Specimens of English Prose Style: From Malory to MacaulayGeorge Saintsbury |
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Page xviii
... reasons obvious enough , not the most or the least obvious being the necessity of beginning somewhere , we begin these specimens with the invention of printing ; not of course denying the title of books written before Caxton set up his ...
... reasons obvious enough , not the most or the least obvious being the necessity of beginning somewhere , we begin these specimens with the invention of printing ; not of course denying the title of books written before Caxton set up his ...
Page xxi
... reasons for this slowness on the part even of great writers in recognizing the more obvious requirements of English prose style , not the least perhaps may be found in the fact that English writers had no opportunity of comparison in ...
... reasons for this slowness on the part even of great writers in recognizing the more obvious requirements of English prose style , not the least perhaps may be found in the fact that English writers had no opportunity of comparison in ...
Page xlii
... reason , prose fiction has been but scantily drawn upon . For convenience sake the terminus a quo has been fixed at the invention of printing : con- siderations of space , which with others from the first shut out living writers , have ...
... reason , prose fiction has been but scantily drawn upon . For convenience sake the terminus a quo has been fixed at the invention of printing : con- siderations of space , which with others from the first shut out living writers , have ...
Page 8
... reason . He that practiseth this virtue is called a temperate man , and he that doeth contrary thereto is named intemperate . Between whom and a person incontinent Aristotle maketh this diversity ; that he is intemperate which by his ...
... reason . He that practiseth this virtue is called a temperate man , and he that doeth contrary thereto is named intemperate . Between whom and a person incontinent Aristotle maketh this diversity ; that he is intemperate which by his ...
Page 9
... reason . The same is he which is temperate , saving that the other hath corrupt desires , which this man lacketh . Also the temperate man delighteth in nothing contrary to reason . But he that is continent delighteth , yet will he not ...
... reason . The same is he which is temperate , saving that the other hath corrupt desires , which this man lacketh . Also the temperate man delighteth in nothing contrary to reason . But he that is continent delighteth , yet will he not ...
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Common terms and phrases
Addison APHRA BEHN appear authority Barnardine beauty better body born breath called character church Cicero common conversation Conyers Middleton cried DAVID HUME death died divine effect enemy England English prose eyes faculty fancy father favour fear friends GEORGE BERKELEY GILBERT BURNET give hand hath heard heaven honour Horace Walpole horse human humour imagination JONATHAN SWIFT kind king knowledge lady Lady Mary Pierrepont laws less literary live London look Lord manner Mansoul matter means mind miracle nation nature never observed once passions perhaps person pleasure poetry poor prince principles racter reason religion ROBERT SOUTH seemed Seithenyn sense Sir Ector sometimes soul spirit style suffer suppose temper things THOMAS GRAY thou thought tion TOBIAS SMOLLETT told took truth unto virtue whole William Waller words writers
Popular passages
Page 192 - A miracle is a violation of the laws of nature ; and as a firm and unalterable experience has established these laws, the proof against a miracle, from the very nature of the fact, is as entire as any argument from experience can possibly be imagined.
Page 59 - Truth indeed came once into the world with her divine master, and was a perfect shape most glorious to look on : but when he ascended, and his apostles after him were laid asleep, then straight arose a wicked race of deceivers...
Page 173 - Things and actions are what they are, and the consequences of them will be what they will be : why then should we desire to be deceived...
Page 60 - Lords and commons of England ! consider what nation it is whereof ye are, and whereof ye are the governors : a nation not slow and dull, but of a quick, ingenious, and piercing spirit ; acute to invent, subtile and sinewy to discourse, not beneath the reach of any point the highest that human capacity can soar to.
Page 60 - To be still searching what we know not by what we know, still closing up truth to truth as we find it (for all her body is homogeneal, and proportional), this is the golden rule in theology as well as in arithmetic, and makes up the best harmony in a Church; not the forced and outward /\ union of cold, and neutral, and inwardly divided minds.
Page 182 - I perceive now it is what you told me. I am not afraid of anything; for I know it is but a play. And if it was really a ghost, it could do one no harm at such a distance, and in so much company; and yet if I was frightened, I am not the only person.
Page 22 - THESE things are but toys, to come amongst such serious observations. But yet, since princes will have such things, it is better they should be graced with elegancy than daubed with cost.
Page 212 - The probability that any particular person shall ever be qualified for the employment to which he is educated, is very different in different occupations. In the greater part of mechanic trades, success is almost certain ; but very uncertain in the liberal professions. Put your son apprentice to a shoemaker, there is little doubt of his learning to make a pair of shoes : but send him to study the law, it is at least twenty to one if ever he makes such proficiency as will enable him to live by the...
Page 28 - So that the sum of all is : ready writing makes not good writing; but good writing brings on ready writing. Yet when we think we have got the faculty, it is even then good to resist it...
Page 327 - ... a word, a trait in the representation of a scene or a passion, will touch the enchanted chord, and reanimate, in those who have ever experienced these emotions, the sleeping, the cold, the buried image of the past. Poetry thus makes immortal all that is best and most beautiful in the world...