And it did seem to me, by my reading, that Man had come at one time to a great softness of Heart and Spirit through many ages of over-ease.

submissness^, submissiveness; ductility &c (softness) 324; obsequiousness &c (servility) 886.

Sensibility N. sensibility, sensibleness, sensitiveness; moral sensibility; impressibility, affectibility^; susceptibleness, susceptibility, susceptivity^; mobility; vivacity, vivaciousness; tenderness, softness; sentimental, sentimentality; sentimentalism.

And the dog fought with our dogs, and for all of his short hair and softness slew three of them in one day.

Theirs the whiskey, and tobacco, and short-haired dogs; theirs the many sicknesses, the smallpox and measles, the coughing and mouth-bleeding; theirs the white skin, and softness to the frost and storm; and theirs the pistols that shoot six times very swift and are worthless.

And out of all this softness, and sickness, and weakness, come strength, and power, and authority.

And through it all he observed the Law, pitiless and potent, ever unswerving and ever ordaining, greater than the motes of men who fulfilled it or were crushed by it, even as it was greater than he, his heart speaking for softness.

I saw the mighty work the waters wrought By patient softness and unceasing flow; How they the proudest promontory brought Unto their feet, and massy hills laid low; How the soft drops the adamantine wall Conquered at last, and brought it to its fall.

For her face was fair beyond words; red upon white, like rose-leaves upon cream; and her eyes were bright and glancing like those of a falcon, and her nose was thin and straight, and her lips were very red, like to coral for redness, and her hair was dark and abundant and like to silk for softness.

Owing to this and to the softness of the valley, we labored on till sundown, and only succeeded in bringing one wagon to its destination, the other two remained fast in the mud in the middle of the valley.

"Little Arthur Hamilton" he was always called by them, not because there were not many other boys smaller than he, but from his gentleness and timid softness, he seemed one to be protected by them; and the roughest boy never thought of pushing and striking him.

A specimen of his praise follows, "Thy Prose in sweeter Harmony refines, Than Numbers flowing thro' the Muse's Lines; What Beauty ne'er could melt, thy Touches fire, And raise a Musick that can Love inspire; Soul-thrilling Accents all our Senses wound, And strike with Softness, whilst they charm with Sound!

They forget that the double vision of our two eyes gives a softness, and indistinctness, and roundness, to every outline.

My children, as they were educated without softness, so they were at once well-formed and healthy; my four sons hardy and active, my two daughters beautiful and blooming.

"Kiss me, Esther," he had said; and a wonderful thrill had gone through the little girl at this strange softness in the mighty, while the dawn of a wonderful pity for the lot of woman had, unconsciously, broken in the soul of the boy.

For, of course, she would have forgotten it all in the morning; and it were well not to remind her with your dreaming eyes of her last night's softness.

When the permeating softness suddenly yielded to full transparency, spreading from the fanfare of the rising sun come bolt above the range, and the mist rose, she left the road at sight of two ponies and a burro in a group, their heads together in drooping fellowship.

The softness of speculative fancy faded from his face.

Science and letters, for a long time buried in monasteries, reappeared like beautiful exiles at the imperial court, and social life thereby gained a little charm and softness.

We see grim knights and iron armour; but then they are woven in silk with a careless, delicate hand, and have the softness of flowers.

The author of the Pleasures of Memory polishes his lines till they sparkle with the most exquisite finish; he attenuates them into the utmost degree of trembling softness: but we may complain, in spite of the delicacy and brilliancy of the execution, of a want of strength and solidity.

He stepped close, eager, prepared for any wild burst of temper; but she let him take her hands, let him draw her close, bend back her head; hold her closer still, till the warmth and softness of her body reached him, but when his lips came close she said quietly: "Are you a rotter, Bard?" He stiffened and the smile went out on his lips.

There is, indeed, something that peculiarly breaks in on the harmony of nature, in the bark of the dog, and that does not at all correspond with the softness and sagacity observable in his eye.

"Potage, a species of food, made of meat and vegetables boiled to softness in water."See

But the English countryside is not all greenness and softness, blossomy lanes, moated granges, and idyllic villages.