English EssaysWalter Cochrane Bronson |
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Page iii
... given whenever that was possible ; when it was not , only such extracts are presented as have a certain completeness in them- selves . The title English Essays , which best indicates the nature of the collection as a whole , has been ...
... given whenever that was possible ; when it was not , only such extracts are presented as have a certain completeness in them- selves . The title English Essays , which best indicates the nature of the collection as a whole , has been ...
Page 15
... given us , not to be ever staring on , but by it to discover onward things more remote from our knowledge . It is not the unfrocking of a priest , the 15 unmitring of a bishop , and the removing him from off the Presbyterian shoulders ...
... given us , not to be ever staring on , but by it to discover onward things more remote from our knowledge . It is not the unfrocking of a priest , the 15 unmitring of a bishop , and the removing him from off the Presbyterian shoulders ...
Page 27
... , and have new names given us like many of the mummies , are cold consolations unto the students of perpetuity , even by everlasting languages . To be content that times to come should only know VANITY OF EARTHLY MONUMENTS 27.
... , and have new names given us like many of the mummies , are cold consolations unto the students of perpetuity , even by everlasting languages . To be content that times to come should only know VANITY OF EARTHLY MONUMENTS 27.
Page 33
... which I hope I have translated closely enough , and given them the same . turn of verse which they had in the original ; and this , I must say without vanity , is not the talent of every 33 JOHN DRYDEN PREFACE TO THE FABLES.
... which I hope I have translated closely enough , and given them the same . turn of verse which they had in the original ; and this , I must say without vanity , is not the talent of every 33 JOHN DRYDEN PREFACE TO THE FABLES.
Page 36
... given of course to human frailty . I will not trouble my reader with the shortness of time in which I writ it , or the several intervals of sickness : they who think too well of their own performances are apt to boast in their prefaces ...
... given of course to human frailty . I will not trouble my reader with the shortness of time in which I writ it , or the several intervals of sickness : they who think too well of their own performances are apt to boast in their prefaces ...
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admiration Æneid Æsop ancient animal appeared Areopagitica Aristotle beauty believe better body called century chalk Chaucer chimæras Church creatures death Dionysus divine Dryden earth England English essay eyes fadir fancy father French give Goldsmith Greek hand hath heart heaven Hebraism Hebraism and Hellenism Hellenism Heroes Homer human humor Iliad Italian Johnson kind king lady light living London look Lord man's mind modern Momus moral nature never OLIVER GOLDSMITH Ovid Painters Paracelsus passed perhaps persons Petrarch Phalaris Pharsalia Plato pleasure poem poet poetry poor reason Regiomontanus religion revised text Roman sense Shakespeare Sir Launcelot sort soul speak spirit story sweet Temple thee things thou thought tion Tom Jones translation Tristram Shandy truth turned verse Voltaire whole William Hazlitt words writers young
Popular passages
Page 11 - For Books are not absolutely dead things, but do contain a potency of life in them to be as active as that soul was whose progeny they are ; nay they do preserve as in a vial the purest efficacy and extraction of that living intellect that bred them.
Page 9 - Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted, nor to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider. Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested: that is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to be read, but not curiously ; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention.
Page 11 - And yet on the other hand unless wariness be used, as good almost kill a man as kill a good book; who kills a man kills a reasonable creature, God's image; but he who destroys a good book, kills reason itself, kills the image of God, as it were in the eye. Many a man lives a burden to the earth; but a good book is the precious life-blood of a master spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life.
Page 2 - ... the inquiry of truth, which is the love-making or wooing of it, the knowledge of truth, which is the presence of it, and the belief of truth, which is the enjoying of it, is the sovereign good of human nature.
Page 9 - Crafty men contemn studies, simple men admire them, and wise men use them, for they teach not their own use; but that is a wisdom without them, and above them, won by observation.
Page 11 - I know they are as lively, and as vigorously productive, as those fabulous dragon's teeth ; and being sown up and down, may chance to spring up armed men. And yet, on the other hand, unless wariness be used, as good almost kill a man as kill a good book. Who kills a man kills a reasonable creature, God's image ; but he who destroys a good book, kills reason itself, kills the image of God, as it were in the eye.
Page 12 - I cannot praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue, unexercised and unbreathed, that never sallies out and sees her adversary, but slinks out of the race where that immortal garland is to be run for, not without dust and heat.
Page 9 - STUDIES serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability. Their chief use for delight, is in privateness and retiring; for ornament, is in discourse; and for ability, is in the judgment and disposition of business. For expert men can execute, and perhaps judge of particulars, one by one; but the general counsels, and the plots and marshalling of affairs, come best from those that are learned.
Page 19 - Methinks I see in my mind a noble and puissant nation rousing herself like a strong man after sleep, and shaking her invincible locks: methinks I see her as an eagle mewing her mighty youth, and kindling her undazzled eyes at the full mid-day beam ; purging and unsealing her long-abused sight at the fountain itself of heavenly radiance, while the whole noise of timorous and flocking birds, with those also that love the twilight, flutter about, amazed at what she means, and in their envious gabble...
Page 9 - Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested ; that is, some books are to be read only in parts, others to be read, but not curiously, and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention. Some books also may be read by deputy...