The General Biographical Dictionary:: Containing an Historical and Critical Account of the Lives and Writings of the Most Eminent Persons in Every Nation; Particularly the British and Irish; from the Earliest Accounts to the Present Time..

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J. Nichols and Son [and 29 others], 1815 - Biography

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Page 9 - ... for thee; Deign on the passing world to turn thine eyes, And pause awhile from letters, to be wise; There mark what ills the scholar's life assail, Toil, envy, want, the patron, and the jail. See nations slowly wise, and meanly just, To buried merit raise the tardy bust. If dreams yet flatter, once again attend, Hear Lydiat's life, and Galileo's end.
Page 28 - you shall be my confessor : when I first set out in the world, I had friends who endeavoured to shake my belief in the Christian religion. I saw difficulties which staggered me ; but I kept my mind open to conviction. The evidences and doctrines of Christianity, studied with attention, made me a most firm and persuaded believer of the Christian religion. I have made it the rule of my life, and it is the ground of my future hopes.
Page 28 - I have made public good the rule of my conduct. I never gave counsels which I did not at the time think the best. I have seen that I was sometimes in the wrong, but I did not err designedly. I have endeavoured in private life to do all the good in my power, and never for a moment could indulge malicious or unjust designs upon any person whatsoever.
Page 79 - A Scotchman must be a very sturdy moralist, who does not love Scotland better than truth ; he will always love it better than inquiry : and if falsehood flatters his vanity, will not be very diligent to detect it.
Page 87 - Memoirs of the Twentieth Century; being original Letters of State under George the Sixth, relating to the most important events in Great- Britain, and Europe, as to church and state, arts and sciences, trade, taxes, and treaties, peace and war, and characters of the greatest persons of those times, from the middle of the eighteenth to the end of the twentieth century, and the world.
Page 78 - I believe they never existed in any other form than that which we have seen. The editor, or author, never could show the original ; nor can it be shown by any other ; to revenge reasonable incredulity, by refusing evidence, is a degree of insolence, with .which the world is not yet acquainted ; and stubborn audacity is the last refuge of guilt.
Page 24 - ... to the great question. His studies, being honest, ended in conviction. He found that religion was true, and what he had learned he endeavoured to teach (1747), by Observations on the Conversion of St. Paul; a treatise to which infidelity has never been able to fabricate a specious answer.
Page 227 - BENEFITS. With an ESSAY ON CHARITY AND CHARITY-SCHOOLS. And A Search into the Nature of Society.
Page 471 - Brittannique sometimes aspires to the character of a poet and philosopher : his style is pure and elegant ; and in his virtues, or even in his defects, he may be ranked as one of the last disciples of the school of Fontenelle.
Page 521 - What doubts have you met in your studies today ! ' for he supposed that to doubt nothing and to understand nothing were verifiable alike.

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