Another interesting consequence of Sir William Thomson's pregnant hypothesis is that the absolute hardness which has been attributed to material atoms from the time of Lucretius downward may be dispensed with. Somewhat in the same way that a loosely suspended chain becomes rigid with rapid rotation, the hardness and elasticity of the vortex-atom are explained as due to the swift rotary motion of a soft and yielding fluid. So that the vortex-atom is really indivisible, not by reason of its hardness or solidity, but by reason of the indestructibleness of its motion.英文原著 · 《The Unseen World and Other Essays》
And over roaring Kaimbuck Pass,--over the agony of Caillou Bay,--the billowing tide rushed unresisted from the Gulf,--tearing and swallowing the land in its course,--ploughing out deep-sea channels where sleek herds had been grazing but a few hours before,--rending islands in twain,--and ever bearing with it, through the night, enormous vortex of wreck and vast wan drift of corpses ...英文原著 · 《Chita-A Memory of Last Island》
Those who are collected together in the public rooms destined for the reception and accommodation of the Poor in the day-time, will not need to be forced, nor even urged to work;--if there are in the room several persons who are busily employed in the cheerful occupations of industry, and if implements and materials for working are at hand, all the others present will not fail to be soon drawn into the vortex, and joining with alacrity in the active scene, their dislike to labour will be forgotten, and they will become by habit truly and permanently industrious.英文原著 · 《ESSAYS-1》
"He'd better have stuck to it," says Mrs. Sampson, "whatever it was. And to-day he caps the vortex. I get a bunch of flowers from him, and on 'em is pinned a note. Now, Mr. Pratt, you know a lady when you see her; and you know how I stand in Rosa society. Do you think for a moment that I'd skip out to the woods with a man along with a jug of wine and a loaf of bread, and go singing and cavorting up and down under the trees with him? I take a little claret with my meals, but I'm not in the habit of packing a jug of it into the brush and raising Cain in any such style as that.英文原著 · 《Heart of the West》
A black shadowy object, turning in a wide circle, came slowly near him as the all-destroying ocean washed its bitter waters into his mouth. The buoyant boat, rising as the sea rose, had dragged its anchor, and was floating round in the vortex made by the slowly sinking island. With a last desperate hope that Aimata might have been saved as _he_ had been saved, he swam to the boat, seized the heavy oars with the strength of a giant, and made for the place (so far as he could guess at it now) where the lake and the Temple had once been.英文原著 · 《LITTLE NOVELS》