The Plain Speaker: Opinions on Books, Men, and Things, Volume 1H. Colburn, 1826 - 447 pages |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 33
Page 32
... present of five - and - twenty pounds ! One of these writers went so far , in a sort of general profession of literary servility , as to declare broadly that there had been no great English poet , and that no one had a right to pretend ...
... present of five - and - twenty pounds ! One of these writers went so far , in a sort of general profession of literary servility , as to declare broadly that there had been no great English poet , and that no one had a right to pretend ...
Page 41
... presents nothing very dazzling , or graceful , or dignified to the imagination ; though you can tell infallibly at the first glance , or even a bow- shot off , that he is a gentleman of the first water ( the same that sixty years ago ...
... presents nothing very dazzling , or graceful , or dignified to the imagination ; though you can tell infallibly at the first glance , or even a bow- shot off , that he is a gentleman of the first water ( the same that sixty years ago ...
Page 46
... present day ) required to excel in any art or science , game or exercise . He is supposed qualified to dance a minuet , not to dance on the tight rope - to stand upright , not to stand on his head . He has only to sacrifice to the ...
... present day ) required to excel in any art or science , game or exercise . He is supposed qualified to dance a minuet , not to dance on the tight rope - to stand upright , not to stand on his head . He has only to sacrifice to the ...
Page 56
... present , but you may turn them into the utmost ridicule the instant they are gone : nay , not to do so is sometimes considered as an in- direct slight to the party that remains . You must compliment your bitterest foe to his face , and ...
... present , but you may turn them into the utmost ridicule the instant they are gone : nay , not to do so is sometimes considered as an in- direct slight to the party that remains . You must compliment your bitterest foe to his face , and ...
Page 81
... are full . If such is still my admiration of this man's misapplied He is there called " Citizen Lauderdale . " Is this the present Earl ? Second Series , VOL . II . G powers , what must it have been at a time ON READING OLD BOOKS . 81.
... are full . If such is still my admiration of this man's misapplied He is there called " Citizen Lauderdale . " Is this the present Earl ? Second Series , VOL . II . G powers , what must it have been at a time ON READING OLD BOOKS . 81.
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.