Lives of eminent and illustrious Englishmen, ed. by G. G. Cunningham, Volume 13

Front Cover
 

Selected pages

Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page 205 - Independently of his great attainments in mechanics, Mr. Watt was an extraordinary, and, in many respects, a wonderful man. Perhaps no individual in his age possessed so much and such varied and exact information, had read so much, or remembered what he had read so accurately and well. He had infinite quickness of apprehension, a prodigious memory, and a certain rectifying and methodising power of understanding, which extracted something precious out of all that was presented to it.
Page 9 - Who but must laugh if such a man there be ? Who would not weep if Atticus were he?
Page 117 - AN ELECTION BALL, in Poetical Letters from Mr. Inkle, at Bath, to his Wife at Gloucester: with a Poetical Address to John Miller, Esq. at Batheaston Villa. The Second Edition, with considerable Additions. By the Author of the New Bath Guide.
Page 204 - ... feeble hand of man, in short, with a power to which no limits can be assigned, completed the dominion of mind over the most refractory qualities of matter, and laid a sure foundation for all those future miracles of mechanic power which are to aid and reward the labours of after generations.
Page 226 - I know no man, (said he,) who is more master of his wife and family than Thrale. If he but holds up a finger, he is obeyed. It is a great mistake to suppose that she is above him in literary attainments. She is more flippant ; but he has ten times her learning : he is a regular scholar ; but her learning is that of a school -boy in one of the lower forms.
Page 4 - En sacrum codicem! Here is the fountain of truth, why do you follow the streams derived from it by the sophistry, or polluted by the passions of man...
Page 104 - Observations and Inquiries relating to various parts of Ancient History, containing Dissertations on the Wind Euroclydon, and on the Island Melite, together with an Account of Egypt in its most early State, and of the Shepherd Kings.
Page 120 - With the assistance of one of the soldiers I have changed a large canoe into a tolerably good schooner, on board of which I this day hoisted the British flag, and shall set sail to the east with the fixed resolution to discover the termination of the Niger or perish in the attempt.
Page 100 - ... the beholder was forcibly struck by the sentiment at the first glance : the gradations and varieties of which he traced through several characters, all conceived in an elevated spirit of dignity and beauty, with a lively expression of nature in all the parts. His heads were various — the male were decided and grand ; the female, lovely : his figures resembled the antique — the limbs were elegant and finely formed : his drapery was well understood : either forming the figure into a mass with...
Page 128 - Shillings to be paid at the time of subscribing, and the remainder on the delivery of the book.

Bibliographic information