Sequel to the English Reader: Or, Elegant Selections in Prose and Poetry : Designed to Improve the Highest Class of Learners in Reading, to Establish a Taste for Just and Accurate Composition, and to Promote the Interests of Piety and Virtue

Front Cover
T. Bedlington, 1825 - Elocution - 299 pages
 

Selected pages

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page 219 - Amidst these humble bowers to lay me down; To husband out life's taper at the close, And keep the flame from wasting by repose.
Page 221 - Wept o'er his wounds, or tales of sorrow done, Shoulder'd his crutch, and show'd how fields were won. Pleased with his guests, the good man learn'd to glow, And quite forgot their vices in their woe ; Careless their merits or their faults to scan, His pity gave ere charity began.
Page 242 - Hide, blushing glory, hide Pultowa's day! The vanquished hero leaves his broken bands, And shows his miseries in distant lands; Condemned a needy supplicant to wait, While ladies interpose, and slaves debate. But did not chance at length her error mend? Did no subverted empire mark his end? Did rival monarchs give the fatal wound? Or hostile millions press him to the ground? His fall was destined to a barren strand, A petty fortress, and a dubious hand; He left the name at which the world grew pale,...
Page 221 - The reverend champion stood. At his control Despair and anguish fled the struggling soul ; Comfort came down the trembling wretch to raise, And his last faltering accents whispered praise.
Page 211 - Forbade to wade through slaughter to a throne, And shut the gates of mercy on mankind, The struggling pangs of conscious truth to hide, To quench the blushes of ingenuous shame, Or heap the shrine of Luxury and Pride With incense kindled at the Muse's flame. Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife Their sober wishes never learn'd to stray; Along the cool sequester'd vale of life They kept the noiseless tenor of their way.
Page 222 - Yet he was kind, or, if severe in aught, The love he bore to learning was in fault ; The village all declared how much he knew ; 'Twas certain he could write and cipher too ; Lands he could measure, terms and tides presage, And e'en the story ran that he could gauge...
Page 17 - 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 a hundred.
Page 212 - The Epitaph Here rests his head upon the lap of Earth A Youth, to Fortune and to Fame unknown; Fair Science frown'd not on his humble birth, And Melancholy mark'd him for her own.
Page 219 - A time there was, ere England's griefs began, When every rood of ground maintained its man ; For him light labour spread her wholesome store, Just gave what life requir'd, but gave no more : His best companions, innocence and health ; And his best riches, ignorance of wealth.
Page 168 - Detested wretch !" — but scarce his speech began, When the strange partner seem'd no longer man His youthful face grew more serenely sweet ; His robe turn'd white, and flow'd upon his feet ; Fair rounds of radiant points invest his hair ; Celestial odours...

Bibliographic information