The Political state of Great Britain, Volume 32

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Page 497 - And he gave it for his opinion, that whoever could make two ears of corn, or two blades of grass to grow upon a spot of ground, where only one grew before, would deserve better of mankind, and do more essential service to his country, than the whole race of politicians put together.
Page 464 - The ceremony is performed in his Majesty's great chamber of state, where the candidates are to undergo a trial of dexterity very different from the former, and such as I have not observed the least resemblance of in any other country of the old or the new world.
Page 463 - ... not received a fall, and some of them two or three. I was assured that a year or two before my arrival, Flimnap would have infallibly broke his neck if one of the King's cushions, that accidentally lay on the ground, had not weakened the force of his fall.
Page 544 - They were the most mortifying sight I ever beheld ; and the women more horrible than the men. Besides the usual deformities in extreme old age, they acquired an additional ghastliness, in proportion to their number of years, which is not to be described...
Page 185 - THerefore with Angels and Archangels, and with all the company of heaven, we laud and magnify thy glorious Name, evermore praifing thee, and faying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hofts, heaven and earth are full of thy glory. Glory be to thee, O Lord moft high.
Page 482 - Then turning to his first minister, who waited behind him with a white staff, near as tall as the mainmast of the Royal Sovereign, he observed how contemptible a thing was human grandeur, which could be mimicked by such diminutive insects as I : and yet...
Page 542 - He said they commonly acted like mortals, till about thirty years old, after which by degrees they grew melancholy and dejected, increasing in both till they came to fourscore. This he learned from their own confession ; for otherwise there not being above two or three of that species born in an age, they were too few to form a general observation by. When they came to fourscore years, which is reckoned the extremity of living in this country, they had not only all the follies and infirmities of...
Page 467 - These civil commotions were constantly fomented by the monarchs of Blefuscu; and when they were quelled the exiles always fled for refuge to that empire. It is computed that eleven thousand persons have at several times suffered death rather than submit to break their eggs at the smaller end.
Page 496 - The king was struck with horror at the description I had given of those terrible engines, and the proposal I had made. " He was amazed how so impotent and grovelling an insect as I (these were his expressions) could entertain such inhuman ideas, and in so familiar a manner as to appear wholly unmoved at all the scenes of blood and desolation which I had painted as the common effects of those destructive machines; whereof (he said) some evil genius, enemy to mankind, must have been the first contriver.
Page 463 - These diversions are often attended with fatal accidents, whereof great numbers are on record.

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