" Without this historical background no special study of the events that led up to the present war can be either just or intelligible.

§1. Is there an Idea behind the War?The object of the preceding chapters has been to provide the historic background without which it is impossible to understand either the motives of our opponents or the events which led up to their quarrel.

The sunlight, slanting westward through the trees, Fell first upon his lifted, golden head, Making a shining helmet of his curls, And then upon the lilies in his hand; His eyes had a defiant, fearless glow; Against the sombre background of the wood, He looked scarce human.

TOBIN, JAMES E. Eighteenth century English literature and its cultural background; a bibliography.

The view from the river, looking across this verdure, with sandstone rocks for the immediate background, and snow-capped mountains in the distance, is extraordinary in its magnificence and combinations.

It requires a microscopic eye to fully appreciate all its beautiesyet the thousands of figures and the architectural background, are so clear and intelligible as to make our optic nerve sympathize with the labour of the artist.

The colonial background of the American Revolution.

The home intellectual background may vary, but on the whole cannot be reckoned on very much; though in some ways it is more narrow than the suburban one, it is often less superficial.

The table, the sideboard, and the chairs must have formed part of the set of Empire furniture in the bedrooms; and the old mahogany, of a deep red, stood out in strong relief against the light background.

His mirth has something of the tragedy of the world for its perpetual background; and he feasts like Don Giovanni to a double orchestra, one lightly sounding for the dance, one pealing Beethoven in the distance.

Biblical backgrounds.

There is only a pig in the following poke; and yet in giving you the string to cut and the bag to open, I feel something of Peachey's wonder to think of you, across all this distance and change, as still sitting in your great chair by the green lamp, while past a dim background of books moves the procession of youth.

Aside from these occasional and circumspect voices, and the busy rustle of a steel pen in the hand of Sturm, the quiet of the room had a tolerably constant background of sound in a subdued whisper punctuated by muffled clicks, emanating from the bronze casket that housed the telautographic apparatus.

Celeste, before leaving, had drawn down the blinds and turned on the electric light, and the white and gold room, with its blazing wall-brackets, formed a sufficiently brilliant background to carry out the illusion.

This doorway was a fitting frame for such a rustic picture as a girl in a gingham dress, and the small house itself a fitting background.

At the southern extremity of the valley on the banks of the Bitter Root River, and with the range serving as an effective background, is Fort Missoula, a pleasantly located military post.

But the face in that instant of dream was the face of Miss Katharine Lansdale, and coupled with the vision was a prescience that in some later life I should again look back and see myself as now, a grown but awkward boy, still holding aloofstill adoring from some remote background while other and bolder gallants captured trophies and lightly carolled their serenades.

All comers, on a first interview, told him that he was marvellously young, and some repeated the statement each time they saw him; all critics who wrote about him called attention to the same ground for wonder: his deficiencies and excesses were alike to be accounted for by the flattering fact of his youth, and his youth was the golden background which set off his many-hued endowments.

The mists, which had followed me from England, had collected behind the Rock, and the sun, still hidden by its huge bulk, shone upwards through them, making a luminous background, against which the lofty walls and jagged ramparts of this tremendous natural fortification were clearly defined.

Her color was high; he noted the vivid white and pink against the dull background of stained leather.

Either the great writer leaves such materials untouched, or he employs them as the vehicle of more cherished, because more authenticated tidings,he paints the ruin of an empire as the scenic background for his picture of the distress of two simple hearts.

These massive moss-grown arches and mighty iron-clamped doors were, indeed, like the dim shadowy background of a vision; but the guttering taper, my sodden bundle, and all the sordid details of my disarranged toilet assured me only too clearly of their reality.

Sylvia stopped for an instant to take in the marvel of this pageant, enacted every day of every season against that magnificent background.

Baronial towers and stately avenues of ancestral elm did not make a picturesque background for his thoughts as he recalled Aunt Tipping.

But it assuredly had been the Bramble, and her men had not seen the signals against the gloomy background of scrub and hills.