Letters Written by the Late Earl of Chatham to His Nephew Thomas Pitt, Afterwards Lord Camelford Then at Cambridge

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T. Payne, 1804 - 104 pages

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Page 105 - Nor second he that rode sublime Upon the seraph-wings of Ecstasy, The secrets of th' abyss to spy. He passed the flaming bounds of Place and Time: The living throne, the sapphire blaze, Where angels tremble while they gaze, He saw; but, blasted with excess of light, Closed his eyes in endless night.
Page 2 - Musam meditaris avena ; nos patriae fines et dulcia linquimus arva : nos patriam fugimus ; tu, Tityre, lentus in umbra formosam resonare doces Amaryllida silvas.
Page xxviii - I call therefore a complete and generous education that which fits a man to perform justly, skilfully, and magnanimously all the offices both private and public of peace and war.
Page 47 - I will set down after this another little fragment, two verses made by Mr. Gray as we were walking in the spring in the neighbourhood of Cambridge, " There pipes the woodlark, and the song-thrush there Scatters his loose notes in the waste of air.
Page 48 - Him have we seen the greenwood side along, While o'er the heath we hied, our labour done, Oft as the woodlark piped her farewell song, With wistful eyes pursue the setting sun.
Page 27 - Hold fast therefore by this sheetanchor of happiness, Religion ; you will often want it in the times of most danger ; the storms and tempests of life. Cherish true religion as preciously as you will fly with abhorrence and contempt superstition and enthusiasm. The first is the perfection and glory of the human nature ; the two last the deprivation and disgrace of it.
Page 53 - No more the Grecian muse unrivall'd reigns, To Britain let the nations homage pay : She felt a Homer's fire in Milton's strains, A Pindar's rapture in the lyre of Gray.
Page 89 - Substitute Tully and Demosthenes in the place of Homer and Virgil ; and arm yourself with all the variety of manner, copiousness and beauty of diction, nobleness and magnificence of ideas, of the Roman consul ; and render the powers of eloquence complete by the irresistible torrent of vehement argumentation, the close and forcible reasoning, and the depth and fortitude of mind, of the Grecian statesman.
Page 72 - There is not an ode in the English language which is constructed like these two compositions ; with such power, such majesty, and such sweetness, with such proportioned pauses and just cadences, with such regulated measures of the verse, with such master principles of lyrical art displayed and exemplified, and, at the same time, with such a concealment of the difficulty, which is lost in the softness and uninterrupted flowing of the lines in each stanza, with such a musical magic, that every verse...
Page 26 - ... is here brought to the test. Is gratitude in the number of a man's virtues? If it be, the highest benefactor demands the warmest returns of gratitude, love, and praise.

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