Word: vain
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Dates: during 1880-1889
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...constantly have these two things: a vast number of young fellows running about the country, doing almost anything and doing it ill; and on the other hand, a considerable number of places looking almost in vain for somebody to do the best work...
...regularly alone, not forgetting, it is said, to put up the advertising board for his own sole notification each week, calling himself to order, proceeding conscientiously with his solitary rehearsal, practicing upon his flute his accustomed part until the hour of duty was complete, and so striving, not in vain, to keep the sacred flame alive. One might say with perfect truth that the Pierian Sodality attended those rehearsal...
...sophomores of the college of Liberal Arts at the Boston University have voted to give the freshmen a reception on Friday night, Feb. 9. Hopeful '90 has not worked in vain for verily his ideas have been carried out in an institution near Harvard...
...prevails unfits the soul for meditation. If we could but be transferred to the age of Abraham, or David, or even Cotton Mather, it would be easy to live a sober and godly life. But now the lust of the eye and the lust of the flesh, and of vain glory undermine the higher aims and motives. And then, all the world meets at our door - people of different habits and ways of life. There is no unanimity of thought and practice; there is uncertainty as to which ways are the right ways; doubt and confusion prevail. The turmoil unsettles...
...thought of grandeur, no waste of time in elaborate preparations. The men of Harvard welcomed their guests and gave them of their best with abundant cordiality, but appealed to those who knew and esteemed it for its work's sake. It was clear that it did not appeal in vain and that it was strong in the affections of a vast body of its graduates, and in the kindly regard of its academic rivals. An Englishman might meditate on Mr. Lowell's eloquent tribute to the historic glories of Oxford and Cambridge, and think that Harvard was not without compensation...