Critical, Historical, and Miscellaneous Essays and Poems, Volume 1A.C. Armstrong & son, 1861 - English literature |
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absurd admiration answer argument aristocracy believe Bentham Boswell Brahmin Christian constitution Croker deduced Denmark despotism doctrine Edinburgh Review England English equal Essay evil exist fact favour fecundity feeling form of government French Revolution give greater greatest happiness principle Hampden honour House of Commons human nature interest Jews Johnson King labour less lived London Lord Byron mankind manner marriages means ment Mill Mill's mind monarchy moral motives never object opinion oppress Parliament passage peers person pleasure plunder poem poet poetry political population possess produce prove Prussia question readers reason religion respect rich Robert Montgomery Sadler scarcely sect seems sense Sir Thomas society sophisms Southey Southey's spirit square mile sure tells theory of government thing tion true truth universal suffrage Utilitarian wealth Westminster Reviewer whole words writer
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Page 322 - The Son of man indeed goeth, as it is written of him : but woe to that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed ! good were it for that man if he had never been born.
Page 402 - ... pity him. For if their condition was equally abject, their aspirings were not equally high, nor their sense of insult equally acute. To lodge in a garret up four pair of stairs, to dine in a cellar among footmen out of place, to translate ten hours a day for the wages of a ditcher, to be hunted by bailiffs from one haunt of beggary and pestilence to another, from Grub Street to St. George's Fields, and from St. George's Fields to the alleys behind St. Martin's Church, to sleep on a bulk in June...
Page 253 - Pilgrim's Progress." That wonderful book, while it obtains admiration from the most fastidious critics, is loved by those who are too simple to admire it. Dr. Johnson, all whose studies were desultory, and who hated, as he said, to read books through, made an exception in favor of the
Page 329 - We know no spectacle so ridiculous as the British public in one of its periodical fits of morality. In general, elopements, divorces, and family quarrels, pass with little notice. We read the scandal, talk about it for a day, and forget it. But once in six or seven years our virtue becomes outrageous. We cannot suffer the laws of religion and decency to be violated. We must make a stand against vice.
Page 211 - s thousands o' my mind. [The first recruiting sergeant on record I conceive to have been that individual who is mentioned in the Book of Job as going to and fro in the earth , and walking up and down in it.
Page 399 - ... that Montague owed his introduction into public life, his earldom, his garter, and his auditorship of the Exchequer. Swift, but for the unconquerable prejudice of the queen, would have been a bishop. Oxford, with his white staff in his hand, passed through the crowd of his suitors to welcome Parnell, when that ingenious writer deserted the Whigs. Steele was a commissioner of stamps and a member of Parliament. Arthur Mainwaring was a commissioner of the Customs and auditor of the imprest. Tickell...
Page 363 - ... of other characters, were universally considered merely as loose incognitos of Byron; and there is every reason to believe that he meant them to be so considered. The wonders of the outer world, the Tagus, with the mighty fleets of England riding on its bosom, the towers of Cintra overhanging the shaggy forest of cork-trees and willows, the glaring marble of Pentelicus, the banks of the Rhine, the glaciers of...
Page 457 - He was rather of reputation in his own country than of public discourse or fame. in the kingdom, before the business of ship-money ; but then he grew the argument of all tongues, every man inquiring who and what he was that durst, at his own charge, support the liberty and property of the kingdom, and rescue his country, as he thought, from being made a prey to the court.
Page 359 - Byron could exhibit only one man and only one woman, a man proud, moody, cynical, with defiance on his brow, and misery in his heart, a scorner of his kind, implacable in revenge, yet capable of deep and strong affection...
Page 393 - But these men attained literary eminence in spite of their weaknesses. Boswell attained it by reason of his weaknesses. If he had not been a great fool, he would never have been a great writer. Without all the qualities which made him the jest and the torment of those among whom he lived, — without the officiousness, the inquisitiveness, the effrontery, the toad-eating, the insensibility to all reproof, he never could have produced so excellent a book.