easily have been sold for double.
Do you think you could go to Tacoma, look carefully over the ground, and secure desirable lots for me?
About three months before the mortgage became due he received the following from Valentine: "DEAR ANDY: I wish I could see you oftener, but I know you are busy, and getting on.
He had seen the buggy standing still on the highway, and he could not understand the cause until he got near enough to see the tramp at the horse's head.
Once convinced that in this way he could get revenge on the boy who had humiliated and got the best of him, the tramp was only too willing to help Conrad in his scheme.
The change in his father's circumstances had come so suddenly that Andy could not immediately decide upon a plan of securing employment.
It was perhaps somewhat rash to hazard a charge without proof, but he felt indignant and could not resist the impulse.
I think I could adapt myself to any that I had an opportunity to follow.
I didn't care to tell him that you had another income, but said: 'Don't you think you couldlive on it?
The new boat was so elegant, so graceful, and so thoroughly finished in every part, that Conrad could not help coveting it.
Two men were sitting near him whose conversation he could not help hearing.
Evidently the boy had been drinking, and could not walk straight.
Thereupon, the musicians set to work, butcould not agree as to whose should be the first instrument.
William Penn lost no time in sending word to all the Quakers in England that in America they could find a home and on his land be free from persecution.
But in his own heart he knew he would not be happy unless he could hunt the world over for strange creatures and try to find out the secrets of the old, old mountains.
They seemed so happy that the children who went to school often wished they could study with Mrs. Edison.
You see he needed one beautifully made machine, and he must have a long line of poles and wires built before he could prove that with his dots and dashes people could talk to each other, although they were miles apart.
He did not want to waste time by asking to have the same thing read twice to him, so he trained his memory until he could carry the exact words on a page in his mind, and after a while he could repeat whole chapters without a mistake.
The church members were kind to her; she took boarders again, and sewed and mended with never a complaint, so long as the boys could go to the Latin School.
He had tried to do something which he thought would be a help in the world, and if he could not, he would try to be brave and sensible about it.
He could repeat almost the whole of a sermon, a speech, or a story that he had happened to hear.
That season every one who could afford it gave their friends a Christmas present of the Prescott books.
So she traveled some more, but she could never find a city where poor people were not suffering.
He was full of fun and frolic and took all Master Knapp's rebukes so cheerfully that the teacher could not get angry with him.
Thomas could not have learned so quickly if he had not worked very steadily.
One day when Benjamin was about seven, some one gave him all the pennies he could squeeze into one hand.
When their father was so quick at sports and games and could plan such perfectly splendid holidays, it did seem pretty hard to the Lee children that he was so often sent away on war duties.
Daniel read everything he could find, and could recite whole poems and chapters of books when he was quite small.
It was agreed that nobody at the poor-farm had leisure to stand guard over Tom night and day, and that the sheriff could not be expected to spend his time forcing him out of his hut on the blueberry plains.
As for the bridge which knit together the two tiny villages, nobody could pass over that without being seen from the Bascoms'.
Everything about the basket was small except the hopes that she was stitching into it; they were so great that her heart could scarcely hold them.
He was a truthful child, but in this he could no more have told the whole truth than he could have cut off his hand.
Her joy lay deep in her heart like a jewel at the bottom of a clear pool, so deep that no ripple or ruffle on the surface could disturb the hidden treasure.
He could swear she had loved him that night, if never again.
Strange that hecould have forgotten the beloved spot!
The years of struggle for perfection had not been wasted; and though the eye that once detected the deviation of a hair's breadth could no longer tell the true from the false, yet nature had been busy with her divine work of compensation.
She couldnot have lived without that window, she would have told you, nor without the river, which had lulled her to sleep ever since she could remember.
The hay was pronounced to be in a condition where it could be left without much danger; but, for that matter, no man would have stayed in the field to attend to another man's hay when there was a circus in the neighborhood.
I'd go past the Post Office every day, knowing it was there, and torturing myself with the thought of what I could buy with it, and leaving it there till I'd got five pounds and could drink myself to hell!
Never--never in all my life have I imagined there could be anyone so utterly rude as you, and so utterly mad.
Right back of her mind was the shaking conviction that she could not stand alone; she was longing, demanding almost, all that night, that God should come down from on high with chariots and thunderbolts to save her; she wanted Dr.
On the ship they found that he could not get his things until the purser came aboard at seven o'clock in the evening, as he had them sealed up.
You know, little boy, if you really were a little boy, I could smack you and put you to bed for being such a worry.
If your father, without religion or anything, could have conquered, Marcella, he'd have been a very heroic figure.
But she knew she could not walk so far and, with a stern cussedness typical of her father, she went on with Louis's work, not mentioning to the Twists that he was away, though they all wondered what had happened to him.
It was only when she lay awake for hours afterwards, with a vague discomfort that was certainly not physical, that she remembered and was amazed that he could have remembered cigarettes just then.
Through his thin canvas coat she couldfeel his heart thumping as hers was.
Quick tears had sprung into Marcella's eyes, tears of pity and of impotence as she wondered what on earth she could do for Aunt Janet.
She could not sleep after that, and walked down to the lake in the moonlight.
But she could not see much; she was thinking of Louis.
It took a good many years of stern resistance on Sir James Brooke's part before the Bruni nobles could be cured of their connivance of pirates, whether Malay or Dyak.
If I couldnot take them, he said, they must be sent back to their own country immediately, as there was a boat departing the next day.
Another poor fellow could not be got up the ladder because he had a long-handled three-barbed spear sticking in his back: the Bishop had to go down and cut it out before he could be moved.
Lingi, who had then submitted to the Rajah, had been in Sarawak for some days, professedly to trade, but really to see if he could not take Sir James Brooke's head.
However, he was most faithful in the performance of his duties at that lonely fort, and most blameless in his life; we could only regret the loss of so good a young man.
One day papa was calling at a Malay house, where a wedding was about to take place, and found the bridegroom learning a passage in the Koran, in Arabic, which he could not translate, but which it was necessary he should repeat.
They have some customs at Manilla which I could not help admiring.
Of course you would imagine these to be lumps of crude iniquity, tiny vessels as full as they could hold of naughtiness; nor can I say a great deal to the contrary.
If any likeness could be given, however, it must be by sculpture, not painting.
The Greenwich pensioners might prove better subjects for true education now than in their schoolboy days; but then where is the Normal School that could educate instructors for such a class?
It could not be questioned that they were treated with kindness as well as care.
The advantages of the latter, if any they could really be said to have, were all comprised in a few additional lumps of clay on their shoulders and other parts of their figures.
His garb was what has been described, save that as he drew near, Don Quixote perceived that a tattered doublet which he wore was amber-tanned, from which he concluded that one who wore such garments could not be of very low rank.
As well as he could make out he was unclad, with a thick black beard, long tangled hair, and bare legs and feet, his thighs were covered by breeches apparently of tawny velvet but so ragged that they showed his skin in several places.
He was anxious to go there, for he had a great fancy to come across the trolls, and see if he could not overcome them.
She did not know any of them, but there were several of them she seemed to recollect having seen before; but when and where she had seen them she could not call to mind.
I had written home for a horse and sledge and my father's fur coat, but my letter could scarcely reach our valley before the day after Christmas, and the horse could not be in town before New Year's Eve.
My comrades had all left town, and I knew no family with whom I could make myself at home during the holidays.
I could not distinguish the countenances any longer, but gazed across at the old building.
Somebody appeared to be throwing the logs about on the hearth, but she could not see who it was.
I couldscarcely believe my eyes when I saw the same peasant whom I had seen in my dream leaning over me.
She had no idea what time it could be, so she went to the window and looked across to the church.
The common people fled all away to secure themselves; but, after the tempest was over, could never find their king.
Wilkes, who was a high bred man, and never accustomed to similar exhibitions, could not take his eyes from so strange and novel a picture.
For the rest of the day he was hydrostatically mad; nor could the commonest incident connected with the action or conveyance of water take place, without his speculating on its cause and consequence.
Proud and important personages, like the Prince and Count, could ill brook such insolence; moreover, they suspected the Cardinal of prejudicing the mind of their sovereign against them.
It is obvious that such charges and recriminations could excite no healing result, and that the lines between Cardinalists and their opponents would be defined in consequence more sharply than ever.
There was to be no diminution of the religious persecution, but the people were assured upon royal authority, that the inquisition, by which they were daily burned and beheaded, could not be logically denominated the Spanish inquisition.
The King received the substitution with as good a grace as could have been expected, and sent fifteen hundred troopers from Spain to his Medicean mother-in-law, drawing upon the Duchess of Parma for the money to pay their expenses.
To do him justice, he did what he could to conciliate antagonists and to compromise principles.
With infinitely less Attic salt, but with as much heartiness as Aristophanes could have done, the popular rhymers gave the minister ample opportunity to understand the position which he occupied in the Netherlands.
They confessed the offence, for they protested that they could not endure to see the profanation of their Saviour's name in the idolatrous sacraments.
It had been originally devised for Jews or Moors, whom the Christianity of the age did not regard as human beings, but who could not be banished without depopulating certain districts.
It was no cabal, no secret league, as the Cardinal had the effrontery to term it, but a legitimate exercise of powers which belonged of old to those who wielded them, and which only an unrighteous innovation could destroy.
Bertrand had none, however, and could denounce none.
It had now become certain, however, that the government could no longer be continued on its present footing.
She faced around, drawn by something that will and reason could not overcome, to see that Jim Galway and Ropey Smith had finished their task of pacing off the distance.
In the days when I knew I could never be acceptable as their master I knew I was in no danger of ever having to face them.
But at length, as they rode, their eyes saw what only eyes used to desert reaches could see, that the speck in the distance was not a cactus or even two or three cacti in line, but something alive and moving.
I am taking the portrait of the ancestor, because I cannot help it any more than he could help taking a Spanish galleon.
She could not help herself: she burst out laughing.
Over the bump of their self-introduction, free of the serious impression of her experience, she couldthink for him as well as for herself.
If one could go up on top of a tower and look out over the range now and then and breathe deep, it would help.
By the time that he was mounting the steps of the house his growing impatience could no longer bear even the delay of waiting on dinner.
The young woman turned her head to glance into a shop-window and then there could be no mistaking that cheek and chin and the peculiar relation of the long lashes to the brow.
Bob Worther could ride him on the tours of inspection.
And this afternoon, while you were at the house and my father came to the drawing-room door, I couldnot help noticing how the Doge was overcome.
It was a spectacle such as could be seen only in an Oriental city with a people who live in public with the placid unconsciousness of animals.
As many as fifty men could be accommodated in each of these large establishments.
Soon he came to me and wanted a job that would occupy him half a day so that he could go to school the other half of the day.
These limestone cliffs were chosen for the tombs of the kings at Thebes, and all along the river one couldmake out with a glass frequent tombs carved in the steep sides of these hills.
As commander, he could have assigned them to less dangerous positions, but it probably never entered his head to shield his own flesh and blood.
Then we passed into a street of curio shops, but the grill work in front was closed and behind couldbe seen the timid proprietors, who evidently did not mean to take any chances of having their stores looted by robbers.
It was the first night in Singapore that one could walk with any comfort.
All day natives passed along the sky line, some on donkeys, others on camels, still others driving in front laden animals, whose forms could scarcely be distinguished amid the thick clouds of dust raised by their heavy feet.
The Parsee recognizes an overruling god, Ahura-Mazda, the creator of the universe; he believes that Nature with its remarkable laws could not have come into being without a great first cause.
A worse place to defend could not have been chosen, but the twenty officers and two hundred men held it against a horde of mutinous natives for twenty days of blazing heat.
It would have lent more softness to these minarets had the individual stones not been revealed, an effect that could have been secured by using white mortar.
Slowly and with great care she dressed, examining herself often, selecting her best attire, and as she dressed she began to sing, wondering the while that she could feel so light-hearted.
But despite the most diligent search in cafe, market, and boulevard, not a sign nor an echo could he find of the former despots.
Sometimes a brief song would mount up, a few whispered communications could be heard, and the steady snoring of a sleeper.
I could not help it, Nicole," he said, moved by her utter grief.
He tripped and fell, and before he could gain his feet the mob had passed him.
Though from her figure she could not have been more than eighteen, yet in the poise of her head and in the subtile smile, full of grace and piquancy, there showed the coquetry of the woman who plans to please the masculine eye.
Beyond this rat-hole a murky glass served as a peep-hole, whence her flattened nose and little eyes could dimly be distinguished at all hours of the day.
He flung out his arm and repeated sarcastically: "'Victim of the law, could you but read the hearts of your judges you would find them crushed and saddened.
Then she realized that between Barabant and herself was a gulf of opportunity and interests which she could never bridge.
It was a stainless patriot, who could not bear to fight For England the oppressor, or own that she was right; But when the War was over, to show his martial breed, He shot down three policemen and made a woman bleed.
He was cold in his manner and said with so many calls upon him he could not see his way to contribute towards the expense of Filmer's move, although he had no doubt, from my representation, that it was a deserving case.
But Martin, a casual impecunious stranger, stepped in and took her in one bite before Peter could quite realise she was no longer a child.
Personally I knew nothing of ravens, but I recognized the inadequacy of my garden for the accommodation of a bird of any kind, therefore I couldnot think of taking it.
In face of this unlooked-for development I could do nothing but bow and retire.
There once was a basso, a swain Who came from the rolling Ukraine; He could sing double D From breakfast till tea Without any symptom of strain.
If they had waited till Monday, as originally arranged, they could have trained their big gun from Paisley on to the Government entrenchments.
His treatment might not commend itself to the leaders of Nonconformity in Wales, but his own artistic conscience was clear, and he felt he could count on the benevolent sympathy of the Northcliffe Press.
What great trumpet voice or lyre Famed of yorecould fitly praise Gifts of the Almighty Sire, Blessings that His own require, Richly lavished through their days?
Thus sin in our parents sown Brought forth ruin for the race; Good and evil having grown From that primal root alone, Nought but death could guilt efface.
But that sore plight of ruined man Christ's pity could not lightly scan: Nor let God's building nobly wrought Ingloriously be brought to nought.
Were a Minister of Defence to be set up as overlord, he couldact as impartial referee.
Copper" turned footpad, he knew the ropes, he could flout the Treasury--and he did.
But in the understanding that was then arrived at, I never could detect any trace of conditions designed to check the dangerous policy which all who were behind the scenes realized the Emperor to be adopting.
That the Revolution could have been prevented, or at all events could have been deferred until subsequent to the end of the war, I firmly believe.
The Russians, Roumanians and Italians all, needless to say, wanted to get as much as they couldout of us, and the French were quite ready to back the Russians and Roumanians up.
Lord Haldane hurled himself into the breach with a zest that could hardly have been exceeded had he been contriving a totally new Territorial Army organization.
A few editors, no doubt, could be trusted to do the work efficiently; but that claim to omniscience which is unobtrusively, but none the less insistently, put forward by the Fourth Estate has no solid foundation.
Could not one of its members take charge, get us together, and give us the authority we required for dealing with the problem?
The foreign delegates could always look in on us and coulddiscuss points of detail with us on the spot, thereby avoiding misunderstandings and friction.
The triumphant campaign of the Central Powers on the Eastern Front somehow proved a more potent factor in deciding Tsar Ferdinand as to what course to pursue, than a whole libraryful of formulae could ever have effected.
My aunt done de carding and spinning and my mammy done de weaving and cutting and sewing, and my pappy could make cowhide shoes wid wooden pegs.
John could read and write and figger, and old Master didn't have no white overseer.
He would go to town and buy six or eight bolts of cloth at a time and the women could pick out two dresses apiece off it.
You could look from the field up to the Big House and any grown body in the yard look like a little body, it was so far away.
Whenever dey was going to shuck all night de women would piece quilts while de men shuck de corn and you could hear 'em singing and shucking corn.
I jined the Holiness so I could git baptized and the Methodist wouldn't baptize you.
We had to pass all the other Negro cabins on the way, and we couldsee that they were all empty, and it looked like everything in them had been tore up.
He would say to them if they did: "Who told you, you could think!
I don't know why they had us up there unless it was so they could laugh at us.
We'd take a block of wood wid a notch in it and catch de rope and hold it till de following-pin could be driven in and den we'd twist de ropes tight again.
Master's old mare was named "Old Willow", and she knowed when to stop and stand real still so he could shoot.
I'd run in the house to get away from the sight, but I couldstill hear Old John yelling, 'Pray, Master!
Jim thought he was de best man in de country and could whip de best of 'em.
At last, when they reached the village, she could restrain herself no longer.
Paul had grown very grave, and for a moment he sat thinking, wondering what he could do; he was very anxious to help.
What could he, a small boy, do against a desperate man?
She could not help the feeling, she had been so frightened by a nameless fear she could scarcely have put into words.
His stockinged feet made no sound on the paved yard, and all was easy now for him if he could but find the right bush.
Everything could be set right, and nothing need ever be known.
His heart was beating furiously with excitement and fear, but he could not pause a moment to steady himself, for he felt he had not a second to lose.
No schoolboy of fourteen would consent to spend a second perfect summer day in the house, for the sake of a pair of scarred knees, if he could possibly manage to use them.
For the moment he was too frightened to move, and as for looking around,--he could not have made himself do it at that moment for all the wealth the world could offer.
There were tears in her eyes at the thought that her boy could keep aloof from her in his troubles.
He felt thoroughly despicable as he lay there, listening to his mother's story, knowing that he could explain all, and so save every one much alarm and trouble.
It was so low and dark she could at first see nothing within, and instinctively she drew herself up sharply on the threshold, doubtful, but of what she did not know.
He could recall, too, the unusual gravity of his parents, the anxious face of his mother, and how the tears sprang to her eyes when his father looked up and noticed her anxiety and tried to cheer her.
It would also, when Thor chose, become so small that he could put it in his pocket.
Then Thor wanted to return to the city, but hecould see nothing but a wide fair plain.
So she seized a can, took the gold lantern down from the wall, and went as fast as she could to the well to draw some water.
For all that, it was an extraordinary shoe, a valuable shoe, and a dear shoe, and it was not every merchant that could afford to pay for it.
Those who descended through the glass point sank quite gently into a wide silver tun, which held them all, and could have easily harboured a thousand such little people.
One evening Orm came in with the intelligence that he had recognised her father's servants in the distance, and that he could hardly have been unobserved by them whose eyes were as good as his own.
She took her child and placed herself at the extreme end of the loft whence, without being observed, she could see all that passed.
But the maiden could not hear a word for the raging of the sea.
The other servants of the king bore him no good-will because he was liked by his master, and they wished to ruin him if they couldfind anything against him.
He was soon asleep, and, strange as it may seem, when Thor tried to open the bag he could not untie a single knot nor loose the string.
How she had now regained her proper shape she could not imagine, but to the youth it was quite clear that the picture of St. George and the Dragon had broken the spell by which the poor girl had been transformed.
She could not help exclaiming over the beauty of the room with its huge stone fireplace and beamed ceiling.
He seemed to care more for his memorial in stone than for the living memory he could leave with those who would love him if he would only let them.
But she had found the explanation for unearthly things before andcould do it again.
Could it have been that he was led to it partly by the fact--though he was quite unconscious of it--that there was something similar in the home relations of these two men?
If his step could have been quicker, it would many times have taken him in the front of the younger porters, who darted forward and seemed to get all the jobs.
Mother determined to let this new idea have a fair trial; though she could not help feeling a little nervous as she heard the scrimmaging of the furniture, and thought of possible breakages.
They went puff, puff, all over the floor, just like big snowflakes, and I couldhardly help stepping on them.
In spite of these unsatisfactory surroundings, there was as large-hearted a love to be found in the small family which these four walls sheltered from the cold outside world, as any one could wish to see.
Bob made the grand discovery that he could dance a hornpipe.
I have very little more to tell you, and that you couldalmost guess for yourself.
What couldbe more expressive of lovely open-air peace than this description?
Finally he proposes taking as his master George Edmund Street, who was living in Oxford as architect of the diocese, and whose enthusiasm for the thirteenth century could hardly have failed to claim the sympathy of Morris.
If his business was a successful one it was not because he tried to get from his workmen the utmost he could claim in time and labour.
He liked a floor that he could stamp on with impunity; he liked a table on which he could pound with his fists without danger to its equilibrium.
Nor could he be persuaded by the most brilliant eloquence in the world that good could be got out of doing what he did not enjoy; and he never enjoyed any labour that required long patience and persistent concentration of effort.
Unlike the majority, he was impelled not only by the sensuous beauty of ritualistic worship, to which, however, no onecould have been more keenly alive than he, but by a genuine enthusiasm for a life devoted to high purposes.
A word that he could not refrain from many a million of men.
The above list will hopefully give you a few useful examples demonstrating the appropriate usage of "could" in a variety of sentences. We hope that you will now be able to make sentences using this word.
