Essays in Biography, 1680-1726

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Oxford University Press, H. Milford, 1925 - Blenheim Palace (Blenheim, Oxfordshire). - 362 pages

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Page 263 - A MAN'S first care should be to avoid the reproaches of his own heart ; his next, to escape the censures of the world. If the last interferes with the former, it ought to be entirely neglected ; but otherwise there cannot be a greater satisfaction to an honest mind, than to see those approbations which it gives itself seconded by the applauses of the public.
Page 338 - Th' unblemish'd statesman seems to strike my sight ; If in the stage I seek to soothe my care, I meet his soul, which breathes in Cato there : If pensive to the rural shades I rove, His shape o'ertakes me in the lonely grove : 'Twas there of Just and Good he...
Page iv - Tis opportune to look back upon old times, and contemplate our Forefathers. Great examples grow thin, and to be fetched from the passed world. Simplicity flies away, and iniquity' comes at long strides upon us. We have enough to do to make up our selves from present and passed times, and the whole stage of things scarce serveth for our instruction.
Page 301 - about poor Dick, and wish that his zeal for the public may not be ruinous to himself. But he has sent me word that he is determined to go on, and that any advice I may give him in this particular will have no weight with him.
Page 226 - It is not in the power of want or slavery to make them miserable. There is nothing to be met with in. the country but mirth and poverty. Every one sings, laughs, and starves. Their conversation is generally agreeable ; for if they have any wit or sense, they are sure to show it. They never mend upon a second meeting...
Page 130 - Now poets from all quarters ran, To see the house of brother Van : Look'd high and low, walk'd often round ; But no such house was to be found. One asks the watermen hard by, '* Where may the poet's palace lie?
Page 276 - ... from whence it rose : its ascent, as well as descent, proceeding from the same uniform law or principle of gravitation. Just so, the same principles which at first view lead to scepticism, pursued to a certain point, bring men back to common sense.
Page 288 - ... not so glaring as they would be without it. Modesty is not only an ornament, but also a guard to virtue. It is a kind of quick and delicate ' feeling' in the soul, which makes her shrink and withdraw herself from every thing that has danger in it.
Page 191 - We staid two nights in Woodstock ; but there was an order to the servants, under her grace's own hand, not to let me enter Blenheim! and lest that should not mortify me enough, she having somehow learned that my wife, was...
Page 299 - Dennis's objections to his writings, he will do it in a way Mr. Dennis shall have no just reason to complain of. But when the papers above mentioned were offered to be communicated to him,' he said he could not, either in honour or conscience, be privy to such a treatment, and was sorry to hear of it.

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