The English Essayists: A Comprehensive Selection from the Works of the Great Essayists, from Lord Bacon to John Ruskin; with Introduction, Biographical Notices, and Critical Notes |
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Page 8
... delightful of all - who choose for subjects themselves , their surroundings , their moods and phantasies , whose charm consists not so much in the value or brilliancy of thought as in revelation of personal character : these are ...
... delightful of all - who choose for subjects themselves , their surroundings , their moods and phantasies , whose charm consists not so much in the value or brilliancy of thought as in revelation of personal character : these are ...
Page 9
... delight in giddiness ; and count it a bondage to fix a belief ; affecting free - will in thinking , as well as in acting . And though the sect of philosophers of that kind be gone , yet there remain certain discoursing wits , which are ...
... delight in giddiness ; and count it a bondage to fix a belief ; affecting free - will in thinking , as well as in acting . And though the sect of philosophers of that kind be gone , yet there remain certain discoursing wits , which are ...
Page 32
... delight , for ornament , and for ability . Their chief use for delight , is in private . ness and retiring ; for ornament , is in discourse ; and for ability , is in the judgment and disposi- tion of business . For expert men can ...
... delight , for ornament , and for ability . Their chief use for delight , is in private . ness and retiring ; for ornament , is in discourse ; and for ability , is in the judgment and disposi- tion of business . For expert men can ...
Page 40
... delights , and be the dictator of fashions : but we make ourselves slaves to our pleasures ; and we serve fame and ambition , which is an equal slavery . Have not I seen the pomp of a whole kingdom , and what a foreign king could bring ...
... delights , and be the dictator of fashions : but we make ourselves slaves to our pleasures ; and we serve fame and ambition , which is an equal slavery . Have not I seen the pomp of a whole kingdom , and what a foreign king could bring ...
Page 43
... delightful melancholy , a friend in show , but a secret devil , a sweet poison , it will in the end be his undoing ; let him go presently , task or set himself a work , get some good company . If he proceed , as a gnat flies about a ...
... delightful melancholy , a friend in show , but a secret devil , a sweet poison , it will in the end be his undoing ; let him go presently , task or set himself a work , get some good company . If he proceed , as a gnat flies about a ...
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Common terms and phrases
admiration Ęsop affection appear atheism Augustus Cęsar beauty Ben Jonson better called cern character Coleridge common creature death delight divine doth dream earth England eyes fancy fear feel fortune genius give hand happy hath heart heaven honour hour human humour imagination Julius Cęsar kind king knowledge labour lady learning less live look Lord Lord Byron man's mankind manner marriage matter ment Milton mind nature ness never night object observed opinion pain Paradise Lost pass passion perhaps person Pilgrim's Progress pleasure Plutarch poem poet poetry Quakers reason Roger de Coverley Scotland seems sense Shakespeare Sir Roger soul speak spirit Stesichorus taste Tatler tell thee things thou thought tion true truth turn Virgil virtue walk whole wise woman words write young
Popular passages
Page 72 - I cannot praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue, unexercised and unbreathed, that never sallies out and sees her adversary, but slinks out of the race where that immortal garland is to be run for, not without dust and heat.
Page 74 - And though all the winds of doctrine were let loose to play upon the earth, so Truth be in the field, we do injuriously by licensing and prohibiting to misdoubt her strength. Let her and Falsehood grapple. Who ever knew Truth put to the worse, in a free and open encounter ? Her confuting is the best and surest suppressing.
Page 122 - Think not man was made in vain, who has such an eternity reserved for him.' I gazed with inexpressible pleasure on these happy islands. ' At length,' said I, ' show me now, I beseech thee, the secrets that lie hid under those dark clouds which cover the ocean on the other side of the rock of adamant.' The Genius making me no answer, I turned about to address myself to him a second time, but I found that he had left me ; I then turned again to the vision which I had been so long contemplating; but...
Page 406 - Singing of Mount Abora. Could I revive within me Her symphony and song, To such a deep delight 'twould win me, That with music loud and long, I would build that dome in air...
Page 23 - But little do men perceive what solitude is, and how far it extendeth; for a crowd is not company, and faces are but a gallery of pictures, and talk but a tinkling cymbal where there is no love.
Page 9 - Doth any man doubt that if there were taken out of men's minds vain opinions, flattering hopes, false valuations, imaginations as one would, and the like, but it would leave the minds of a number of men poor shrunken things, full of melancholy and indisposition, and unpleasing to themselves?
Page 311 - ... assailed his nostrils, unlike any scent which he had before experienced. What could it proceed from ? — not from the burnt cottage — he had smelt that smell before — • indeed this was by no means the first accident of the kind which had occurred through the negligence of this unlucky young fire-brand. Much less did it resemble that of any known herb, weed, or flower. A premonitory moistening at the same time overflowed his nether lip. He knew not what to think.
Page 238 - I have protracted my work till most of those whom I wished to please have sunk into the grave, and success and miscarriage are empty sounds. I therefore dismiss it with frigid tranquillity, having little to fear or hope from censure or from praise.
Page 33 - ... judgment wholly by their rules is the humour of a scholar. They perfect nature and are perfected by experience: for natural abilities are like natural plants that need pruning by study; and studies themselves do give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience. Crafty men contemn studies, simple men admire them, and wise men use them: for they teach not their own use; but that is a wisdom without them and above them, won by observation.
Page 136 - ... subjects, hear their duties explained to them, and join together in adoration of the Supreme Being. Sunday clears away the rust of the whole week, not only as it refreshes in their minds the notions of religion, but as it puts both the sexes...