A Dictionary of Biography: Comprising the Most Eminent Characters of All Ages, Nations, and Professions ...

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Gray and Bowen, 1832 - Biography - 527 pages
 

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Page 172 - Upon the whole, there was in this man something that could create, subvert, or reform ; an understanding, a spirit, and an eloquence, to summon mankind to society, or to break the bonds of slavery asunder, and to rule the wilderness of free minds with unbounded authority ; something that could establish or overwhelm empire, and strike a blow in the world that should resound through the universe.
Page 264 - Ford was of the first order of poets. He sought for sublimity, not by parcels, in metaphors, or visible images, but directly where she has her full residence in the heart of man ; in the actions and sufferings of the greatest minds.
Page 31 - I take my subjects money when I want it, without all this formality in parliament ? The bishop of Durham readily answered, God forbid, Sir, but you should ; you are the breath of our nostrils : whereupon the king turned and said to the bishop of Winchester, well, my lord, what say you ? Sir, replied the bishop, I have no skill to judge of parliamentary cases.
Page 118 - that he had been incarcerated in thirty-two prisons, in some of which he could not see his hand at noonday.
Page 329 - ... to dive into the depths of dungeons, to plunge into the infection of hospitals, to survey the mansions of sorrow and pain, to take the gauge and dimensions of misery, depression and contempt, to remember the forgotten, to attend to the neglected, to visit the forsaken, and to compare and collate the distresses of all men in all countries.
Page 285 - It was at Rome, on the 15th of October 1764, as I sat musing amidst the ruins of the Capitol, while the bare-footed friars were singing vespers in the Temple of Jupiter, that the idea of writing the decline and fall of the city first started to my mind.
Page 503 - THERE are no colours in the fairest sky So fair as these. The feather, whence the pen Was shaped that traced the lives of these good men, Dropped from an Angel's wing.
Page 279 - Enow of such, as for their bellies' sake Creep and intrude and climb into the fold! Of other care they little reckoning make Than how to scramble at the shearers' feast, And shove away the worthy bidden guest. Blind mouths! that scarce themselves know how to hold A sheep-hook, or have learned aught else the least That to the faithful herdman's art belongs!
Page 20 - April, в. с. 323, in the thirtythird year of his age, and the thirteenth of his reign. His remains were interred at Alexandria. The praise of valour, military genius, extensive views, a love of learning, and, occasionally, noble feelings, must be awarded to Alexander; but...
Page 317 - ... after receiving a common school education, and spending some time in trade and agriculture, commenced the practice of the law, after only six weeks of preparatory study. After several years of poverty, with...

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