Notes from a Diary, 1889-1891, Volume 2

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Page 64 - Then he comes to understand how it is that lines, the birth of some chance morning or evening at an Ionian festival, or among the Sabine hills, have lasted generation after generation, for thousands of years, with a power over the mind, and a charm, which the current literature of his own day, with all its obvious advantages, is utterly unable to rival.
Page 239 - UNDERNEATH this sable hearse Lies the subject of all verse, SIDNEY'S sister, PEMBROKE'S mother ; Death ! ere thou hast slain another, Learn'd and fair, and good as she, Time shall throw a dart at thee.
Page 47 - Much have I seen and known; cities of men And manners, climates, councils, governments Myself not least, but honour'd of them all; And drunk delight of battle with my peers, Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy. I am a part of all that I have met; Yet all experience is an arch wherethro' Gleams that untravell'd world, whose margin fades For ever and for ever when I move.
Page 44 - The time would e'er be o'er, And I on thee should look my last, And thou shouldst smile no more! And still upon that face I look, And think 'twill smile again ; And still the thought I will not brook, That I must look in vain ! But when I speak— thou dost not...
Page 64 - Virgil, as if a prophet or magician ; his single words and phrases, his pathetic half lines, giving utterance, as the voice of Nature herself, to that pain and weariness, yet hope of better things, which is the experience of her children in every time.
Page 20 - I am aware that the age is not what we all wish. But I am sure, that the only means of checking its precipitate degeneracy, is heartily to concur with whatever is the best in our time...
Page 142 - Le moment du triomphe des saints est vraiment celui de leur mort. Leur vie, appréciée d'après nos idées modernes, semble imparfaite, en ce sens qu'ils ont été exclusifs, qu'ils n'ont vu les choses que par un seul côté, qu'ils ont manqué de critique et d'étendue d'esprit. Je ne souhaiterais pas leur vie, mais je suis jaloux de leur mort. A voir ces fins glorieuses et calmes, l'âme se relève et se fortifie ; on reprend quelque estime pour la nature humaine, on se persuade que cette nature...
Page 99 - KINGS OF ENGLAND, — names •which an Englishman can scarcely read without a smile or a sigh ! Often at the present day does the British traveller turn from the sunny crest of the Pincian, or the carnival throng of the Corso, to gaze in thoughtful silence on that mockery of human greatness, and that last record of ruined hopes...
Page 99 - Thomas Simon most humbly prays your Majesty to compare this his tryal piece with the Dutch, and if more truly drawn and embossed, more gracefully ordered, and more accurately engraven, to relieve him...
Page 211 - The Pilgrim of Eternity, whose fame Over his living head like Heaven is bent, An early but enduring monument...

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