American Prose: Selections

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Macmillan, 1898 - American literature - 465 pages

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Page 80 - Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people. He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions to cause others to be elected ; whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise ; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
Page 194 - The office of the scholar is to cheer, to raise, and to guide men by showing them facts amidst appearances.
Page 261 - In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the government, while I shall have the most solemn one to " preserve, protect, and defend it.
Page 106 - Sink or swim, live or die, survive or perish, I give my hand and my heart to this vote.
Page 36 - Here will I hold. If there's a power above us (And that there is, all Nature cries aloud Through all her works), he must delight in virtue ; And that which he delights in must be happy.
Page 39 - And again, Three removes are as bad as a fire ; and again, Keep thy shop, and thy shop will keep thee ; and again, If you would have your business done, go ; if not, send. And again — He that by the plough would thrive, Himself must either hold or drive.
Page 113 - I have not allowed myself, Sir, to look beyond the Union, to see what might lie hidden in the dark recess behind. I have not coolly weighed the chances of preserving liberty when the bonds that unite us together shall be broken asunder. I have not accustomed myself to hang over...
Page 133 - He recalled the occurrences before he fell asleep. The strange man with a keg of liquor — the mountain ravine — the wild retreat among the rocks — the woe-begone party at nine-pins — the flagon — " Oh ! that flagon ! that wicked flagon ! " thought Rip — " what excuse shall I make to Dame Van Winkle?
Page 39 - A little neglect may breed great mischief ; for want of a nail the shoe was lost ; for want of a shoe the horse was lost; and for want of a horse the rider was lost, being overtaken and slain by the enemy ; all for want of a little care about a horse-shoe nail.
Page 82 - Nor have we been wanting in attentions to our British Brethren We have warned them...

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