Curiosities of Literature, Volume 1J. Murray, 1823 - 1560 pages |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
admirable amusement ancient anecdote angel appears Aristotle Arnauld beautiful BIBLIOMANIA called Cardinal Cardinal Richelieu celebrated character Cicero collection composed copies criticism curious death destroyed discovered Duchess of Longueville edition elegant Eloisa eminent errata Europe eyes father favourite French frequently genius give Greek Grotius historian honour hundred illustrious imagination imitation ingenious invention Jesuits Jews John Birkenhead king labours learned letters literary literature lived Livy lover manuscripts Marchamont Needham Menage ment mind Mishna missal natural never observed original passed passion Paulus Jovius philosopher Plato Plutarch poem poet Pope Port-Royal portraits possessed preface preserved prince printed printers published Quintilian rabbins racters reader ridiculous Roger Ascham Roman Saint SALLO Salmasius says scholars Scudery singular sneezing studies style Tacitus Talmud taste thing tion translated treatise Varro Velleius Paterculus verses volumes word writing written wrote
Popular passages
Page 146 - It was at Rome, on the 15th of October 1764, as I sat musing amidst the ruins of the Capitol, while the barefooted 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 51 - Full little knowest thou, that hast not tried, What hell it is in suing long to bide: To lose good days, that might be better spent; To waste long nights in pensive discontent; To speed to-day, to be put back to-morrow; To feed on hope, to pine with fear and sorrow; To have thy prince's grace, yet want her peers...
Page 38 - For my name and memory, I leave it to men's charitable speeches, and to foreign nations, and to the next age.
Page 6 - Of such a collector,' says he, * as soon as I enter his house, I am ready to faint on the staircase, from a strong smell of Morocco leather : in vain he shows me fine editions, gold leaves, Etruscan bindings, &c., naming them one after another, as if he were showing a gallery of pictures!
Page 29 - Sir Robert Cotton one day at his tailor's, discovered that the man was holding in his hand, ready to cut up for measures — an original Magna Charta, with all its appendages of seals and signatures.
Page 86 - Tower, and to settle the nation on a new foundation; so he took this province to himself, to show the madness of this proposition, the injustice of it, and the mischiefs that would follow on it, and did it with such clearness and strength of reason as not only satisfied all sober persons, for it may be supposed that was soon done, but...
Page 158 - When the emperor Decius persecuted the Christians, seven noble youths of Ephesus concealed themselves in a spacious cavern in the side of an adjacent mountain ; where they were doomed to perish by the tyrant, who gave orders that the entrance should be firmly secured with a pile of huge stones. They immediately fell into a deep slumber, which was miraculously prolonged, without injuring the powers of life, during a period...
Page 150 - I devoted to them. I found besides a work of De Foe's, entitled ' An Essay on Projects,' from which, perhaps, I derived impressions that have since influenced some of the principal events of my life.
Page 160 - The story of the Seven Sleepers has been adopted, and adorned, by the nations, from Bengal to Africa, who profess the Mahometan religion ; and some vestiges of a similar tradition have been discovered in the remote extremities of Scandinavia.
Page 266 - JEolic, sweet stillness and quiet composure; the Phrygian, jollity and youthful levity; the Ionic is a stiller of storms and disturbances arising from passion. And why may...