Elements of History, Ancient and Modern

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W. J. Reynolds and Company, 1848 - History - 437 pages

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Page 127 - The wild exploits of those romantic knights who sallied forth in quest of adventures, are well known, and have been treated with proper ridicule. The political and permanent effects of the spirit of chivalry have been less observed.
Page 208 - For shame," said he to the parliament, "get you gone; give place to honester men; to those who will more faithfully discharge their trust. You are no longer a parliament : I tell you, you are no longer a parliament. The Lord has done with you : he has chosen other instruments for carrying on his work.
Page 193 - ... had I but served God as diligently as I have served the king, he would not have given me over in my gray hairs.
Page 183 - Of his courage as a combatant, and his abilities as a general, the reader will have formed a competent opinion from the preceding pages. The astonishing victories, which cast so much glory on one period of his reign, appear to have dazzled the eyes both of his subjects and foreigners, who placed him in the first rank of conquerors : but the disasters, which clouded the evening of his life, have furnished a proof that his ambition was greater than his judgment. He was at last convinced that the crowns...
Page 126 - It hath been through all ages ever seen, That •with the praise of arms and chivalry The prize of beauty still hath joined been, And that for reason's special privity ; For either doth on other much rely ; For he...
Page 124 - Next, therefore, or even equal, to devotion stood gallantry among the principles of knighthood, but all comparison between the two was saved by blending them together. The love of God and the ladies was enjoined as a single duty. He who was faithful and true to his mistress was held sure of salvation in the theology of castles, though not of cloisters.
Page 282 - as they valued their honor : as they respected the rights of humanity, and as they regarded the military and national character of America, to express their utmost detestation of the man who was attempting to open the floodgates of civil discord, and deluge their rising empire with blood.
Page 204 - For all which treasons and crimes this Court doth adjudge that he, the said Charles Stuart, as a tyrant, traitor, murderer, and public enemy to the good people of this nation, shall be put to death by the severing of his head from his body.
Page 132 - Charlemagne affords a solitary restingplace between two long periods of turbulence and ignominy, deriving the advantages of contrast both from...
Page 99 - Such was the end of this great empire, that had conquered mankind with its arms, and instructed the world with its wisdom ; that had risen by temperance, and that fell by luxury ; that had been established by a spirit of patriotism, and that sunk into ruin when the empire was become so extensive that a Roman citizen was but an empty name...

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