Burnishing

“ Occasionally a little boy would snatch up a burning brand and hurl it among the night prowlers. There would be a chorus of angry screams and low toned, rumbling growls as the menacers retreated for an instant, then the ring of shadowy forms, and the glowing spots of burning flame that were their eyes, would reform out of the stygian blackness of the night. ”

“ No, she takes three bits of live charcoal from out of the fire; giving each of her lovers a piece, she tells them to place it in the palms of their hands. The fire burns through the skin, the tendons are laid bare; sometimes the amorous gentlemen will resist till the flesh has been burnt to the bone. Here one or two of them generally succumb to the torture; the man who resists the longest, wins the lady. ”

“ Burn one's fingers, to suffer from interfering in others' affairs, from embarking in speculations, &c.; Burn out, to destroy by means of burning: to burn till the fire dies down from want of fuel; Burn the water, to spear salmon by torchlight; Burn up, to consume completely by fire: to be burned completely. [A.S.; the weak verb bœrnan, bœrnde, bœrned, has been confused with beornan, byrnan, barn, bornen; cf. Ger. brennen, to burn.]
Burnet, bur′net, n. the English name of two closely united genera of Rosaceæ—the Great Burnet common in meadows all over Europe ”

“ O let me live, and die, and think it mine! “I burn, I burn, as when thro' ripen'd corn By driving winds the crackling flames are borne;” Now raving-wild, I curse that fatal night, Then bless the hour that charm'd my guilty sight: In vain the laws their feeble force oppose, Chain'd at Love's feet, they groan, his vanquish'd foes. In vain Religion meets my shrinking eye, I dare not combat, but I turn and fly: Conscience in vain upbraids th' unhallow'd fire, Love grasps her scorpions—stifled they expire! Reason drops headlong from his sacred throne, Your dear idea reigns, and reigns alone ”

“ The storm, now, again kindled in her disordered mind: "How!" she cried, "have I done all this—dared, risked, braved all things human,—and not human—to die, at last, a common death?—to expire, in a fruitless journey, an unacknowledged, and unoffered sacrifice?—or to lie down tamely in my bed, till I am extinct by ordinary dissolution?—"
Wringing then her hands, with mingled anguish and resentment, "Mr. Naird," she cried, "if you have the smallest real skill; the most trivial knowledge or experience in your profession; bind up my wound so as to give me strength to speed to him! ”

“ She put her strong hand forth and thrust him—he was already stiffening—backward from the shoulder, there being no shrinking on her face as she felt his flesh yield beneath her touch, for she had passed the barrier lying between that which is mere life and that which is pitiless hell, and could feel naught that was human. A poor wild beast at bay, pressed on all sides by dogs, by huntsmen, by resistless weapons, by Nature’s pitiless self—glaring with bloodshot eyes, panting, with fangs bared in the savagery of its unfriended agony—might feel thus. ’Tis but a hunted beast ”

“ Human suffering did not end with the life of Burns; neither was the solemn mandate, "Love one another, bear one another's burdens," [109] given to the rich only, but to all men. True, we shall find no Burns to relieve, to assuage by our aid or our pity; but celestial natures, groaning under the fardels of a weary life, we shall still find; and that wretchedness which Fate has rendered voiceless and tuneless is not the least wretched, but the most. ”

“ They will be universal torments, every part of the creature being tormented in that flame. When one is cast into a fiery furnace, the fire makes its way into the very bowels, and leaves no member untouched: what part then can have ease when the damned swim in a lake of fire burning with brimstone? ”

“ There was a certain amount of awe in the faces of all as they thought of the tortures a person would endure if he were trapped in that furnace. And for all they knew, men might be burning to death in front of them! ”

“ The chill blast passes swiftly by, And flits around thy bier. Dark is the dwelling of the Dead, And sad their house of rest: Low lies the head, by Death's cold arms In awful fold embrac'd. I saw the grim Avenger stand Incessant by thy side; Unseen by thee, his deadly breath Thy lingering frame destroy'd. Pale grew the roses on thy cheek, And wither'd was thy bloom, Till the slow poison brought thy youth Untimely to the tomb. Thus wasted are the ranks of men— Youth, Health, and Beauty fall; The ruthless ruin spreads around, And overwhelms us all. ”

“ Upon this heterogeneous mass of humanity the fire rained down almost as we imagine it to have fallen upon the doomed cities of the plain, and the hot breath of the flames scorched the exposed cheek and crisped even eyebrows and hair. Sparks, flakes, cinders, pieces of roof, and fiery pebbles seemed to fill the air, and often cries and shrieks announced that furniture and bedding which had been dragged thither, and even the clothing of women and children, were burning. ”

“ When I came to my fortune, intoxicated with sudden power, I forgot this fair blossom, I revelled in licentiousness and vice, and left it exposed and forlorn. Riot succeeded riot, till a fever, incurred by my own intemperance, first gave me time to think. Then was she revenged, for then first remorse was my portion: her image was brought back to my mind with frantic fondness, and bitterest contrition. The moment I recovered, I returned to England; I flew to claim her,—but she was lost! no one knew whither she was gone; the wretch I had trusted pretended to know least of all ”

“ How will your delicate frame bear the agony when thrown alive into the burning pile? Then, when the hot fire slowly seizes on each writhing limb, and every scorched nerve overwhelms your soul with agonising torments, then—when too late, you will repent your refusal of my proffered mercy. ”

“ There is no pain worse than burning. A man will draw his hand away from fire at all costs. Several parts of the man's body were actually in the fire, but he endured it all and steeled himself to fight back the greater agony which throbbed at his wrists. The fire touched the green-hide and singed the white bull hair, giving off a pungent smell. Eagle sniffed it greedily. ”

“ Packed in like sheep in a pen, unable to move a muscle to alleviate their pain, handcuffed to the decaying body of a fellow-sufferer and saturated through and through with a living flame that devours but does not consume, tortures but does not kill! Oh, let me look at a burning building, and ask myself if this fire, which God created for man's use and comfort, is so awful in its nature and so destructive in its effects, what must that fire be which God created expressly to be the instrument of man's punishment! ”

“ But when the fire is lit and the murderous irons inserted in it; when the captive creatures are dragged forth lowing, murmuring, and bellowing; when the red-hot iron is pressed into their quivering, smoking sides until the air is laden with the odor of burning hair and roasting flesh, and the poor creature writhes and struggles [339] in its agony, the roundup is robbed of its romance, and the ladies are ready to start for home at once. ”

“ Like the blinded seeker in the old-fashioned game he ‘burns’, on occasion, as with the sense of the hidden thing near – only to deviate again however into the chill; the chill that indeed settles on him as the striking of his hour is deferred. His career thus resolves itself into a great negative adventure, my report of which presents, for its centre, the fine case that has caused him most tormentedly to ‘burn’, and then most unprofitably to stray. ”

“ I can fancy the gentle Burns walking through the woods, silently, on tiptoe almost, lest he should disturb any portion of the life and love he saw all about him, or cause distress to any one of God’s little birds or beasts. ”

“ While others would the place with fire surround,
And burn the house with those within it found.
Some wished to drown them, bound within their dress;
With various other projects you may guess;
But all agreed that death should be their lot,
And those for burning had most voices got. ”

“ Antonyms: BURN. Synonyms:
To burn is to subject to the action of fire, or of intense heat so as to effect either partial change or complete combustion; as, to burn wood in the fire; to burn one's hand on a hot stove; the sun burns the face. One brands with a hot iron, but cauterizes with some corrosive substance, as silver nitrate. Cremate is now used specifically for consuming a dead body by intense heat. To incinerate is to reduce to ashes; the sense differs little from that of cremate, but it is in less popular use. To kindle is to set on fire, as if with a candle ”

“ But here steps in man, the universal thief of Nature, and turns it into a beautiful flame, regardless of cost, and burns in one evening what his victim had been economizing for so long. To burn for burning's sake, however, has always been the fate of tallow, the only difference being in the way it is done. ”

“ Burns, in his innate appreciation of the dignity of humanity, is something of a Siegfried, with the fearless spirit of the forest vocal with the song of birds, the aroma of blossoming shrubs, the play of the waterfall and the restful stretch of meadows with their daisies and heather. ”

“ Unto a dreadful burning lake, All on a fiery flame, Hell is compared, for to make All understand the same. 11. A burning lake, a furnace hot, A burning oven, too, Must be the portion, share, and lot, Of those which evil sow. 12. This plainly shows the burning heat With which it will oppress All hearts, and will like burnings eat Their souls with sore distress. 13. This burning lake, it is God's wrath Incensed by the sin Of those who do reject his path, And wicked ways walk in. 14. Which wrath will so perplex all parts Of body and of soul, As if up to the very hearts In burnings they did roll. ”

“ But, in all of them put together, I doubt whether there is as much to offend a scrupulous taste as in many a latter-day novel, the claim of which to the distinction of burning is often as indisputable as the certainty of its regrettable immunity from that fiery but fitting fate.
The custom I write about suggests some obvious reflections on the mutability of our national manners. Was the wisdom of our ancestors really so [ix] much greater than our own, as many profess to believe? ”

“ As there are blows and pain which end in insensibility or delirium, so there are catastrophes and perils which are so great as to produce something near akin to these. As she had stood before her mirror in her chamber watching her reflection, while her woman attired her in her crimson flowered satin and builded up her stately head-dress, this other woman had felt that the hour when she could have shrieked and raved and betrayed herself had passed by, and left a deadness like a calm behind, as though horror had stunned all pain and yet left her senses clear. ”

“ The blowen tipped the swell a burner;
the girl gave the gentleman a clap.
BURNER. He is no burner of navigable rivers; i.e. he is no conjuror, or man of extraordinary abilities; or rather, he is, but a simple fellow. See THAMES.
BURNT. Poxed or clapped. He was sent out a sacrifice, and came home a burnt offering; a saying of seamen who have caught the venereal disease abroad. He has burnt his fingers; he has suffered by meddling.
BURR. A hanger on, or dependant; an allusion to the field burrs, which are not easily got rid of. ”

“ Henceforth the sticking of the finger into flame means a burn. Being burned is a mere physical change, like the burning of a stick of wood, if it is not perceived as a consequence of some other action. ”

“ You should read about the panic, and the scenes of wild confusion in the Burnet House, when all the good folks, who had all dressed and were looking 295 quietly at the fire from the windows, are described as a crowd of people in despair: women disheveled, in their night-dresses, running wild, and throwing themselves in the arms of men to seek protection, and all shrieking and panic-stricken. ”

“ My head struck the hard pavement with a resounding whack, and to that alone I owe my life, for it cleared my brain and the pain roused my temper, so that I was equal for the moment to tearing my enemy to pieces with my bare hands, and I verily believe that I should have attempted it had not my right hand, in the act of raising my body from the ground, come in contact with a bit of cold metal. ”

“ Oh ye! who, sunk in beds of down, Feel not a want but what yourselves create, Think, for a moment, on his wretched fate, Whom friends and fortune quite disown! Ill-satisfy'd keen nature's clamorous call, Stretch'd on his straw, he lays himself to sleep; While through the ragged roof and chinky wall, Chill, o'er his slumbers, piles the drifty heap! Think on the dungeon's grim confine, Where Guilt and poor Misfortune pine! Guilt, erring man, relenting view, But shall thy legal rage pursue The wretch, already crushed low By cruel Fortune's undeserved blow? ”

“ This fear, the horror of being burned, which is so powerful in men, accounts for the fact that in all times the wonder and curiosity of the public have been excited by those who are capable of handling burning coals or red-hot iron with impunity, or of touching molten metal, and by those who are proof against flames or burning water or oil. ”

“ The flames mounted to the roof, and she now heard the destructive element over her head, while the excessive heat caused her frequently to change her position, and shrink into the smallest possible space. How horrible must be the emotions of that person, who hemmed in by the flames upon all sides, with no hope of escape, awaits her doom—a death of exquisite torture. ”

“ Such grace and truth of external movement, too, presupposes in general a corresponding force and truth of sentiment and inward meaning. The Songs of Burns are not more perfect in the former quality than in the latter. With what tenderness he sings, yet with what vehemence and entireness! There is a piercing wail in his sorrow, the purest rapture in his joy; he burns with the sternest ire, or laughs with the loudest or sliest mirth ”