Collected Essays of W. P. Ker

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Macmillan and Company, limited, 1925
 

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Page 344 - And that which casts our proficiency therein so much behind, is our time lost partly in too oft idle vacancies given both to schools and universities ; partly in a preposterous exaction, forcing the empty wits of children to compose themes, verses, and orations, which are the acts of ripest judgment, and the final work of a head filled by long reading and observing, with elegant maxims and copious invention.
Page 295 - The business of a poet," said Imlac, "is to examine, not the individual, but the species ; to remark general properties and large appearances ; he does not number the streaks of the tulip, or describe the different shades in the verdure of the forest.
Page 294 - While ladies interpose, and slaves debate. But did not Chance at length her error mend? Did no subverted empire mark his end? Did rival monarchs give the fatal wound? Or hostile millions press him to the ground? His fall was destin'd to a barren strand, A petty fortress, and a dubious hand; He left the name, at which the world grew pale To point a moral, or adorn a tale.
Page 317 - And vacant shepherds piping in the dale: And now and then sweet Philomel would wail, Or stock-doves plain amid the forest deep, That drowsy rustled to the sighing gale; And Still a coil the grasshopper did keep; Yet all these sounds yblent inclined all to sleep.
Page 293 - The common remark as to the utility of reading history being made ; — JoHNSON : "We must consider how very little history there is ; I mean real authentic history. That certain kings reigned, and certain battles were fought, we can depend upon as true ; but all the colouring, all the philosophy of history is conjecture.
Page 286 - And, afterwards, the wind and sleety rain, And all the business of the elements, The single sheep, and the one blasted tree, And the bleak music from that old stone wall...
Page 81 - It's whether will ye be a rank robber's wife, Or will ye die by my wee pen-knife ? ' ' It's I'll not be a rank robber's wife, But I'll rather die by your wee pen-knife.
Page 309 - Quest' è colei, eh' è tanto posta in croce Pur da color, che le dovrian dar lode, Dandole biasmo a torto e mala voce. Ma ella s' è beata, e ciò non ode : Con 1' altre prime creature lieta Volve sua spera, e beata si gode.
Page 277 - Such divisions of our country as have been formed by habit, and not by a sudden jerk of authority, were so many little images of the great country in which the heart found something which it could fill.
Page 344 - Hence appear the many mistakes which have made learning generally so unpleasing and so unsuccessful ; first, we do amiss to spend seven or eight years merely in scraping together so much miserable Latin and Greek, as might be learned otherwise easily and delightfully in one year...

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