The British essayists; with prefaces by A. Chalmers, Volume 29 |
Common terms and phrases
able acquaintance admirer agreeable appearance attend called cards character CICERO companion conversation Cribbage daugh daughter death discovered double entendre dress endeavour entertaining expence fair fashion father favour Fitz-Adam fortune fretter genteel gentleman give gout happiness head Herodotus honour hope horses humble servant husband imagine journeymen Julius Cæsar Jupiter laughed labours lady least lence letter live look mankind manner marriage married master means ment mind nature neral never obliged observed occasion pains panegyric paper passions PENTHESILEA persons play pleased pleasure polite poor post-chaise POSTILLION present pride proper PTOLEMY racter readers reason ridiculous shew sion soon spirit stept sure surprize Tatlers TELETHUSA tell thing thought THURSDAY tion told town truth tural vice virtue Whist whole wife woman word XXIX young
Popular passages
Page 147 - Where thou wilt, lad, I'll make one ; an I do not, call me villain, and baffle me.* P.
Page 3 - ... they are fit only to be inhabitants of Lubberland, where, as the child's geography informs us, men lie upon their backs with their mouths open, and it rains fat pigs ready roasted.
Page 212 - They are a little hasty, it is true; a trifle will put them in a fury; and while they are in that fury, they neither know nor care what they say or do : but then, as soon as it is over, they are extremely sorry and penitent for any injury or mischief they did.
Page 259 - I consented to his request; he had served me honestly above thirty years, from affection more than interest ; had always greased my wheels himself, and upon every one of my birth-days, had treated all his brother whips at his own expence...
Page 128 - On the demise of a person of eminence, it is confidently averred that he had a hand "open as day to melting charity," and that "take him for all in all, we ne'er shall look upon his like again.
Page 275 - ... and penetration. To paint him with a cheerful open countenance would be a poor return of compliment for the flattery that his approbation bestows, which, by not being promised, doubly satisfies one's self-love. The merit of others is degrading to their friends ; the gentleman I mean makes his worth open upon you, by persuading you that he discovers some in you.
Page 17 - Fitz-Adam. I THINK, sir, more than three years are past, since you began to bestow your labours on the reformation of the follies of the age. You have more than once hinted at the great success that has attended your endeavours ; but surely, Mr. Fitz-Adam, you deceive yourself. Which of your papers has effectuated any real amendment ? Have fewer fools gone to, or returned from France, since you commenced author? or have fewer French follies been purchased or propagated by those who never were in...
Page 70 - As they had never received the least hint of this before, they were a good deal surprised ; but when he concluded with telling them that he had been exhorting them with all diligence for sixteen years, when he had hardly been with them as many weeks, and talked of his high dignity in the church, some of the congregation said he was mad, most of them that he was dreaming. " I could wish, indeed, that these dreamers in the pulpit would contrive to dream their own dreams, or that they would take care...
Page 158 - ... lodgings, brought me home to his lordship's own house, and honoured me so far as to make me his domestic chaplain. His lordship's regard for me was so truly sincere, that he married me soon after to my lady's woman, a young person of admirable beauty and virtue, and a great favourite of my lord, because, as his lordship used often to tell me, she was a clergyman's daughter, and for what reason he knew not, extremely hated by his lady.
Page 166 - My eldest sister, who came into the world a year after, was called Wilhelmina Charlotta, the second Penthesilea, the third Telethusa, and the fourth Honoria. There was also a second son, who died within the month, christened Agamemnon. ' We were all of us trained up to regard these names as marks of superiority over other children, and such as would one time or other most certainly make our fortunes. If Master Ptolemy was naughty, he was not chid as a vulgar child, but admonished with all the gentleness...