The Vicar of Wakefield

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John van Voorst, 1843 - English fiction - 306 pages

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Page 210 - When lovely woman stoops to folly, And finds too late that men betray, What charm can soothe her melancholy, What art can wash her guilt away? The only art her guilt to cover, To hide her shame from every eye, To give repentance to her lover, And wring his bosom — is to die.
Page 52 - Forbear, my son," the hermit cries, ' ' To tempt the dangerous gloom ; For yonder faithless phantom flies To lure thee to thy doom. "Here to the houseless child of want My door is open still; And though my portion is but scant, I give it with good will.
Page 54 - Alas ! the joys that fortune brings Are trifling and decay; And those who prize the paltry things, More trifling still than they. " And what is friendship but a name, A charm that lulls to sleep; A shade that follows wealth or fame, But leaves the wretch to weep?
Page 53 - Then, pilgrim, turn, thy cares forego ; All earth-born cares are wrong; Man wants but little here below, Nor wants that little long.
Page 129 - Good people all of every sort, Give ear unto my song, And if you find it wondrous short It cannot hold you long. In Islington there was a man, Of whom the world might say, That still a godly race he ran Whene'er he went to pray. A kind and gentle heart he had, 5 To comfort friends and foes; The naked every day he clad, When he put on his clothes.
Page 56 - But mine the sorrow, mine the fault, And well my life shall pay: I'll seek the solitude he sought, And stretch me where he lay. "And there, forlorn, despairing, hid, I'll lay me down and die; Twas so for me that Edwin did, And so for him will I.
Page 83 - As the fair happened on the following day, I had intentions of going myself; but my wife persuaded me that I had got a cold, and nothing could prevail upon her to permit me from home. "No, my dear...
Page 56 - Could nought of purity display To emulate his mind. The dew, the blossom on the tree, With charms inconstant shine; Their charms were his; but wo to me, Their constancy was mine.
Page 87 - You need be under no uneasiness," cried I, " about selling the rims ; for they are not worth sixpence, for I perceive they are only copper varnished over.
Page 178 - ... could be bought that would turn to account when disposed of again in London? Such curiosities on the way as could be seen for nothing, he was ready enough to look at ; but if the sight of them was to be paid for, he usually asserted that he had been told that they were not worth seeing. He never paid a bill that he would not observe how amazingly expensive travelling was ; and all this though not yet twenty-one.

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