The Complete Writings of Washington Irving, Including His Life, Volume 21

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Collegiate Society, 1905
 

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Page 123 - I' the commonwealth I would by contraries Execute all things ; for no kind of traffic Would I admit ; no name of magistrate ; Letters should not be known : riches, poverty, And use of service, none ; contract, succession, Bourn, bound of land, tilth, vineyard, none : No use of metal, corn, or wine, or oil : No occupation ; all men idle, all ; And women too ; but innocent and pure : No sovereignty : — Seb.
Page 55 - How charming is divine philosophy ! Not harsh and crabbed, as dull fools suppose, But musical as is Apollo's lute, And a perpetual feast of nectar'd sweets, Where no crude surfeit reigns.
Page 393 - Knowledge before — a discovery that there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of in our philosophy.
Page 109 - Since once I sat upon a promontory, And heard a mermaid, on a dolphin's back, Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath, That the rude sea grew civil at her song ; And certain stars shot madly from their spheres, To hear the sea-maid's music.
Page 29 - O then to your gardens ye housewives repair, Your walks border up, sow and plant at your leisure ; The bluebird will chant from his box such an air, That all your hard toils will seem truly a pleasure ! He flits through the orchard, he visits each tree, The red flowering peach, and the apple's sweet blossoms ; He snaps up destroyers wherever they be...
Page 384 - Looking tranquillity ! It strikes an awe And terror on my aching sight : the tombs And monumental caves of death look cold, And shoot a dullness to my trembling heart.
Page 393 - Break, Phantsie, from thy cave of cloud, And wave thy purple wings, Now all thy figures are allowed, And various shapes of things. Create of airy forms a stream ; It must have blood and...
Page 123 - Treason, felony, Sword, pike, knife, gun, or need of any engine Would I not have ; but nature should bring forth Of its own kind, all foison, all abundance, To feed my innocent people.
Page 108 - ... of a sailor from the forecastle, or the tinkling of a guitar, and the soft warbling of a female voice from the quarter-deck, seemed to derive a witching melody from the scene and hour. I was reminded of Oberon's exquisite description of music and moonlight on the ocean : — . . . .
Page 29 - Green meadows and brown furrowed fields re-appearing: The fishermen hauling their shad to the shore, And cloud-cleaving geese to the lakes are a-steering; When first the lone butterfly flits on the wing, When red glow the maples, so fresh and so pleasing, O then comes the blue-bird, the herald of spring, And hails with his warblings the charms of the season.

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