Rasselas: A TaleGeorge Ramsay, 1809 - 155 pages |
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Page xiii
... eye of her husband she was extremly beautiful , for in her epitaph he has recorded her as such , and given many instances in his writings of a sincere and permanent affection . With the property he acquired with his wife , which is ...
... eye of her husband she was extremly beautiful , for in her epitaph he has recorded her as such , and given many instances in his writings of a sincere and permanent affection . With the property he acquired with his wife , which is ...
Page xlii
... eye ; yet so much does the mind govern , and even supply the deficiency of organs , that his visual perceptions , as far as they extended , were uncommonly quick and accurate . So morbid was his temperament , that he never enjoyed the ...
... eye ; yet so much does the mind govern , and even supply the deficiency of organs , that his visual perceptions , as far as they extended , were uncommonly quick and accurate . So morbid was his temperament , that he never enjoyed the ...
Page 8
... eyes upon the pastures and mountains filled with animals , of which some were biting the herbage , and some sleeping among the bushes . This singularity of his humour made him much observed . One of the sages , in whose conver- sation ...
... eyes upon the pastures and mountains filled with animals , of which some were biting the herbage , and some sleeping among the bushes . This singularity of his humour made him much observed . One of the sages , in whose conver- sation ...
Page 13
... eyes . He was fired with the de- sire of doing something , though he knew not yet with distinctness either end or means . He was now no longer gloomy and unsocial ; but , considering himself as master of a secret stock of happiness ...
... eyes . He was fired with the de- sire of doing something , though he knew not yet with distinctness either end or means . He was now no longer gloomy and unsocial ; but , considering himself as master of a secret stock of happiness ...
Page 14
... eyes to the mountain , " This , " said he , " is the fatal obstacle that hinders at once the enjoyment of pleasure , and the ex- ercise of virtue . How long is it that my hopes and wishes have flown beyond this boundary of my life ...
... eyes to the mountain , " This , " said he , " is the fatal obstacle that hinders at once the enjoyment of pleasure , and the ex- ercise of virtue . How long is it that my hopes and wishes have flown beyond this boundary of my life ...
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Common terms and phrases
Abissinia able acquaintance afford amuse answered Imlac appeared Arab astronomer Bassa began Cairo CHAP choice companions condition considered continued conversation curiosity danger delight desire dreadful easily endeavoured enjoy enter envy evil expect eyes father favour favourite fear felicity folly Garrick Gentleman's Magazine happy valley heard hermit honour hope human imagination inquire kayah knowledge labour lady less live looked Lord Lord Chesterfield Lord Gower maids mankind manners marriage mind misery mountains nature Nekayah ness never Nile observed opinion palace passed passion Pekuah pleased pleasure poet possession prince Princess pyramid Rasselas reason resolved rest retired retreat returned sage SAMUEL JOHNSON Satire of Juvenal shewed Sir John Hawkins Sir Joshua Reynolds solitude sometimes soon sorrow suffer suppose thing thou thought Thrale tion University of Oxford virtue weary wonder youth
Popular passages
Page xxvii - When, upon some slight encouragement, I first visited your lordship, I was overpowered, like the rest of mankind, by the enchantment...
Page xxvii - is recommended to the public, were written by your lordship. To be so distinguished, is an honour, which, being very little accustomed to favours from the great, I know not well how to receive, or in what terms to acknowledge.
Page 35 - ... their abstracted and invariable state ; he must disregard present laws and opinions, and rise to general and transcendental truths, which will always be the same. He must, therefore, content himself with the slow progress of his name, contemn the applause of his own time, and commit his claims to the justice of posterity. He must write as the interpreter of nature and the legislator of mankind, and consider himself as presiding over the thoughts and manners of future generations — as a being...
Page 132 - Perhaps, if we speak with rigorous exactness, no human mind is in its right state. There is no man whose imagination does not sometimes predominate over his reason, who can regulate his attention wholly by his will, and whose ideas will come and go at his command. No man will be found in whose mind airy notions do not sometimes tyrannize, and force him to hope or fear beyond the limits of sober probability.
Page 72 - To live according to nature, is to act always with due regard to the fitness arising from the relations and qualities of causes and effects ; to concur with the great and unchangeable scheme of universal felicity ; to co-operate with the general disposition and tendency of the present system of things.
Page 96 - I will not undertake to maintain against the concurrent and unvaried testimony of all ages, and of all nations. There is no people, rude or learned, among whom apparitions of the dead are not related and believed. This opinion, which prevails as far as human nature is diffused, could become universal only by its truth...
Page 7 - Here the sons and daughters of Abissinia lived only to know the soft vicissitudes of pleasure and repose, attended by all that were skilful to delight, and gratified with whatever the senses can enjoy. They wandered in gardens of fragrance, and slept in the fortresses of security. Every art was practised to make them pleased with their own condition. The sages who instructed them, told them of nothing but the miseries of publick life, and described all beyond the mountains as regions of calamity,...
Page 34 - ... with all that is awfully vast or elegantly little. The plants of the garden, the animals of the wood, the minerals of the earth, and meteors of the sky, must all concur to store his mind with inexhaustible variety : for every idea is useful for the enforcement or decoration of moral or religious truth ; and he, who knows most, will have most power of diversifying his scenes, and of gratifying his reader with remote allusions and unexpected instruction. " All the appearances of nature I was therefore...
Page 68 - I want likewise the 25 counsel and conversation of the good. I have been long comparing the evils with the advantages of society, and resolve to return into the world to-morrow. The life of a solitary man will be certainly miserable, but not certainly devout.
Page 90 - But surely,' interposed the prince, 'you suppose the chief motive of choice forgotten or neglected. Whenever I shall seek a wife, it shall be my first question whether she be willing to be led by reason.' 'Thus it is,' said Nekayah, 'that philosophers are deceived. There are a thousand familiar disputes which reason never can decide; questions that elude investigation, and make logic ridiculous; cases where something must be done, and where little can be said.