Rules for English Composition, and Particularly for Themes: Designed for the Use of Schools, and in Aid of Self Instruction

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P. Potter, 1816 - English language - 177 pages
 

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Page 137 - Happy are they, my son, who shall learn from thy example not to despair, but shall remember, that though the day is past, and their strength is wasted, there yet remains one effort to be made ; that reformation is never hopeless, nor sincere...
Page 116 - There are many more shining qualities in the mind of man, but there is none so useful as discretion ; it is this indeed which gives a value to all the rest, which sets them at work in their proper times and places, and turns them to the advantage of the person who is possessed of them.
Page 109 - In short, the person who has a firm trust on the Supreme Being, is powerful in his power, wise by his wisdom, happy by his happiness. He reaps the benefit of every divine attribute, and loses his own insufficiency in the fulness of infinite perfection.
Page 165 - From the mountains on every side, rivulets descended that filled all the valley with verdure and fertility, and formed a lake in the middle inhabited by fish of every species, and frequented by every fowl whom nature has taught to dip the wing in water. This lake discharged its superfluities by a stream which entered a dark cleft of the mountain on the northern side, and fell with dreadful noise from precipice to precipice till it was heard no more.
Page 117 - At the same, time that I think discretion the most useful talent a man can be master of, I look upon cunning to be the accomplishment of little, mean, ungenerous minds. Discretion points out the noblest ends to us, and pursues the most proper and laudable methods of attaining them : cunning has only private selfish aims, and sticks at nothing which may make them succeed.
Page 165 - All animals that bite the grass or browse the shrub, whether wild or tame, wandered in this extensive circuit, secured from beasts of prey by the mountains which confined them. On one part were flocks and herds feeding in the pastures ; on another, all the beasts of chase frisking in the lawns. The sprightly kid was bounding on the rocks, the subtle monkey frolicking in the trees and the solemn elephant reposing in the shade.
Page 118 - Cunning is a kind of shortsightedness, that discovers the minutest objects which are near at hand, but is not able to discern things at a distance.
Page 70 - I went by the field of the slothful, and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding ; and, lo, it was all grown over with thorns, and nettles had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall thereof was broken down.
Page 101 - Truth is always consistent with itself, and needs nothing to help it out ; it is always near at hand, and sits upon our lips, and is ready to drop out before we are aware : whereas a lie is troublesome, and sets a man's invention upon the rack, and one trick needs a great many more to make it good.
Page 98 - In the face of the sun you may see God's beauty ; in the fire you may feel His heat warming ; in the water, His gentleness to refresh you : He it is that comforts your spirit when you have taken cordials ; it is the dew of heaven that makes your field give you bread, and the breasts of God are the bottles that minister drink to your necessities.

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