Learning and Working: Six Lectures Delivered in Willis's Rooms, London, in June and July 1854 ; The Religion of Rome and Its Influence on Modern Civilization : Four Lectures Delivered in the Philosophical Institution of Edinburgh, in December, 1854

Front Cover
Macmillan, 1855 - 350 pages
 

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page 69 - The interim of unsweating themselves regularly and convenient rest before meat may both with profit and delight be taken up in recreating and composing their travailed spirits with the solemn and divine harmonies of music, heard or learned either while the skilful organist plies his grave and fancied descant in lofty fugues or the whole symphony with artful and unimaginable touches adorn and grace the well-studied chords of some choice composer — sometimes the lute or soft organ-stop waiting on...
Page 32 - Concerning the advancement of Learning, I do subscribe to the opinion of one of the wisest and greatest men of your kingdom : That for grammar schools there are already too many, and therefore no providence to add where there is excess. For the great number of schools which are in your Highness...
Page 72 - But I have sinuous shells of pearly hue Within, and they that lustre have imbibed In the sun's palace-porch, where when unyoked His chariot-wheel stands midway in the wave: Shake one and it awakens, then apply Its polisht lips to your attentive ear, And it remembers its august abodes, And murmurs as the ocean murmurs there.
Page 42 - Vespignano, about fourteen miles from Florence, his attention was attracted by a boy who was herding sheep, and who, while his flocks were feeding around, seemed intently drawing on a smooth fragment of slate, with a bit of pointed stone, the figure of one of his sheep as it was quietly grazing before him. Cimabue rode up to him, and, looking with astonishment at the performance of the untutored boy, asked him if he would go with him and learn, to which the boy replied that he was right willing if...
Page 32 - ... there being more scholars bred than the state can prefer and employ, and the active part of that life not bearing a proportion to the preparative, it must needs fall out that many persons will be bred unfit for other vocations, and unprofitable for that in which they are brought up ; which fills the realm full of indigent, idle, and wanton people, which are but materia rerum novarum.
Page 33 - For if the principal readers, through the meanness of their entertainment, be but men of superficial learning, and that they shall take their place but in passage, it will make the mass of sciences want the chief and solid dimension, which is depth ; and to become but pretty and compendious habits of practice.
Page 69 - ... or the whole symphony with artful and unimaginable touches adorn and grace the well-studied chords of some choice composer; sometimes the lute or soft organ-stop waiting on elegant voices either to religious, martial, or civil ditties, which, if wise men and prophets be not extremely out, have a great power over dispositions and manners to smooth and make them gentle from rustic harshness and distempered passions.
Page 123 - Music is thought to have some affinity with dancing, and a good hand, upon some instruments, is by many people mightily valued. But it wastes so much of a young man's time, to gain but a moderate skill in it; and engages often in such odd company, that many think it much better spared : and I have, amongst men of parts and business, so seldom heard any one commended or esteemed for having an excellency in music, that amongst all those things, that ever came into the list of accomplishments, I think...
Page 38 - I should care much less for it. But I am sure that the earnest thoughtful man who is also a labourer with his hands, instead of grudging his wife the best culture she can obtain, will demand that she should have it. He will long to have a true household, he will desire to bring up brave citizens. He will understand that...
Page 129 - ... show'd In contemplation of the high effect, Both what and who from him should issue forth, It seems in reason's judgment well deserved; Sith he of Rome and of Rome's empire wide, In Heaven's empyreal height was chosen sire: Both which, if truth be spoken, were ordain'd And stablish'd for the holy place, where sits Who to great Peter's sacred chair succeeds.

Bibliographic information