The British Essayists, Volume 9 |
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Common terms and phrases
able acquaintance actions admired advantage affected agreeable appear beautiful behaviour believe carried character circumstances common consider conversation desire enter expressed fall female frequently give given hands happy head heart honour hope human humble servant humour husband imagination innocent kind labour lately leap learned least less letter live look lover mankind manner matter means meet mention method mind nature never obliged observe occasion opinion particular pass passion person pleased pleasure poet present proper raised reader reason receive regard represented seems seen sense shew short sometimes soon soul speak SPECTATOR spirit taken talk tell temper thing thought tion town turn virtue whole wife woman women write young
Popular passages
Page 227 - Euphrosyne, And by men heart-easing Mirth; Whom lovely Venus, at a birth, With two sister Graces more, To ivy-crowned Bacchus bore...
Page 92 - This was he, whom we had sometimes in derision, and a proverb of reproach: we fools accounted his life madness, and his end to be without honour: how is he numbered among the children of God, and his lot is among the saints!
Page 71 - CONSIDER a human soul, without education, like marble in the quarry : which shows none of its inherent beauties, until the skill of the polisher fetches out the colours, makes the surface shine, and discovers every ornamental cloud, spot, and vein, that runs through the body of it. Education, after the same manner, when it works upon a noble mind, draws out to view every latent virtue and perfection, which, without such helps, are never able to make their appearance.
Page 104 - Then all for women, painting, rhyming, drinking, Besides ten thousand freaks that died in thinking.
Page 217 - ... sudden glances and vibrations ; or whether, in the last place, there may not be certain undiscovered channels running from the head and the heart to this little instrument of loquacity, and conveying into it a perpetual affluence of animal spirits.
Page 227 - Haste thee, Nymph, and bring with thee Jest, and youthful jollity, Quips, and cranks, and wanton wiles, Nods, and becks, and wreathed smiles, Such as hang on Hebe's cheek, And love to live in dimple sleek; Sport that wrinkled Care derides, And Laughter holding both his sides. Come, and trip it as you go On the light fantastic toe...
Page 227 - Jest, and youthful jollity, Quips, and cranks, and wanton wiles, Nods, and becks, and wreathed smiles Such as hang on Hebe's cheek, And love to live in dimple sleek; Sport that wrinkled Care derides, And Laughter holding both his sides: Come, and trip it as you go On the light fantastic toe; And in thy right hand lead with thee The mountain nymph, sweet Liberty; And if I give thee honour due, Mirth, admit me of thy crew, To live with her, and live with thee In unreprove'd pleasures free...
Page 246 - Soft is the strain when Zephyr gently blows, And the smooth stream in smoother numbers flows; But when loud surges lash the sounding shore, The hoarse, rough verse should like the torrent roar : When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throw, The line too labors, and the words move slow: Not so, when swift Camilla scours the plain, Flies o'er th' unbending corn, and skims along the main.
Page 245 - These equal syllables alone require, Tho' oft the ear the open vowels tire; While expletives their feeble aid do join, And ten low words oft creep in one dull line: While they ring round the same unvary'd chimes, With sure returns of still expected rhymes : Where'er you find 'the cooling western breeze...
Bibliographic information
| Title | The British Essayists, Volume 9 The British Essayists, Alexander Chalmers |
| Editor | Alexander Chalmers |
| Publisher | J. Johnson, 1808 |
| Original from | the University of Michigan |
| Digitized | 5 May 2005 |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |