The British Essayists, Volume 20 |
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Common terms and phrases
able advantage amuse appearance approach attention authority beauty believe cause common condition considered continue conversation danger death delight desire discover duty easily effect endeavour equally excellence expect eyes fail favour fear feel folly formed fortune frequently gain give ground hand happens happiness heart hope hour human imagination importance inclined inquiry interest kind knowledge known labour ladies learning least less lives longer look lost mankind means measure ments mind nature necessary neglect never numbers observed once opinion pain particular passed passions perhaps perpetual pleased pleasure praise present produce publick raise RAMBLER reason received regard remarkably rest riches rule scarcely seems seldom shew short sometimes soon sound suffer surely syllables thing thought thousand tion truth turned universal vanity verse virtue wish writers young
Popular passages
Page 34 - I have often thought that there has rarely passed a life of which a judicious and faithful narrative would not be useful.
Page 208 - The sound must seem an echo to the sense. Soft is the strain when Zephyr gently blows, And the smooth stream in smoother numbers flows; But when loud surges lash the sounding shore, The hoarse, rough verse should like the torrent roar. When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throw, The line too labours, and the words move slow; Not so, when swift Camilla scours the plain, Flies o'er th' unbending corn, and skims along the main.
Page 193 - Reserved him to more wrath; for now the thought Both of lost happiness and lasting pain Torments him; round he throws his baleful eyes, That witnessed huge affliction and dismay, Mixed with obdurate pride and steadfast hate. At once, as far as Angels...
Page 64 - let the errors and follies, the dangers and escape of this day, sink deep into thy heart. Remember, my son, that human life is the journey of a day. We rise in the morning of youth, full of vigour and full of expectation ; we set forward with spirit and hope, with gaiety and with diligence, and travel on a while in the straight road of piety towards the mansions of rest.
Page 62 - Here Obidah paused for a time, and began to consider whether it were longer safe to forsake the known and common track ; but remembering that the heat was now in its greatest violence, and that the plain was dusty and uneven, he resolved to pursue the new path, which he supposed only to make a few meanders, in compliance with the varieties of the ground, and to end at last in the common road. Having thus calmed his solicitude, he renewed his pace, though he suspected he was not gaining ground.
Page 220 - Up to our native seat : descent and fall To us is adverse. Who but felt of late, When the fierce foe hung on our broken rear Insulting, and pursued us through the deep, With what compulsion and laborious flight We sunk thus low ? The...
Page 35 - We are all prompted by the same motives, all deceived by the same fallacies, all animated by hope, obstructed by danger, entangled by desire, and seduced by pleasure.
Page 63 - At length, not fear, but labour began to overcome him ; his breath grew short, and his knees trembled; and he was on the point of lying down in resignation to his fate, when he beheld, through the brambles, the glimmer of a taper. He advanced towards the light ; and finding that it proceeded from the cottage of a hermit, he called humbly at the door, and obtained admission. The old man set before him such provisions as he had collected for himself, on which Obidah fed with eagerness and gratitude....
Page 193 - Adam, well may we labour still to dress This garden, still to tend plant, herb, and flower, Our pleasant task enjoin'd ; but, till more hands Aid us, the work under our labour grows, Luxurious by restraint ; what we by day Lop overgrown, or prune, or prop, or bind, One night or two with wanton growth derides, Tending to wild.
Page 77 - To be happy at home is the ultimate result of all ambition, the end to which every enterprise and labour tends, and of which every desire prompts the prosecution.
Bibliographic information
| Title | The British Essayists, Volume 20 The British Essayists, Alexander Chalmers |
| Editor | Alexander Chalmers |
| Publisher | J. Johnson, 1808 |
| Original from | the University of Michigan |
| Digitized | May 6, 2005 |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |