The Plain Speaker: Opinions on Books, Men, and Things, Volume 2 |
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Page 9
... equal to all things , for all things unfit , Too nice for a statesman , too proud for a wit . Dr. Johnson , in Boswell's Life , tells us that the only person whose conversation he ever sought for improvement was George Psalmana- zar ...
... equal to all things , for all things unfit , Too nice for a statesman , too proud for a wit . Dr. Johnson , in Boswell's Life , tells us that the only person whose conversation he ever sought for improvement was George Psalmana- zar ...
Page 10
... equal facility backwards or forwards , is con- tained , after his death , as it was while he lived , just as well in the volume on the library shelf . The man of perhaps the greatest ability now living is the one who has not only done ...
... equal facility backwards or forwards , is con- tained , after his death , as it was while he lived , just as well in the volume on the library shelf . The man of perhaps the greatest ability now living is the one who has not only done ...
Page 46
... equal terms ; he is taught the modes of address and forms of courtesy , most commonly practised and most proper to ingra- tiate him into the good opinion of those he associates with ; and he is relieved from the necessity of following ...
... equal terms ; he is taught the modes of address and forms of courtesy , most commonly practised and most proper to ingra- tiate him into the good opinion of those he associates with ; and he is relieved from the necessity of following ...
Page 71
... equal shrewdness and pertinacity . I can- not say much for my metaphysical studies , into which I launched shortly after with great ardour , so as to make a toil of a pleasure . I was presently entangled in the briars and thorns of ...
... equal shrewdness and pertinacity . I can- not say much for my metaphysical studies , into which I launched shortly after with great ardour , so as to make a toil of a pleasure . I was presently entangled in the briars and thorns of ...
Page 108
... equal warrant from nature and genius , will ever deprive him of . With respect to indications of early genius for par- ticular things , I will just mention , that I my- self know an instance of a little boy , who could catch the hardest ...
... equal warrant from nature and genius , will ever deprive him of . With respect to indications of early genius for par- ticular things , I will just mention , that I my- self know an instance of a little boy , who could catch the hardest ...
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Common terms and phrases
abstract admire appears artist beauty Black Dwarf Boccacio cause character circumstances colour common delight effect elegance Elgin marbles English ESSAY evanescent expression face fancy favour favourite feel French genius gentleman give grace habit hand head heart House House of Commons human ideas imagination imitation impression Job Orton lady laugh less living look Lord Byron Madame Pasta Mademoiselle Mars manner means ment merit mind nature neral ness never object opinion Othello painted pass passion person philosophy picture play pleasure poet poetry portrait prejudices pretensions principle racter Raphael reason respect Second Series seems sense sentiment Shakespear shew sion Sir Walter Sir Walter Scott smile sophism soul speak spirit style supposed sympathy taste thing thought tion Titian Tom Jones true truth turn understand vanity Whigs whole words write
Popular passages
Page 43 - I'll tell you, friend! a wise man and a fool. You'll find, if once the monarch acts the monk Or, cobbler-like, the parson will be drunk, Worth makes the man, and want of it the fellow, The rest is all but leather or prunella.
Page 313 - Yet nature is made better by no mean But nature makes that mean : so, over that art Which you say adds to nature, is an art That nature makes. You see, sweet maid, we marry A gentler scion to the wildest stock, And make conceive a bark of baser kind By bud of nobler race : this is an art Which does mend nature, change it rather, but The art itself is nature.
Page 14 - As a sick girl. Ye gods ! it doth amaze me A man of such a feeble temper should So get the start of the majestic world And bear the palm alone.
Page 268 - O'er a' the ills o' life victorious! But pleasures are like poppies spread, You seize the flow'r, its bloom is shed; Or like the snow falls in the river, A moment white — then melts for ever; Or like the borealis race That flit ere you can point their place; Or like the rainbow's lovely form Evanishing amid the storm. Nae man can tether time or tide; The hour approaches Tam maun ride; That hour, o...
Page 339 - Merciful heaven! What, man! ne'er pull your hat upon your brows; Give sorrow words: the grief that does not speak Whispers the o'erfraught heart, and bids it break.
Page 420 - I care not, fortune, what you me deny ; You cannot rob me of free nature's grace ; You cannot shut the windows of the sky, Through which Aurora shows her brightening face, You cannot bar my constant feet to trace The woods and lawns, by living stream, at eve : Let health my nerves and finer fibres brace, And I their toys to the great children leave : Of fancy, reason, virtue, nought can me bereave.
Page 291 - Piety displays Her mouldering roll, the piercing eye explores New manners, and the pomp of elder days, Whence culls the pensive bard his pictured stores. Nor rough nor barren are the winding ways Of hoar Antiquity, but strewn with flowers.
Page 268 - DUKE'S PALACE. [Enter DUKE, CURIO, LORDS; MUSICIANS attending.] DUKE. If music be the food of love, play on, Give me excess of it; that, surfeiting, The appetite may sicken and so die.— That strain again;— it had a dying fall; O, it came o'er my ear like the sweet south, That breathes upon a bank of violets, Stealing and giving odour.— Enough; no more; 'Tis not so sweet now as it was before.
Page 174 - How charming is divine Philosophy! Not harsh and crabbed, as dull fools suppose, But musical as is Apollo's lute, And a perpetual feast of nectar'd sweets, Where no crude surfeit reigns.
Page 9 - Though equal to all things, for all things unfit, Too nice for a statesman, too proud for a wit : For a patriot, too cool ; for a drudge, disobedient ; And too fond of the right to pursue the expedient. In short, 'twas his fate, unemploy'd, or in place, Sir, To eat mutton cold, and cut blocks with a razor.