Prefaces, Biographical and Critical, to the Works of the English Poets, Volume 9

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J. Nichols, 1781 - 2068 pages

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Page 129 - This relation will not be wholly without its use if those who languish under any part of his sufferings shall be enabled to fortify their patience by reflecting that they feel only those afflictions from which the abilities of Savage did not exempt him ; or...
Page 1 - Shilling is, that it is short. Disguise can gratify no longer than it deceives. SAVAGE IT has been observed in all ages, that the advantages of nature or of fortune have contributed very little to the promotion of happiness ; and...
Page 14 - ... reckoning and return home; but his expectations deceived him, for Sir Richard told him that he was without money, and that the pamphlet must be sold before the dinner could be paid for; and Savage was therefore obliged to go and offer their new production to sale for two guineas, which with some difficulty he obtained.
Page 14 - Savage then imagined his task over, and expected that Sir Richard would call for the reckoning, and return home ; but his expectations deceived him, for Sir Richard told him that he was without money, and that the pamphlet must be sold before the dinner could be paid for...
Page 38 - He had employed his mind chiefly upon works of fiction, and subjects of fancy; and, by indulging some peculiar habits of thought, was eminently delighted with those flights of imagination which pass the bounds of nature, and to which the mind is reconciled only by a passive acquiescence in popular traditions. He loved fairies, genii, giants, and monsters ; he delighted to rove through the meanders of enchantment, to gaze on the magnificence of golden palaces, to repose by the water-falls of Elysian...
Page 5 - Born with a legal claim to honour and to affluence, he was in two months illegitimated by the parliament and disowned by his mother, doomed to poverty and obscurity, and launched upon the ocean of life, only that he might be swallowed by its quicksands or dashed upon its rocks.
Page 13 - Richard, with an air of the utmoft importance, to come very early to his houfe the next morning. Mr. Savage came as he had promifed, found the chariot at the door, and Sir Richard waiting for him, and ready to go out. What was intended, and whither they were to go, Savage could not conjecture, and was not willing to...
Page 35 - ... and suffered him to pursue no settled purpose. A man, doubtful of his dinner, or trembling at a creditor, is not much disposed to abstracted meditation, or remote inquiries.
Page 40 - His morals were pure, and his opinions pious: in a long continuance of poverty, and long habits of dissipation, it cannot be expected that any character should be exactly uniform. There is a degree of want by which the freedom of agency is almost destroyed ; and long association with fortuitous companions will at last relax the strictness of truth, and abate the fervour of sincerity.
Page 21 - Gentlemen of the Jury, you are to consider, that Mr Savage is a very great Man, a much greater Man than you or I, Gentlemen of the Jury ; that he wears very fine Clothes, much finer Clothes than you or I, Gentlemen of the Jury...

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