The English Essayists: A Comprehensive Selection from the Works of the Great Essayists, from Lord Bacon to John RuskinRobert Cochrane |
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Page 9
... delight in giddiness ; and count it a bondage to fix a belief ; affecting free - will in thinking , as well as in acting . And though the sect of philosophers of that kind be gone , yet there remain certain discoursing wits , which are ...
... delight in giddiness ; and count it a bondage to fix a belief ; affecting free - will in thinking , as well as in acting . And though the sect of philosophers of that kind be gone , yet there remain certain discoursing wits , which are ...
Page 23
... delighted in solitude , is either a wild beast , or a god . " For it is most true , that a natural and secret hatred , and aversion towards society , in any man , hath somewhat of the savage beast : but it is most untrue , that it ...
... delighted in solitude , is either a wild beast , or a god . " For it is most true , that a natural and secret hatred , and aversion towards society , in any man , hath somewhat of the savage beast : but it is most untrue , that it ...
Page 32
... delight , for ornament , and for ability . Their chief use for delight , is in private- ness and retiring ; for ornament , is in discourse ; and for ability , is in the judgment and disposi tion of business . For expert men can execute ...
... delight , for ornament , and for ability . Their chief use for delight , is in private- ness and retiring ; for ornament , is in discourse ; and for ability , is in the judgment and disposi tion of business . For expert men can execute ...
Page 43
... delightful melancholy , a friend in show , but a secret devil , a sweet poison , it will in the end be his undoing ; let him go presently , task or set himself a work , get some good company . If he proceed , as a gnat flies about a ...
... delightful melancholy , a friend in show , but a secret devil , a sweet poison , it will in the end be his undoing ; let him go presently , task or set himself a work , get some good company . If he proceed , as a gnat flies about a ...
Page 46
... delighted by the way , and forget whither we are going . " " Ite nunc fortes , ubi celsa magni Ducit exempli via ... delight in seeing thee . " The gods are well pleased when they see great men contending with adversity , " as we are ...
... delighted by the way , and forget whither we are going . " " Ite nunc fortes , ubi celsa magni Ducit exempli via ... delight in seeing thee . " The gods are well pleased when they see great men contending with adversity , " as we are ...
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Common terms and phrases
admiration Æsop affection appear atheism Augustus Cæsar beauty Ben Jonson better called cern character Coleridge common creature death delight divine doth Dr Johnson dream earth England eyes fancy fear feel fortune genius give hand happy hath heart heaven honour hour human humour imagination kind king knowledge labour lady learning less live look Lord Lord Byron man's mankind manner marriage matter ment Milton mind nature ness never night object observed opinion pain Paradise Lost pass passion perhaps person Pilgrim's Progress pleasure Plutarch poem poet poetry Quakers reason Roger de Coverley Scotland seems sense Shakespeare Sir Roger soul speak spirit Stesichorus taste Tatler tell thee things thou thought tion true truth turn Virgil virtue walk whole wise woman words write young
Popular passages
Page 33 - Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested — that is, some books are to be read only in parts, others to be read, but not curiously, and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention.
Page 179 - Great in the earth as in the ethereal frame, Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze, Glows in the stars, and blossoms in the trees : Lives through all life, extends through all extent, Spreads undivided, operates unspent ; Breathes in our soul, informs our mortal part, As full, as perfect, in a hair as heart ; As full, as perfect, in vile man that mourns, As the rapt Seraph that adores and burns ; To him no high, no low, no great, no small : He fills, he bounds, connects, and equals all.
Page 117 - When I see kings lying by those who deposed them, when I consider rival wits placed side by side, or the holy men that divided the world with their contests and disputes, I reflect with sorrow and astonishment on the little competitions, factions, and debates of mankind. When I read the several dates of the tombs, of some that died yesterday, and some six hundred years ago, I consider that great day when we shall all of us be contemporaries, and make our appearance together.
Page 23 - But little do men perceive what solitude is, and how far it extendeth; for a crowd is not company, and faces are but a gallery of pictures, and talk but a tinkling cymbal where there is no love.
Page 122 - I saw the valley opening at the further end, and spreading forth into an immense ocean, that had a huge rock of adamant running through the midst of it, and dividing it into two equal parts. The clouds still rested on one half of it, insomuch that I could discover nothing in it; but the other appeared to me a vast ocean planted with innumerable islands, that were covered with fruits and flowers, and interwoven with a thousand little shining seas that ran among them. I could see persons dressed in...
Page 33 - Crafty men contemn studies, simple men admire them, and wise men use them: for they teach not their own use; but that is a wisdom without them and above them, won by observation. Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted, nor to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider.
Page 72 - I cannot praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue, unexercised and unbreathed, that never sallies out and sees her adversary, but slinks out of the race where that immortal garland is to be run for, not without dust and heat.
Page 17 - It is true that a little philosophy inclineth man's mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion. For, while the mind of man looketh upon second causes scattered, it may sometimes rest in them and go no further, but, when it beholdeth the chain of them confederate and linked together, it must needs fly to Providence and Deity.
Page 177 - Hope humbly then; with trembling pinions soar; Wait the great teacher, Death; and God adore. What future bliss, He gives not thee to know, But gives that hope to be thy blessing now. Hope springs eternal in the human breast; Man never is, but always to be blest. The soul, uneasy and confined from home, Rests and expatiates in a life to come.
Page 121 - I drew near with that reverence which is due to a superior nature ; and as my heart was entirely subdued by the captivating strains I had heard, I fell down at his feet and wept. The genius smiled upon me with a look of compassion and affability that familiarized him to my imagination, and at once dispelled all the fears and apprehensions with which I approached him.