Lives of eminent and illustrious Englishmen, ed. by G. G. Cunningham, Volume 14

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Page 253 - Round whose rude shaft dark ivy-tresses grew Yet dripping with the forest's noonday dew, Vibrated, as the ever-beating heart Shook the weak hand that grasped it; of that crew He came the last, neglected and apart; A herd-abandoned deer struck by the hunter's dart.
Page 432 - the doing good to mankind, in obedience to the will of God, and for the sake of everlasting happiness.
Page 433 - The difference, and the only difference, is this; that, in the one case we consider what we shall gain or lose in the present world ; in the other case, we consider also what we shall gain or lose in the world to come.
Page 294 - In morality, I prefer Confucius to the Ten Commandments, and Socrates to St Paul, though the two latter agree in their opinion of marriage. In religion I favour the Catholic emancipation, but do not acknowledge the pope ; and I have refused to take the sacrament, because I do not think eating bread or drinking wine from the hand of an earthly vicar will make me an inheritor of heaven. I hold virtue in general, or the virtues severally, to be only in the disposition, each a feeling, not a principle....
Page 332 - That Mr. Humphry Davy be engaged in the service of the Royal Institution, in the capacity of Assistant Lecturer in Chemistry, Director of the Chemical Laboratory, and Assistant Editor of the Journals of the Institution ; and that he be allowed to occupy a room in the house, and be furnished with coals and candles, and that he be paid a salary of one hundred guineas per annum.
Page 414 - ... he fixed, impelled by some propitious influence, in some happy moment, upon EDMUND BURKE — one of the first of Englishmen, and, in the capacity and energy of his mind, one of the greatest of human beings.
Page 311 - I possessed at this time but one book in the world : it was a treatise on algebra, given to me by a young woman, who had found it in a lodginghouse. I considered it as a treasure ; but it was a treasure locked up ; for it supposed the reader to be well acquainted with simple equations, and I knew nothing of the matter.
Page 311 - I made of them was found out, they were rendered still less so. I could not guess the motives for this at first ; but at length I discovered that my master destined his youngest son for the situation to which I aspired. I possessed at this time but one book in the world : it was a ' Treatise on Algebra,' given to me by a young woman, who bad found it in a lodging-house.
Page 257 - There is eloquence in the tongueless wind, and a melody in the flowing brooks and the rustling of the reeds beside them, which by their...
Page 296 - A very pretty letter from Annabella, which I answered. What an odd situation and friendship is ours ! without one spark of love on either side, and produced by circumstances which in general lead to coldness on one side and aversion on the other. She is a very superior woman, and very little spoiled, which is strange in an heiress — a girl of twenty — a peeress that is to be in her own right, an only child, and a savante, who has always had her own way.

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