Roundabout Papers: And Little Travels and Road-side Sketches |
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admirable amongst amusing Athenæum Club beard beautiful Béchamel better bottle brave Cambronne Captain cheerful Christmas Chur church claret Club Cornhill Magazine dare say delightful dinner Doctor Doctor Johnson English eyes fancy fellow gentle gentleman George IV give Gorillas Gray's Inn hand happy head heard heart hero honour hundred jokes kind ladies Laërtes laugh live London look Lord Lord Palmerston master Médoc mind morning neighbour never night noble Northumberland Street novels ogres painted pantomime paper passed paterfamilias perhaps Pinto pretty Prince queer remember round Roundabout Saint Sarah Sands seen servants ship sitting sleep smiling smock-frock speak story strange suppose sure sweet talk tell thou thought thousand Tunbridge Venice walk whilst wife window wine woman women wonder word write young
Popular passages
Page 217 - Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth Unseen, both when we wake, and when we sleep. All these with ceaseless praise his works behold Both day and night : how often from the steep Of echoing hill or thicket have we heard Celestial voices to the midnight air, Sole, or responsive each to other's note, Singing their great Creator...
Page 201 - I had seen many pictures of his house, and read descriptions of it, in both of which it was treated with a not unusual American exaggeration. It was but a pretty little cabin of a place ; the gentleman of the press who took notes of the place, whilst his kind old host was sleeping, might have visited the whole house in a couple of minutes.
Page 199 - His new country (which some people here might be disposed to regard rather superciliously) could send us, as he showed in his own person, a gentleman, who, though himself * Washington Irving died, November 28, 1859 ; Lord Maoaulay died, December 28, 1859.
Page 249 - Of course he spoke with an Irish brogue. Of course he had been in the army. In ten minutes he pulled out an Army Agent's account, whereon his name was written. A few months after we read of him in a police court. How had I come to know him, to divine him ? Nothing shall convince me that I have not seen that man in the world of spirits. In the world of spirits and water I know I did: but that is a mere quibble of words.
Page 206 - Harlowe and her misfortunes, and her scoundrelly Lovelace ! The Governor's wife seized the book, and the Secretary waited for it, and the Chief Justice could not read it for tears ! " He acted the whole scene : he paced up and down the "Athenaeum" library: I dare say he could have spoken pages of the book — of that book, and of what countless piles of others ! In this little paper let us keep to the text of nil nisi bonum. One paper I have read regarding Lord Macaulay says "he had no heart." Why,...
Page 201 - Does not the very cheerfulness of his after life add to the pathos of that untold story ? To grieve always was not in his nature ; or, when he had his sorrow, to bring all the world in to condole with him and bemoan it. Deep and quiet he lays the love of his heart, and buries it; and grass and flowers grow over the scarred ground in due time.
Page 202 - ... calling; in his professional bargains and mercantile dealings delicately honest and grateful ; one of the most charming masters of our lighter language ; the constant friend to us and our nation ; to men of letters doubly dear, not for his wit and genius merely, but as an exemplar of goodness, probity, and pure life:— I don't know what sort of testimonial will be raised to him in his own country, where generous and enthusiastic acknowledgment of American merit is never wanting ; but Irving...
Page 247 - This is the sin of schoolmasters, governesses, critics, sermoners, and instructors of young or old people. Nay (for I am making a clean breast, and liberating my soul), perhaps of all the novelspinners now extant, the present speaker is the most addicted to preaching. Does he not stop perpetually in his story and begin to preach to you...
Page 207 - Here are two examples of men most differently gifted — each pursuing his calling; each speaking his truth as God bade him; each honest in his life; just and irreproachable in his dealings; dear to his friends; honored by his country; beloved at his fireside.
Page 201 - American exaggeration. It was but a pretty little cabin of a place ; the gentleman of the press who took notes of the place, whilst his kind old host was sleeping, might have visited the whole house in a couple of minutes. And how came it that this house was so small, when Mr. Irving's books were sold by hundreds of thousands, nay, millions, when his profits were known to be large, and the habits of life of the good old bachelor were notoriously modest and simple ? He had loved once in his life....