The Glory of English Prose: Letters to My Grandson |
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Page 11
... touch- ing and beautiful beyond all criticism , tran- scending all art . To read it is to believe every word of it to be true , and to recognise the sublimity of such a relation . No narrative of the great Greek writers reaches the ...
... touch- ing and beautiful beyond all criticism , tran- scending all art . To read it is to believe every word of it to be true , and to recognise the sublimity of such a relation . No narrative of the great Greek writers reaches the ...
Page 36
... touch of affectation . A great writer who came immediately after the Elizabethans - namely , Sir Thomas Browne , who lived from 1605 to 1682 - displays the development in his style of something less simple and more precious than ruled ...
... touch of affectation . A great writer who came immediately after the Elizabethans - namely , Sir Thomas Browne , who lived from 1605 to 1682 - displays the development in his style of something less simple and more precious than ruled ...
Page 49
... touching in the grief Evelyn pours forth upon the death of his little son of five years old : - " The day before he died , " writes Evelyn , " he call'd to me and in a more serious manner than usual , told me that for all I loved him so ...
... touching in the grief Evelyn pours forth upon the death of his little son of five years old : - " The day before he died , " writes Evelyn , " he call'd to me and in a more serious manner than usual , told me that for all I loved him so ...
Page 64
... touch the heart rather than elate it ; and genius finds its highest expression not in comedy , but in tragedy . And this need cause us no surprise when we consider how much of the great work in letters and in art is directly due to the ...
... touch the heart rather than elate it ; and genius finds its highest expression not in comedy , but in tragedy . And this need cause us no surprise when we consider how much of the great work in letters and in art is directly due to the ...
Page 71
... touch , a more delightful vision . I saw her just above the horizon , decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she just began to move in- glittering like the morning star , full of life , and splendour , and joy . Oh ! what a ...
... touch , a more delightful vision . I saw her just above the horizon , decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she just began to move in- glittering like the morning star , full of life , and splendour , and joy . Oh ! what a ...
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Common terms and phrases
admiration Æsop awful battle beautiful Bible blessed born century character Christian Coleridge Cross of Sacrifice dead DEAR ANTONY death displayed dream earth eloquence emotions Empire England English prose faith fame father firmament France freedom G. P. MY DEAR genius glorious glory of English Grattan grave greatest hand harmony hast heart heaven honour hope House inspired Jeremy Taylor Johnson King labours language letters liberty literature living look Lord loving old G. P. magnificent majestic Matthew Arnold memory ment mind nation ness never noble Parliament passage passed perhaps quote race Ralegh reverence Rhodope Sartor Resartus seemed Sir Walter Ralegh Sir William Napier sorrow speech spirit splendid splendour Stephen Coleridge style sure thee things thou thought throne tion to-day toil true unto utterances valour voice vulgar whole wonderful words writers wrote
Popular passages
Page 106 - I STROVE with none, for none was worth my strife; Nature I loved, and next to Nature, Art; I warmed both hands before the fire of life; It sinks, and I am ready to depart.
Page 176 - Now we are engaged in a great civil war testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
Page 62 - Having carried on my work thus far with so little obligation to any favourer of learning, I shall not be disappointed though I should conclude it, if less be possible, with less; for I have been long wakened from that dream of hope, in which I once boasted myself with so much exultation, My Lord, Your Lordship's most humble Most obedient servant, SAM. JOHNSON.
Page 74 - Death, that hath suck'd the honey of thy breath, Hath had no power yet upon thy beauty: Thou art not conquer'd; beauty's ensign yet Is crimson in thy lips and in thy cheeks, And death's pale flag is not advanced there.
Page 66 - It is gone, that sensibility of principle, that chastity of honour which felt a stain like a wound, which inspired courage whilst it mitigated ferocity, which ennobled whatever it touched, and under which vice itself lost half its evil by losing all its grossness.
Page 8 - ... a blush In the midst of brown was born, Like red poppies grown with corn. Round her eyes her tresses fell ; Which were blackest none could tell, But long lashes veiled a light That had else been all too bright. And her hat, with shady brim, Made her tressy forehead dim ; — Thus she stood amid the stocks, Praising God with sweetest looks : — Sure, I said, Heaven did not mean Where I reap thou shouldst but glean ; Lay thy sheaf adown and come, Share my harvest and my home.
Page 169 - There the historian of the Roman empire thought of the days when Cicero pleaded the cause of Sicily against Verres, and when, before a senate which still retained some show of freedom, Tacitus thundered against the oppressor of Africa.
Page 34 - Many a man lives a burden to the earth ; but a good book is the precious lifeblood of a master-spirit embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life.
Page 23 - I have of late (but, wherefore, I know not) lost all my mirth, foregone all custom of exercises : and, indeed, it goes so heavily with my disposition, that this goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory ; this most excellent canopy, the air, look you — this brave o'erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire — why, it appears no other thing to me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours.
Page 31 - Darkness and light divide the course of time, and oblivion shares with memory a great part even of our living beings ; we slightly remember our felicities, and the smartest strokes of affliction leave but short smart upon us. Sense endureth no extremities, and sorrows destroy us or themselves.