Poems, Volume 1

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C. Roworth, 1817

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Page xii - ... they had no regard to that uniformity of sentiment which enables us to conceive and to excite the pains and the pleasure of other minds : they never inquired what, on any occasion, they should have said or done, but wrote rather as beholders than partakers of human nature ; as beings looking upon good and evil, impassive and at leisure ; as epicurean deities, making remarks on the actions of men and the vicissitudes of life, without interest and without emotion.
Page xlvi - tis his character to be so, and if I retrench it, he is no longer Ovid. It will be replied that he receives advantage by this lopping of his superfluous branches, but I rejoin that a translator has no such right. When a painter copies from the life, I suppose he has no privilege to alter features, and lineaments, under pretence that his picture will look better. Perhaps the face which he has drawn would be more exact, if the eyes, or nose were altered, but 'tis his business to make it resemble the...
Page ix - On the contrary, a thousand different sentiments, excited by the same object, are all right : Because no sentiment represents what is really in the object. It only marks a certain conformity or relation between the object and the organs or faculties of the mind ; and if that conformity did not really exist, the sentiment could never possibly have being.
Page xviii - The same Homer who pleased at Athens and Rome two thousand years ago is still admired at Paris and at London. All the changes of climate, government, religion, and language have not been able to obscure his glory.
Page xxix - Those finer emotions of the mind are of a very tender and delicate nature, and require the concurrence of many favourable circumstances to make them play with facility and exactness, according to their general and established principles.
Page vii - Aristotle, and Plato, and Epicurus, and Descartes, may successively yield to each other : but Terence and Virgil maintain an universal, undisputed empire over the minds of men. The abstract philosophy of Cicero has lost its credit : the vehemence of his oratory is still the object of our admiration.
Page xix - London. All the changes of climate, government, religion, and language, have not been able to obscure his glory. Authority or prejudice may give a temporary vogue to a bad poet or orator; but his reputation will never be durable or general.
Page xiii - It is with great propriety that subtlety, which in its original import means exility of particles, is taken in its metaphorical meaning for nicety of distinction. Those writers who lay on the watch for novelty could have little hope of greatness, for great things cannot have escaped former observation.
Page ix - Among a thousand different opinions which different men may entertain of the same subject, there is one, and but one, that is just and true, and the only difficulty is to fix and ascertain it. On the contrary, a thousand different sentiments excited by the same object are all right, because no sentiment represents what is really in the object.
Page xix - On the contrary, a real genius, the longer his works endure, and the more wide they are spread, the more sincere is the admiration which he meets with. Envy and jealousy have too much place in a narrow circle; and even familiar acquaintance with his person may diminish the applause due to his performances: but when these obstructions are removed, the beauties, which are naturally fitted to excite agreeable sentiments, immediately display their energy; and while the world endures, they maintain their...

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