The Book of Days: A Miscellany of Popular Antiquities in Connection with the Calendar, Including Anecdote, Biography, & History, Curiosities of Literature and Oddities of Human Life and Character, Volume 2

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W. & R. Chambers Limited, 1864 - Anecdotes

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Page 308 - A strange fish! Were I in England now, as once I was, and had but this fish painted, not a holiday fool there but would give a piece of silver. There would this monster make a man. Any strange beast there makes a man. When they will not give a doit to relieve a lame beggar, they will lay out ten to see a dead Indian.
Page 393 - I happened soon after to attend one of his sermons, in the course of which I perceived he intended to finish with a collection, and I silently resolved he should get nothing from me. I had in my pocket a handful of copper money, three or four silver dollars, and five pistoles in gold. As he proceeded I began to soften, and concluded to give the coppers.
Page 23 - I believe, towards the close of the last century, and the beginning of the present, sent out more living writers, in its proportion, than any other school.
Page 149 - And hence the egregious wizard shall foredoom The fate of Louis, and the fall of Rome. Then cease, bright nymph ! to mourn thy ravish'd hair, Which adds new glory to the shining sphere ! Not all the tresses that fair head can boast, Shall draw such envy as the Lock you lost, For...
Page 146 - Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife, Their sober wishes never learned to stray ; Along the cool sequestered vale of life They kept the noiseless tenor of their way.
Page 297 - He has visited all Europe, — not to survey the sumptuousness of palaces, or the stateliness of temples ; not to make accurate measurements of the remains of ancient grandeur, nor to form a scale of the curiosity of modern art ; not to collect medals, or collate manuscripts : — but to dive into the depths of dungeons; to plunge into the infection of hospitals ; to survey the mansions of sorrow and pain ; to take the gauge and dimensions of misery, depression, and contempt...
Page 240 - His Prayer to Ben Jonson. WHEN I a verse shall make, Know I have prayed thee, For old religion's sake, Saint Ben, to aid me. Make the way smooth for me, When I, thy Herrick, Honouring thee, on my knee Offer my Lyric. Candles I'll give to thee, And a new altar ; And thou, Saint Ben, shalt be Writ in my psalter.
Page 229 - Oh, God ! that horrid, horrid dream Besets me now awake ! Again — again, with dizzy brain, The human life I take ; And my red right hand grows raging hot, Like Cranmer's at the stake. "And still no peace for the restless clay, Will wave or mould allow ; The horrid thing pursues my soul, — It stands before me now ! " The fearful boy looked up, and saw Huge drops upon his brow.
Page 457 - THE COUNTESS OF PEMBROKE. UNDERNEATH this sable hearse Lies the subject of all verse, Sidney's sister, Pembroke's mother : Death, ere thou hast slain another, Fair, and learned, and good as she, Time shall throw a dart at thee.
Page 305 - My lord of Ely, when I was last in Holborn, I saw good strawberries in your garden there ; I do beseech you, send for some of them.

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