Which preposition to use with directness

of Occurrences 70%

But his manner, unfortunately, rather, eralarmed" Gertie Naylor, with the directness of youth, propounded a solution of the difficulty.

in Occurrences 5%

" The beauty of this passage seems to me marred by the awkward yet necessary interruption, "under these circumstances it is," which would have been avoided by opening the sentence with "such evanescent hauntings of our forgotten selves are most apt to startle us in solitudes," &c. Compare the effect of directness in the following:

than Occurrences 2%

Whatever subject he was engaged upon, he kept his object clearly in view, and made straight for it, aiming far more at clearness and directness than at elegance of periods or symmetry of arrangement.

at Occurrences 2%

And as if this were not enough, another distich struck with more directness at the vices of the Pope: "Vendit Alexander claves, altaria, Christum: Emerat ille prius, vendere jure potest.

as Occurrences 2%

Though some were told with as much directness as any of the intercalated narratives in "Clélie" or "Cléopâtre," others permitted the inclusion of numerous "little histories" only loosely connected with the main plot.

with Occurrences 1%

They were carved with all the naturalistic simplicity of the Middle Ages, with all the directness with which the artists represented their profane conceptions, with the desire to perpetuate the triumph of the flesh in some ignored corner of the mystical buildings, in order to testify that human life was not dead.

from Occurrences 1%

Did you ever notice anything odd about me?" His directness seemed to have a right to directness from her.

toward Occurrences 1%

It asks leave to be hunger neither of your conscience, your sense of personal dignity, nor indeed of your humanity in any form; but exists by its own permission, and pushes with brute directness toward its own ends.

about Occurrences 1%

There had always been a certain directness about Logotheti's view of man's rights.

Which preposition to use with  directness