A New and General Biographical Dictionary: Containing an ... Account of the Lives and Writings of the Most Eminent Persons in Every Nation in the World, Particularly the British and Irish ...The Proprietors, 1793 |
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affiftance afterwards againſt Alamanni alfo alſo anfwer applied himſelf appointed archbishop archbishop of Canterbury Arius Averroes bachelor of arts becauſe befides bishop born cardinal caufe chofen Chriftian church confiderable court death defign defire died diftinguiſhed divinity duke earl efteem emperor England faid fame famous father fatire favour fays fchool fecond fent fermons fervice fettled feven feveral fhew fhips fhould firft firſt fome foon France ftudies fubject fucceeded fuccefs fuch gave greateſt Greek hiftory himſelf holy orders honour houfe houſe inftructions Italy John king king's laft Latin learning likewife London lord mafter majefty minifter moft moſt obferved occafion Oxford paffed perfons philofophy phyfic phyfician pope prefent prince profeffion profeffor publiſhed purpoſe quarto queen raiſed reafon received refolved reign retired returned Rome Scotland ſeveral Stilicho ſtudy thefe themſelves theſe thofe thoſe took tranflated treatife univerfity uſed whofe writing wrote
Popular passages
Page 51 - outsteps the modesty of nature,' nor raises merriment or wonder by the violation of truth. His figures neither divert by distortion nor amaze by aggravation. He copies life with so much fidelity that he can be hardly...
Page 52 - What he attempted, he performed ; he is never feeble, and he did not wish to be energetic ;* he is never rapid, and he never stagnates. His sentences have neither studied amplitude nor affected brevity ; his periods, though not diligently rounded, are voluble and easy. Whoever wishes to attain an English style, familiar but not coarse, and elegant but not ostentatious, must give his days and nights to the volumes of Addison.
Page 6 - If a life be delayed till interest and envy are at an end, we may hope for impartiality, but must expect little intelligence ; for the incidents which give excellence to biography are of a volatile and evanescent kind, such as soon escape the memory, and are rarely transmitted by tradition.
Page 378 - ... if it pleased God to take away any of his children, it might be his son Isaac: so vain a thing is man's judgment, and our providence unfit to guide our own affairs.
Page 51 - This is an elevation of literary character " above all Greek, above all Roman fame." No greater felicity can genius attain, than that of having purified intellectual pleasure, separated mirth from indecency, and wit from licentiousness; of having taught a succession of writers to bring elegance and gaiety to the aid of goodness; and, if I may use expressions yet more awful, of having turned many to righteousness.
Page 47 - The danger was soon over. The whole nation was at that time on fire with faction. The Whigs applauded every line in which liberty was mentioned, as a satire on the Tories ; and the Tories echoed every clap, to show that the satire was unfelt.
Page 346 - Gospel within the compass of a farthing: what would he have said of our famous Peter Bales, who, in the year 1575, wrote the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, Decalogue, with two short prayers in Latin, his own name, motto, day of the month, year of the Lord, and reign of the queen, to whom he presented it at Hampton Court, all of it written within the circle of a single penny, inchased in a ring and borders of gold...
Page 65 - ... in his dominions, which the poverty of the times or the fury of the Danes had brought to ruin, he built many, and improved more...
Page 207 - To begin the work, fire was put to the house next the toll-house for fruit, both which were burnt to the ground, with all the books and accounts, and goods and furniture. This done, every one shut up his shop, and, the numbers increasing, many thousand people uniting themselves went to other parts of the city, where all the other toll-houses were: them they plundered of all their writings and books, great quantities of money, with many rich moveables; all which...
Page 310 - THE FIRST, archbishop of Canterbury, was originally a monk in the convent of St. Andrew at Rome, and educated under St. Gregory, afterwards pope Gregory I., by whom he was despatched into Britain, with forty other monks, about AD 596, to convert the English Saxons to Christianity.