Young England: Being Vivian Grey, Coningsby, Sybil, Tancred, Volume 4

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R. B. Johnson, 1904
 

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Page xxiii - Nobody ever saw a star formed,' said Tancred. 'Perhaps not. You must read the "Revelations"; it is all explained. But what is most interesting, is the way in which man has been developed. You know, all is development. The principle is perpetually going on. First, there was nothing, then there was something; then, I forget the next, I think there were shells, then fishes; then we came, let me see, did we come next? Never mind that; we came at last. And the next change there will be something very...
Page 168 - His life was a gyration of energetic curiosity ; an insatiable whirl of social celebrity. There was not a congregation of sages and philosophers in any part of Europe which he did not attend as a brother. He was present at the camp of Kalisch in his yeomanry uniform, and assisted at the festivals of Barcelona in an Andalusian jacket. He was everywhere and at everything ; he had gone down in a diving-bell and gone up in a balloon.
Page xxxii - ... was impressed with the necessity of reconstructing the episcopal bench on principles of personal distinction and ability. But his notion of clerical capacity did not soar higher than a private tutor who had suckled a young noble into university honours; and his test of priestly celebrity was the decent editorship of a Greek play. He sought for the successors of the apostles, for the stewards of the mysteries of Sinai and of Calvary, among third-rate hunters after syllables.
Page 167 - Mr. Vavasour was a social favourite ; a poet and a. real poet, quite a troubadour, as well as a member of Parliament ; travelled, sweet-tempered, and goodhearted ; very amusing, and very clever. With catholic sympathies and an eclectic turn of mind, Mr. Vavasour saw something good in everybody and everything, which is certainly amiable, and perhaps just, but disqualifies a man in some degree for the business of life, which requires for its conduct a certain degree of prejudice.
Page xxxvii - And yet some flat-nosed Frank, full of bustle and puffed up with self-conceit (a race spawned perhaps in the morasses of some Northern forest hardly yet cleared), talks of Progress ! Progress to what, and from whence ? Amid empires shrivelled into deserts, amid the wrecks of great cities, a single column or obelisk of which nations import for the prime ornament of their...
Page 344 - The equality of man can only be accomplished by the sovereignty of God. The longing for fraternity can never be satisfied but under the sway of a common father.
Page 145 - Then,' said Tancred, with animation, ' seeing how things are — that I am born in an age and in a country divided between infidelity on one side, and an anarchy of creeds on the other ; with none competent to guide me, yet feeling that I must believe, for I hold that duty cannot exist without faith : is it so wild as some would think...
Page 178 - The decay of a race is an inevitable necessity, unless it lives in deserts and never mixes its blood.' CHAPTER XV. ' I AM sorry, my dear mother, that I cannot accompany you ; but I must go down to my yacht this morning, and on my return from Greenwich I have an engagement.
Page 168 - All this was very well at his rooms in the Albany, and only funny ; but when he collected his menageries at his ancestral hall in a distant county, the sport sometimes became tragic. A real philosopher, alike from his genial disposition and from the influence of his rich and various information, Vavasour moved amid the strife, sympathising with...
Page 359 - Asia revivified would act upon Europe. The European comfort, which they call civilization, is, after all, confined to a very small space : the island of Great Britain, France, and the course of a single river — the Rhine. The greater part of Europe is as dead as Asia, without the consolation of climate and the influence of immortal traditions.

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