English Composition: Eight Lectures Given at the Lowell InstituteCharles Scribner's sons, 1891 - 320 pages |
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Page viii
... never stray beyond the limits of good use . In judging whether a given word be admissible , we may best ask ourselves whether it is a Barbarism - a word not in the language propriety , a word used in a sense not sanctioned by good use ...
... never stray beyond the limits of good use . In judging whether a given word be admissible , we may best ask ourselves whether it is a Barbarism - a word not in the language propriety , a word used in a sense not sanctioned by good use ...
Page 7
... never know more about it than that it interests or pleases them , or bores or annoys . A little consideration , however , will show , I think , that the undefined impression which any piece of style makes may always be resolved into ...
... never know more about it than that it interests or pleases them , or bores or annoys . A little consideration , however , will show , I think , that the undefined impression which any piece of style makes may always be resolved into ...
Page 17
... never anything more or less than these black marks should impress us primarily as something that possesses or lacks Clearness , Force , and Elegance ? Simply and solely because the tacit agreement , the good use of many generations of ...
... never anything more or less than these black marks should impress us primarily as something that possesses or lacks Clearness , Force , and Elegance ? Simply and solely because the tacit agreement , the good use of many generations of ...
Page 24
... never imagine until I happened to notice Sir Benjamin Backbite's impromptu verses in the " School for Scandal , " a play produced just before the Amer- ican Revolution : “ Sure , never were seen two such beautiful ponies ; Other horses ...
... never imagine until I happened to notice Sir Benjamin Backbite's impromptu verses in the " School for Scandal , " a play produced just before the Amer- ican Revolution : “ Sure , never were seen two such beautiful ponies ; Other horses ...
Page 43
... never heard it ; I do not know exactly what line of conduct it describes . What mallecho may mean , except that it looks Spanish , and that the Latin root mal means bad , and has given rise to a great many names for bad things in modern ...
... never heard it ; I do not know exactly what line of conduct it describes . What mallecho may mean , except that it looks Spanish , and that the Latin root mal means bad , and has given rise to a great many names for bad things in modern ...
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English Composition: Eight Lectures Given at the Lowell Institute Barrett Wendell No preview available - 2016 |
Common terms and phrases
attention beginning believe Ben Jonson better catch the eye cerning chapter chief chiefly clause clear Comedy of Errors commonplace composed composition of sentences consider construction course definite deliberate denotation and connotation distinct effect elements of style English English language example express fact figures Fisher Ames Gentlemen of Verona give grammar graph Harvard College human impression kind language Latin lecture less literary literature matter means Midsummer Night's Dream mind never notable order of words ourselves palpable passage perhaps periodic periodic sentences phrase piece of style precisely pretty principle of Coherence principle of Mass principle of Unity principles of composition Publius Crassus purpose question reader relation remember Saxon secret Sejanus sense Shakspere simple single Sir Thomas Browne Solecism speech subtile suggest tell tence thing thought and emotion tion trait understand usage whoever whole compositions wish to produce writing
Popular passages
Page 276 - True wit is nature to advantage dress'd ; What oft was thought, but ne'er so well express'd ; Something, whose truth convinc'd at sight we find, That gives us back the image of our mind.
Page 275 - If all the pens that ever poets held Had fed the feeling of their masters' thoughts, And every sweetness that inspired their hearts, Their minds, and muses on admired themes ; If all the heavenly quintessence they still From their immortal flowers of poesy, Wherein, as in a mirror, we perceive The highest reaches of a human wit ; If these had made one poem's period, And all combined in beauty's worthiness, Yet should there hover in their restless heads One thought, one grace, one wonder, at the least,...
Page 59 - Tu-who, a merry note, While greasy Joan doth keel the pot. When all aloud the wind doth blow And coughing drowns the parson's saw And birds sit brooding in the snow And Marian's nose looks red and raw, When...
Page 60 - THAT time of year thou mayst in me behold When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang Upon those boughs which shake against the cold, Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang. In me thou see'st the twilight of such day As after sunset fadeth in the west, Which by and by black night doth take away, Death's second self, that seals up all in rest. In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire That on the ashes of his youth doth lie...
Page 9 - Thither our path lies; wind we up the heights: Wait ye the warning? Our low life was the level's and the night's; He's for the morning. Step to a tune, square chests, erect each head, 'Ware the beholders! This is our master, famous calm and dead, Borne on our shoulders.
Page 177 - Then, sir, from these six capital sources; of descent; of form of government; of religion in the northern provinces; of manners in the southern ; of education ; of the remoteness of situation from the first mover of government; from all these causes a fierce spirit of liberty has grown up.
Page 285 - Hail to thee, blithe Spirit! Bird thou never wert, That from Heaven, or near it, Pourest thy full heart In profuse strains of unpremeditated art. Higher still and higher From the earth thou springest Like a cloud of fire; The blue deep thou wingest, And singing still dost soar, and soaring ever singest.
Page 285 - ETHEREAL minstrel! pilgrim of the sky! Dost thou despise the earth where cares abound? Or, while the wings aspire, are heart and eye Both with thy nest upon the dewy ground? Thy nest which thou canst drop into at will, Those quivering wings composed, that music still!
Page 53 - Then Apollyon, espying his opportunity, began to gather up close to Christian, and, wrestling with him, gave him a dreadful fall; and with that Christian's sword flew out of his hand. Then said Apollyon, "I am sure of thee now !" and with that he had almost pressed him to death, so that Christian began to despair of life.
Page 253 - When all is done, (he concludes,) human life is at the greatest and the best but like a froward child, that must be played with and humoured a little to keep it quiet, till it falls asleep, and then the care is over.