The Autobiography of John Galt, Volume 1 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
acquainted adventure afterwards agreeable amuse appeared arrived Athens Battle of Largs British Brucides Buchanites Cagliari called Canada Cerigo CHAPTER character circumstances consequence Constantinople course dinner Dontitos Duke Eckford Edinburgh effect father fortune gave gentleman Greek Greenock happened Hobhouse honour Hydra incident induced inhabitants inquired Irvine island janissary JOHN GALT journey kind Lady land letter Levant London look Lord Byron lordship Mainots Malta manner ment mentioned Messina mind Morea morning mother never o'er obliged officers opinion Park particular Peneus person poem political Prince proceeded published received recollect remarkable remember rendered respecting returned Russian Salonica Sardinia scene seemed sent shewed Sicily Smyrna soon Spence taste Theatre things thought tion told took town Tripolizza Turks Upper Canada Valona Vilhi Pasha vizier's Voyages and Travels Widdin William Spence wrote young
Popular passages
Page 82 - Of river-stream, or ocean, in their flow. In these my early strength exulted; or To follow through the night the moving moon, The stars and their development; or catch The dazzling lightnings till my eyes grew dim; Or to look, list'ning, on the scatter'd leaves, While Autumn winds were at their evening song.
Page 82 - My joy was in the Wilderness, to breathe The difficult air of the iced mountain's top, Where the birds dare not build, nor insect's wing Flit o'er the herbless granite ; or to plunge Into the torrent, and to roll along On the swift whirl of the new breaking wave Of river-stream, or ocean, in their flow.
Page 110 - I could a tale unfold whose lightest word Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood, Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres, Thy knotted and combined locks to part And each particular hair to stand on end, Like quills upon the fretful porcupine : But this eternal blazon must not be To ears of flesh and blood.
Page 82 - tis but the same ; My pang shall find a voice. From my youth upwards My spirit walk'd not with the souls of men, Nor look'd upon the earth with human eyes ; The thirst of their ambition was not mine, The aim of their existence was not mine ; My joys, my griefs, my passions, and my powers, Made me a stranger ; though I wore the form, I had no sympathy with breathing flesh, Nor midst the creatures of clay that girded me Was there but one who but of her anon.
Page 82 - If my remembrance is not treacherous, he only spent one evening in the cabin with us — the evening before we came to anchor at Cagliari ; for, when the lights were placed, he made himself a man forbid, took his station on the railing between the pegs on which the sheets are belayed and the shrouds, and there, for hours, sat in silence, enamoured, it may be, of the moon.
Page 82 - I am speaking, scarcely two-and-twenty, and could claim no higher praise than having written a clever worldly-minded satire ; and yet it was impossible, even then, to reflect on the bias of his mind, as it was revealed by the casualties of conversation, without experiencing a presentiment, that he was destined to execute some singular and ominous purpose.
Page 14 - Shaws water, — for exactly the same purpose as the canal has been since executed. ... In the Firth, opposite to Greenock, there is a large sand-bank often dry at low water. When it was proposed to enlarge the harbour it occurred to me that this bank might be converted into land, and I have still a very cheap and feasible plan for gradually doing it, but unfortunately the bank belonged to the Crown, and was too sacred to be improved.
Page 81 - ... the gate of the upper town, where his Lordship, as we were taking leave, thanked him with more elocution than was precisely requisite. The style and formality of the speech amused Mr Hobhouse, as well as others; and when the minister retired, he began to rally his Lordship on the subject. But Byron really fancied that he had acquitted himself with grace and dignity, and took the jocularity of his friend amiss - a little banter ensued - the poet became petulant, and...
Page 166 - ... especially as the Colony could utilize the proceeds from the sale of Crown Lands to create a fund for that purpose. In line with his visionary nature, was the fact that dull commercial pursuits were wholly unattractive to him, and, to quote his own words, "I never in my whole life have been able to lend my heart to any business "whatever in which the imagination had not a share.
Page 38 - Campbell began his poetical career by an Ossianic poem, which was published by his schoolfellows when he was only thirteen. At fifteen he wrote a poem on the Queen of France, which ~was published in the Glasgow Courier. At eighteen, he printed his Elegy called ' Love and Madness ; ' and at twenty-one, before the finishing of his twenty-second year,