The Lairds of Fife ...

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Constable & Company, 1828 - 920 pages

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Page 74 - I'll kneel down And ask of thee forgiveness: so we'll live, And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh At gilded butterflies, and hear poor rogues Talk of court news; and we'll talk with them too, — Who loses and who wins; who's in, who's out; — And take upon's the mystery of things, As if we were God's spies: and we'll wear out, In a wall'd prison, packs and sects of great ones That ebb and flow by the moon.
Page 14 - And as an owl that in a barn Sees a mouse creeping in the corn, Sits still, and shuts his round blue eyes As if he slept, until he spies The little beast within his reach, Then starts, and seizes on the wretch...
Page 260 - ... may be invigorated, or their efforts renewed, by subsequent considerations. The gratification of curiosity rather frees us from uneasiness than confers pleasure ; we are more pained by ignorance than delighted by instruction. Curiosity is the thirst of the soul ; it inflames and torments us, and makes us taste every thing with joy, however otherwise insipid, by which it may be quenched.

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