The General Biographical Dictionary: Containing an Historical and Critical Account of the Lives and Writings of the Most Eminent Persons in Every Nation; Particularly the British and Irish; from the Earliest Accounts to the Present Time

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Alexander Chalmers
J. Nichols, 1812 - Biography

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Page 163 - What he attempted, he performed ; he is never feeble, and he did not wish to be energetic ; he is never rapid, and he never stagnates. His sentences have neither studied amplitude, nor affected brevity ; his periods, though not diligently rounded, are voluble and easy. Whoever wishes to attain an English style, familiar but not coarse, and elegant but not ostentatious, must give his days and nights to the volumes of Addison, HUGHES.
Page 128 - ROMAN ANTIQUITIES : or an Account of the Manners and Customs of the Romans.
Page 163 - It was apparently his principal endeavour to avoid all harshness and severity of diction ; he is therefore sometimes verbose in his transitions and connexions, and sometimes descends too much to the language of conversation ; yet if his language had been less idiomatical, it might have lost somewhat of its genuine anglicism. What he attempted, he performed ; he is never feeble, and he did not wish to be...
Page 67 - This calamitous state made the compassion of his friends necessary, and drew upon him the attention of Sir Thomas Abney...
Page 432 - The Historie of that wise and Fortunate Prince, Henrie of that Name the Seventh, King of England. With that famed Battaile, fought betweene the sayd King Henry and Richard the third named Crookbacke, upon Redmoore neere Bosworth.
Page 201 - Corona." ^Eschines was his rival in business, and personal enemy; and one of the most distinguished orators of that age. But when we read the two orations, ^Eschines is feeble in comparison of Demosthenes, and makes much less impression on the mind. His reasonings concerning the law that was in question are indeed very subtile; but his invective against Demosthenes is general and ill supported. Whereas, Demosthenes is a torrent, that nothing can resist. He bears down his antagonist with violence;...
Page 157 - The danger was soon over. The whole nation was at that time on fire with faction. The Whigs applauded every line in which liberty was mentioned, as a satire on the Tories ; and the Tories echoed every clap, to show that the satire was unfelt.
Page 163 - He copies life with so much fidelity, that he can be hardly said to invent; yet his exhibitions have an air so much original, that it is difficult to suppose them not merely the product of imagination. As a teacher of wisdom, he may be confidently followed. His religion has nothing in it enthusiastic or superstitious: he appears neither weakly credulous, nor wantonly sceptical; his morality is neither dangerously lax, nor impracticably rigid. All the enchantment of fancy, and all the cogency of argument,...
Page 24 - Being not well turned for a court, though otherwise of considerable learning, and gentile [well-bred] education, he either could not, or would not, stoop to the humour of the times, and now and then, by an unseasonable stiffness, gave occasion to his enemies to represent him as not well inclined to the prerogative, or too much addicted to a popular interest, and therefore not fit to be employed in matters of government.
Page 157 - No writers had yet undertaken to reform either the savageness of neglect, or the impertinence of civility ; to shew when to speak, or to be silent ; how to refuse, or how to comply. We had many books to teach us our more important duties, and to settle opinions in philosophy or...

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