The Correspondence of the Right Honourable Sir John Sinclair, Bart: With Reminiscences of the Most Distinguished Characters who Have Appeared in Great Britain, and in Foreign Countries, During the Last Fifty Years. Illustrated by Facsimiles of Two Hundred Autographs ...

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H. Colburn & R. Bentley, 1831 - Agriculturists

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Page 64 - Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability. Their chief use for delight, is in privateness and retiring; for ornament, is in discourse; and for ability, is in the judgment and disposition of business...
Page 63 - These forms are adapted to ordinary occasions ; and therefore persons who are nurtured in office do admirably well, as long as things go on in their common order ; but when the high roads are broken up, and the waters out, when a new and troubled scene is opened, and the file affords no precedent, then it is that a greater knowlege of mankind, and a far more extensive comprehension of things is requisite than ever office gave, or than office can ever give.
Page 437 - His brothers, younger brothers, whom he scarce As equals deemed. All passions of all men, The wild and tame, the gentle and severe; All thoughts, all maxims, sacred and profane ; All creeds, all seasons, Time, Eternity; All that was...
Page 434 - Bold and erect the Caledonian stood; Old was his mutton, and his claret good ; Let him drink port, the English statesman cried— He drank the poison, and his spirit died.
Page 36 - The prodigy of our school-days was George Sinclair, (son of Sir John) ; he made exercises for half the school (literally), verses at will, and themes without it. * * * He was a friend of mine, and in the same remove, and used at times to beg me to let him do my exercise, — a request always most readily accorded upon a pinch, or when I wanted to do something else, which was usually once an hour. On the other hand, he was pacific, and I savage ; so I fought for him, or thrashed others for him, or...
Page 389 - ... consequently, the decay of population is the greatest evil that a state can suffer ; and the improvement of it the object which ought, in all countries, to be aimed at in preference to every other political purpose whatsoever.
Page 63 - But it may be truly said that men too much conversant in office are rarely minds of remarkable enlargement. Their habits of office are apt to give them a turn to think the substance of business not to be much more important than the forms in which it is conducted.
Page 437 - And opened new fountains in the human heart. Where fancy halted, weary in her flight, In other men, his, fresh as morning, rose, And soared untrodden heights, and seemed at home Where angels bashful looked. Others...
Page 64 - When theoretical knowledge and practical skill are happily combined in the same person, the intellectual power of man appears in its full perfection, and fits him equally to conduct, with a masterly hand, the details of ordinary business, and to contend successfully with the untried difficulties of new and hazardous situations.
Page 438 - Nor do I of that isle remember aught Of prospect more sublime and beautiful, Than Scotia's northern battlement of hills, Which first I from my father's house beheld, At dawn of life ; beloved in memory still...

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