A New and General Biographical Dictionary: Containing an Historical and Critical Account of the Lives and Writings of the Most Eminent Persons in Every Nation; Particularly the British and Irish; from the Earliest Accounts of Time to the Present Period ...

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G. G. and J. Robinson, 1798 - Biography

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Page 126 - Such was Roscommon, not more learn'd than good, With manners generous as his noble blood ; To him the wit of Greece and Rome was known, And every author's merit, but his own.
Page 330 - ... they did not doubt of Mr. Selden's affection to the king, but withal they knew him so well, that they concluded he would absolutely refuse the place, if it were offered to him. He was in years, and of a tender constitution ; he had for many years enjoyed his ease, which he loved ; was rich ; and would not have made a journey to York, or have lain out of his own bed, for any preferment ; which he had never affected.
Page 332 - ... his humanity, courtesy, and affability was such, that he would have been thought to have been bred in the best courts, but that his good nature, charity, and delight in doing good, and in communicating all he knew, exceeded that breeding.
Page 69 - Lovelace ; but he has excelled his original in the moral effect of the fiction. Lothario, with gaiety which cannot be hated, and bravery which cannot be despised, retains too much of the spectator's kindness.
Page 332 - His style in all his writings seems harsh and sometimes obscure, which is not wholly to be imputed to the abstruse subjects of which he commonly treated, out of the paths trod by other men, but to a little undervaluing the beauty of a...
Page 332 - Hyde was wont to say that he valued himself upon nothing more than upon having had Mr. Selden's acquaintance from the time he was very young...
Page 192 - Marlborough was raised to the head of the army, and indeed of the confederacy, where he, a new, a private man, a subject, acquired by merit and by management a more deciding influence, than high birth, confirmed authority, and even the crown of Great Britain, had given to King William.
Page 68 - THE reader is indebted for this day's entertainment to an author from whom the age has received greater favours, who has enlarged the knowledge of human nature, and taught the passions to move at the command of virtue.
Page 365 - Fierce for the liberties of wit, and bold, We ftill defy'd the Romans, as of old. Yet fome there were, among the founder few Of thofe who lefs prefum'd, and better knew, 71* Who durft aflert the jufter ancient caufe, And here reftor'd Wit's fundamental laws. Such was the Mufe, whofe rules and praftice tell| " Nature's chief Mafter-piece is writing well.
Page 196 - Gualtier, who was -an emissary of France. Fifthly, that he disclosed to the French the manner how Tournay in Flanders might be gained by them. And lastly, that he advised and promoted the yielding up Spain and the West Indies to the Duke of Anjou, then an enemy to her majesty.

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