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“ I couldn’t see the man’s face, or any part of him, indeed, except his stooping back, and his feet, and his neck, and his elbows. But what little I saw was printed indelibly on the very fibre of my nature. I could have recognised that man anywhere if I saw him in the same attitude. ”

“ Youth takes the lead; a word must bring her back. This is no race or steeplechase. So back she comes, but shakes her head and dashes foam upon her shoulder. Experience travels neck and neck with me, a tranquil eye, but nostrils quiver, and I wonder if she is recalling days when this pace was mere play for her. At the brow of the hill we pull up and loosen rein. ”

“ He may even go so far as to turn his head half around to show her the pretty spot on his 'back hair.' In doing all this he performs the most ludicrous antics, and has the silliest of expressions of face and voice as if in losing his heart, as some one phrases it, he had lost his head also. ”

“ The three forms are correct, but each has a special meaning:
1. In the form “back bone,” the word “back” stands in the position of an adjective, and is to be interpreted as we interpret any adjective standing before a noun. If we know the meaning of a word thus used, and the meaning of the word it precedes, we know the meaning of the two words. “Back” here designates one of two or more bones in a row, say, lying on a table.
2. In “back-bone” we have an illustration of a process of the growth of language. ”

“ Changing the form of one’s mission’s almost as difficult as changing the shape of one’s nose: there they are, each, in the middle of one’s face and one’s character—one has to begin too far back. ”

“ You lie down, say, on your back, settle your head cosily on to the pillow, and perhaps, to start with, hold the book before you in both hands: For a time all goes well, but not for long. The position of the arms becomes fatiguing. You withdraw one from the book and commence again. ”

“ I feel as if I had been through something very exciting and rather terrible, and it was just over; and yet nothing particular has happened.’
‘Or something very surprising and splendid and beautiful,’ murmured the Rat, leaning back and closing his eyes. ”

“ Then she brushed her hair back from her forehead, and smiling strangely she said to him, 'What men call the shadow of the body is not the shadow of the body, but is the body of the soul. ”

“ On the ground before us lay the body of a man, pressing his hand to his heart, from which the blood was flowing. He struggled into a sitting posture, and was endeavoring to rise to his feet, when he fell back with a groan, and moved no more. ”

“ And you always cross a town to the tune of "Pei-a, pei-a, pei-a!"—"Mind your back, mind your back, mind your back!" And if a man does not mind, he is likely to get a poke in the back from the chair pole. ”

“ "But you'll get it all back—you'll get it all back, with your face." ”

“ Back′ing, support at the back: mounting of a horse: the action of putting back: a body of helpers: anything used to form a back or line the back; Back′ing-down, shirking; Back′-lash, the jarring reaction of a wheel in a machine when the motion is not uniform; Back′-log, a log at the back of a fire.—adj. Back′most, farthest to the back.—ns. Back′-piece, Back′-plate, a piece or plate of armour for the back; Back′-set, a setting back, reverse: an eddy or counter-current; Back′side, the back or hinder side or part of anything: the hinder part of an animal ”

“ And the time had come, as the shearer knew, to carry his swag Out Back.
For time means tucker, and tramp you must, where the scrubs and plains are wide,
With seldom a track that a man can trust, or a mountain peak to guide ”

“ On, Upon the back of, weighing down as a burden.—To and back (Shak.) , forward and backward.—To back down, to abandon one's opinion or position; To back out, to recede from an engagement or promise; To back up, to give support to; To be on one's back, to have come to the end of one's resources; To break the back of, to overburden, to complete the hardest part of a task; To cast behind the back (B.) , to forgive; To set or put up the back, to arouse to resentment; To the backbone, thoroughly. [A.S. bæc, Sw. bak, Dan. bag.]
Backare, Baccare, bak′āre, interj. (Shak.) back! stand back! ”

“ What are you two up to?" And we heard the rough clatter of advancing steps.
"Go," said she; "you are weak and old; and when you come back, try and not cough." And she gave me a gentle push towards the door. ”

“ No position can be retained long; you lose your balance and whirl over, first on your back and then on your face, and so on. You can lie comfortably, on your back, with your head out, and your legs out from your knees down, by steadying yourself with your hands. ”

“ After all, what you carry on your back or on your feet or in your hands does not matter half so much as what you carry in your head and heart—your eye, and spirit, and purpose. For instance, when you go into the fields have some purpose in your going besides the indefinite desire to get out of doors. ”

“ When you say ‘backwards,’ I know that you don’t mean backwards in the sense in which an old lady or a very portly person of any age gets out backwards,—turning about, holding with both hands, and backing off. ”

“ What's the use of my breaking my neck to do anything or be anybody? Before I was born—before History began—before any foot of being that could be called a man trod these sands, the waves beat thus the pulse of time. ”

“ Many a time you’ll get a hunch from a look. Sometimes, too, a nervous or too-eager [200] back will give the play away by an unconscious shifting of his body in the direction of the point of attack. You may get fooled on that point, though, for some backs will deliberately bluff; it’s an old trick. ”

“ The hanging back habit, which they were four years in cultivating, seems to have grown on them so that they're hanging back even yet. Best go down and wait where it's warm, and I'll send a boy to call you when we know for certain when she'll turn up. ”

“ Go not forth with thine eyes bent downward on the dust. Lift them, and look long at those from whom thou askest alms. Lift them and look as I see thee look at the sky when thou knowest not I am near thee. I have seen thee, hunchback. Gaze at the passers-by as if thou sawest their souls and asked help of them. ”

“ He turned himself sideways to the carriage, and leaned back, with his face thrown up to the sky, and his head hanging down; then recovered himself, fumbled with his cap, and made a bow. ”

“ “Come back! come back!” he cried in grief,
“Across this stormy water:
And I’ll forgive your Highland chief,
My daughter!—oh my daughter!” ”

“ I will come back to you, I swear I will;
And you will know me still.
I shall be only a little taller
Than when I went. ”

“ "I'll teach you how to jump on the wind's back, and then away we go." ”

“ In conclusion, the arms of others either fall from your back, or they weigh you down, or they bind you fast. ”

“ "Oh, they had to go before the end!" she said. "They had to be back at ten!" ”

“ And at the same moment the east stand broke into cheers as the gallant sons of Yates bounded on to the grass. Back and forth rolled the mighty torrents of sound, meeting in midair, breaking and crashing back in fainter reverberations. They were singing the college songs now, and the merits and virtues of both colleges were being chanted defiantly to the tunes of popular airs. Thousands of feet "tramp-tramped," keeping time against the stands. The Yates band and the Harwell band were striving, from opposite ends of the field, to drown each other's strains. ”

“ We lean our backs against the walls, resting the packs on the projections which bristle from them. But we examine these things coming out of the earth, and we smell that they are knees, elbows and heads. ”

“ Imagine that a sparrow-hawk had seized a trembling pigeon, and that a royal falcon swooped, and with one lightning-like stroke of body and wing buffeted him away, and there he was on his back, gaping and glaring and grasping at nothing with his claws. ”

“ The appearance of a certain person in my life has always been heralded by a number of hunchbacks who came forward, passed—sometimes touching my elbow—and frequently looking at me in a solemn manner, as though some subconscious force, of which they were the tool, were saying to me, “See, here is the sign.” ”

“ Some men a forward motion love,
But I by backward steps would move; ”

“ And rugs are revolving,
He meets us half-way.
Our stay and support,
When we can’t stand alone, [Pg 13]
With the floor for a backer,
We’ll never be thrown.
Here’s to our friend,
In life’s every stage! ”

“ They carry these burdens with the mouth, or, when it is too large to admit of that, they turn their backs to it, and push it onwards with their feet, while they use their utmost energies with their shoulders. ”

“ While I shrink with horror from even seeming to encourage dropping the hoe when the sewing-machine gets to going good, by its thunderous spinning throwing up an impervious wall of sound to conceal retreat into the back alley, across the street, up the alley back of Alexander's, and so on up to Fountain Avenue in time to catch up with the gang, still I regard swimming as an exercise of the extremest value in the development of the growing boy. It builds up every muscle. It is particularly beneficial to the lungs. To have a good pair of lungs is the same thing as having a good constitution. ”

“ Men with their fists clenched on their breasts, and their neatly slippered toes touching the backs of their heads, crashed through paper-covered hoops beneath which horses madly coursed; they flew through the air with the greatest of ease, the daring young men on the flying; trapeze, or they posed in living pyramids. ”

“ The young ones come in from recess red, not with the brilliant glow of winter, but a sort of scalded red. They juke their heads forward to escape their collars' moist embrace; they reach their hands back of them to pull their clinging winter underwear away. They fan themselves with joggerfies, and puff out: “Phew!” ”

“ Rapid clouds have drunk the last pale beam of even:
Away! the gathering winds will call the darkness soon,
And profoundest midnight shroud the serene lights of heaven.
Pause not! the time is past! Every voice cries, 'Away!'
Tempt not with one last tear thy friend's ungentle mood:
Thy lover's eye, so glazed and cold, dares not entreat thy stay:
Duty and dereliction guide thee back to solitude.
Away, away! to thy sad and silent home;
Pour bitter tears on its desolated hearth;
Watch the dim shades as like ghosts they go and come,
And complicate strange webs of melancholy mirth. ”

“ SOFTLY, O midnight Hours!
Move softly o'er the bowers
Where lies in happy sleep a girl so fair!
For ye have power, men say,
Our hearts in sleep to sway,
And cage cold fancies in a moonlight snare.
Round ivory neck and arm
Enclasp a separate charm;
Hang o'er her poised, but breathe nor sigh nor prayer:
Silently ye may smile,
But hold your breath the while,
And let the wind sweep back your cloudy hair!
Bend down your glittering urns,
Ere yet the dawn returns,
And star with dew the lawn her feet shall tread ”

“ Olivia became known in the abodes of sorrow, and a deep power seemed given her to console the suffering and distressed. A deeper power of love sprung up within her; and love, though born of sorrow, ever brings peace with it. Many were the hearts that reposed on her; many the wandering that she reclaimed, the wavering that she upheld, the desolate that she comforted. As a soul in heaven may look back on earth, and smile at its past sorrows, so, even here, it may rise to a sphere where it may look down on the storm that once threatened to overwhelm it. ”

“ If you live in some other country, you should work for the adoption of a constitution that will provide for the four elements which make possible the founding of a republic in lieu of the form of government which now prevails.
"Back to the republic" should be the watch-word of every patriot in this country, and "Forward to the republic" should be the keynote of every patriot in each of the other countries of the world. ”

“ A man, driving in the bung of another cask, struck awry, and the liquor shot forth in a spout, covering the men and spirting like a catherine-wheel when a hand was clapped over the hole; and they stood with their mouths open and received the torrent of strong liquor full in their faces. Underneath the furnaces was an incandescence of pink and white wood-ash, and men took embers in their hands and tossed them on the naked backs of their fellows.
As Monjoy and Eastwood approached, there came a fresh uproar and a new diversion. ”

“ The outline of fire, which before was firm and motionless, now wavers and shakes as if it would pass away, as the wind blows the flames back and forth from the great cups by which it is lighted. From near and far the world looks on,—from the Piazza beneath, where carriages drive to and fro in its splendor, and the band plays and the bells toll,—from the windows and loggias of the city, wherever a view can be caught of this superb spectacle,—and from the Campagna and mountain towns, where, far away, alone and towering above everything, the dome is seen to blaze. ”