a something of, in this case
Such thoughts, of course, lull one to amiable puttering over
agreeable things that do not particularly matter ₁
like ghosts of houses
and staircases not to be designed on paper at all;
for to think them out you must construct them in reality, and in material,
and almost put them together yourself ₂
like turnpikes, taking directions from convenience and locality ₃
like arrows along the clear tides, like meteors ₄
like long boxes divided in the open streets.
He must have learnt a something of ₂
ᵃ In this case the letters of the alphabet.
ᵇ That is, a something of like parts (ὅμοια μέρη). ₅
sources
- Florida Pier (Scott-Maxwell), “Devastating Happiness,” her “The Gentler View” column, Harper’s Weekly (August 17, 1912) : 26
more and details at putterings 635 - “Old House Planning,” in The Builder (March 8, 1873) : 182-183
a something of : more - Timothy Flint, “A Tour” in The Western Monthly Review Vol. 2 (October 1828) : 249-263 (252)
a something of : more - ex “An American in Venice,” in Frank Leslie’s New Family Magazine 1:3 (November 1857) : 216-226
a something of : more - two notes to translation, in
Lucretius, De Rerum Natura, with an English Translation by W. H. D. Rouse (London, 1924) : (I. 815-845) : 60-61
a something of : more