There is, undoubtedly, much natural talent spilt over the Excursion; but it is rain upon rocks, where it stands and stagnates; or rain upon sand, where it falls without fertilizing."

Canst thou a liberal hand upbraid For dealing round some worthless ore? To spare's the wish of little souls, The great but gather to bestow; Yon current down the mountain rolls, And stagnates in the swamp below.

This was one of those unhealthy, pent-up cloisters, where misery stagnates and broods among the "foul congregation of pestilential vapours" which haunt the backdoor life of the poorest parts of great towns.

It is a true saying that everything that stagnates corrupts.

It was natural and inevitable that a Government in which there was never any change or movement should stagnate and become corrupt.

A thicker crust by this time stagnates upon it.

V. be quiescent &c adj.; stand still, lie still; keep quiet, repose, hold the breath. remain, stay; stand, lie to, ride at anchor, remain in situ, tarry, mark time; bring to, heave to, lay to; pull up, draw up; hold, halt; stop, stop short; rest, pause, anchor; cast to an anchor, come to an anchor; rest on one's oars; repose on one's laurels, take breath; stop &c (discontinue) 142. stagnate;

Do not suffer life to stagnate; it will grow muddy for want of motion: commit yourself again to the current of the world; Pekuah will vanish by degrees; you will meet, in your way, some other favourite, or learn to diffuse yourself in general conversation.

If papa is a bishop, make use of him, and don't stagnate in this village, you will get no good there: I tell you so on my word of honour!

It is a shame, an absolute shame to allow you to stagnate in this way.

Would the fixed eye, that dotes on sylvan scenes, Draw pleasure from these dark funereal greens, These stunted cedars and low scraggy pines, Where nature stagnates and the soil repines

Where all, and with equal and simultaneous impulse, strives to move, nothing can move, but chaos is come; where all refuses to move, and therefore stagnates, decay supervenes, which is motion, though a motion downward.

The ground is nearly flat in the sandy districts, and quite flat in the alluvial plains, where the brackish water stagnates in pools.

When a great idea enters the world as a Gospel, it becomes an offense to the multitude, which stagnates in pedantry; and to those who have much learning, but little depth, it is folly.

Perhaps some that fume away in meditations upon time and space in the tower, might compose tables of interest at a certain depth; and he that upon level ground stagnates in silence, or creeps in narrative, might at the height of half a mile, ferment into merriment, sparkle with repartee, and froth with declamation.

It stagnates the vital principle and leaves the limbs dull and heavy, with a lifeless feeling which can scarcely be overcome by vigorous action.

We took it for granted that you would settle in some German city, near old friends; it is true, they mayn't be all you want, but anything is better than nothing, and you would stagnate and moulder all away at Vevay.

The captive void of noble rage, The linnet born within the cage, That never knew the summer woods: I envy not the beast that takes His license in the fields of time, Unfettered by the sense of crime, To whom a conscience never wakes; Nor, what may count itself as blest, The heart that never plighted troth, But stagnates in the weeds of sloth; Nor any want-begotten rest.

Yet it is to be remembered, that the laws of mere morality are of no coercive power; and, however they may, by conviction, of their fitness please the reasoner in the shade, when the passions stagnate without impulse, and the appetites are secluded from their objects, they will be of little force against the ardour of desire, or the vehemence of rage, amidst the pleasures and tumults of the world.

For him no hand the cordial cup supplies, Nor wipes the tear which stagnates in his eyes; No friends, with soft discourse, his pangs beguile.

A man, therefore, should only read when the source of his own thoughts stagnates; which is often the case with the best of minds.

Nay, the ugly gutter, that stagnates over the drain-bars in the heart of the foul city, is not altogether base; down in that, if you will look deep enough, you may see the dark serious blue of far-off sky, and the passing of pure clouds.

Such is the diligence with which, in countries completely civilized, one part of mankind labours for another, that wants are supplied faster than they can be formed, and the idle and luxurious find life stagnate for want of some desire to keep it in motion.

If the disintegrative forces are dominant, form breaks down and function stagnates.

For a new country in a new world Canada stagnates.