Careful Words

height (n.)

height (adj.)

Our hopes, like towering falcons, aim

At objects in an airy height;

The little pleasure of the game

Is from afar to view the flight.

Matthew Prior (1664-1721): To the Hon. Charles Montague.

  It has been observed that the height of a man from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot is equal to the distance between the tips of the middle fingers of the two hands when extended in a straight line.

Pliny The Elder (23-79 a d): Natural History. Book vii. Sect. 77.

What in me is dark

Illumine, what is low raise and support,

That to the height of this great argument

I may assert eternal Providence,

And justify the ways of God to men.

John Milton (1608-1674): Paradise Lost. Book i. Line 22.