The miscellaneous works of Tobias Smollett, with a life of the author, Volume 8

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Page 3 - By heaven, methinks it were an easy leap, To pluck bright honour from the pale-fac'd moon ; Or dive into the bottom of the deep, Where fathom-line could never touch the ground, And pluck up drowne'd honour by the locks...
Page 76 - Perfidious wretch ! thy crimes turn out so atrocious, that I half repent me of having undertaken to record thy me»moirs ; yet such monsters ought to be exhibited to public view, that mankind may be upon their guard against imposture; that the world may see how fraud is apt to overshoot itself ; and that as virtue, though it may suffer for a while, will triumph in the end, so iniquity, though it may prosper for a season, will at last be overtaken by that punishment and disgrace which are its due.
Page 108 - Success raised upon such a foundation would, by a disciple of Plato, and some modern moralists, be ascribed to the innate virtue and generosity of the human heart, which naturally espouses the cause that needs protection : but I, whose notions of human excellence are not quite so sublime, am apt to believe it is owing to that spirit of selfconceit and contradiction, which is, at least, as universal, if not as natural, as the moral sense so warmly contended for by those ideal philosophers.
Page 286 - As for the sick and wounded," says Tobias, " they were, next day, sent on board of the transports and vessels called hospital-ships, where they languished in want of every necessary comfort and accommodation. They were destitute of surgeons, nurses, cooks, and proper provision ; they were pent up between decks in small vessels, where they had not room to sit upright ; they -wallowed in filth ; myriads of maggots were hatched in the putrefaction of their sores, which had no other dressing than that...
Page 286 - They were destitute of surgeons, nurses, cooks and proper provision; they were pent up between decks in small vessels, where they had not room to sit upright; they wallowed in filth; myriads of maggots were hatched in the putrefaction of their sores, which had no other dressing than that of being washed by themselves with their own allowance of brandy ; and nothing was heard but groans, lamentations and the language of despair, invoking death to deliver them from their miseries. What served to encourage...

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