The Harvard Classics, Volume 27P.F. Collier & son, 1910 - Literature |
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abuse Addison admiration ancient Aristotle beauty BEN JONSON called Cato character Church Church of England comedy common conversation Crantor delight divine doth effect enemy England essay ESTHER JOHNSON excellent expression eyes faculty friends genius give hath HC VOL honor human imagination imitation Italian Italy Juba Julius Cæsar kind King knowledge ladies language learning less Levana live Livy Lord Machiavelli manners matter ment mind moral nation nature never object observed opinion Othello passion person Petrarch philosopher Pindar Plato play pleasure Plutarch poem poesy poetical poetry poets political Pope praise Prince principles reason religion seems Sempronius sense sentiment Shakespeare Shakspere shew Sir Philip Sidney speak Spectator spirit Steele supposed Syphax taste Tatler things thought tion tragedy true truth Ulubrae verse Virgil virtue Whig whole words writings
Popular passages
Page 215 - What he attempted, he performed; he is never feeble, and he did not wish to be energetick *; he is never rapid, and he never stagnates. His sentences have neither studied amplitude, nor affected brevity: his periods, though not diligently rounded, are voluble and easy. Whoever wishes to attain an English style, familiar but not coarse, and elegant but not ostentatious, must give his days and nights to the volumes of Addison.
Page 376 - Poetry is the record of the best and happiest moments of the happiest and best minds.
Page 85 - ... when I see kings lying by those who deposed them, when I consider rival wits placed side by side, or the holy men that divided the world with their contests and disputes, I reflect with sorrow and astonishment on the little competitions, factions, and debates of mankind. When I read the several dates of the tombs, of" some that died yesterday, and some six hundred years ago, I consider that great day when we shall all of us be contemporaries, and make our appearance together.
Page 249 - Will you to the utmost of your power maintain the laws of God, the true profession of the Gospel, and the Protestant reformed religion established by law...
Page 330 - ... fair dismissal from the stage of life the only decorous thing for him. If he is to live and be happy after, if he could sustain this world's burden after, why all this pudder and preparation, why torment us with all this unnecessary sympathy ? As if the childish pleasure of getting his gilt robes and sceptre again could tempt him to act over again his misused station ; as if, at his years, and with his experience, anything was left but to die.
Page 93 - But being ill-used by the above-mentioned widow, he was very serious for a year and a half ; and though, his temper being naturally jovial, he at last got over it, he grew careless of himself, and never dressed afterwards. He continues to wear a coat and doublet of the same cut that were in fashion at the time of his repulse, which, in his merry humours, he tells us has be.en in and out twelve times since he first wore it.
Page 18 - Poesy, therefore, is an art of imitation, for so Aristotle termeth it in the word mimesis, that is to say a representing, counterfeiting, or figuring forth— to speak metaphorically, a speaking picture, with this end, to teach and delight.
Page 94 - Tully, but not one case in the reports of our own courts. No one ever took him for a fool, but none, except his intimate friends, know he has a great deal of wit. This turn makes him at once both disinterested and agreeable. As few of his thoughts are drawn from business, they are most of them fit for conversation.
Page 30 - ... with a tale, forsooth, he cometh unto you, with a tale which holdeth children from play and old men from the chimney corner...
Page 82 - Bridge thou seest, said he, is human Life, consider it attentively. Upon a more leisurely Survey of it, I found that it consisted of threescore and ten entire Arches, with several broken Arches, which added to those that were entire, made up the Number about an hundred.