The Autocrat of the Breakfast-table: Every Man His Own BoswellHoughton, Mifflin and Company, 1886 - 271 pages |
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American elm asked asphyxia beauty beneath Benjamin Franklin better brain call John cheroot comes commonly conversation Cotton Mather course crown dandyism dear divinity-student Doctors of Divinity doubt dream England England town English elm eyes face fact falchion fancy feel feet flowers green grow hand head hear heard heart horse Houyhnhnm human intellectual JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY kind lady landlady's daughter laugh learned lecture lips literary living long path look man's mean meerschaum mind morning Nature never Note o'er old age once perhaps person poem poets poor porringer Profes Professor race remarks remember round rowlocks schoolmistress seen smile sometimes soul speak spring stone story suppose sweet talk tell things thought tion told trees truth turned uttered verses voice walk waves woman words write young fellow youth
Popular passages
Page 115 - This is the ship of pearl, which, poets feign, Sails the unshadowed main, — The venturous bark that flings On the sweet summer wind its purpled wings In gulfs enchanted, where the siren sings, And coral reefs lie bare, Where the cold sea-maids rise to sun their streaming hair. Its webs of living gauze no more unfurl; Wrecked is the ship of pearl ! And every chambered cell, Where its dim dreaming life was wont to dwell, As the frail tenant shaped his growing shell, Before thee lies revealed, —...
Page 307 - Now in building of chaises, I tell you what, There is always somewhere a weakest spot, In hub, tire, felloe, in spring, or thill, In panel, or crossbar, or floor, or sill, In screw, bolt, thoroughbrace — lurking still Find it somewhere you must and will — Above or below, or within or without — And that's the reason, beyond a doubt, That a chaise breaks down, but doesn't wear out. But the Deacon swore (as Deacons do, With an "I dew vum...
Page 309 - they called it then. Eighteen hundred and twenty came: — Running as usual, much the same. Thirty and forty at last arrive ; And then came fifty -and fifty-five.
Page 310 - What do you think the parson found, When he got up and stared around ? The poor old chaise in a heap or mound, As if it had been to the mill and ground...
Page 110 - I find the great thing in this world is, not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving.
Page 308 - T' make that place uz strong uz the rest.'' So the Deacon inquired of the village folk Where he could find the strongest oak, That couldn't be split nor bent nor broke, — That was for spokes and floor and sills; He sent for lancewood to make the thills ; The crossbars were ash, from the straightest trees; The panels of white-wood, that cuts like cheese, But...
Page 116 - Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul, As the swift seasons roll ! Leave thy low-vaulted past! Let each new temple, nobler than the last, Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast, Till thou at length art free, Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea!
Page 210 - Call him not old, whose visionary brain Holds o'er the past its undivided reign. For him in vain the envious seasons roll Who bears eternal summer in his soul.
Page 370 - O'er Sappho's memory-haunted billow, But where the glistening night-dews weep On nameless sorrow's churchyard pillow. O hearts that break and give no sign Save whitening lip and fading tresses, Till Death pours out his cordial wine Slow-dropped from Misery's crushing presses, — If singing breath or echoing chord To every hidden pang were given, What endless melodies were poured, As sad as earth, as sweet as heaven ! Ube Streams.
Page 369 - The wild flowers who will stoop to number? A few can touch the magic string, And noisy fame is proud to win them ; Alas for those that never sing, But die with all their music in them ! Nay, grieve not for the dead alone, Whose song has told their hearts...