Bishop Burnet's History of His Own Time: From the Restoration of King Charles the Second to the Treaty of Peace at Utrecht, in the Reign of Queen Anne, Volume 1

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William S. Orr & Company, 1850 - Great Britain - 949 pages

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Page 34 - A man so various that he seemed to be Not one, but all mankind's epitome : Stiff in opinions, always in the wrong, Was everything by starts and nothing long ; But in the course of one revolving moon Was chymist, fiddler, statesman, and buffoon ; Then all for women, painting, rhyming, drinking, Besides ten thousand freaks that died in thinking.
Page 62 - she was a woman of great beauty, but most enormously vicious and ravenous ; foolish, but imperious; very uneasy to the king, and always carrying on intrigues with other men, while yet she pretended she was jealous of him.
Page 34 - ... In the worst inn's worst room, with mat half-huiig The floors of plaster, and the walls of dung. On once a flock-bed, but repair'd with straw, With tape-tied curtains, never meant to draw, The George and Garter dangling from that bed Where tawdry yellow strove with dirty red. Great Villiers lies — alas, how chang'd from him That life of pleasure, and that soul of whim .' Gallant and gay, in Cliveden's proud alcove, The bower of wanton Shrewsbury and Love Or juit a* gay, at council, in a ring...
Page 381 - He used often to say, that, if he were to choose a place to die in, it should be an inn : it looking like a pilgrim's going home, to whom this world was all as an inn, and who was weary of the noise and confusion in it.
Page 471 - ... the beginning of your Majesty's reign ; and is a matter of so great moment and consequence to the whole nation, both in church and state, that your petitioners cannot in prudence, honour, or conscience so far make themselves parties to it, as the distribution of it all over the nation, and the solemn publication of it once and again, even in God's house and in the time of his divine service, must amount to .in common and reasonable construction.
Page 34 - He laughed himself from court; then sought relief By forming parties, but could ne'er be chief : For, spite of him, the weight of business fell On Absalom and wise Achitophel: Thus, wicked but in will, of means bereft, He left not faction, but of that was left.
Page 197 - We were indeed amazed to see a poor commonalty so capable to argue upon points of government, and on the bounds to be set to the power of princes in matters of religion : upon all these topics they had texts of scripture at hand ; and were ready with their answers to any thing that was said to them. This measure of knowledge was spread even among the meanest of them, their cottagers, and their servants.
Page 160 - Farewell, sun, moon, and stars ; farewell, world and time ; farewell, weak and frail body : welcome, eternity ; welcome, angels and saints ; welcome, Saviour of the world ; and welcome, God, the judge of all...
Page 160 - So he was put to the torture, which in Scotland they call the boots; for they put a pair of iron boots close on the leg, and drive wedges between these and the leg. The common torture was only to drive these in the calf of the leg: but I have been told they were sometimes driven upon the shin bone.
Page 36 - White, did come seasonably in, and at the push of pike did repel the stoutest regiment the enemy had there, merely with the courage the Lord was pleased to give. Which proved a great amazement to the residue of their foot, this being the first action between the foot.

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