Miscellaneous Pieces, in Verse and Prose

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J. Dodsley, 1770 - Good and evil - 452 pages

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Page 264 - Ignorance, or the want of knowledge and literature, the appointed lot of all born to poverty, and the drudgeries of life, is the only opiate capable of infusing that insensibility which can enable them to endure the miseries of the one and the fatigues of the other. It is a cordial administered by the gracious hand of Providence ; of which they ought never to be deprived by an ill-judged and improper education.
Page 245 - Here will I hold. If there's a power above us — And that there is, all nature cries aloud Through all her works — He must delight in virtue; And that which He delights in must be happy.
Page 187 - ... kinds of arms, and fo unwilling to return to it, that I will venture to promife, it will be very long before they can be overtaken or attacked ; but that here, and here only, they may enjoy their favourite fingularity, unmolefted for half a century to come.
Page 395 - ... it : it is feldom of any fervice to the giver, becaufe it more frequently makes him an enemy, than a friend ; and as feldom to the receiver, becaufe, if he is not wife enough to act properly without it, he will fcarcely be wife enough to diftinguifh that which is good.
Page 96 - The mufe her company, good-fenfe her guide, Refiftlefs charms her pow'r, but not her pride ; Who thus forfakes the town, the park, and play, In filent fhades to pafs her hours away ; Who better likes to breathe frefh country air ; Than ride imprifon'd in a velvet chair, And makes the warbling nightingale her choice...
Page 199 - Ihort, they are fit only to be inhabitants of Lubberland, where, as the child's geography informs us, men lie upon their backs with their mouths open, and it rains fat pigs, ready roafted.
Page 49 - Becaufe the fool would fain be thought a bite. Devoted thus to politics, and cards, Nor mirth, nor wine, nor women he regards. So far is ev'ry virtue from his heart, That not a gen'rous vice can claim a part...
Page 5 - The milk-maid fafe thro' driving rains and fnows, Wrap'd in her cloak, and prop'd on pattens goes ; Whilft the foft Belle, immur'd in velvet chair, Needs but the filken fhoe, and trufts her bofom bare : The woolly drab, and Englifh broad-cloth warm, Guard well the horfeman from the beating ftorm...
Page 423 - Can there be a more proper time to force them to maintain an army at their expense, than when that army is necessary for their own protection, and we are utterly unable to support it ? Lastly, can there be a more proper time for this mother country to leave off feeding out of her own vitals these children whom she has nursed up, than when they are arrived at such strength and maturity as to be well able to provide for themselves, and ought rather with filial duty to give some assistance to her distress...
Page 33 - Tis thus, my Lord, I, free from ftrife, Spend an inglorious country life; Thefe are the joys I ftill purfue, When abfent from the town and you : Thus pafs long fummer funs away, Bufily idle, calmly gay ; Nor great, nor mean, nor rich, nor poor, Not having much...

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