A Digest of English and American LiteratureS.C. Griggs, 1890 - 378 pages |
Other editions - View all
A Digest of English and American Literature (Classic Reprint) Alfred Hix Welsh No preview available - 2016 |
A Digest of English and American Literature (Classic Reprint) Alfred Hix Welsh No preview available - 2018 |
Common terms and phrases
æsthetic American ancholy Artemus Ward artistic Ballads beauty Birth blank verse Celt century character CHARACTERISTICS Charles Chaucer Christian Church comedy critic death divine drama dramatist EDWARD EDWARD III England English English language epic essayist Essays euphuism EVENTS exquisite fame fancy France French genius George grace Henry Henry VII Herbert Spencer historian human humor ideal imagination ished Italy James John King Lady land language Latin learned lecturer lish literary literature living London lover ment mind moral Nature ness noble novel novelist Ormulum passion period philosophy Phineas Fletcher poems poet poetical poetry political Popian popular prose Puritan reform religion religious rhyme romance satire says Scotland sense sentiment society songs sonnets soul spirit story Style taste theological Thomas thought tion tive tragedy translated ture University verse vigorous virtue Whig William WRITERS written wrote
Popular passages
Page 199 - I trust is their destiny ? — to console the afflicted, to add sunshine to daylight, by making the happy happier; to teach the young and the gracious of every age to see, to think, and feel, and therefore to become more actively and% securely virtuous...
Page 132 - No other country could produce a tragic poet equal to Racine, a comic poet equal to Moliere, a trifler so agreeable as La Fontaine, a rhetorician so skilful as Bossuet.
Page 109 - SHIRLEY Claims a place amongst the worthies of this period, not so much for any transcendent talent in himself, as that he was the last of a great race, all of whom spoke nearly the same language, and had a set of moral feelings and notions in common.
Page 225 - Some of the metaphysical and ethical theories of Shelley were certainly most absurd and pernicious. But we doubt whether any modern poet has possessed in an equal degree some of the highest qualities of the great ancient masters. The words bard and inspiration, which seem so cold and affected when applied to other modern writers, have a perfect propriety when applied to him. He was not an author, but a bard. His poetry seems not to have been an art, but an inspiration.
Page 155 - It was said of Socrates that he brought philosophy down from heaven, to inhabit among men; and I shall be ambitious to have it said of me that I have brought philosophy out of closets and libraries, schools and colleges, to dwell in clubs and assemblies, at teatables and in coffee-houses.
Page 46 - I consider Chaucer as a genial day in an English spring. A brilliant sun enlivens the face of nature with an unusual lustre : the sudden appearance of cloudless skies, and the unexpected warmth of a tepid atmosphere, after the gloom and the inclemencies of a tedious winter, fill our hearts with the visionary prospect of a speedy summer ; and we fondly anticipate a long continuance of gentle gales and vernal serenity.
Page 125 - No author ever kept his verse and his prose at a greater distance from each other. His thoughts are natural ; and his style has a smooth and placid equability, which has never yet obtained its due commendation. Nothing is far-sought or hard-laboured, but all is easy without feebleness, and familiar without grossness.
Page 243 - Universal History, the history of what man has accomplished in this world, is at bottom the History of the Great Men who have worked here.
Page 221 - As various in composition as Shakespeare himself, Lord Byron has embraced," says Sir Walter Scott, "every topic of human life, and sounded every string on the divine harp, from its slightest to its most powerful and heart-astounding tones.
Page 167 - As a picture of manners, the novel of " Tom Jones " is indeed exquisite : as a work of construction quite a wonder : the by-play of wisdom ; the power of observation ; the multiplied felicitous turns and thoughts ; the varied character of the great Comic Epic : keep the reader in a perpetual admiration and curiosity.* But against Mr.