The Elements of English Composition: Serving as a Sequel to the Study of GrammarR. Phillips and Company, 1821 - 318 pages |
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Page 1
... expression . In the first efforts of untutored genius the harmony of periods is little regarded : such words as most readily occur to the recollection of the writer , are almost indiscriminately adopted ; and these are generally ...
... expression . In the first efforts of untutored genius the harmony of periods is little regarded : such words as most readily occur to the recollection of the writer , are almost indiscriminately adopted ; and these are generally ...
Page 2
... expression . Its pages are frequently deformed with uncouthness and vulgarity . Nor is it altogether untainted with these faults in its present state . Propriety and beauty of style seem often to have been considered beneath the ...
... expression . Its pages are frequently deformed with uncouthness and vulgarity . Nor is it altogether untainted with these faults in its present state . Propriety and beauty of style seem often to have been considered beneath the ...
Page 3
... expression . There is as much difference between comprehending a thought clothed in the language of Cicero , and that of an ordi- nary writer , as there is between viewing an object by the light of the sun and by the light of a taper ...
... expression . There is as much difference between comprehending a thought clothed in the language of Cicero , and that of an ordi- nary writer , as there is between viewing an object by the light of the sun and by the light of a taper ...
Page 5
... expressions ; they seem condemned to the curse of creeping upon the ground all the days of their life . But there is another extreme , which ought also to be carefully avoided . Language may be too pompons , as well Las too mean . Some ...
... expressions ; they seem condemned to the curse of creeping upon the ground all the days of their life . But there is another extreme , which ought also to be carefully avoided . Language may be too pompons , as well Las too mean . Some ...
Page 7
... expressions ; and to words and phrases that would be less significant of the ideas which we intend to convey . Style ... expression to the sentiment which the writer intends to convey ; as mo- ral truth consists in the conformity of the ...
... expressions ; and to words and phrases that would be less significant of the ideas which we intend to convey . Style ... expression to the sentiment which the writer intends to convey ; as mo- ral truth consists in the conformity of the ...
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Common terms and phrases
Addison adverb agreeable allegory ancient appear Aristotle arrangement attention beauty Beggar's Opera blank verse CHAP character Cicero circumstance composition critical degree Demosthenes discourse Dissertation Dryden effect elegance elevation eloquence employed endeavour English English language epistolary Essay expression fancy figurative language figure frequently genius grace Greek harmony harsh hath History Homer honour humour idea imagination imitation instance introduced kind labour language learning letters Lord Shaftesbury manner meaning ment metaphor mind nature never object observations occasion orator ornament passage passion perhaps period person personification perspicuity phrases Plato pleasure Plutarch poet poetry possessed precision produce proper propriety prose qualities Quintilian racter reader remarkable resemblance Roman Empire seems sense sentence sentiment Sermons shew simile simplicity Sir William Temple sound speak species Spectator strength style taste thing thou thought tion tragedy verb verse Virgil virtue vulgar words writer Xenophon
Popular passages
Page 127 - Me miserable ! which way shall I fly Infinite wrath, and infinite despair? Which way I fly is Hell; myself am Hell; And, in the lowest deep, a lower deep Still threatening to devour me opens wide, To which the Hell I suffer seems a Heaven.
Page 141 - Full many a gem of purest ray serene The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear : Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, And waste its sweetness on the desert air.
Page 294 - ... frequented by every fowl whom nature has taught to dip the wing in water. This lake discharged its superfluities by a stream which entered a dark cleft of the mountain on the northern side, and fell with dreadful noise from precipice to precipice till it was heard no more.
Page 138 - He scarce had ceased, when the superior fiend Was moving toward the shore ; his ponderous shield, Ethereal temper, massy, large, and round, Behind him cast ; the broad circumference Hung on his shoulders like the moon, whose orb Through optic glass the Tuscan artist views At evening from the top of Fesole Or in Valdarno, to descry new lands, Rivers, or mountains, in her spotty globe.
Page 262 - Revenge is a kind of wild justice, which the more man's nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out. For as for the first wrong, it doth but offend the law ; but the revenge of that wrong putteth the law out of office.
Page 298 - ... the mode of existence decreed to a permanent body composed of transitory parts ; wherein, by the disposition of a stupendous wisdom, moulding together the great mysterious incorporation of the human race...
Page 165 - What could have been done more to my vineyard, That I have not done in it? Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, Brought it forth wild grapes?
Page 141 - Death? perhaps in this neglected spot is laid some heart once pregnant with celestial fire ; hands, that the rod of empire might have swayed, or waked to ecstasy the living lyre.
Page 163 - Return, we beseech thee, O God of hosts: look down from heaven, and behold, and visit this vine; And the vineyard which thy right hand hath planted, and the branch that thou madest strong for thyself.
Page 316 - It has been so long said as to be commonly believed, that the true characters of men may be found in their Letters, and that he who writes to his friend lays his heart open before him. But the truth is, that such were the simple friendships of the " Golden Age," and are now the friendships only of children.