The Companion: After-dinner Table-talk |
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Page 25
... SELWYN'S BON - MOTS . We shall here quote some of the best of Selwyn's witticisms and pleasantries , and prefer rather throw- ing them all together , than to scatter them here and there about the book ; as it enables us to see better at ...
... SELWYN'S BON - MOTS . We shall here quote some of the best of Selwyn's witticisms and pleasantries , and prefer rather throw- ing them all together , than to scatter them here and there about the book ; as it enables us to see better at ...
Page 26
... Selwyn for going to see the execution , and asked him how he could be such a barbarian to see the head cut off ? " Nay , " replied he , " if that was such a crime , I am sure I have made amends ; for I went to see it sewed on again ...
... Selwyn for going to see the execution , and asked him how he could be such a barbarian to see the head cut off ? " Nay , " replied he , " if that was such a crime , I am sure I have made amends ; for I went to see it sewed on again ...
Page 27
... Selwyn , pointing to a silver dinner - service , observed " Lord , how many toads have been eaten off those plates ! " A namesake of Charles Fox having been hung at Tyburn , Fox inquired of Selwyn whether he had at- tended the execution ...
... Selwyn , pointing to a silver dinner - service , observed " Lord , how many toads have been eaten off those plates ! " A namesake of Charles Fox having been hung at Tyburn , Fox inquired of Selwyn whether he had at- tended the execution ...
Page 46
... Selwyn was noted for a passion for the details of criminal justice , from " the warrant to the rope ; " and his friends always made it a point of gratifying this peculiarity , by sending him news of criminals , executions , & c . When ...
... Selwyn was noted for a passion for the details of criminal justice , from " the warrant to the rope ; " and his friends always made it a point of gratifying this peculiarity , by sending him news of criminals , executions , & c . When ...
Page 47
... Selwyn , Mr. Walpole's compliments , and he's got a housebreaker for you . " JOHN RANDOLPΗ . The celebrated John Randolph not wishing to reply to a disagreeable question put to him in Con- gress , evaded it by saying , " Sir , that is a ...
... Selwyn , Mr. Walpole's compliments , and he's got a housebreaker for you . " JOHN RANDOLPΗ . The celebrated John Randolph not wishing to reply to a disagreeable question put to him in Con- gress , evaded it by saying , " Sir , that is a ...
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Common terms and phrases
admirable amusement beautiful Ben Jonson better bottle bulls called character Charles Lamb church Coleridge common conversation Curran dear death delight dinner Doctor dress duke earl Edinburgh Review England English exclaimed Falstaff feeling Fievée fool French genius gentleman George Selwyn give habit hand happy head heart honour Hook human humour James Kemble kind king labour lady late laugh live look Lord Lord Brouncker Lord North Lord Thurlow MADAME D'EPINAY mankind manner mind nature never observed occasion once passion person pleasant pleasure poet Pope PREACHING relations relations of ideas remark replied ridicule Selwyn Sir James Mackintosh Sir William Temple soul speak story sure surprised Swift Sydney Smith taste tell thing thou thought tion took triarchs true vanity virtue Voltaire Walpole Wilkes wine witty word write
Popular passages
Page 34 - There St. John mingles with my friendly bowl The feast of reason and the flow of soul...
Page 40 - ... everybody should be easy ; in the nature of things it cannot be : there must always be some degree of care and anxiety. The master of the house is anxious to entertain his guests ; the guests are anxious to be agreeable to him : and no man, but a very impudent dog...
Page 91 - I am amazed at his grace's speech. The noble duke cannot look before him, behind him, or on either side of him, without seeing some noble peer who owes his seat in this house to his successful exertions in the profession to which I belong. Does he not feel that it is as honourable to owe it to these, as to being the accident of an accident...
Page 136 - You meaner beauties of the night, That poorly satisfy our eyes More by your number than your light, You common people of the skies; What are you when the moon shall rise?
Page 184 - Let him study the Holy Scriptures, especially the New Testament. Therein are contained the words of eternal life. It has God for its Author ; salvation for its end ; and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter.
Page 30 - The poorest man may in his cottage bid defiance to all the forces of the Crown. It may be frail; its roof may shake : the wind may blow through it; the storms may enter, the rain may enter - but the King of England cannot enter ! All his forces dare not cross the threshold of the ruined tenement.
Page 80 - Give a man this taste, and the means of gratifying it, and you can hardly fail of making a happy man, unless, indeed, you put into his hands a most perverse selection of books. You place him in contact with the best society in every period of history — with the wisest, the wittiest — with the tenderest, the bravest, and the purest characters who have adorned humanity. You make him a denizen of all nations — a contemporary of all ages. The world has been created for him.
Page 31 - Most people dislike vanity in others, whatever share they have of it themselves; but I give it fair quarter wherever I meet with it, being persuaded that it is often productive of good to the possessor, and to others that are within his sphere of action; and therefore, in many cases, it would not be altogether absurd if a man were to thank God for his vanity among the other comforts of life.
Page 92 - I can say and will say, that as a peer of parliament, — as speaker of this right honourable house, — as keeper of the great seal, — as guardian of his majesty's conscience,' — as Lord High Chancellor of England, — nay, even in that character alone, in which the noble duke would think it an affront to be considered...
Page 28 - ... fruit thereof is uncertain, and consequently no culture of the earth, no navigation nor use of the commodities that may be imported by sea, no commodious building, no instruments of moving and removing such things as require much force, no knowledge of the face of the earth; no account of time, no arts, no letters, no society, and, which is worst of all, continual fear and danger of violent death, and the life of man solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.