Characteristics of Literature: Illustrated by the Genius of Distinguished Writers

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Lindsay and Blakiston, 1851 - English literature - 282 pages

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Page 190 - Thro' scudding drifts the rainy Hyades Vext the dim sea: I am become a name ; For always roaming with a hungry heart Much have I seen and known ; cities of men And manners, climates, councils, governments, Myself not least, but...
Page 190 - I am a part of all that I have met; Yet all experience is an arch wherethro' Gleams that untravell'd world, whose margin fades For ever and for ever when I move. How dull it is to pause, to make an end, To rust unburnish'd, not to shine in use ! As tho
Page 190 - Match'd with an aged wife, I mete and dole Unequal laws unto a savage race, That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me. I cannot rest from travel; I will drink Life to the lees; all times I have enjoyed Greatly, have suffered greatly, both with those That loved me, and alone; on shore, and when Thro...
Page 174 - Tis a little thing To give a cup of water ; yet its draught Of cool refreshment, drain'd by fever'd lips, May give a shock of pleasure to the frame More exquisite than when nectarean juice Renews the life of joy in happiest hours.
Page 276 - The time is out of joint : — 0 cursed spite, That ever I was born to set it right!
Page 150 - What danger's half so great as thy revolt? Thou art a faithless sister, else thou know'st Malice, or any treachery beside, Would stoop to my bent brows: why, I hold fate Clasped in my fist, and could command the course Of time's eternal motion, hadst thou been One thought more steady than an ebbing sea.
Page 151 - Let us now behold A human soul made visible in life; And more refulgent in a senseless paper Than in the sensual complement of kings.
Page 155 - Tis so much the more noble. Thi. 'Tis full of fearful shadows. Ord. So is sleep, sir, Or any thing that's merely ours and mortal ; We were begotten gods else : but those fears, Feeling but once the fires of nobler thoughts, Fly, like the shapes of clouds we form, to nothing.
Page 50 - The general purpose of this Paper is to expose the false arts of life, to pull off the disguises of cunning, vanity, and affectation, and to recommend a general simplicity in our dress, our discourse, and our behaviour.
Page 268 - Literature, taken in all its bearings, forms the grand line of demarcation between the human and the animal kingdoms.

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