The Works of Sydney Smith

Front Cover
E. G. Taylor, 1844 - English literature - 333 pages

From inside the book

Contents


Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page 262 - Are you really my son Esau, or not?" 22 So Jacob came closer to his father Isaac. When he touched him, he said, "The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau.
Page 93 - The school-boy whips his taxed top; the beardless youth manages his taxed horse with a taxed bridle on a taxed road ; — and the dying Englishman, pouring his medicine, which has paid...
Page 297 - I do hereby disclaim, disavow, and solemnly abjure any intention to subvert the present church establishment, as settled by law within this realm...
Page 93 - ... on every fresh value that is added to it by the industry of man ; taxes on the sauce which pampers man's appetite and the drug that restores him to health; on the ermine which decorates the judge, and the rope which hangs the criminal; on the poor man's salt and the rich man's spice ; on the brass nails of the coffin, and the ribands of the bride ; at bed or board; couchant or levant, we must pay.
Page 93 - Jonathan what are the inevitable consequences of being too fond of glory ; — taxes upon every article which enters into the mouth, or covers the back, or is placed under the foot — taxes upon everything which it is pleasant to see, hear, feel, smell, or taste— taxes upon warmth, light, and locomotion — taxes on everything on earth, and the waters under the earth...
Page 100 - He was so born, and so gifted, that poetry, forensic skill, elegant literature, and all the highest attainments of human genius were within his reach ; but he thought the noblest occupation of a man was to make other men happy and free ; and in that straight line he went...
Page 97 - ... been so base as to instigate the insurgents to rob the clergy of their tithes, not in order to alleviate the distresses of the tenantry, but that they might add the clergy's share to the cruel rack-rents they already paid. The poor people of Munster lived in a more abject state of poverty than human nature could be supposed equal to bear.
Page 9 - ... can be very powerfully affected. What can be more ludicrous, than an orator delivering stale indignation, and fervour of a week old; turning over whole pages of violent passions, written out in German text ; reading the tropes and apostrophes into which he is hurried by the ardour of his mind; and so affected at a preconcerted line, and page, that he is unable to proceed any...
Page 94 - In the four quarters of the globe, who reads an American book, or goes to an American play, or looks at an American picture or statue...
Page 229 - Thus, not only had all Ireland suffered confiscation in the course of this century, but no inconsiderable portion of it had been twice and even thrice confiscated. Well might Lord Clare say, ' that the situation of the Irish nation, at the Revolution, stands unparalleled in the history of the inhabited world.

Bibliographic information