The Elements of English Composition: Serving as a Sequel to the Study of Grammar |
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Page 16
... perfection are many ; and we are at a loss on whom to bestow the greatest share of our praise ; on the first or on the last who may have bore a part in the progress . - Fer- guson's History of Civil Society . In these examples , the ...
... perfection are many ; and we are at a loss on whom to bestow the greatest share of our praise ; on the first or on the last who may have bore a part in the progress . - Fer- guson's History of Civil Society . In these examples , the ...
Page 63
... It seems to me , that in order to maintain the moral system of the world at a certain point far below that of ideal perfection , ( for we Ꭰ are are made capable of conceiving what we are incapable of OF SENTENCES . 63.
... It seems to me , that in order to maintain the moral system of the world at a certain point far below that of ideal perfection , ( for we Ꭰ are are made capable of conceiving what we are incapable of OF SENTENCES . 63.
Page 89
... perfection , seems to have no kind of rhetorical num- bers and no man had ever less pretension to genuine oratory , than this celebrated preacher . If any thing could raise a flame of eloquence in the breast of an orator , there is no ...
... perfection , seems to have no kind of rhetorical num- bers and no man had ever less pretension to genuine oratory , than this celebrated preacher . If any thing could raise a flame of eloquence in the breast of an orator , there is no ...
Page 136
... perfection , pays her first visit , the longing bridegroom lifts the veil to see a face he had never seen before ; but , instead of a countenance blazing with beauty like the sun , he beholds deformity shooting icicles to his heart such ...
... perfection , pays her first visit , the longing bridegroom lifts the veil to see a face he had never seen before ; but , instead of a countenance blazing with beauty like the sun , he beholds deformity shooting icicles to his heart such ...
Page 153
... perfection of wit , to trace likenesses which no other person could have discovered : and at the same time they carry these metaphors so far , that it requires some ingenuity to follow them out , and comprehend : them . Instead of ...
... perfection of wit , to trace likenesses which no other person could have discovered : and at the same time they carry these metaphors so far , that it requires some ingenuity to follow them out , and comprehend : them . Instead of ...
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Common terms and phrases
Addison adverb agreeable allegory ancient appear Aristotle arrangement attention beauty Beggar's Opera blank verse CHAP character Cicero circumstance composition critical degree Demosthenes discourse Dissertation Dryden effect elegance elevation eloquence employed endeavour English English language epistolary Essay expression fancy figurative language figure frequently genius grace Greek harmony harsh hath History Homer honour humour idea imagination imitation instance introduced kind labour language learning letters Lord Shaftesbury manner meaning ment metaphor mind nature never object observations occasion orator ornament passage passion perhaps period person personification perspicuity phrases Plato pleasure Plutarch poet poetry possessed precision produce proper propriety prose qualities Quintilian racter reader remarkable resemblance Roman Empire seems sense sentence sentiment Sermons shew simile simplicity Sir William Temple sound speak species Spectator strength style taste thing thou thought tion tragedy verb verse Virgil virtue vulgar words writer Xenophon
Popular passages
Page 127 - Me miserable ! which way shall I fly Infinite wrath, and infinite despair? Which way I fly is Hell; myself am Hell; And, in the lowest deep, a lower deep Still threatening to devour me opens wide, To which the Hell I suffer seems a Heaven.
Page 141 - Full many a gem of purest ray serene The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear : Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, And waste its sweetness on the desert air.
Page 294 - ... frequented by every fowl whom nature has taught to dip the wing in water. This lake discharged its superfluities by a stream which entered a dark cleft of the mountain on the northern side, and fell with dreadful noise from precipice to precipice till it was heard no more.
Page 138 - He scarce had ceased, when the superior fiend Was moving toward the shore ; his ponderous shield, Ethereal temper, massy, large, and round, Behind him cast ; the broad circumference Hung on his shoulders like the moon, whose orb Through optic glass the Tuscan artist views At evening from the top of Fesole Or in Valdarno, to descry new lands, Rivers, or mountains, in her spotty globe.
Page 262 - Revenge is a kind of wild justice, which the more man's nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out. For as for the first wrong, it doth but offend the law ; but the revenge of that wrong putteth the law out of office.
Page 298 - ... the mode of existence decreed to a permanent body composed of transitory parts ; wherein, by the disposition of a stupendous wisdom, moulding together the great mysterious incorporation of the human race...
Page 165 - What could have been done more to my vineyard, That I have not done in it? Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, Brought it forth wild grapes?
Page 141 - Death? perhaps in this neglected spot is laid some heart once pregnant with celestial fire ; hands, that the rod of empire might have swayed, or waked to ecstasy the living lyre.
Page 163 - Return, we beseech thee, O God of hosts: look down from heaven, and behold, and visit this vine; And the vineyard which thy right hand hath planted, and the branch that thou madest strong for thyself.
Page 316 - It has been so long said as to be commonly believed, that the true characters of men may be found in their Letters, and that he who writes to his friend lays his heart open before him. But the truth is, that such were the simple friendships of the " Golden Age," and are now the friendships only of children.