Pages from an Old Volume of Life: A Collection of Essays, 1857-1881 |
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Pages From an Old Volume of Life. A Collection of Essays, 1857-1881 Oliver Wendell Holmes Limited preview - 2024 |
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Page 253 - Is it well with thee ? is it well with thy husband ? is it well with the child ? And she answered, It is well.
Page 396 - It were better to have no opinion of God at all, than such an Opinion as is unworthy of him : for the one is unbelief, the other is contumely : and certainly superstition is the reproach of the Deity. Plutarch saith well to that purpose :
Page 163 - I'd rather be A pagan suckled in a creed outworn; So might I, standing on this pleasant lea, Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn, Have sight of Proteus coming from the sea, Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.
Page 111 - I should advise persisting in our struggle for liberty, though it were revealed from heaven that nine hundred and ninety-nine were to perish, and only one of a thousand were to survive, and retain his liberty ! One such free man must possess more virtue, and enjoy more happiness, than a thousand slaves ; and let him propagate his like, and transmit to them what he hath so nobly preserved.
Page 197 - They raised their limbs like lifeless tools — We were a ghastly crew. The body of my brother's son Stood by me, knee to knee: The body and I pull'd at one rope, But he said nought to me.
Page 351 - With other ministrations thou, O Nature ! Healest thy wandering and distempered child : Thou pourest on him thy soft influences, Thy sunny hues, fair forms, and breathing sweets ; Thy melodies of woods, and winds, and waters ! Till he relent, and can no more endure To be a jarring and a dissonant thing Amid this general dance and minstrelsy ; But, bursting into tears, wins back his way, His angry spirit healed and harmonised By the benignant touch of love and beauty.
Page 282 - I do not know the air; and until I am complete master of a tune in my own singing (such as it is), I never can compose for it. My way is: I consider the poetic sentiment correspondent to my idea of the musical expression, then choose my theme, begin one stanza; when that is composed, which is generally the most difficult part of the business, I walk out, sit down now and then, look out for objects in nature...
Page 195 - Every day's necessity calls for a reparation of that portion which death fed on all night, when we lay in his lap, and slept in his outer chambers. The very spirits of a man prey upon the daily portion of bread and flesh, and every meal is a rescue from one death, and lays up for another ; and while we think a...
Page 434 - American Statesmen. Edited by JOHN T. MORSE, Jr. John Quincy Adams. By John T. Morse, Jr.
Page 283 - And what if all of animated nature Be but organic harps diversely framed, That tremble into thought, as o'er them sweeps Plastic and vast, one intellectual breeze, At once the Soul of each, and God of all?