Essays, Moral and Literary, Volume 1

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Charles Dilly, 1785
 

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Page 331 - Not once in a hundred times does any officer enter ; and, if he does, he hears one syllogism or two, and then makes a bow, and departs, as he came and remained, in solemn silence. The disputants then return to the amusement of cutting the desks, carving their names, or reading Sterne's Sentimental Journey, or some other edifying novel.
Page 299 - Nature's works is no less astonishing than disgraceful. To those who are induced by their knowledge of a few languages, and of the classics, to think themselves completely accomplished in all human learning, I will recommend the perusal of the notes to the preface of Chambers's Dictionary. No. LXX. On the Effects of the bad Example of the Great among their Menial Servants, Domestics, and Dependants. IT is found by experience, that there are few orders in the community more profligate than the servants...
Page 331 - Regent-Masters, before whom they kneel while he lays a volume of Aristotle's works on their heads and puts on a hood, a piece of black crape, hanging from their necks and down to their heels ; which crape it is expressly...
Page 333 - ... however a great deal of trouble in little formalities, such as procuring six-penny liceats, sticking up the names on the walls, sitting in large empty rooms by yourself or with some poor wight as ill employed as yourself, without...
Page 9 - ... but be neither ostentatious nor censorious. " Be cheerful, and gratefully enjoy the good which Providence has bestowed upon you. But be moderate. Moderation is the law of enjoyment. All beyond is nominal pleasure and real pain. " I will not multiply my precepts. Choose good books, and follow their direction. Adopt religious, virtuous, manly principles. Fix them deeply in your bosom, and let them go with you unloosened and unaltered to the grave. " If you follow such advice as, from the pure motive...
Page 82 - Conjugal infelicity not only renders life most uncomfortable, but leads to that desperate dissoluteness and carelessness in manners which terminates in the ruin of health, peace, and fortune. If we may form a judgment from the divorces and separations which happen in the gay world, we may conclude, that the present manners are highly unfavourable to conjugal felicity. And we see, consistently with my theory, that the consequence of these domestic disagreements is the prevalence of vice in a very...
Page 333 - Convocation house, he takes an abundance of oaths, pays a sum of money in fees, and, after kneeling down before the vice-chancellor, and whispering a lie, rises up a Bachelor of Arts. And now, if he aspires at higher honours (and what emulous spirit can sit down without aspiring at them ?) new labours and new difficulties are to be encountered during the space of three years. He must determine...
Page 8 - ... with snares, and quicksands, and chasms around them. Be candid, therefore, and, among all the improvements of education and refinements of manners, let the beautiful Christian graces of Meekness and Benevolence shine most conspicuous.
Page 145 - I dare say, you remember a shrewd remark of a writer, whose name I cannot recollect, That no great man ever appeared great in the eyes of his valet-de-chambre.
Page 8 - Exhibit a noble superiority in daring to disregard the artful and malicious reproaches of the vain and vicious, who labour to make you a convert to folly, in order to keep them in countenance. . They will laugh at first, but esteem you in their hearts even while they laugh, and in the end revere your virtue. " Let that generous courage which conscious rectitude inspires enable you to despise and neglect the assaults of ridicule.

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