Public characters [Formerly British public characters] of 1798-9 - 1809-10, Volume 5

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1803

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Page 24 - Vaccinae, A Disease Discovered in Some of the Western Counties of England. Particularly Gloucestershire, and Known by the Name of the Cow Pox...
Page 448 - The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and there is no new thing under the sun.
Page 497 - I have seen the water run like a constant fountain stream forty feet high ; one vessel of water rarefied by fire driveth up forty of cold water. And a man that tends the work is but to turn two cocks, that one vessel of water being consumed, another begins to force and re-fill with cold water, and so successively, the fire being tended and kept constant, which the self-same person may likewise abundantly perform in the interim between the necessity of turning the said cocks.
Page 309 - Carlile, he treated it with the utmost contempt ; and told me, in his turn, that as I had learned enough, and more than enough, at school, he must be considered as having fairly discharged his duty ; (so, indeed, he had ;) he added, that he had been negotiating with his cousin, a shoemaker of some respectability, who had liberally agreed to take me without a fee, as an apprentice. I was so shocked at this intelligence, that I did not remonstrate; but went in sullenness and silence to my new master,...
Page 304 - Carlile sickened at the expense ; and, as the people were now indifferent to my fate, he looked round for an opportunity of ridding himself of a useless charge. He had previously attempted to engage me in the drudgery of husbandry. I drove the plough for one day to gratify him ; but I left it with a firm resolution to do so no more, and in despite of his threats and promises, adhered to my determination. In this, I was guided no less by necessity than will. During my father's life, in attempting...
Page 310 - I did not however quite resign the hope of one day succeeding to Mr. Hugh Smerdon, and therefore secretly prosecuted my favourite study, at every interval of leisure. These intervals were not very frequent ; and when the use I made of them was found out, they were rendered still less so. I could not guess the motives for this at first ; but at length I discovered that my master destined his youngest son for the situation to which I aspired. I possessed at this time but one book in the world : it...
Page 313 - ... with favours more substantial : little collections were now and then made, and I have received sixpence in an evening. To one who had long lived in the absolute want of money, such a resource seemed a Peruvian mine : I furnished myself by degrees with paper, &c. and what was of more importance, with books of geometry, and of the higher branches of algebra, which I cautiously concealed. Poetry, even at this time, was no amusement of mine : it was subservient to other purposes ; and I only had...
Page 336 - Th' adorning Thee with so much art, Is but a barb'rous skill : 'Tis like the pois'ning of a dart, Too apt before to kill.
Page 215 - In strains more exalted the salt-box shall join, And clattering and battering and clapping combine ; With a rap and a tap, while the hollow side sounds. Up and down leaps the flap, and with rattling rebounds '." . I mentioned the periodical paper called
Page 310 - With the Bible, indeed, I was well acquainted ; it was the favourite study of my grandmother, and reading it frequently with her, had impressed it strongly on my mind ; these then, with the Imitation of Thomas a Kempis, which I used to read to my mother on her deathbed, constituted the whole of my literary acquisitions.

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