The Olio

Front Cover
1833 - English literature - 310 pages

From inside the book

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page 94 - Are we a piece of machinery, which, like the .¿Eolian harp, passive, takes the impression of the passing accident; or do these workings argue something within us above the trodden clod? I own myself partial to such proofs of those awful and important realities: a God that made all things, man's immaterial and immortal nature, and a world of weal or woe beyond death and the grave.
Page 93 - We know nothing, or next to nothing, of the substance or structure of our souls, so cannot account for those seeming caprices in them that one should be particularly pleased with this thing, or struck with that, which on minds of a different cast makes no extraordinary impression. I have some favourite flowers in spring, among which are the mountain-daisy, the harebell, the foxglove, the wild-brier rose, the budding birch, and the hoary hawthorn, that I view and hang over with particular delight....
Page 93 - I ascended the high hills of Bagdat in order to pass the rest of the day in meditation and prayer. As I was here airing myself on the tops of the mountains, I fell into a profound contemplation on the vanity of human life; and, passing from one thought to another, surely, said I, man is but a shadow and life a dream.
Page 93 - I was here airing myself on the tops of the mountains, I fell into a profound contemplation on the vanity of human life; and passing from one thought to another, Surely, said I, man is but a shadow and life a dream.
Page 93 - I own myself so little a Presbyterian, that I approve of set times and seasons of more than ordinary acts of devotion, for breaking in on that habituated routine of life and thought, which is so apt to reduce our existence to a kind of instinct, or even sometimes, and with some minds, to a state very little superior to mere machinery. This day ; the first Sunday of May ; a breezy...
Page 278 - Hear, Father ! hear and aid ! If I have loved too well, if I have shed, In my vain fondness, o'er a mortal head Gifts, on Thy shrine, my God, more fitly laid : " If I have sought to live But in one light, and made a mortal eye The lonely star of my idolatry, — Thou, that art Love ! oh, pity and forgive!
Page 290 - ... however be recorded, that though I called in the hope of being asked, it was my fixed determination not to avail myself of so protracted a piece of politeness. No : my triumph would have been to have annihilated them with an engagement made in September, payable three months after date. With these feelings, I gave an agitated knock — they were stoning the plums, and did not immediately attend. I rung — how unlike a...
Page 168 - Dicky toss'd and turn'd ; And he mutter'd while half a-sleep, The stone is large and round , and the halter tight and sound, And the well thirty fathom deep. The gloomy dome of St. Paul's struck three, The morning began to blink, And Gossip slept, as if his wife Had put laudanum in his drink. Mrs. Gossip drew wide the curtains aside, The candle had burn'd to the socket, And lo ! Timothy stood, all cover'd with blood, With his right hand in his pocket.
Page 285 - Christmas-days ago, it was discovered, on sitting down, that one little accompaniment of the roast beef had been entirely overlooked. Would it be believed ? but I will not stay to mystify ; I merely mention the fact. They had forgotten the horse-radish ! The next day arrived, and with it a neat epistle, sealed with violet-coloured wax, from Upper Brook-street. " Dine with the ladies, at home on Christmas-day.
Page 167 - I'll be your friend, I dont value madam a button ; But I heard Mistress say, dont leave, I pray, Sweet Timothy Slaughter-mutton.

Bibliographic information