Mathias's letter on the death of N. Nicholls. Reminiscences of Gray, by the Rev. N. Nichols. Correspondence of Gray with the Rev. N. Nicholls. Correspondence between Mr. Brown and the Rev. N. Nicholls relative to Gray. Three letters from Rev. N. Nicholls to Mr. Barrett. Notes by the editor. Notes on Walpole's Lives of the painters. Extracts from a poem on the letters of the alphabet. Metrum: Observations on English metre [etc

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W. Pickering, 1843
 

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Page 131 - But to return to our own institute; besides these constant exercises at home, there is another opportunity of gaining experience to be won from pleasure itself abroad; in those vernal seasons of the year when the air is calm and pleasant, it were an injury and sullenness against nature, not to go out and see her riches, and partake in her rejoicing with heaven and earth.
Page 239 - ... blind harpers or such like taverne minstrels that give a fit of mirth for a groat, and their matters being for the most part stories of old time, as the tale of sir Topas, the reportes of...
Page 10 - Of all that might delight a dainty ear, Such as at once might not on living ground, Save In this paradise, be heard elsewhere: Right hard it was for wight which did it hear, To...
Page 86 - No, thou villain, thou art full of piety, as shall be proved upon thee by good witness. I am a wise fellow, and, which is more, an officer, and, which is more, a householder, and, which is more, as pretty a piece of flesh as any is in Messina, and one that knows the law, go to ; and a rich fellow enough, go to ; and a fellow that hath had losses, and one that hath two gowns and every thing handsome about him. Bring him away. O that I had been writ down an ass ! [Exeunt.
Page 107 - Areopagitic, and Advice to Philip, are by far the noblest remains we have of this writer, and equal to most things extant in the Greek tongue; but it depends on your judgment to distinguish between his real and occasional opinion of things, as he directly contradicts in one place what he has advanced in another; for example, in the Panathenaic and the De Pace, on the naval power of Athens ; the latter of the two is undoubtedly his own undisguised sentiment.
Page 40 - E'en from the grave thou shalt have power to charm. Bid them be chaste, be innocent, like thee ; Bid them in duty's sphere as meekly move : And, if so fair, from vanity as free, As firm in friendship, and as fond in love, Tell them, though 'tis an awful thing to die, ('Twas, e'en to thee,) yet, the dread path once trod, Heaven lifts its everlasting portals high, And bids "the pure in heart behold their God.
Page 58 - Abbey. There may be richer and greater houses of religion ; but the abbot is content with his situation. See there, at the top of that hanging meadow under the shade of those old trees, that bend into a half circle about it, he is walking slowly (good man !) and bidding his beads for the souls of his benefactors, interred in that venerable pile, that lies beneath him.
Page 58 - ... about it, he is walking slowly (good man!) and bidding his beads for the souls of his benefactors, interred in that venerable pile that lies beneath him. Beyond it, (the meadow still descending) nods a thicket of oaks that mask the building, and have excluded a view too garish and luxuriant for a holy eye; only on either hand they leave an opening to the blue glittering sea. Did you not observe how, as that white sail shot by and was lost, he turned and crossed himself to drive the tempter from...
Page 233 - The more we attend to the composition of Milton's harmony, the more we shall be sensible how he loved to vary his pauses, his measures, and his feet, which gives that enchanting air of freedom and wildness to his versification, unconfined by any rules but those which his own feeling and the nature of his subject demanded.
Page 63 - He who best knows our nature (for he made us what we are) by such afflictions recalls us from our wandering thoughts and idle merriment, from the insolence of youth and prosperity, to serious reflection, to our duty, and to himself; nor need we hasten to get rid of these impressions. Time (by appointment of the same Power) will cure the smart and in some hearts soon blot out all the traces of sorrow; but such as preserve them longest (for it is partly left in our own power) do perhaps best acquiesce...

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