The Correspondence of Samuel Richardson, Author of Pamela, Clarissa, and Sir Charles Grandison: Selected from the Original Manuscripts, Bequeathed by Him to His Family, to which are Prefixed, a Biographical Account of that Author, and Observations on His Writings, Volume 2

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Page 105 - What a knowledge of the human heart! Well might a critical judge of writing say, as he did to me, that your late brother's knowledge of it was not (fine writer as he was) comparable to yours. His was but as the knowledge of the outside of a clock-work machine, while yours was that of all the finer springs and movements of the inside.
Page 118 - Sel. Where shall my wonder and my praise begin ? From the successful labours of thy arms, Or from a theme more soft, and full of peace, Thy mercy and thy gentleness ? Oh, Tamerlane ! What can I pay thee for this noble usage, But grateful praise ? So Heaven itself is paid.
Page 97 - To whom in brief thus Abdiel stern replied: ' Apostate ! still thou err'st, nor end wilt find Of erring from the path of truth remote : Unjustly thou deprav'st it with the name Of servitude, to serve whom God ordains, Or nature; God and nature bid the same, When he who rules is worthiest, and excels Them whom he governs.
Page 176 - The delicious meal I made of Miss Byron on Sunday last has given me an appetite for another slice of her, off from the spit, before she is served up to the public table. If about five o'elock to-morrow afternoon will not be inconvenient, Mrs. Brown and I will come and piddle upon a bit more of her : but pray let your whole family, with Mrs.
Page 128 - ... patience, threw down the book, and vowed he would not read another line. To express or paint his passion would require such masterly hands as yours, or his own : he shuddered ; nay, the tears stood in his eyes: — 'What!
Page 133 - Antenor, now give o'er, For my sake talk of graves no more ; Death is not in our power to gain, And is both wish'd and fear'd in vain. Let's be as angry as we will, Grief sooner may distract than kill, And the unhappy often prove Death is as coy a thing as love. Those whose own sword their death did give, Afraid were, or asham'd, to live ; And by an act so desperate, Did poorly run away from fate ; 'Tis braver much t' outride the storm, Endure its rage, and shun its harm ; Affliction nobly undergone,...
Page 27 - I have read Miss Fielding with great pleasure. Your Clarissa is, I find, the Virgin-mother of several pieces ; which, like beautiful suckers, rise from her immortal root. I rejoice at it ; for the noblest compositions need such aids, as the multitude is swayed more by others
Page 206 - ... place, afraid of being seen as a thief of detection. The people of fashion, if he happen to cross a walk, (which he always does with precipitation), unsmiling their faces, as if they thought him in the way...
Page 236 - How can we hope that ladies will not think a good man a tame man ?" Among the correspondents of Richardson was Klopstock's first wife, who lived at Hamburg, and wrote very good English. She gives an account of how she fell in love with the poet on reading his ' Messiah,' before she ever saw him, how she afterward married him, and how happy she was.
Page 37 - And boast their clouds, their thunder, and their flame. The flame, the thunder, and the cloud, The night by day, the sea of blood, Hosts whirl'd in air, the yell of sinking throngs, The graveless dead an ocean warm'd, A firmament by mortals storm'd, To patient Britain's angry brow belongs. Or do I dream ? or do I rave ? Or see I Vulcan's sooty cave, Where Jove's red bolts the giant-brothers frame?

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