Sketches in Ireland: descriptive of districts in the North and South [signed C.O.].

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1827 - 80 pages

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Page 271 - Compared with this, how poor religion's pride, In all the pomp of method and of art...
Page 94 - Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the judgment of the Lord.
Page 91 - tis to cast one's eyes so low ! The crows, and choughs, that wing the midway air, Show scarce so gross as beetles. Half way down Hangs one that gathers samphire ; dreadful trade ! Methinks he seems no bigger than his head. The fishermen, that walk upon the beach, Appear like mice ; and yon' tall, anchoring bark, Diminished to her cock ; her cock, a buoy Almost too small for sight.
Page 272 - Then kneeling down to Heaven's Eternal King, The saint, the father, and the husband prays; Hope 'springs exulting on triumphant wing,' That thus they all shall meet in future days, There ever bask in uncreated rays, No more to sigh or shed the bitter tear, Together hymning their Creator's praise, In such society, yet still more dear, While circling Time moves round in an eternal sphere.
Page 359 - ... anatomies of death ; they spake like ghosts crying out of their graves; they did eat the dead carrions, happy where they could find them; yea, and one another soon after, insomuch as the very carcasses they spared not to scrape out of their graves...
Page 254 - ... that purpose shall quote the remarks of a correspondent who can be depended on : — " Unfortunately the great want of this island, and the main cause of its poverty and depression, is the deficiency of a secure harbour. There are two indentures or coves by which the island is nearly bisected — one on the north, and the other on the south side — they are wide at the entrance, and without any indenture to secure vessels from a wind blowing in, or from the dangerous agitation of a high swell....
Page 17 - Gnomes ! o'er the waste you led your myriad powers, Climb'd on the whirls, and aim'd the flinty showers ! Onward resistless rolls the infuriate surge, Clouds follow clouds, and mountains mountains urge ; Wave over wave the driving desert swims, Bursts o'er their heads, inhumes their struggling limbs ; Man mounts on man, on camels camels rush, Hosts march o'er hosts, and nations nations crush, — Wheeling in air the winged islands fall, And one great earthy ocean covers all...
Page 28 - ... unknotted rod in his hand, and said, " Receive, Sire, the auspicious ensign of your dignity, and remember to imitate in your government the whiteness, straightness, and unknottiness of this rod, to the end that no evil tongue may find cause to asperse the candour of your actions with blackness, nor any kind of corruption, or tie of friendship, be able to pervert your justice; therefore, in a lucky hour, take the government of this people, to exercise the power given you with freedom and security.
Page 9 - You might have supposed that sound had no existence here, were it not that now and then a hawk shrieked while cowering over the mountain top, or a lamb bleated beneath, as it ran to its mother. I could have gone to sleep here, and dreamt of heaven purchased for...
Page 173 - ... who paid eight pence each for admission to the island. Sir William further informs the Privy Council, that in order to hinder the seduced people from going any longer to this stronghold of Purgatory, and wholly to take away the abuse hereafter, he had directed the whole to be defaced and utterly demolished ; therefore the walls, works, foundations, vaults, &c. , he ordered to be rooted up, also the place called St. Patrick's bed, and the stone on which he knelt. These and all other superstitious...

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