SolitudeG. Davidson, 1830 - 408 pages |
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Common terms and phrases
Abelard acquired advantages afford agreeable amidst ancholy attention Avignon beauties bosom calm canton of Berne capable celebrated character charms choly cial Cicero comfort contemplation corrupted dangerous dejection delight Demosthenes disposition dissipation dreadful duties effects endeavored enjoy enjoyments entertained eyes faculties fame fancy feelings felicity fond frequently friends genius habit Hanover happiness heart highest human idea idle imagination inclination indolence indulge inspire intercourse joys kind leisure lence live lord Bolingbroke mankind manners melan melancholy ment merit mind misanthropy miserable nature ness never noble object observation painful passions peace Petrarch philosopher Plato pleasures Plutarch portunity possess powers prince produce pursuits rapture rational reason religion render repose retirement retreat rience rural scenes seek sense sensibility sentiments shades sigh silent sion society solitary solitude sorrow soul species spirit sublime suffer taste temper thing tion tranquillity truth tude tumultuous Vaucluse vice virtue virtuous youth
Popular passages
Page 320 - Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased ; Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow ; Raze out the written troubles of the brain ; And, with some sweet, oblivious antidote, Cleanse the stuffed bosom of that perilous stuff, Which weighs upon the heart ? Doct.
Page 36 - ... part of our duration very small of which we can truly call ourselves masters, or which we can spend wholly at our own choice. Many of our hours are lost in a rotation of petty cares, in a constant recurrence of the same employments ; many of our provisions for ease or happiness...
Page 128 - They have distinguished themselves both in the cabinet and in the field, and obtained high honors for their knowledge of the sciences. It is easy to gain access to them, for they are always at my service, and I admit them to my company, and dismiss them from it, whenever I please. They are never troublesome, but immediately answer every question I ask them.
Page 128 - ... while others reveal to me the secrets of Nature. Some teach me how to live, and others how to die. Some, by their vivacity, drive away my cares and exhilarate my spirits; while others give fortitude to my mind, and teach me the important lesson how to restrain my desires, and to depend wholly on myself. They open to me, in short, the various avenues of all the arts and sciences, and upon their information I may safely rely in all emergencies.
Page 36 - When we have deducted all that is absorbed in sleep, all that is inevitably appropriated to the demands of nature, or irresistibly engrossed by the tyranny of custom ; all that passes in regulating the superficial decorations of life, or is given up in the reciprocations of civility to the disposal of others; all that is torn from us by the violence of disease, or stolen imperceptibly away by lassitude and languor; we shall find that part of our duration very small of which we can truly call ourselves...
Page 279 - He who has nothing external that can divert him, must find pleasure in his own thoughts, and must conceive himself what he is not; for who is pleased with what he is ? He then expatiates in boundless futurity, and culls from all imaginable conditions that which for the present moment he should most desire, amuses his desires with impossible enjoyments, and confers upon his pride unattainable dominion.
Page 66 - So soon as that spare Cassius. He reads much; He is a great observer, and he looks Quite through the deeds of men ; he loves no plays As thou dost, Antony ; he hears no music ; Seldom he smiles, and smiles in such a sort, As if he mock'd himself and scorn'd his spirit That could be moved to smile at any thing. Such men as he be never at heart's ease Whiles they behold a greater than themselves, And therefore are they very dangerous.
Page 225 - It consisted only of six rooms, four of them in the form of friars' cells, with naked walls ; the other two, each twenty feet square, were hung with brown cloth and furnished in the most simple manner. They were all on a level with the ground, with a...
Page 20 - Thus we shall imitate the great operations of nature, and not the feeble, slow, and imperfect operations of art. We must not proceed, in forming the moral character, as a statuary proceeds in forming a statue, who works sometimes on the face, sometimes on one part, and sometimes on another: but we must proceed, and it is in our power to proceed, as nature does in forming a flower, an animal, or any other of her productions; "rudimenta partium omnium simul parit et producit.
Page 279 - In time, some particular train of ideas fixes the attention; all other intellectual gratifications are rejected ; the mind, in weariness or leisure, recurs constantly to the favourite conception, and feasts on the luscious falsehood whenever she is offended with the bitterness of truth.