Historical Sketches of Statesmen who Flourished in the Time of George III.: Second Series, Volume 2Lea and Blanchard, 1839 - Statesmen |
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Popular passages
Page 190 - ... astonish as if he had passed unknown through some secluded region of private life. But he had a judgment sure and sound ; a steadiness of mind which never suffered any passion, or even any feeling to ruffle its calm ; a strength of understanding which worked rather than forced its way through all obstacles, removing or avoiding rather than overleaping them. If profound sagacity, unshaken steadiness of purpose, the entire subjugation of all the passions which carry havoc through ordinary minds,...
Page 194 - It will be the duty of the historian and the sage in all ages to omit no occasion of commemorating this illustrious man ; and until time shall be no more will a test of the progress which our race has made in wisdom and in virtue be derived from the veneration paid to the immortal name of Washington...
Page 189 - In Washington we truly behold a marvellous contrast to almost every one of the endowments and the vices which we have been contemplating; and which are so well fitted to excite a mingled admiration, and sorrow, and abhorrence. With none of that brilliant genius which dazzles ordinary minds ; with not even any remarkable quickness of apprehension ; with knowledge less than almost all persons in the middle ranks, and many...
Page 30 - I am not ashamed of my poverty, but I should be of my wealth, could I stoop to acquire it by servility and corruption. If I rise not to rank, I shall at least be honest ; and should I ever cease to be so, many an example shows me that an...
Page 91 - When, under that name, he dragged her before the public, and indulged a loose and prurient fancy, in pandering for the worst appetites of licentious minds, he became justly the object of aversion, and even of disgust; and ranged himself with the writers of obscene works, but took the precedence of these in profligacy, by making his own amours the theme of his abandoned contemplations.* It is the very worst passage in his history; and it is nearly the only one which admits neither defence nor palliation.
Page 29 - Curran had no conversational rule whatever; he spoke from impulse; and he had the art so to draw you into a participation that, though you felt an inferiority, it was quite a contented one. Indeed, nothing could exceed the urbanity of his demeanour. At the time I speak of he was turned of sixty, yet he was as playful as a child.
Page 26 - Any circumstance, therefore, which serves to make goods generally dear must serve to make gold generally cheap, and vice versa; and any circumstance which serves to make goods dear at any particular time or place, must serve to make gold cheap at that time or place, and vice versa. The reason of the difference between the mint price and the market price of gold, does not easily occur. If the bank, from time to time, buys gold at a high price, that is, if it gives for gold a large quantity of goods...
Page 29 - It is very true, my Lord, that I am poor, and the circumstance has certainly somewhat curtailed my library : my books are not numerous, but they are select, and I hope they have been perused with proper dispositions. I have prepared myself for this high profession rather by the study of a few good works, than by the composition of a great many bad ones. I am not ashamed of my poverty ; but I should be ashamed of my wealth, could I have stooped to acquire it by servility and corruption. If I rise...
Page 172 - Delphine, she was supposed to have painted herself in the person of the heroine, and M. Talleyrand in that of an elderly lady, who is one of the principal characters.
Page 192 - American would not yield either to the bravadoes of the republican envoy, or to the fierce democracy of Jefferson, he therefore had become weary of republics and a friend to monarchy and to England. 'In truth, his devotion to liberty, and his intimate persuasion that it can only be enjoyed under the republican...