The Life of Edward Gibbon: With Selections from His Correspondence and Illustrations |
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Page 1
... style shall be simple and familiar but style is the image of character ; and the habits of correct writing may produce , without labour or design , the ap- pearance of art and study . My own amusement is my motive , and will be my ...
... style shall be simple and familiar but style is the image of character ; and the habits of correct writing may produce , without labour or design , the ap- pearance of art and study . My own amusement is my motive , and will be my ...
Page 5
... style . Hume seems to have been endowed with the most remarkable coolness of temperament both in body and mind . He glided through life without having experienced , except on one occasion , a pro- found emotion , or known the power of ...
... style . Hume seems to have been endowed with the most remarkable coolness of temperament both in body and mind . He glided through life without having experienced , except on one occasion , a pro- found emotion , or known the power of ...
Page 7
... style and sentiment , though not without some of the faults of his age . It is that of a man whose whole being is concentred in the moral perfection of his nature . Some of the passages , of domestic feeling relating to his mother ...
... style and sentiment , though not without some of the faults of his age . It is that of a man whose whole being is concentred in the moral perfection of his nature . Some of the passages , of domestic feeling relating to his mother ...
Page 12
... style and title of Bluemantle Pursuivant at Arms . In this office he enjoyed near fifty years the rare felicity of uniting , in the same pursuit , his duty and inclination : his name is remembered in the College , and many of his ...
... style and title of Bluemantle Pursuivant at Arms . In this office he enjoyed near fifty years the rare felicity of uniting , in the same pursuit , his duty and inclination : his name is remembered in the College , and many of his ...
Page 17
... style forcible and clear ; and , had not his vigorous mind been clouded by enthu- siasm , he might be ranked with the most agreeable and inge- nious writers of the times . While the Bangorian controversy was a fashionable theme , he ...
... style forcible and clear ; and , had not his vigorous mind been clouded by enthu- siasm , he might be ranked with the most agreeable and inge- nious writers of the times . While the Bangorian controversy was a fashionable theme , he ...
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acquaintance Adieu admiration Æneid agreeable amusement ancient appears Archbishop of Arles assez avoit Beriton bien C'est Cæsar character Christianity church Cicero conversation criticism d'une deux Deyverdun Diodorus Siculus EDWARD GIBBON England English epistle Essay esteem été fait father favour feel fortune France French French language Geneva genius Greek happiness Herodotus historian History Holroyd homme honour hope ideas j'ai Journal labour Lady language Latin Lausanne learned letter literary Livy London Lord Sheffield Madame Magdalen College manners Memoirs ment militia mind months nature Necker never opinion Oxford Paris passage Pavilliard perhaps person philosopher pleasure Plutarch political Polybius Porten praise qu'il qu'on racter reason religion Roman Rome sentiments Severy Sheffield-Place society soon spirit style Suetonius Switzerland Tacitus taste tion tout Vaud Virgil Voltaire volume wish write
Popular passages
Page 190 - June, 1787, between the hours of eleven and twelve, that I wrote the last lines of the last page in a summer-house in my garden. After laying down my pen, I took several turns in a berceau, or covered walk of acacias, which commands a prospect of the country, the lake, and the mountains. The air was temperate, the sky was serene, the silver orb of the moon was reflected from the waters, and all nature was silent.
Page 204 - He draweth out the thread of his verbosity finer than the staple of his argument.
Page 11 - It will be proved to thy face that thou hast men about thee that usually talk of a noun and a verb and such abominable words as no Christian ear can endure to hear.
Page 94 - The discipline and evolutions of a modern battalion gave me a clearer notion of the phalanx and the legion ; and the captain of the Hampshire grenadiers (the reader may smile) has not been useless to the historian of the Roman empire.
Page 3 - ... latter, the Emperors of Germany and Kings of Spain, have threatened the liberty of the Old, and invaded the treasures of the New World. The successors of Charles the Fifth may disdain their brethren of England ; but the romance of Tom Jones, that exquisite picture of human manners, will outlive the palace of the Escurial and the imperial eagle of the house of Austria.
Page 67 - His declamation was fashioned to the pomp and cadence of the old stage ; and he expressed the enthusiasm of poetry, rather than the feelings of nature. My ardour, which soon became conspicuous, seldom failed of procuring me a ticket. The habits of pleasure fortified my taste for the French theatre, and that taste has perhaps abated my idolatry for the gigantic genius of Shakspeare, which is inculcated from our infancy as the first duty of an Englishman.
Page 196 - Well, if the use be mine, can it concern one, Whether the name belong to Pope or Vernon?
Page 68 - After a painful struggle I yielded to my fate: I sighed as a lover, I obeyed as a son; my wound was insensibly healed by time, absence, and the habits of a new life. My cure was accelerated by a faithful report of the tranquillity and cheerfulness of the lady herself, and my love subsided in friendship and esteem.
Page 115 - It was at Rome, on the 15th of October 1764, as I sat musing amidst the ruins of the Capitol, while the bare-footed friars were singing vespers in the temple of Jupiter', that the idea of writing the decline and fall of the city first started to my mind.
Page 40 - I was admitted to the society of the fellows, and fondly expected that some questions of literature would be the amusing and instructive topics of their discourse. Their conversation stagnated in a round of college business, Tory politics, personal anecdotes, and private scandal: their dull and deep potations excused the brisk intemperance of youth ; and their constitutional toasts were not expressive of the most lively loyalty for the house of Hanover.