The British Essayists: Spectator

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James Ferguson
J. Richardson and Company, 1823 - English essays
 

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Page 199 - What may this mean, That thou, dead corse, again in complete steel, Revisit'st thus the glimpses of the moon, Making night hideous, and we fools of nature So horridly to shake our disposition With thoughts beyond the reaches of our souls?
Page 57 - Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth Unseen, both when we wake, and when we sleep...
Page 1 - I HAVE observed, that a reader seldom peruses a book with pleasure, till he knows whether the writer of it be a black or a fair man, of a mild or choleric disposition, married or a bachelor, with other particulars of the like nature, that conduce very much to the right understanding of an author.
Page 281 - Wit lying most in the assemblage of Ideas, and putting those together with quickness and variety, wherein can be found any resemblance or congruity, thereby to make up pleasant Pictures, and agreeable Visions in the fancy...
Page 281 - ... in separating carefully one from another, ideas wherein can be found the least difference, thereby to avoid being mis-led by similitude, and by affinity, to take one thing for another.
Page 5 - But being ill-used by the above-mentioned widow, he was very serious for a year and a half; and though, his temper being naturally jovial, he at last got over it, he grew careless of himself, and never dressed afterwards. He continues to wear a coat and doublet of the same cut that was in fashion at the time of his repulse, which, in his merry humours, he tells us, has been in and out twelve times since he first wore it.
Page 6 - ... town and country ; a great lover of mankind ; but there is such a mirthful cast in his behaviour, that he is rather beloved than esteemed. His tenants grow rich, his servants look satisfied, all the young women profess love to him, and the young men are glad of his company.
Page 198 - Angels and ministers of grace defend us! Be thou a spirit of health or goblin damn'd, Bring with thee airs from heaven or blasts from hell, Be thy intents wicked or charitable, Thou com'st in such a questionable shape, That I will speak to thee: I'll call thee Hamlet, King, father, royal Dane, O, answer me!
Page 317 - Forsake not an old friend, for the new is not comparable to "him: a new friend is as new wine; when it is old, thou shalt drink it with pleasure.
Page 2 - Thus I live in the world rather as a 'Spectator' of mankind than as one of the species...

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