Elements of History, Ancient and Modern: With a Chart and Tables of History Included Within the Volume

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Hilliard, Gray,, 1838 - History - 403 pages

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Page 112 - If these writings of the Greeks agree with the book of God, they are useless, and need not be preserved; if they disagree, they are pernicious, and ought to be destroyed.
Page 190 - Eighth; if all the pictures and patterns of a merciless prince were lost in the world, they might all again be painted to the life, out of the story of this king.
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 191 - ... 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 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 67 - It is easier to turn the sun from his course, than Fabricius from the path of honor ! " — and that he might not be outdone in magnanimity, he released all his Roman prisoners without ransom. 15. Pyrrhus then withdrew his army from Italy, in order to assist the Sicilians against the Carthaginians; but he again returned, and made a last effort near Beneventum, where he was totally defeated by Cu'rius Denta'tus.
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 173 - He had vices in his composition, and great ones; but they were the vices of a great mind : ambition, the malady of every extensive genius ; and avarice, the madness of the wise : one chiefly actuated his youth ; the other governed his age. The vices of young and light minds, the joys of wine, and the pleasures of love, never reached his aspiring nature. The general run of men he looked on with contempt, and treated with cruelty when they opposed him.
Page 127 - ... benefit to mankind. The sentiments which chivalry inspired had a wonderful influence on manners and conduct during the twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries. They were so deeply rooted, that they continued to operate after the vigour and reputation of the institution itself began to decline.
Page 181 - 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...

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