Specimens of English Prose Style: From Malory to MacaulayGeorge Saintsbury |
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Page xxviii
... unto him- self in the matter of composition , and for my part I own , though it may be immoral , that I prefer a platitude which seems as if it might have some meaning , and at any rate sounds well as sound , to a platitude which is ...
... unto him- self in the matter of composition , and for my part I own , though it may be immoral , that I prefer a platitude which seems as if it might have some meaning , and at any rate sounds well as sound , to a platitude which is ...
Page 2
... unto my matter . So within six weeks after Sir Launcelot fell sick , and lay in his bed ; and then he sent for the bishop that there was hermit , and all his true fellows . Then Sir Launcelot said with dreary steven : 66 Sir Bishop , I ...
... unto my matter . So within six weeks after Sir Launcelot fell sick , and lay in his bed ; and then he sent for the bishop that there was hermit , and all his true fellows . Then Sir Launcelot said with dreary steven : 66 Sir Bishop , I ...
Page 3
... unto Joyous Gard , and ever they had an hundred torches burning about him . And so within fifteen days they came to Joyous Gard . And there they laid his corpse in the body of the choir , and sung and read many psalters and prayers over ...
... unto Joyous Gard , and ever they had an hundred torches burning about him . And so within fifteen days they came to Joyous Gard . And there they laid his corpse in the body of the choir , and sung and read many psalters and prayers over ...
Page 6
... unto the ignorant people , when he giveth them ashes upon Ash- Wednesday , but it must be spoken in Latin . God's word may in no wise be translated into English . Oh that our prelates would be as diligent to sow the corn of good ...
... unto the ignorant people , when he giveth them ashes upon Ash- Wednesday , but it must be spoken in Latin . God's word may in no wise be translated into English . Oh that our prelates would be as diligent to sow the corn of good ...
Page 7
... unto myself . " For the devil was disappointed of his pur- pose ; for he thought all to be his own : and when he had once brought Christ to the cross , he thought all cocksure . The Sermon of the Plough . P. 5 , 1. 13. Lording nor ...
... unto myself . " For the devil was disappointed of his pur- pose ; for he thought all to be his own : and when he had once brought Christ to the cross , he thought all cocksure . The Sermon of the Plough . P. 5 , 1. 13. Lording nor ...
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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...