The History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless: In Four Volumes, Volume 1

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Page 86 - ON A GIRDLE THAT which her slender waist confined Shall now my joyful temples bind : No monarch but would give his crown His arms might do what this has done. It was my Heaven's extremest sphere, The pale which held that lovely deer : My joy, my grief, my hope, my love Did all within this circle move. A narrow compass ! and yet there Dwelt all that's good, and all that's fair : Give me but what this ribband bound, Take all the rest the Sun goes round.
Page 76 - There were no plays, no operas, no masquerades, no balls, no public shews, except at the little theatre in the Hay-market, then known by the name of F g's scandal-shop; because he frequently exhibited there certain drolls, or, more properly, invectives against the ministry: in doing which it appears extremely probable, that he had two views; the one to get money, which he very much wanted, from such as delighted in low humour, and could not distinguish true satire from scurrility; and the other,...
Page 77 - But it is not my business to point out either the merit of that gentleman's performances, or the motives he had for writing them, as the town is perfectly acquainted both with his abilities and success; and has since seen him, with astonishment, wriggle himself into favour, by pretending to cajole those he had not the power to intimidate.
Page 243 - O were you to reward such cares, And life so long would stay ; Not fourteen but four hundred years Would seem but as one day...
Page 288 - END of the FIRST VOLUME. THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY REFERENCE DEPARTMENT This book...
Page 143 - As the barometer,' said she to herself 'is governed by the weather, so is the man in love governed by the woman he admires; he is a mere machine — acts nothing of himself — has no will or power of his own, but is lifted up or depressed, just as the charmer of his heart is in the humour.
Page 1 - It was always my opinion, that fewer women were undone by love than vanity, and that those mistakes the sex are sometimes guilty of, proceed, for the most part, rather from inadvertency, than a vicious inclination.
Page 20 - The court, the play, the ball, and opera, with giving and receiving visits, engrossed all the time could be spared from the toilet.
Page 66 - Trusty, that out of the income of my fortune, thirty pounds a year should be allowed for my board twenty pounds for my pocket expences, and fifty for my cloaths, I think I ought to have the two latter entirely at my own disposal, and to lay it out as I think it fit, and not be obliged, like a charity child, to wear whatever livery my benefactor shall be pleased to order
Page 9 - Despite the seeming gulf between these novels and her earlier work, there is a remarkable consistency in EH's concern 'to inculcate into young girls all imaginable precaution, in regard to their behaviour towards those of another sex

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