Specimens of English Prose Writers: From the Earliest Times to the Close of the Seventeenth Century, with Sketches, Biographical and Literary ...

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Page 312 - ... as if there were sought in knowledge a couch whereupon to rest a searching and restless spirit, or a terrace for a wandering and variable mind to walk up and down with a fair prospect, or a tower of state for a proud mind to raise itself upon, or a fort or commanding ground for strife and contention, or a shop for profit and sale ; and not a rich store-house for the glory of the Creator and the relief of man's estate.
Page 151 - ... cometh to you with words set in delightful proportion, either accompanied with, or prepared for, the well enchanting skill of music; and with a tale forsooth he cometh unto you, with a tale which holdeth children from play, and old men from the chimney corner.
Page 311 - For men have entered into a desire of learning and knowledge, sometimes upon a natural curiosity and inquisitive appetite; sometimes to entertain their minds with variety and delight; sometimes for ornament and reputation; and sometimes to enable them to victory of wit and contradiction; and most times for lucre and profession...
Page 399 - Language most shewes a man: speake that I may see thee. It springs out of the most retired, and inmost parts of us, and is the Image of the Parent of it, the mind. No glasse renders a mans forme, or likenesse, so true as his speech.
Page 223 - Neither, by my consent, shalt thou train them up in wars; for he that sets up his rest to live by that profession, can hardly be an honest man or a good Christian...
Page 274 - My lord, when I lost the freedom of my cell, which was my college, yet I found some degree of it in my quiet country parsonage ; but I am weary of the noise and oppositions of this place, and indeed God and nature did not intend me for contentions, but for study and quietness.
Page 222 - Nor choose a base and uncomely creature altogether for wealth ; for it will cause contempt in others and loathing in thee.
Page 394 - Custom is the most certain mistress of language, as the public stamp makes the current money. But we must not be too frequent with the mint, every day coining. Nor fetch words from the extreme and utmost ages ; since the chief virtue of a style is perspicuity, and nothing so vicious in it as to need an interpreter.
Page 460 - ... quietness sake : just as in a family one man is appointed to buy the meat ; if every man should buy, or if there were many buyers, they would never agree ; one would buy what the other liked not, or what the other had bought before ; so there would be a confusion. But that charge being committed to one, he, according to his discretion, pleases all ; if they have not what they would have one day, they shall have it the next, or something as good.
Page 147 - There were hills which garnished their proud heights with stately trees : humble valleys whose base estate seemed comforted with the refreshing of silver rivers ; meadows enamelled with all sorts of eye-pleasing flowers ; thickets, which being lined with most pleasant shade were witnessed so...

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