The Plain Speaker: Opinions on Books, Men, and Things, Volume 1H. Colburn, 1826 - 447 pages |
From inside the book
Results 6-10 of 100
Page 50
... Nature has just fitted him for the niche he fills in the scale of rank or title . He is a finished miniature - picture set in bril- liants : Lord C - might be compared to a loose sketch in oil , not properly hung . The character of the ...
... Nature has just fitted him for the niche he fills in the scale of rank or title . He is a finished miniature - picture set in bril- liants : Lord C - might be compared to a loose sketch in oil , not properly hung . The character of the ...
Page 89
... nature intended him to be . I have made use of this example with- out any apology for its being a fictitious one , because I think good novels are the most au- thentic as well as most accessible repositories of the natural history and ...
... nature intended him to be . I have made use of this example with- out any apology for its being a fictitious one , because I think good novels are the most au- thentic as well as most accessible repositories of the natural history and ...
Page 91
... nature must have been warped and biassed in that particular direction at first . This pre - determination in the blood has its caprices too , and wayward as well as obstinate fits . The family - likeness sometimes skips over the next of ...
... nature must have been warped and biassed in that particular direction at first . This pre - determination in the blood has its caprices too , and wayward as well as obstinate fits . The family - likeness sometimes skips over the next of ...
Page 95
... nature ? Why should my cousin Land I fix upon the same book , Tristram Shandy , -without comparing notes , have it " doubled down and dog - eared " in the same places , and live upon it as a sort of food that assimilated with our natural ...
... nature ? Why should my cousin Land I fix upon the same book , Tristram Shandy , -without comparing notes , have it " doubled down and dog - eared " in the same places , and live upon it as a sort of food that assimilated with our natural ...
Page 96
... also , who study human nature , not merely in the history of the individual , but in the genealogy of the race , know the comparative anatomy of the minds of a whole neighbourhood to a tittle , where to look 96 ON PERSONAL CHARACTER .
... also , who study human nature , not merely in the history of the individual , but in the genealogy of the race , know the comparative anatomy of the minds of a whole neighbourhood to a tittle , where to look 96 ON PERSONAL CHARACTER .
Other editions - View all
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 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 sort 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 266 - 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 41 - 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 311 - Yet nature is made better by no mean, But nature makes that mean: so, o'er 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 416 - 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 335 - 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 289 - 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 170 - 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 266 - 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 155 - Time travels in divers paces with divers persons : I'll tell you who time ambles withal, who time trots withal, who time gallops withal, and who he stands still withal.
Page 22 - Doubtless the pleasure is as great In being cheated, as to cheat. As lookers-on find most delight, Who least perceive the juggler's sleight ; And still the less they understand, The more admire the sleight of hand.