Views and Reviews in American Literature: History and Fiction

Front Cover
Wiley and Putnam, 1845

From inside the book

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page 29 - I see before me the Gladiator lie: He leans upon his hand — his manly brow Consents to death, but conquers agony, And his drooped head sinks gradually low — And through his side the last drops, ebbing slow From the red gash, fall heavy, one by one, Like the first of a thunder-shower; and now The arena swims around him — he is gone, Ere ceased the inhuman shout which hailed the wretch who won. He heard it, but he heeded not — his eyes Were with his heart, and that was far away...
Page 30 - Blessings be with them — and eternal praise, Who gave us nobler loves, and nobler cares—- The Poets, who on earth have made us heirs Of truth and pure delight by heavenly lays ! Oh ! might my name be numbered among theirs, Then gladly would I end my mortal days.
Page 50 - The present eye praises the present object : Then, marvel not, thou great and complete man, That all the Greeks begin to worship Ajax ; Since things in motion sooner catch the eye ', Than what not stirs. The cry went once on thec, And still it might, and yet it may again, If thou wouldst not entomb thyself alive, And case thy reputation in thy tent...
Page 106 - How shall we rank thee upon glory's page, Thou more than soldier, and just less than sage? All thou hast been reflects less fame on thee, Far less than all thou hast forborne to be!
Page 29 - He heard it, but he heeded not— his eyes Were with his heart, and that was far away; He reck'd not of the life he lost nor prize, But where his rude hut by the Danube lay, There were his young barbarians all at play, There was their Dacian mother— he their sire, Butcher'd to make a Roman holiday ! — All this rush'd with his blood— Shall he expire And unavenged ? — Arise ! ye Goths, and glut your ire...
Page 55 - THE DISCOVERY of AMERICA by the NORTHMEN, IN THE TENTH CENTURY, WITH Notices of the early Settlements of the Irish in the Western Hemisphere, * By NORTH LUDLOW BEAMISH, Fellow of the Royal Society, and Member of the Royal Danish Society of Northern Antiquaries, author of the " History of the German Legion,
Page 27 - I do not like you, Doctor Fell ; The reason why, I cannot tell ; But this I know full well, I do not like you Doctor Fell.
Page 188 - When Father Olmedo, therefore, kneeling at his side with the uplifted crucifix, affectionately besought him to embrace the sign of man's redemption, he coldly repulsed the priest, exclaiming, "I have but a few moments to live; and will not at this hour desert the faith of my fathers.
Page 41 - In truth, there are many reasons which render a very general diffusion of literature impossible in America. I can scarcely class the universal reading of newspapers as an exception to this remark; if I could, my statement would be exactly the reverse, and I should say that America beat the world in letters. The fact is, that throughout all ranks of society, from the successful merchant, which is the highest, to the domestic serving man, which is the lowest, they are all too actively employed to read,...
Page 118 - Of all men, saving Sylla, the man-slayer, Who passes for in life and death most lucky, Of the great names which in our faces stare, The General Boon, back-woodsman of Kentucky, Was happiest amongst mortals any where ; For killing nothing but a bear or buck, he Enjoy'd the lonely, vigorous, harmless days Of his old age in wilds of deepest maze.

Bibliographic information