The Autocrat of the breakfast tableHoughton, Mifflin, 1858 - 373 pages |
From inside the book
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Page 7
... grow cold when he is writing . A great writer and speaker once told me that he often wrote with his feet in hot water ; but for this , all his blood would have run into his head , as the mercury sometimes withdraws into the ball of a ...
... grow cold when he is writing . A great writer and speaker once told me that he often wrote with his feet in hot water ; but for this , all his blood would have run into his head , as the mercury sometimes withdraws into the ball of a ...
Page 9
... grows any wiser or better , though it grind a thousand bushels of them ! plus I have an immense respect for a man of talents " the mathematics . " But the calculating power alone should seem to be the least human of qualities , and to ...
... grows any wiser or better , though it grind a thousand bushels of them ! plus I have an immense respect for a man of talents " the mathematics . " But the calculating power alone should seem to be the least human of qualities , and to ...
Page 26
... Grow bigger downwards through the box , — When he that selleth house or land Shows leak in roof or flaw in right , - When haberdashers choose the stand Whose window hath the broadest light , - When preachers tell us all they think , And ...
... Grow bigger downwards through the box , — When he that selleth house or land Shows leak in roof or flaw in right , - When haberdashers choose the stand Whose window hath the broadest light , - When preachers tell us all they think , And ...
Page 35
... grow old in our memories is in a direct ratio to the squares of their importance . Their ap parent age runs up miraculously , like the value of diamonds , as they increase in magnitude . A great calamity , for instance , is as old as ...
... grow old in our memories is in a direct ratio to the squares of their importance . Their ap parent age runs up miraculously , like the value of diamonds , as they increase in magnitude . A great calamity , for instance , is as old as ...
Page 38
... grows out of it . This public opinion cannot . prevent gambling with dice or stocks , but it can and does compel it to keep comparatively quiet . But horse - racing is the most public way of gambling 38 THE AUTOCRAT OF THE BREAKFAST ...
... grows out of it . This public opinion cannot . prevent gambling with dice or stocks , but it can and does compel it to keep comparatively quiet . But horse - racing is the most public way of gambling 38 THE AUTOCRAT OF THE BREAKFAST ...
Common terms and phrases
American elm asked asphyxia beauty beneath Benjamin Franklin better boarders bombazine brain call John chair cheroot chloroform comes commonly conversation course dandyism dear divinity-student Doctors of Divinity dream English elm eyes face fact falchion fancy feel feet flowers give green grow hand head hear heard heart Houyhnhnm human intellectual kind lady laugh lecture lips literary live long path look man's mean meerschaum ment mind morning Nature never o'er old age old gentleman opposite OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES once perhaps person poem poets poor pretty Professor remarks remember round rowlocks schoolmistress seen smile sometimes soul speak spring stand stone story suppose sure sweet talk tell things thought tion told toutes les nuits tree truth turned uttered verses voice walk waves woman words write young fellow youth
Popular passages
Page 289 - 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, A chaise breaks down but doesn't wear out. But the Deacon swore (as Deacons do, With an "I dew vum...
Page 290 - 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 lasts like iron for things like these; The hubs of logs from the "Settler's ellum...
Page 104 - Year after year beheld the silent toil That spread his lustrous coil; Still, as the spiral grew, He left the past year's dwelling for the new...
Page 292 - 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! You...
Page 289 - Saw the earth open and gulp her down, And Braddock's army was done so brown, Left without a scalp to its crown. It was on the terrible earthquake-day That the Deacon finished the one-hoss shay.
Page 99 - I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving: To reach the port of heaven, we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it, — but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor.
Page 104 - THE CHAMBERED NAUTILUS.* 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.
Page 305 - I care not much for gold or land; Give me a mortgage here and there — Some good bank-stock — some note of hand, Or trifling railroad share — I only ask that Fortune send A little more than I shall spend.
Page 194 - The smooth, soft air with pulse-like waves Flows murmuring through its hidden caves, Whose streams of brightening purple rush, Fired with a new and livelier blush, While all their burden of decay The ebbing current steals away, And red with Nature's flame they start From the warm fountains of the heart.
Page 104 - And every chambered cell, Where its dim dreaming life was wont to dwell...