Birmingham : a Poem: In Two Parts, with Appendix

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author, 1853 - 290 pages

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Page 272 - Soon shall thy arm, unconquered steam, afar Drag the slow barge or drive the rapid car ; Or, on wide-waving wings expanded, bear The flying chariot through the fields of air...
Page 40 - And rolls through all things. Therefore am I still A lover of the meadows and the woods And mountains, and of all that we behold From this green earth, of all the mighty world Of eye and ear, both what they half create And what perceive ; well pleased to recognize In Nature and the language of the sense The anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse, The guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul Of all my moral being.
Page 266 - And certainly no man ever bestowed such a gift on his kind. The blessing is not only universal, but unbounded ; and the fabled inventors of the plough and the loom, who were Deified by the erring gratitude of their rude contemporaries, conferred less important benefits on mankind than the inventor of our present steam-engine.
Page 219 - The vapors which gather round the rising sun, and follow it in its course, seldom fail, at the close of it, to form a magnificent theatre for its reception, and to invest with variegated tints, and with a softened effulgence, the luminary which they cannot hide Though I disapprove of his [Dr.
Page 266 - It is the same great power which now enables us to pay the interest of our debt, and to maintain the arduous struggle in which we are 'still engaged, with the skill and capital of countries less oppressed with taxation. But these are poor and narrow views of its importance. It has increased indefinitely the mass of human comforts and enjoyments, and rendered cheap and accessible all over the world the materials of wealth and prosperity.
Page 219 - ... or those who have opposed him, will be alike forgotten. Distinguished merit will ever rise superior to oppression, and will draw lustre from reproach. The vapours which gather round the rising sun, and follow it in its course, seldom fail at the close of it to form a magnificent theatre for its reception, and to invest with variegated tints, and with a softened effulgence, the luminary which they cannot hide...
Page 218 - I told her that she had never approached me without diffusing a ray of pleasure over the mind, except when any little disagreement had happened between us. She replied, " I can say more " than that. You never appeared in my sight, " even in anger, without that sight giving me
Page 219 - His enlightened and active mind, his unwearied assiduity, the extent of his researches, the light he has poured into almost every department of science, will be the admiration of that period, when the greater part of those who have favoured, or those who have opposed him, will be alike forgotten.
Page 236 - ... the pattern card of his trade, and was drawn by a beautiful pair of cream-coloured horses. His inclination for letters induced him, in 1750, to turn his thoughts towards the press.
Page 219 - The religious tenets of Dr. Priestley appear to me erroneous in the extreme ; but I should be sorry to suffer any difference of sentiment to diminish my sensibility to virtue, or my admiration of genius. From him the poisoned arrow will fall pointless. His enlightened and active mind, his unwearied assiduity, the extent of his researches, the light he has poured into almost every department of science, will be the admiration of that period, when the greater part of those who have...

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