The British Essayists, Volume 8

Front Cover
Alexander Chalmers
J. Johnson, 1808 - English essays

From inside the book

Selected pages

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page 123 - I see a bridge, said I, standing in the midst of the tide. The bridge thou seest, said he, is Human Life ; consider it attentively. Upon a more leisurely survey of it, I found that it consisted of threescore and ten entire arches, with several broken arches, which added to those that were entire made up the number about an hundred.
Page 141 - Then all for women, painting, rhyming, drinking, Besides ten thousand freaks that died in thinking. Blest madman, who could every hour employ, With something new to wish, or to enjoy!
Page 123 - What is the reason, said I, that the tide I see, rises out of a thick mist at one end, and again loses itself in a thick mist at the other ? What thou seest...
Page 126 - ... waters, human voices, and musical instruments. Gladness grew in me upon the discovery of so delightful a scene. I wished for the wings of an eagle, that I might fly away to those happy seats ; but the genius told me there was no passage to them, except through the gates of death that I saw opening every moment upon the bridge.
Page 125 - I, those great flights of birds that are perpetually hovering about the bridge, and settling upon it from time to time ? I see vultures, harpies, ravens, cormorants, and, among many other feathered creatures, several little winged boys, that perch in great numbers upon the middle arches.
Page 217 - When the ear heard me, then it blessed me; and when the eye saw me, it gave witness to me: Because I delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherless, and him that had none to help him. The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me: and I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy.
Page 122 - Bagdat, in order to pass the rest of the day in meditation and prayer. As I was here airing myself on 'the tops of the mountains, I fell into a profound contemplation on the vanity of human life; and passing from one thought to another, Surely, said I, man is but a shadow, and life a dream.
Page 217 - Oh that I were as in months past, as in the days when God preserved me; When his candle shined upon my head, and when by his light I walked through darkness...
Page 130 - There is another kind of great geniuses which I shall place in a second class, not as I think them inferior to the first, but only for distinction's sake, as they are of a different kind. This second class of great geniuses are those* that have formed themselves by rules, and submitted the greatness of their natural talents to the corrections and restraints of art.
Page 122 - I had ever heard. They put me in mind of those heavenly airs that are played to the departed souls of good men upon their first arrival in Paradise, to wear out the impressions of the last agonies, and qualify them for the pleasures of that happy place.

Bibliographic information