Select Essays of Macaulay: Milton, Bunyan, Johnson, Goldsmith, Madame D'ArblayAllyn and Bacon, 1891 - 205 pages |
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Page 1
... which it has been found . But whatever the adventures of the manuscript may have been , no doubt can exist that it is a genuine relic of the great poet . 1 His notes Mr. Sumner , who was commanded by his SELECT ESSAYS OF MACAULAY. ...
... which it has been found . But whatever the adventures of the manuscript may have been , no doubt can exist that it is a genuine relic of the great poet . 1 His notes Mr. Sumner , who was commanded by his SELECT ESSAYS OF MACAULAY. ...
Page 3
... poet , the states- man , the philosopher , the glory of English literature , the champion and the martyr of English liberty . It is by his poetry that Milton is best known ; and it is of his poetry that we wish first to speak . By the ...
... poet , the states- man , the philosopher , the glory of English literature , the champion and the martyr of English liberty . It is by his poetry that Milton is best known ; and it is of his poetry that we wish first to speak . By the ...
Page 4
... poets are generally the best , should wonder at the rule as if it were the exception . Surely the uniformity of the phenomenon indicates a cor- responding uniformity in the cause . The fact is , that common observers reason from the ...
... poets are generally the best , should wonder at the rule as if it were the exception . Surely the uniformity of the phenomenon indicates a cor- responding uniformity in the cause . The fact is , that common observers reason from the ...
Page 5
... poet , is best fitted for his purpose in its rudest state . Nations , like individuals , first perceive , and then abstract . They advance from particular images to gen- eral terms . Hence the vocabulary of an enlightened society is ...
... poet , is best fitted for his purpose in its rudest state . Nations , like individuals , first perceive , and then abstract . They advance from particular images to gen- eral terms . Hence the vocabulary of an enlightened society is ...
Page 6
... poet's pen Turns them to shapes , and gives to airy nothing A local habitation and a name . - 99 These are the fruits of the " fine frenzy " which he as- cribes to the poet , a fine frenzy , doubtless , but still a frenzy . Truth ...
... poet's pen Turns them to shapes , and gives to airy nothing A local habitation and a name . - 99 These are the fruits of the " fine frenzy " which he as- cribes to the poet , a fine frenzy , doubtless , but still a frenzy . Truth ...
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Popular passages
Page 190 - Is not a Patron, my Lord, one who looks with unconcern on a man struggling for life in the water, and when he has reached ground, encumbers him with help...
Page 28 - Their palaces were houses not made with hands : their diadems crowns of glory which should never fade away ! On the rich and the eloquent, on nobles and priests, they looked down with contempt : for they esteemed themselves rich in a more precious treasure, and eloquent in a more sublime language — nobles by the right of an earlier creation, and priests by the imposition of a mightier hand.
Page 29 - ... for mortal reach ; and we know that, in spite of their hatred of Popery, they too often fell into the worst vices of that bad system, intolerance and extravagant austerity, that they had their anchorites and their crusades, their Dunstans and their De Montforts, their Dominies and their Escobars. Yet, when all circumstances are taken into consideration, we do not hesitate to pronounce tHem a brave, a wise, an honest, and a useful body. The Puritans espoused the* cause of civil liberty mainly...
Page 7 - In a rude state of society men are children with a greater variety of ideas. It is therefore in such a state of society that we may expect to find the poetical temperament in its highest perfection.
Page 11 - His poetry acts like an incantation. Its merit lies less in its obvious meaning than in its occult power. There would seem, at first sight, to be no more in his words than in other words. But they are words of enchantment. No sooner are they pronounced, than the past is present, and the distant near. New forms of beauty start at once into existence, and all the burial-places of the memory give up their dead.
Page 6 - ... human actions, it is by no means certain that it would have been a good one. It is extremely improbable that it would have contained half so much able reasoning on the subject as is to be found in the Fable of the Bees.
Page 135 - Probably she was too much a •woman to contradict it ; and it was long before any of her detractors thought of this mode of annoyance. Yet there •was no want of low minds and bad hearts in the generation •which witnessed her first appearance. There was the envious Kenrick and the savage Wolcot, the asp George Stee•vens, and the polecat John Williams. It did not, however, occur to them to search the parish register of Lynn, in order that they might be able to twit a lady with having concealed...
Page 20 - If ever despondency and asperity could be excused in any man, they might have been excused in Milton. But the strength of his mind overcame every calamity. Neither blindness, nor gout, nor age, nor penury, nor domestic afflictions, nor political disappointments, nor abuse, nor proscription, nor neglect, had power to disturb his sedate and majestic patience.
Page 17 - Unlike those of other poets, and especially of Milton, they are introduced in a plain, business-like manner; not for the sake of any beauty in the objects from which they are drawn; not for the sake of any ornament which they may impart to the poem; but simply in order to make the meaning of the writer as clear to the reader as it is to himself.
Page 25 - But the remedy is, not to remand him into his dungeon, but to accustom him to the rays of the sun. The blaze of truth and liberty may at first dazzle and bewilder nations which have become half blind in the house of bondage. But let them gaze on, and they will soon be able to bear it. In a few years men learn to reason. The extreme -violence of opinions subsides.