It is high time that I should pass from these brief and
discursive notes about things in Flatland to the central event of this book, my initiation into the mysteries of Space.
SADLY
discursive as I have already been, I must still further entreat the reader's patience, as I am about to string together, without any attempt at order, a few odds and ends of things not hitherto mentioned, but which are either curious in themselves or peculiar to the Typees.
It appeared from his
discursive answer that she had not much of a name one way or another.
I had not got far into it, when I judged from her looks that she was thinking in a
discursive way of me, rather than of what I said.
Although I do not mean to assert that it is usually the practice of renowned and learned sages, to shorten the road to any great conclusion (their course indeed being rather to lengthen the distance, by various circumlocations and
discursive staggerings, like unto those in which drunken men under the pressure of a too mighty flow of ideas, are prone to indulge); still, I do mean to say, and do say distinctly, that it is the invariable practice of many mighty philosophers, in carrying out their theories, to evince great wisdom and foresight in providing against every possible contingency which can be supposed at all likely to affect themselves.
During this
discursive address Silas had continued motionless in his previous attitude, leaning his elbows on his knees, and pressing his hands against his head.
During the meal the Frenchman was in great feather: he was
discursive and pompous to every one.
What could she do, what ought she to do?--she, hardly more than a budding woman, but yet with an active conscience and a great mental need, not to be satisfied by a girlish instruction comparable to the nibblings and judgments of a
discursive mouse.
The completed book is a
discursive treatise, the various volumes necessarily written from more or less different view-points, on many of the main aspects, general and technical, of all art, literary as well as pictorial.
Hargrave and Annabella, from different motives and in different ways, emulated me, and doubtless both surpassed me, the former in his
discursive versatility and eloquence, the latter in boldness and animation at least.
So from the root Springs lighter the green stalk, from thence the leaves More aerie, last the bright consummate floure Spirits odorous breathes: flours and thir fruit Mans nourishment, by gradual scale sublim'd To vital Spirits aspire, to animal, To intellectual, give both life and sense, Fansie and understanding, whence the soule Reason receives, and reason is her being,
Discursive, or Intuitive; discourse Is oftest yours, the latter most is ours, Differing but in degree, of kind the same.
As a rule, her conversation, though pleasing, was
discursive and lacked central motive, but one morning she had genuine news to impart.