The Oxford Spy; in Verse: Dialogue the First[-fifth] ...For Munday and Slatter, 1818 |
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The Oxford Spy, in Verse: Dialogue the First (Classic Reprint) James Shergold Boone No preview available - 2017 |
Common terms and phrases
Adam Smith ancient Aristotle Athens Bampton Lecture beauty boast breast bright charms Church Cicero classic confin'd dare dark deem deep DIALOGUE diff'rent dreams dull e'en errors ev'ry fame fancy fancy's faults fear feel follies fools form'd genius gownsmen Granta heart heaven HERALD-OFFICE honours hope human idle Isis labours learning live Logic mightier mighty mind modern Munday and Slatter nature's o'er once OXFORD SPY pain perchance philosophy pity Plato pleasure Pompey pow'r praise pride Ptolemies quackery Quintilian reason rest rise rules sacred sage sapient scarce scene Schools scorn Scythian seek sense shade shame shew sigh smile soon soul spirit spleen Stagyrite stept strain stream studies syllogisms taste taught thee things thou thought toil treatises truth University VERSE viva voce wisdom wise wish words young youth
Popular passages
Page 53 - Philosophy, wisdom, and liberty, support each other; he, who will not reason, is a bigot ; he, who cannot, is a fool ; and he, who dares not, is a slave.
Page 40 - I am in the right: the best way to come to truth being to examine things as really they are, and not to conclude they are as we fancy of ourselves or have been taught by others to imagine.
Page 37 - ... by the plan, wrought them up into so regular a system, that one would think they meant to teach how a person might mechanically become an orator, without any genius at all. They gave him receipts for making speeches, on all manner of subjects. At the same time, it is evident, that though this study of common places might produce very showy academical declamations, it could never produce useful discourses on real business.
Page 23 - To justify his catchpenny-title, about a dozen pages at the end are given to the author's interview with a dying stranger, who confessed himself to be Suett the comedian, and the author of Junius. Mr. Bickerton. — " What wonder, too, if thou shouldst claim a seat In this bright conclave of the wise and great ; Too gay for pomp, too lively for a don, At thee they laugh, unhappy Bickerton ! f...
Page 15 - In the first lists of academic fame ; Still, still the care remains to form his mind — No College honours fit him for mankind.
Page 23 - Bickerton is an original character, which in most cases is sufficient to cast upon a man the imputation of insanity. I once, in the summer, heard him inveigh with great indignation against the epithet here joined with his name. ' How,' he said, ' can any one be unhappy who breathes the air of heaven on a morning like this ? ' There is more philosophy in this single exclamation than in all the gloomy denunciations of modern poetry.
Page 24 - Tet thou, methinks, couldst laugh in turn to see How ill their mien and character agree ; Strip but the stately step and sapient brow, They stand as helpless and as mad as thou ! " " Counsellor " Bickerton, as he was commonly styled, was a conspicuous person at Oxford about thirty-five years ago. He was...
Page 4 - Bat the void space, where Mercury should be ; And what, though to and fro some Tutor runs, To vent his sorrow in a string of puns, — Though Graduates, Undergraduates, loud and long. Prove that the deed was wrong, — was very wrong, — Yet there, with drooping mien, a silent band, Canon and Bedmaker together stand : Grief levels and unites them; common grief, That seeks in mutual sympathy relief; Pride, rank, distinction were not then confest ; One master-feeling quite absorb'd the rest : In equal...
Page 52 - Foreign and domestic quarrels, disturbance, and disease, are universally supposed to be among the most melancholy incidents which occur in the tragic farce of our existence. Yet •without war, what becomes of our soldiers...
Page 24 - can any one be unhappy who breathes the air of heaven on a morning like this ? ' There is more philosophy in this single exclamation than in all the gloomy denunciations of modern poetry." — The Oxford Spy, p. 24., Oxford, 1818, 8vo., pp. 192. ford College, then deserted ; and it was said that he kept a horse, which was sometimes seen looking out of a window on the second floor. This, I presume, is a myth. Perhaps some Oxford man of that time...