British Novelists and Their Styles: Being a Critical Sketch of the History of British Prose Fiction |
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Mathematical Tracts on the Lunar and Planetary Theories . The Figure of the Earth , Precession and Nutation , the Calculus of Variations , and the Undulatory Theory of Optics . Fourth Edition , revised and improved .
Mathematical Tracts on the Lunar and Planetary Theories . The Figure of the Earth , Precession and Nutation , the Calculus of Variations , and the Undulatory Theory of Optics . Fourth Edition , revised and improved .
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Page 14 - ... than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours. What a piece of work is a man! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals! And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust?
Page 14 - I have of late — but wherefore I know not — lost all my mirth, forgone all custom of exercises ; and indeed it goes so heavily with my disposition that this goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory ; this most excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave o'erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire, why, it appears no other thing to me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours.
Page 130 - It was an attempt to blend the two kinds of romance, the ancient and the modern. In the former, all was imagination and improbability ; in the latter, nature is always intended to be, and sometimes has been, copied with success. Invention has not been wanting ; but the great resources of fancy have been dammed up, by a strict adherence to common life.
Page 280 - And an Introduction, explanatory of his position in the Church, with reference to the Parties which divide it. 3 vols. 8vo.
Page 44 - There were hills which garnished their proud heights with stately trees : humble valleys whose base estate seemed comforted with the refreshing of silver rivers; meadows enamelled with all sorts of eye-pleasing flowers ; thickets, which being lined with most pleasant shade were witnessed so to, by the cheerful disposition of many well-tuned birds ; each pasture stored with sheep feeding with sober security, while the pretty lambs with bleating oratory craved...
Page 130 - YE who listen with credulity to the whispers of fancy, and pursue with eagerness the phantoms of hope; who expect that age will perform the promises of youth, and that the deficiencies of the present day will be supplied by the morrow ; attend to the history of Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia.
Page 104 - I will not scruple to say it may be likewise either in verse or prose: for though it wants one particular, which the critic enumerates in the constituent parts of an epic poem, namely metre; yet, when any kind of writing contains all its other parts, such as fable, action, characters, sentiments, and diction, and is deficient in metre only, it seems, I think, reasonable to refer it to the epic...
Page 283 - Christ and other Masters. A Historical Inquiry into some of the Chief Parallelisms and Contrasts between Christianity and the Religious Systems of the Ancient World.
Page 52 - AUTHOR'S APOLOGY FOR HIS BOOK WHEN at the first I took my pen in hand Thus for to write, I did not understand That I at all should make a little book In such a mode ; nay, I had undertook To make another ; which, when almost done, Before I was aware I this begun.
Page 149 - And wi' the lave ilk merry morn Could rank my rig and lass, Still shearing, and clearing The tither stocked raw, Wi' claivers, an' haivers, Wearing the day awa : Ev'n then a wish, (I mind its power,) A wish that to my latest hour Shall strongly heave my breast ; That I for poor auld Scotland's sake, Some usefu' plan, or beuk could make, Or sing a sang at least.
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Bibliographic information
| Title | British Novelists and Their Styles: Being a Critical Sketch of the History of British Prose Fiction |
| Author | David Masson |
| Publisher | Macmillan and Company, 1859 |
| Original from | the University of Michigan |
| Digitized | 6 May 2005 |
| ISBN | 0598557997, 9780598557995 |
| Length | 308 pages |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |