The Teacher's Assistant in English Composition, Or, Easy Rules for Writing Themes and Composing Exercises: On Subjects Proper for the Improvement of Youth of Both Sexes at School : to which are Added Hints for Correcting and Improving Juvenile Composition

Front Cover
J.T. Buckingham, 1810 - English language - 263 pages

From inside the book

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page 174 - In words, as fashions, the same rule will hold; Alike fantastic, if too new, or old: Be not the first by whom the new are tried, Nor yet the last to lay the old aside.
Page 217 - Perhaps in this neglected spot is laid Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire; Hands, that the rod of empire might have sway'd, Or waked to ecstasy the living lyre. But Knowledge to their eyes her ample page Rich with the spoils of time did ne'er unroll; Chill Penury repress'd their noble rage, And froze the genial current of the souL...
Page 217 - Full many a gem of purest ray serene The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear : Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, And waste its sweetness on the desert air. Some village- Hampden, that, with dauntless breast, The little tyrant of his fields withstood, Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest, Some Cromwell guiltless of his country's blood. Th...
Page 53 - This the tyrant intended peremptorily to refuse, by granting it, as he conceived, on the impossible condition of his procuring some one to remain as hostage for his return, under equal forfeiture of life. Pythias heard the conditions, and did not wait for an application...
Page 56 - Pale, cold, and halfspeechless in the arms of his Damon, Pythias replied in broken accents, " Fatal haste ! Cruel impatience ! What envious powers have wrought impossibilities in your favour? But I will not be wholly disappointed. Since I cannot die to save, I will not survive you.
Page 55 - Dionysius was awed and confounded by the dignity of these sentiments, and by the manner in which they were uttered : he felt his heart struck by a slight sense of invading truth : but it served rather to perplex than undeceive him.
Page 54 - Damon was imE2. mediately set at liberty. The king and all the courtiers were astonished at this action ; and, therefore, when the day of execution drew near, the tyrant had the curiosity to visit Pythias in his confinement. After some conversation on the subject of friendship, in which the tyrant...
Page 165 - ... that they may be ready, in due time, to resume it again. From these considerations it follows that the idle man who has no work can have no play ; for, how can he be relaxed who is never bent ? How can he leave the Muses who is never with them ? How can play refresh him who is never exhausted with business ? When diversion becomes the business of life, its nature is changed; all rest presupposes labor.
Page 77 - Greeks thought there had been four ages — the Golden age, the Silver age, the Brazen age, and the Iron age — and that people had been getting worse in each of them.
Page 135 - It is said of Diogenes, that meeting a young man who was going to a feast, he took him up in the street and carried him home to his friends, as one who was running into imminent danger, had not he prevented him...

Bibliographic information