Lectures, Sketches, and Poetical Pieces

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Seton & Mackenzie, 1873 - 382 pages

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Page 155 - DAY set on Norham's castled steep, And Tweed's fair river, broad and deep, And Cheviot's mountains lone ; The battled towers, the donjon keep, The loophole grates where captives weep, The flanking walls that round it sweep, In yellow lustre shone.
Page 43 - And oh ! may Heaven their simple lives prevent From luxury's contagion, weak and vile ! Then, howe'er crowns and coronets be rent, A virtuous populace may rise the while, And stand a wall of fire around their much-loved Isle. O Thou! who pour'd the patriotic tide That stream'd thro...
Page 270 - Hyperion's curls, the front of Jove himself, An eye like Mars, to threaten and command, A station like the herald Mercury New-lighted on a heaven-kissing hill, A combination and a form indeed, Where every god did seem to set his seal, To give the world assurance of a man.
Page 44 - The effect could not be immediately felt. But, before one generation had passed away, it began to be evident that the common people of Scotland were superior in intelligence to the common people of any other country in Europe. To whatever land the Scotchman might wander, to whatever calling he might betake himself, in America or in India, in trade or in war, the advantage which he derived from his early training raised him above his competitors. If he was taken into a warehouse as a porter, he soon...
Page 136 - Your mantle fell when you ascended; and thousands, inflamed with your spirit, and impatient to tread in your steps, are ready to swear by Him that sitteth upon the throne, and liveth for ever and ever...
Page 97 - Music, among those who were styled the chosen people, was a religious art. The songs of Sion, which we have reason to believe were in high repute among the courts of the eastern monarchs, were nothing else but psalms and pieces of poetry that adored or celebrated the Supreme Being. The greatest conqueror in this holy nation, after the manner of the old Grecian lyrics, did not only compose the words of his divine odes, but generally set them to music himself: after which his works...
Page 97 - The greatest conqueror in this holy nation, after the manner of the old Grecian lyrics, did not only compose the words of his divine odes, but generally set them to music himself: after which his works, though they were consecrated to the tabernacle, became the national entertainment, as well as the devotion, of his people.
Page 155 - George's banner, broad and gay, Now faded, as the fading ray Less bright, and less, was flung; The evening gale had scarce the power To wave it on the Donjon tower, So heavily it hung. The scouts had parted on their search, The castle gates were barred ; Above the gloomy portal arch, Timing his footsteps to a march, The warder kept his guard ; Low humming as he paced along, Some ancient Border gathering-song.
Page 55 - ... that spot he could survey The broad expanse of sea, — That element where he so long Had been a rover free ! And lighted up his faded face, When, drifting in the gale, He with his telescope could catch, Far off, a coming sail : It was a music to his ear To list the sea-mew's...
Page 96 - Sentence; For, whereas our breath is by nature so short, that we cannot continue without a stay to speake long together; it was thought necessarie, as well for the speakers ease, as for the plainer deliverance of the things spoken, to invent this meanes, whereby men, pausing a pretty while, the whole speech might never the worse be understood.

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