The vicar of Wakefield

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K. Paul, Trench, 1886 - 308 pages

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Page 138 - Good people all of every sort, Give ear unto my song, And if you find it wond'rous short, It cannot hold you long. In Islington there was a man, Of whom the world might say, That still a godly race he ran, Whene'er he went to pray. A kind and gentle heart he had, To comfort friends and foes; The naked every day he clad, When he put on his clothes.
Page 66 - The dew, the blossom on the tree, With charms inconstant shine ; Their charms were his, but woe to me, Their constancy was mine. "For still I tried each fickle art, Importunate and vain ; And while his passion touch'd my heart, I triumph'd in his pain.
Page 96 - You need be under no uneasiness," cried I, "about selling the rims; for they are not worth sixpence, for I perceive they are only copper varnished over.
Page 61 - Forbear, my son,' the hermit cries, 'To tempt the dangerous gloom ; For yonder faithless phantom flies To lure thee to thy doom. 'Here to the houseless child of want, My door is open still ; And tho' my portion is but scant, I give it with good will.
Page 127 - Venus, and the painter was desired not to be too frugal of his diamonds in her stomacher and hair. Her two little ones were to be as Cupids by her side, while I, in my gown and band, was to present her with my books on the Whistonian controversy. Olivia would be drawn as an Amazon, sitting upon a bank of flowers, dressed in a green Joseph, richly laced with gold, and a whip in her hand. Sophia was to be a shepherdess, with as many sheep as the painter could put in for nothing ; and Moses was to be...
Page 15 - And then she would bid the girls hold up their heads; who, to conceal nothing, were certainly very handsome. Mere outside is so very trifling a circumstance with me, that I should scarce have remembered to mention it, had it not been a general topic of conversation in the country.
Page 34 - THE place of our retreat was in a little neighbourhood, consisting of farmers, who tilled their own grounds, and were equal strangers to opulence and poverty. As they had almost all the conveniences of life within themselves, they seldom visited towns or cities in search of superfluity. Remote from the polite, they still retained the primeval simplicity of manners ; and, frugal by habit, they scarce knew that temperance was a virtue.
Page 95 - I'll tell you a good story about that, that will make you split your sides with laughing. — But, as I live, yonder comes Moses, without a horse, and the box at his back.
Page 97 - There, again, you are wrong, my dear," cried I ; " for though they be copper, we will keep them by us, as copper spectacles, you know, are better than nothing.
Page 222 - The only art her guilt to cover, To hide her shame from every eye, To give repentance to her lover, And wring his bosom, is — to die.

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