Coningsby; Or, The New Generation, Volume 1

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Henry Colburn, publisher, 1844 - 350 pages
 

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Page 111 - I thought they had better keep quiet. Vere is with Millbank, and we are going back to Coningsby directly ; but we thought it best to show, finding on our arrival that there were all sorts of rumours about. I think it will be best to report at once to our tutor, for he will be sure to hear something." " I would if I were you." ( CHAPTER X. WHAT wonderful things are events ! The least are of greater importance than the most sublime and comprehensive speculations...
Page 285 - Lady Everingham thoroughly understood the art of conversation, which indeed consists of the exercise of two fine qualities. You must originate, and you must sympathize ; you must possess at the same time the habit of communicating, and the habit of listening. The union is rather rare, but irresistible.
Page 249 - for life in general there is but one decree. Youth is a blunder; Manhood a struggle; Old Age a regret. Do not suppose,' he added, smiling, 'that I hold that youth is genius; all that I say is, that genius, when young, is divine. Why, the greatest captains of ancient and modern times both conquered Italy at fiveand-twenty! Youth, extreme youth, overthrew the Persian Empire. Don John of Austria won Lepanto at twenty-five, the greatest battle of modern time; had it not been for the jealousy of Philip,...
Page 142 - ... loudly congratulated themselves and the country that they were at length relieved from its odious repression! In the hurry of existence one is apt too generally to pass over the political history of the times in which we ourselves live. The two years that followed the Reform of the House of Commons are full of instruction, on which a young man would do well to ponder. It is hardly possible that he could rise from the study of these annals without a confirmed disgust for political intrigue; a...
Page 64 - A LITTLE dinner, not more than the Muses, with all the guests clever, and some pretty, offers human life and human nature under very favourable circumstances.
Page 22 - He was just the animal that Lord Monmouth wanted, for Lord Monmouth always looked upon human nature with the callous eye of a jockey. He surveyed Rigby, and he determined to buy him. He bought him ; with his clear head, his indefatigable industry, his audacious tongue, and his ready and unscrupulous pen ; with all his dates, all his lampoons ; all his private memoirs, and all his political intrigues.
Page 251 - Luther robbed even him of his richest province at thirty-five. Take Ignatius Loyola and John Wesley — they worked with young brains. Ignatius was only thirty when he made his pilgrimage and wrote the Spiritual Exercises.
Page 239 - The wind howled, the branches of the forest stirred, and sent forth sounds like an incantation. Soon might be distinguished the various voices of the mighty trees, as they expressed their terror or their agony. The oak roared, the beech shrieked, the elm sent forth its deep and long-drawn groan ; while ever and anon, amid a momentary pause, the passion of the ash was heard in moans of thrilling anguish.
Page 243 - ... national dish,' said the stranger, glancing quickly at the table, 'whose fame is a proverb. And what more should we expect under a simple roof! How much better than an omelette or a greasy olla, that they would give us in a posada! Tis a wonderful country this England! What a napkin! How spotless! And so sweet; I declare 'tis a perfume. There is not a princess throughout the South of Europe served with the cleanliness that meets us in this cottage.
Page 209 - Ecclesiastical estate, provided it is regulated by a commission of laymen. Everything, in short, that is established, as long as it is a phrase and not a fact. ' In the meantime, while forms and phrases are religiously cherished in order to make the semblance of a creed, the rule of practice is to bend to the passion or combination of the hour. Conservativism assumes, in theory, that everything established should be maintained ; but adopts, in practice, that everything that is established is indefensible....

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