An Inquiry Into the Principles of Harmony in Language: And of the Mechanism of Verse, Modern and Antient

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T. Cadell & W. Davies, 1804 - English language - 434 pages

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Page 107 - O first created Beam, and thou great Word, Let there be lig;ht, and light was over all; Why am I thus bereav'd thy prime decree?
Page 392 - ... the intervention of any other mind ; the ignorant feel his representations to be just, and the learned see that they are complete.
Page 71 - AWAKE, my St. John ! leave all meaner things To low ambition and the pride of kings. Let us (since life can little more supply Than just to look about us and to die) Expatiate free o'er all this scene of man ; A mighty maze ! but not without a plan ; A wild where weeds and flowers promiscuous shoot, Or garden tempting with forbidden fruit.
Page 292 - COLIN AND LUCY. A BALLAD. OF Leinster, fam'd for maidens fair, Bright Lucy was the grace ; Nor e'er did Liffy's limpid stream Reflect so sweet a face : Till luckless love, and pining care, Impair'd her rosy hue, Her coral lips, and damask cheeks, And eyes of glossy blue. Oh ! have you seen a lily pale, When beating rains descend ? So droop'd the slow-consuming maid, Her life now near its end.
Page 98 - These times, though many a friend bewail, These times bewail not I. But when the world's loud praise is thine, And spleen no more shall blame: When with thy Homer thou shalt shine In one establish'd fame!
Page 385 - He endeavours indeed commonly to strike by the force and vigour of his dialogue, but he never executes his purpose better, than when he tries to sooth by softness.
Page 116 - And for there is so great diversitie In English, and in writing of our tongue, So pray I God that none miswrite thee, Ne thee mismetre for defaut of tongue.
Page 83 - Part loosely wing the region; part more wise In common, ranged in figure, wedge their way, Intelligent of seasons, and set forth Their aery caravan, high over seas Flying, and over lands, with mutual wing Easing their flight : so steers the prudent crane Her annual voyage, borne on winds : the air Floats as they pass, fann'd with unnumber'd plumes.
Page 116 - And if a verse, here and there, fal out a syllable shorter or longer than another, I rather aret it to the negligence and rape of Adam Scrivener .that I may speake as Chaucer doth), than to any unconning or oversight in the author : for how fearful he was to have his works miswritten, or his vearse mismeasured, may appeare in the end of his fift booke of Troylus and Creseide...
Page 146 - DEATH : who with their feveral attributes and concomitants are perfonified in a beautiful vein of allegorical painting. Dame LIFE is thus forcibly defcribed.

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