The Uses of Biography: Romantic, Philosophic, and DidacticPartridge and Oakey, 1852 - 210 pages |
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action Alaric anecdote animal appears beautiful beneath better Bicetre called captain character Charlemagne Charlotte Corday Christian chronicle circumstances CLASSIFICATIONS OF BIOGRAPHY Cloth dead death dignity Duke eminent Europe extraordinary faith feel fell France French French Revolution frequently genius gilt Girondists give Goldsmith hand handsomely bound Havana heart heroism Horace Walpole human idea illustrated interest John Horne Tooke Johnson judge kind king lessons lives look Lord lunatics martyr mental mighty mind moral ness never Nushirvan passed passion perhaps persons Phocion Pinel Placido Plutarch poet possess race Raffles reader reason replied Revolution Robespierre romance Rome Salvator Rosa Samuel Johnson Secret vices Sir Stamford Raffles Sketches soul spirit suffering Thee thing thou thought thousand guineas tion Toussaint Treaty of Tilsit truth vanity walk warriors whole wonderful word worthy writing young
Popular passages
Page 179 - Herostratus lives that burnt the temple of Diana, he is almost lost that built it; time hath spared the epitaph of Adrian's horse, confounded that of himself. In vain we compute our felicities by the advantage of our good names, since bad have equal durations; and Thersites is like to live as long as Agamemnon.
Page 179 - Oblivion is not to be hired: the greater part must be content to be as though they had not been, to be found in the Register of God, not in the record of man.
Page 96 - ... passage in a ship bound for America, and, at the same time, paid the captain for my freight and all the other expenses of my voyage. But it so happened that the wind did not answer for three weeks ; and you know, mother, that I could not command the elements. My misfortune was, that, when the wind served, I happened to be with a party in the country, and my friend, the captain, never inquired after me, but set sail with as much indifference as if I had been on board.
Page 179 - But man is a noble animal, splendid in ashes, and pompous in the grave, solemnizing nativities and deaths with equal lustre, nor omitting ceremonies of bravery in the infamy of his nature.
Page 154 - According to my state of mind I am with Achilles shouting in the Trenches, or with Theocritus in the Vales of Sicily. Or I throw my whole being into Troilus, and repeating those lines, 'I wander, like a lost Soul upon the Stygian Banks staying for waftage,' I melt into the air with a voluptuousness so delicate that I am content to be alone.
Page 179 - Who knows whether the best of men be known, or whether there be not more remarkable persons forgot, than any that stand remembered in the known account of time?
Page 198 - I am come because you have been here many days shut up in a dark room, and no one dares to come near you. Are you not ashamed to grieve in this manner, when you ought to be thanking God for having given you the most beautiful child that ever was seen...
Page 154 - I hope I shall never marry. Though the most beautiful Creature were waiting for me at the end of a Journey or a Walk ; though the Carpet were of Silk, the Curtains of the morning Clouds ; the chairs and Sofa stuffed with Cygnet's down ; the food Manna, the Wine beyond Claret, the Window opening on...
Page 200 - No. Let us save ourselves, then. All else was swallowed up in one grand ruin. To make the best of our misfortune, we availed ourselves of the light from the ship to steer a tolerably good course towards the shore. She continued to burn till about midnight, when the saltpetre...
Page 154 - The roaring of the wind is my wife and the Stars through the window pane are my Children.