Mammon in London; Or, The Spy of the Day ...

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Sams, 1823

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Page 260 - It has a strange quick jar upon the ear, That cocking of a pistol, when you know A moment more will bring the sight to bear Upon your person, twelve yards off, or so ; A gentlemanly distance, not too near, If you have got a former friend for foe ; But after being fired at once or twice, The ear becomes more Irish, and less nice.
Page 194 - The music, and the banquet, and the wine — The garlands, the rose odours, and the flowers — • The sparkling eyes, and flashing ornaments — The white arms and the raven hair — the braids And bracelets ; swanlike bosoms, and the necklace, L t An India in itself, yet dazzling not The eye like what it circled ; the thin robes, Floating like light clouds 'twixt our gaze and heaven...
Page 251 - You will ask what became of the seconds ? they were both killed upon the spot; but being only two servants, the one a butler, the other a cook, they were buried the same night ; and by the power of a little money properly applied, no farther inquiry was ever made about them.
Page 287 - ... deserted in a country where charity was unfashionable, and reduced to the very point of starving, I renounced my religion for bread, and became a brother of the mendicants of St. Francis. Under the sanctity of this habit, and from the example of the brotherhood, I led a life of profligacy and wantonness. But though my conscience was subdued, my tongue retained its freedom : for it was my misfortune one day, through ignorance of my company, to betray the secrets of a lady's confession to her own...
Page 138 - Apprehensions arise from several Changes they dread in the celestial Bodies. For Instance : That the Earth by the continual Approaches of the Sun towards it, must in Course of Time be absorbed or swallowed up. That the Face of the Sun will, by degrees, be encrusted with its own Effluvia, and give no more Light to the World. That the Earth very narrowly escaped a Brush from the Tail of the last Comet, which would have infallibly reduced it to Ashes ; and that the next, which they have calculated for...
Page 143 - This inconveniency suggested to the ancients the invention of cryptography and steganography, or a mysterious and unintelligible way of writing, by the help of which none but the corresponding parties who had the key could decipher the matter. But human industry soon refined upon this too ; the art of deciphering was discovered, and the skill of the decipherer baffled all the labour of the cipherer. The secrecy of all literary correspondence became precarious, and neither business nor love could...
Page 111 - ... to bring me intelligence of what was doing at home. He returned in a short time, and with the greatest seeming concern in his countenance told me, that he had learnt from one of the servants that the family had supped at home ; that they were exasperated against me beyond forgiveness ; that they concluded me undone : and that they had sworn never to admit me into their doors again. ' I was quite thunderstruck at this intelligence, and accused the wretch who brought it me as the vilest of men.
Page 113 - I wish for ever to forget ?) by a thousand stratagems on his side, and by fatal inclination on my own, irrecoverably undid me. ' From that very day his affections began to cool : and (will it be believed when I tell it ?) he grew in a very little time to hate me to that degree, that in order to get rid of me, and to make our...
Page 74 - Upon asking how he had been taught the art of a cognoscente so very suddenly, he assured me that nothing was more easy. The whole secret consisted in a strict adherence to two rules : the one, always to observe the picture might have been better if the painter had taken more pains ; and the other to praise the works of Pietro Perugino. But...
Page 284 - ... desire to communicate. At twelve years old I discovered the frailty of a maiden aunt, and brought the curate of the parish into disgrace. A young lady of uncommon discretion, who boarded in the family, was so delighted with the story, that she made me a party in all her visits, to give me new occasions of relating it ; but happening one evening to steal a little abruptly upon the retirement of this lady, I discovered her in the prettiest familiarity imaginable with the harlequin of a strolling...

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