The lives of the English poets

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F. C. and J. Rivington, 1823

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Pàgina 338 - From harmony, from heavenly harmony This universal frame began: From harmony to harmony Through all the compass of the notes it ran, The diapason closing full in Man.
Pàgina 64 - Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer, And without sneering, teach the rest to sneer; Willing to wound and yet afraid to strike, Just hint a fault and hesitate dislike; Alike...
Pàgina 115 - ... combinations. The shepherd likewise is now a feeder of sheep, and afterwards an ecclesiastical pastor, a superintendent of a Christian flock. Such equivocations are always unskilful; but here they are indecent, and at least approach to impiety, of which, however, I believe the writer not to have been conscious. Such is the power of reputation justly acquired, that its blaze drives away the eye from nice examination. Surely no man could have fancied that he read Lycidas with pleasure, had he not...
Pàgina 66 - O could I flow like thee, and make thy stream My great example, as it is my theme! Though deep, yet clear, though gentle, yet not dull, Strong without rage, without o'er-flowing full.
Pàgina 91 - I have a particular reason," says he, " to remember; for whereas I had the perusal of it from the very beginning, for some years, as I went from time to time to visit him, in parcels of ten, twenty, or thirty verses at a time, which, being written by whatever hand came next, might possibly want correction, as to the orthography and pointing...
Pàgina 347 - I am as free as Nature first made man, ^) Ere the base laws of servitude began, > When wild in woods the noble savage ran.
Pàgina 85 - Whether we provide for action or conversation, whether we wish to be useful or pleasing, the first requisite is the religious and moral knowledge of right and wrong; the next is an acquaintance with the history of mankind, and with those examples which may be said to embody truth, and prove by events the reasonableness of opinions. Prudence and justice- are virtues and excellences of all times and of all places. We are perpetually moralists ; but we are geometricians only by chance.
Pàgina 305 - is Tonson. You will take care not to depart before he goes away; for I have not completed the sheet 'which I promised him ; and if you leave me unprotected I must suffer all the rudeness to which his resentment can prompt his tongue.
Pàgina 347 - Next to argument, his delight was in wild and daring sallies of sentiment, in the irregular and eccentrick violence of wit. He delighted to tread upon the brink of meaning, where light and darkness begin to mingle ; to approach the precipice of absurdity, and hover over the abyss of unideal vacancy.
Pàgina 347 - No, there is a necessity in Fate, Why still the brave bold man is fortunate; He keeps his object ever full in sight, And that assurance holds him firm and right; True, 'tis a narrow way that leads to bliss, \ But right before there is no precipice ; \ Fear makes men look aside, and so their footing miss...

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