Essays and The Bee, Volumes 1-2

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Wells and Lilly, 1820

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Page 177 - To be, or not to be: that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them. To die: to sleep; No more; and, by a sleep to say we end The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to; 'tis a consummation Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep...
Page 204 - She is the fairies' midwife, and she comes In shape no bigger than an agate-stone On the forefinger of an alderman, Drawn with a team of little atomies Athwart men's noses as they lie asleep : Her waggon-spokes made of long spinners...
Page 165 - ... mercies, O my God, My rising soul surveys, Transported with the view, I'm lost In wonder, love and praise. O how shall words with equal warmth The gratitude declare That glows within my ravish'd heart? But Thou canst read it there. Thy Providence my life sustain'd, And all my wants redrest; When in the silent womb I lay, And hung upon the breast.
Page 190 - O vale of bliss! O softly swelling hills! On which the power of cultivation lies, And joys to see the wonders of his toil.
Page 178 - The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, The pangs of despised love, the law's delay, The insolence of office and the spurns That patient merit of the unworthy takes, When he himself might his quietus make, With a bare bodkin?
Page 140 - And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand ; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances. And Miriam answered them, Sing ye to the LORD, for he hath triumphed gloriously ; the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.
Page 101 - Now then, in peaceable possession of what was justly its own, it waited three days with the utmost impatience, repairing the breaches of its web, and taking no sustenance that I could perceive. At last, however, a large blue fly fell into the snare, and struggled hard to get loose. The spider gave it leave to entangle itself as much as possible, but it seemed to be too strong for the cobweb. I must own I was greatly surprised when I saw the spider immediately sally out, and in less than a minute...
Page 100 - ... of the little animal, I had the good fortune then to prevent its destruction ; and I may say, it more than paid me by the entertainment it afforded. In three days the web was with incredible diligence completed ; nor could I avoid thinking, that tbe insect seemed to exult in Its new abode.
Page 103 - The insect I am now describing lived three years; every year it changed its skin and got a new set of legs. I have sometimes plucked off a leg, which grew again in two or three days. At first it dreaded my approach to its web, but at last it became so familiar as to take a fly out of my hand; and upon my touching any part of the web, would immediately leave its hole, prepared either for a defense or an attack.
Page 110 - ... but a few hours past walked before me, where she kept up the pageant, and now, like a froward child, seems hushed with her own importunities. What a gloom hangs all around ! the dying lamp feebly emits a yellow gleam ; no sound is heard but of the chiming clock, or the distant watch dog. All the bustle of human pride is forgotten : an hour like this may well display the emptiness of human vanity. There will come a time when this temporary solitude may be made continual, and the city itself, like...

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