The Obligations of Literature to the Mothers of England

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Smith, Elder and Company, 1840 - English literature - 178 pages

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Page 161 - In the same pious confidence, beside her friend and sister, here sleep the remains of Dorothy Gray, widow, the careful tender mother of many children, one of whom alone had the misfortune to survive her.
Page 82 - Thy nightly visits to my chamber made, That thou mightst know me safe and warmly laid...
Page 74 - He was very learned in his own profession, with a great deal more learning in other professions, in divinity, philosophy, and history. He had a great capacity for business, with an extraordinary temper ; for he was fair and gentle, perhaps to a fault, considering his post ; so that he had all the patience and softness, as well as the justice and equity, becoming a great magistrate.
Page 160 - ... more than a single mother. You may think this is obvious, and (what you call) a trite observation. You are a green gosling ! I was at the same age (very near) as wise as you, and yet I never discovered this (with full evidence and conviction I mean) till it was too late. It is thirteen years ago, and seems but as yesterday, and every day I live it sinks deeper into my heart...
Page 160 - I had discovered a thing very little known, which is, that in one's whole life one can never have any more than a single mother You may think this is obvious, and (what you call) a trite observation. You are a green gosling ! I was at the same age (very near) as wise as you, and yet I never discovered this (with full evidence and conviction I mean) till it was too late. It is thirteen...
Page 159 - Johnson wrote it, that with the profits he might defray the expense of his mother's funeral, and pay some little debts which she had left. He told Sir Joshua Reynolds, that he composed it in the evenings of one week, sent it to the press in portions as it was written, and had never since read it over.
Page 159 - This tale, with all the charms of oriental imagery, and all the force and beauty of which the English language is capable, leads us through the most important scenes of human life, and shows us that this stage of our being is full of " vanity and vexation of spirit.
Page 159 - ... which is only able to make thee happy as well in thy death...
Page 132 - Miss Herschel it was who by night acted as his amanuensis ! She it was whose pen conveyed to paper his observations as they issued from his lips ; she it was...
Page 160 - December, 1716 ; and was the only one of twelve children who survived. The rest died in their infancy, from suffocation, produced by a fullness of blood ; and he owed his life to a memorable instance of the love and courage of his mother, who removed the paroxysm, which attacked him, by opening a vein with her own hand : an instance of affection that seems to have been most tenderly preserved by him through his...

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