Preparatory to the chase, they performed some religious rites, and offered up to the Great Spirit a few short prayers for safety and success; then, having received the blessings of their wives, they leaped upon their horses and departed, leaving the whole party of Christian spectators amazed and rebuked by this lesson of faith and dependence on a supreme and benevolent Being.
The history, of course, I expected would be a long affair, and I did not quite suppose that I could despatch the literature in any short time; besides, I had several considerable poems on hand that occupied me a good deal, and worked at these as well as advanced myself in Italian,
preparatory to the efforts before me.
During the eight months which were employed in the work of excavation the
preparatory works of the casting had been carried on simultaneously with extreme rapidity.
On the contrary, as he esteemed the institution to be of the most sacred kind, he thought every
preparatory caution necessary to preserve it holy and inviolate; and very wisely concluded, that the surest way to effect this was by laying the foundation in previous affection.
The approach of the train was more and more evident by the
preparatory bustle in the station, the rush of porters, the movement of policemen and attendants, and people meeting the train.
They were soon in full progress, after a
preparatory hitch or two, which rejoiced the hearts of those who hated machinery.
Both prepared for the wooing a whole week, which was the longest time allowed them; but, after all, it was quite long enough, for they both had
preparatory knowledge, and everyone knows how useful that is.
The actual conduct of foreign negotiations, the
preparatory plans of finance, the application and disbursement of the public moneys in conformity to the general appropriations of the legislature, the arrangement of the army and navy, the directions of the operations of war -- these, and other matters of a like nature, constitute what seems to be most properly understood by the administration of government.
Is it not evident that a degree of local information and
preparatory labor would be found in the several volumes of their proceedings, which would very much shorten the labors of the general legislature, and render a much smaller number of members sufficient for it?
Hunt now set to work with all diligence, to prepare caches, in which to deposit the baggage and merchandise, of which it would be necessary to disburden themselves,
preparatory to their weary march by land: and here we shall give a brief description of those contrivances, so noted in the wilderness.
The strident school-teachers were gathering up their possessions
preparatory to a straggling flight to the wharf; across the beach lay the white steam-boat at the pier; and over the sunlit waters Boston loomed in a line of haze.
I made my
preparatory experiments in secret and was satisfied.