Essays in a Series of LettersHoldsworth and Ball, 1833 - 456 pages |
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acquired acter action admiration admitted amidst ancholy appear authority become Bible cause character Christian circumstances connexion conscious considerable consola contempt death debility decisive deemed degree demnation depravity diction dignity displayed distinct divine doctrines effect eloquence epic poetry epithet eral evangelical religion evil excellence excite exhibited express faculty feel genius gospel grand greater number habit happiness heaven human ical ideas Iliad illustration imagination importance impression influence instance instruction intel intellectual interest irreligion Jesus Christ judgment kind language lence Lucan mankind manner means melancholy ment mind mode moral nature object observe opinions passion peculiar perceive perhaps persons phatical philosophers phrases poet poetry present principles probably quired reader reason recollect religion of Christ religious religious habit sacred seems sentiments serious solemn sometimes speculations spirit sublime taste Testament thing thought tion truth venerable virtue whole wish words writers
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Page 92 - The moment of finishing his plans in deliberation, and commencing them in action, was the same. I wonder what must have been the amount of that bribe, in emolument or pleasure, that would have detained him a week inactive after their final adjustment.
Page 156 - For I know that in me, (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing ; for to will is present with me ; but how...
Page 92 - ... regarding the meanness of occupation or appearance. By this method he had gained, after a considerable time, money enough to purchase, in order to sell again, a few cattle of which he had taken pains to understand the value. He speedily but cautiously turned his first gains into second advantages ; retained without a single deviation his extreme parsimony ; and thus advanced by degrees into larger transactions and incipient wealth.
Page 40 - What ages and what lights are requisite for this attainment ! This intelligence involves the very attributes of Divinity, while a God is denied. For unless this man is omnipresent, unless he is at this moment in every place in the universe, he cannot know but there may be in some place manifestations of a Deity by which even he would be overpowered.
Page 89 - ... indeed he were at leisure to wonder, at the persons who pretend to attach importance to an object which they make none but the most languid efforts to secure. The utmost powers of the man are constrained into the service of the favourite Cause by this passion, which sweeps away, as it advances, all the trivial objections and little opposing motives, and seems almost to open a way through impossibilities. This spirit...
Page 92 - ... like turbulence or agitation. It was the calmness of an intensity kept uniform by the nature of the human mind forbidding it to be more, and by the character of the individual forbidding it to be less.
Page 91 - The first thing that drew his attention was a heap of coals shot out of carts on the pavement before a house. He offered himself to shovel or wheel them into the place where they were to be laid, and was employed.
Page 91 - ... almost unconsciously, he came to the brow of an eminence which overlooked what were lately his estates. Here he sat down, and remained fixed in thought a number of hours, at the end of which he sprang from the ground with a vehement, exulting emotion. He had formed his resolution, which was, that all these estates should be his again; he had formed his plan too, which he instantly began to execute. He walked hastily forward, determined to seize the...
Page 89 - ... its movements, it appears to me a great felicity ; but whether its object be noble or not, it infallibly creates, where it exists in great force, that active ardent constancy, which I describe as a capital feature of the decisive character. The Subject of such a commanding passion wonders, if indeed he were at leisure to wonder, at the persons who pretend to attach importance to an object which they make none but the most languid efforts to secure. The utmost powers of the man are constrained...
Page 59 - ... to detect all its own obliquities, after having been so long beguiled, like the mariners in a story which I remember to have read, who followed the direction of their compass, infallibly right as they could have no doubt, till they arrived at an enemy's port, where they were seized and made slaves. It happened that the wicked captain, in order to betray the ship, had concealed a large loadstone at a little distance on one side of the needle.