A History of the Earth, and Animated NatureWilliam Sprent, 1854 - 998 pages |
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Page 37
... length submitted it to Dr. Johnson . The frank and warm approbation of the latter encouraged him to finish it for the press ; and Dr. Johnson himself contributed a few lines towards the conclusion . We hear much about " poet's ...
... length submitted it to Dr. Johnson . The frank and warm approbation of the latter encouraged him to finish it for the press ; and Dr. Johnson himself contributed a few lines towards the conclusion . We hear much about " poet's ...
Page 43
... length , on prescribing to a lady of his acquaintance - who , to use a hackneyed phrase , rejoiced " in the aristocratical name of Side- botham - a warm dispute arose between him and the apothecary as to the quantity of medicine to be ...
... length , on prescribing to a lady of his acquaintance - who , to use a hackneyed phrase , rejoiced " in the aristocratical name of Side- botham - a warm dispute arose between him and the apothecary as to the quantity of medicine to be ...
Page 63
... length snored outright . Bickerstaff was embarrassed , but continued to read in a more elevated tone . The louder he read the louder Hiffernan snored ; until the author came to a pause . " Never mind the brute , Bick . , but go on ...
... length snored outright . Bickerstaff was embarrassed , but continued to read in a more elevated tone . The louder he read the louder Hiffernan snored ; until the author came to a pause . " Never mind the brute , Bick . , but go on ...
Page 69
... length is from an admirable paper in the " Bee , " and relates to the house - spider . belief . * * " Of all the solitary insects I have ever remarked , the spider is the most sagacious , and its motions to me , who have attentively ...
... length is from an admirable paper in the " Bee , " and relates to the house - spider . belief . * * " Of all the solitary insects I have ever remarked , the spider is the most sagacious , and its motions to me , who have attentively ...
Page 75
... length pur- chased them at some London bookstall to adorn the whitewashed parlour of The Three Pigeons . ' However laudable this may be , nothing shook my faith in the reality of Auburn so much as this exactness , which had the ...
... length pur- chased them at some London bookstall to adorn the whitewashed parlour of The Three Pigeons . ' However laudable this may be , nothing shook my faith in the reality of Auburn so much as this exactness , which had the ...
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Common terms and phrases
amusement animal appear Ballymahon beautiful become beginning Bennet Langton bezoar body Boswell breed Buffon called carnivorous CHAP chiefly climate colour considered continue Countess of Northumberland Covent Garden covered creature earth elephant enemy extremely eyes feet female flesh forest former friends furnished Garrick give Goldsmith Greenland guinea hair head horns horse hyæna inches inhabitants Johnson kind known Lapland legs less lion literary live mankind manner motion mountains mouth native Nature never obliged observed OLIVER GOLDSMITH perceived poet poor prey produced proportion pursue quadrupeds quantity rabbit resembles rest rivers round savage says scarce seems seen seldom Senegal short side sidered Sir Joshua Reynolds skin sometimes soon stag substance supposed surface tail teeth tion Traveller trees usually variety vegetables Vicar of Wakefield whole wild William Filby wind young
Popular passages
Page 37 - ... which he might be extricated. He then told me that he had a novel ready for the press, which he produced to me. I looked into it and saw its merit; told the landlady I should soon return; and, having gone to a bookseller, sold it for sixty pounds. I brought Goldsmith the money, and he discharged his rent, not without rating his landlady in a high tone for having used him so ill.
Page 49 - Goldsmith's putting himself against another, is like a man laying a hundred to one who cannot spare the hundred. It is not worth a man's while. A man should not lay a hundred to one, unless he can easily spare it, though he has a hundred chances for him : he can get but a guinea, and he may lose a hundred. Goldsmith is in this state. When he contends, if he gets the better, it is a very little addition to a man of his literary reputation : if he does not get the better, he is miserably vexed.
Page 33 - ... remarkably decorous philosopher. Instead of which, down from his bedchamber, about noon, came, as newly risen, a huge uncouth figure, with a little dark wig which scarcely covered his head, and his clothes hanging loose about him. But his conversation was so rich, so animated, and so forcible, and his religious and political notions so congenial with those in which Langton had been educated, that he conceived for him that veneration and attachment which he ever preserved.
Page 49 - For instance (said he), the fable of the little fishes, who saw birds fly over their heads, and, envying them, petitioned Jupiter to be changed into birds. The skill (continued he) consists in making them talk like little fishes.
Page 67 - Robertson would be crushed with his own weight — would be buried under his own ornaments. Goldsmith tells you shortly all you want to know; Robertson detains you a great deal too long. No man will read Robertson's cumbrous detail a second time ; but Goldsmith's plain narrative will please again and again. I would say to Robertson what an old tutor of a college said to one of his pupils, ' Read over your compositions, and whenever you meet with a passage which you think is particularly fine, strike...
Page 67 - China; that a dog-butcher is as common there as any other butcher; and that when he walks abroad all the dogs fall on him. JOHNSON. That is not owing to his killing dogs, Sir. I remember a butcher at Lichfield, whom a dog that was in the house where I lived, always attacked.
Page 111 - Don't you consider, Sir, that these are not the manners of a gentleman ? I will not be baited with what and why ; what is this ? what is that ? why is a cow's tail long? why is a fox's tail bushy ?" The gentleman, who was a good deal out of countenance, said, " Why, Sir, you are so good, that I venture to trouble you.
Page 85 - England, for which I have been a good deal abused in the news-papers for betraying the liberties of the people. God knows I had no thought for or against liberty in my head ; my whole aim being to make up a book of a decent size, that, as "Squire Richard says, would do no harm to nobody.