Critical and Historical Essays, Volume 1

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Page 738 - he probably expected to be immortal, is every day fading; while those peculiarities of manner and that careless table-talk, the memory of which he probably thought would die with him, are likely to be remembered as long as the English language is spoken in any quarter of the globe. JOHN BUNYAN
Page 280 - shows us also the nation. He considers no anecdote, no / peculiarity of manner, no familiar saying, as too insignificant for his notice which is not too insignificant to illustrate the operation of laws, of religion, and of education, and to mark the progress of the human mind. Men will
Page 281 - was made by an apprentice out of the pieces of glass which had been rejected by his master. It is so far superior to every other in the church, that, according to the tradition, the vanquished artist killed himself from ' mortification. Sir Walter Scott, in the same manner, has
Page 77 - causes, and to deduce from it consequences unfavorable to Athens, and to popular governments, than to throw light on the character and doctrines of the wonderful man, " From whose mouth issued forth Mellifluous streams that watered all the schools Of Academics, old and new, with those
Page 734 - travels, except that there was a snake in one of the pyramids of Egypt? " History was, in his opinion, to use the fine expression of Lord Plunkett, an old almanac: historians could, as he conceived, claim no higher dignity than that of almanac-makers; and his favorite historians were those who, like Lord
Page 279 - operation of government and laws, he knows nothing; He who would understand these things rightly must not confine his observations to palaces and solemn days. He must see ordinary men as they appear in their ordinary business and in their ordinary pleasures. He
Page 498 - has scarcely ever displayed, even in those well-constituted minds of which she occupies the throne, so much power and energy as in the lowest offices of that imperial servitude. Now, in the mind of Mr. Southey reason has no place at all, as either leader or follower, as either sovereign or
Page 278 - But we must remember how small a proportion the good or evil effected by a single statesman can bear to the good or evil of a great social system. Bishop Watson compares a geologist to a gnat mounted on an elephant, and laying down theories as to the whole
Page 574 - If he has children, they are to be taken from him. If he has a profession, he is to be driven from it. He is cut by the higher orders, and hissed by the lower. He is, in truth, a sort of whipping-boy, by whose vicarious agonies all the other transgressors of the same class are, it is supposed, sufficiently chastised.
Page 698 - a man who makes money by means of love? In fact, it requires no Bentley or Casaubon to perceive that Philarchus is merely a false spelling for Phylarchus, the chief of a tribe. Mr. Croker has favored us with some Greek of his own. "At the altar," says Dr. Johnson, "I recommended my 9

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