Prose Writings of SwiftWalter Scott publishing Company, Limited, 1886 - 352 pages |
From inside the book
Page 126
... has over truth ; and the reason is just at our elbow , because imagination can build nobler scenes , and produce more wonderful revolutions , than fortune or nature will be at expense to furnish . Nor is mankind so much to blame in his ...
... has over truth ; and the reason is just at our elbow , because imagination can build nobler scenes , and produce more wonderful revolutions , than fortune or nature will be at expense to furnish . Nor is mankind so much to blame in his ...
Page 284
... has generally some relations able to live , and contribute something to his maintenance ; none of which advantages can be reasonably expected on a removal to places where he is altogether unknown . If he be not quite maimed , he and his ...
... has generally some relations able to live , and contribute something to his maintenance ; none of which advantages can be reasonably expected on a removal to places where he is altogether unknown . If he be not quite maimed , he and his ...
Page 293
... have met with from some critics , the cruelest for an old man is , that they will not ... whether the dreams I publish can properly be called lucubrations , which is ... imagination is strong , not mixed with cares , nor tinged with those ...
... have met with from some critics , the cruelest for an old man is , that they will not ... whether the dreams I publish can properly be called lucubrations , which is ... imagination is strong , not mixed with cares , nor tinged with those ...
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Common terms and phrases
Æsop ancient appeared Arthur Symons beggars Bentley brother called Christianity church common conversation custom discourse Dublin duction EDITED endeavours Ernest Rhys ESSAYS foreign beggars friends give hands happened hath Havelock Ellis head honour human humour husband Introduction invention Jack kingdom labour ladies learning least lion LONDON AND FELLING-ON-TYNE lord mankind manner Martin matter modern Momus nation nature neglect neighbour never observed occasion Oliver Wendell Holmes panegyric Paracelsus parish party Patrick Maxwell perpetual person Peter political poor Portrait preacher preaching pretend reader reason religion SCOTT PUBLISHING COMPANY Scythian sort spirit spleen Swift T. W. Rolleston talents TATLER Theodore Wratislaw things thought tion town treatise true critic truth turned usually Walter Lewin WALTER SCOTT PUBLISHING wherein whereof Whigs whole wholly William wise word Wotton writers
Popular passages
Page 271 - As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.
Page 266 - Secondly, the poorer tenants will have something valuable of their own, which by law may be made liable to distress, and help to pay their landlord's rent, their corn and cattle being already seized, and money a thing unknown.
Page 237 - Who would ever have suspected Asgill for a wit, or Toland for a philosopher, if the inexhaustible stock of Christianity had not been at hand to provide them with materials? What other subject, through all art or nature, could have produced Tindal for a profound author, or furnished him with readers? It is the wise choice of the subject that alone adorns and distinguishes the writer. For had a hundred such pens as these been employed on the side of religion, they would have immediately sunk into silence...
Page xiii - ... his green boughs, and left him a withered trunk : he then flies to art, and puts on a periwig, valuing himself upon an unnatural bundle of hairs (all covered with powder), that never grew on his head ; but now, should this our broomstick pretend to enter the...
Page xxiii - I like the scheme of our meeting after distresses and dispersions, but the chief end I propose to myself in all my labours is to vex the world rather than divert it ; and if I could compass that design without hurting my own person or fortune, I would be the most indefatigable writer you have ever seen without reading.
Page 61 - As to his body there can be no dispute ; but examine even the acquirements of his mind, you will find them all contribute in their order towards furnishing out an exact dress : to instance no more ; is not religion a cloak, honesty a pair of shoes worn out in the dirt, selflove a surtout, vanity a shirt, and conscience a pair of breeches, which, though a cover for lewdness as well as nastiness, is easily slipt down for the service of both?
Page xxii - ... the truest, most virtuous, and valuable friend, that I, or perhaps any other person, was ever blessed with.
Page 42 - Tis but a ball bandied to and fro, and every man carries a racket about him to strike it from himself among the rest of the company.
Page 126 - But when a man's fancy gets astride on his reason, when imagination is at cuffs with the senses , and common understanding , as well as common sense, is kicked out of doors, the first proselyte he makes, is himself; and when that is once compassed , the difficulty is not so great in bringing over others; a strong delusion always operating from without as vigorously as from within.
Page 167 - Satire is a sort of glass wherein beholders do generally discover everybody's face but their own ; which is the chief reason for that kind reception it meets with in the world, and that so very few are offended with it.