The History of the Caliph Vathek

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J. C. Nimmo and Bain, 1883 - Ethiopia - 405 pages
 

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Page 158 - Not that Nepenthes, which the wife of Thone, In Egypt, gave to Jove-born Helena, Is of such power to stir up joy as this, To life so friendly, or so cool to thirst.
Page 252 - I have been told that respiration is difficult upon lofty mountains ; yet from these precipices, though so high as to produce great tenuity of air, it is very easy to fall ; therefore I suspect, that from any height where life can be supported, there may be danger of too quick descent.
Page 405 - The prince desired a little kingdom, in which he might administer justice in his own person, and see all the parts of the government with his own eyes. But he could never fix the limits of his dominion, and was always adding to the number of his subjects. Imlac and the astronomer were contented to be driven along the stream of life, without directing their course to any particular port.
Page 270 - By what means (said the prince) are the Europeans thus powerful ? or why, since they can so easily visit Asia and Africa for trade or conquest, cannot the Asiatics and Africans invade their coasts, plant colonies (') in their ports, and give laws to their natural princes ? The same wind that carried them back would bring us thither.
Page 180 - For, lo, the winter is past, The rain is over and gone; The flowers appear on the earth; The time of the singing of birds is come, And the voice of the turtle is heard in our land; The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, And the vines with the tender grape give a good smell, Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.
Page 332 - Every hour, answered the princess, confirms my prejudice in favour of the position so often uttered by the mouth of Imlac, ' That nature sets her gifts on the right hand and on the left.' Those conditions, which flatter hope and attract desire, are so constituted, that as we approach one, we recede from another. There are goods so opposed that we cannot seize both, but, by too much prudence, may pass between them at too great a distance to reach either. This is often the fate of long consideration;...
Page 265 - ... the province of poetry is to describe Nature and Passion, which are always the same, the first writers took possession of the most striking objects for description, and the most probable occurrences for fiction, and left nothing to those that followed them, but transcription of the same events, and new combinations of the same images.
Page 232 - The place which the wisdom or policy of antiquity had destined for the residence of the Abyssinian princes was a spacious valley in the kingdom of Amhara, surrounded on every side by mountains, of which the summits overhang the middle part.
Page 266 - I was desirous to add my name to this illustrious fraternity. I read all the poets of Persia and Arabia, and was able to repeat by memory the volumes that are suspended in the mosque of Mecca.
Page 294 - He then communicated the various precepts given from time to time for the conquest of passion, and displayed the happiness of those who had obtained the important victory, after which man is no longer the slave of fear, nor the fool of hope ; is no more emaciated by envy, inflamed by anger...

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