The British Prose Writers, Volume 16

Front Cover
J. Sharpe, 1821
 

Contents

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Page 89 - Whoe'er has travelled life's dull round, Where'er his stages may have been, May sigh to think he still has found The warmest welcome at an inn.
Page 23 - ADAMS. But, Sir, how can you do this in three years ? JOHNSON. Sir, I have no doubt that I can do it in three years. ADAMS. But the French Academy, which consists of forty members, took forty years to compile their Dictionary.
Page 110 - ... thinking how different a place London is to different people. They, whose narrow minds are contracted to the consideration of some one particular pursuit, view it only through that medium. A politician thinks of it merely as the seat of government in its different departments ; a grazier, as a vast market for cattle ; a mercantile man, as a place where a prodigious deal of business is done upon 'Change ; a...
Page 138 - He used frequently to observe that men might be very eminent in a profession, without our perceiving any particular power of mind in them in conversation. ' It seems strange,' said he, ' that a man should see so far to the right, who sees so short a way to the left. Burke is the only man whose common conversation corresponds with the general fame which he has in the world. Take up whatever topic you please, he is ready to meet you.
Page 7 - I would rather [said he] have the rod to be the general terror to all, to make them learn, than tell a child, if you do thus, or thus, you will be more esteemed than your brothers or sisters. The rod produces an effect which terminates in itself. A child is afraid of being whipped, and gets his task, and there's an end on't; whereas, by exciting emulation and comparisons of superiority, you lay the foundation of lasting mischief; you make brothers and sisters hate each other.
Page 132 - Well, Madam, and you ought to be perpetually watching. It is more from carelessness about truth than from intentional lying, that there is so much falsehood in the world.
Page 35 - Read over your compositions, and wherever you meet ,with a passage which you think is particularly fine, strike it out.' Goldsmith's abridgement is better than that of Lucius Florus or Eutropius ; and I will venture to say, that if you compare him with Vertot, in the same places of the Roman History, you will find that he excels Vertot. Sir, he has the art of compiling-, and of saying every thing he has to say in a pleasing manner. He is now writing a Natural History, and will make it as entertaining...
Page 153 - Yet this man cut his own throat. The true strong and sound mind is the mind that can embrace equally great things and small. Now I am told the King of Prussia will say to a servant, ' Bring me a bottle of such a wine, which came in such a year ; it lies in such a corner* of the cellars.' I would have a man great in great things, and elegant in little things.
Page 162 - A man who has not been in Italy is always conscious of an inferiority, from his not having seen what it is expected a man should see. The grand object of traveling is to see the shores of the Mediterranean.
Page 60 - Yes, Sir." BOSWELL. " He has a singular talent of exhibiting character." JOHNSON. " Sir, it is not a talent, it is a vice ; it is what others abstain from. It is not comedy, which exhibits the character of a species, as that of a miser gathered from many misers : it is farce, which exhibits individuals.

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