The British Essayists: Spectator

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James Ferguson
J. Richardson and Company, 1823 - English essays

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Page 302 - TO be— or not to be — that is the question ; Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The stings and arrows of outrageous fortune — Or to take arms against a sea of troubles ; And, by opposing, end them...
Page 193 - Knowing that you was my old master's good friend, I could not forbear sending you the melancholy news of his death, which has afflicted the whole country, as well as his poor servants, who loved him, I may say, better than we did our lives. I am afraid he caught his death the last...
Page 302 - tis a consummation Devoutly to be wish'd. To die: to sleep; To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub; For in that sleep of death what dreams may come When we have shuffled off this mortal coil...
Page 63 - I am no way facetious, nor disposed for the mirth and galliardize of /company; yet in one dream I can compose a whole comedy, behold the action, apprehend the jests, and laugh myself awake at the conceits thereof. Were my memory as faithful as my reason is then fruitful, I would never study but in my dreams ; and this time also would I chuse for my devotions...
Page 301 - tis not done; the attempt and not the deed Confounds us. Hark! I laid their daggers ready; He could not miss them. Had he not resembled My father as he slept I had done 't.
Page 197 - Roger's own hand. Sir Andrew found that they related to two or three points which he had disputed with Sir Roger the last time he appeared at the club. Sir Andrew, who would have been merry at such an incident on another occasion, at the sight of the old man's handwriting burst into tears, and put the book into his pocket. Captain Sentry informs me that the knight has left rings and mourning for every one in the club.
Page 95 - They are, indeed, so disseminated through all the trading parts of the world, that they are become the instruments by which the most distant nations converse with one another, and by which mankind are knit together in a general correspondence: they are like the pegs and nails in a great building, which, though they are but little valued in themselves, are absolutely necessary to keep the whole frame together.
Page 71 - HOW are thy servants blest, O Lord, How sure is their defence ! Eternal wisdom is their guide, Their help, omnipotence.
Page 193 - ... couple of silver bracelets set with jewels, which belonged to my good old lady his mother. He has bequeathed the fine white gelding that he used to ride a hunting upon, to his chaplain, because he thought he would be kind to him, and has left you all his books. He has moreover bequeathed to the chaplain a very pretty tenement with good lands about it. It being a very cold day when he made his will, he left for mourning to every man in the parish, a great frize-coat, and to every woman a black...
Page 252 - And when you exalt him, put forth all your strength, and be not weary: for you can never go far enough. Who hath seen him, that he might tell us? And who can magnify him as he is? There are yet hid greater things than these be, for we have seen but a few of his works.

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