Traits of Character: Being Twenty-five Years' Literary and Personal Recollections, Volume 1Hurst and Blackett, 1860 |
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Common terms and phrases
admiration alike amongst appearance Apsley House beauty believe Bellew Campbell character church clairvoyance conversation dear death dress Duke Duke of Wellington earnest Edmund Kean Edward Irving effect eloquence expression exquisite eyes faith fame fancy favour favourite feeling Frederick Robertson gave genius gentle gifts hair hand handsome hear heard heart honour hour human intellectual Kean knew lady LETITIA ELIZABETH LANDON listened literary living look Lord Carnarvon Lord Melbourne manner marvellous Mary Shelley melodies memory mental Miss Johnston Moore mournful nature ness never noble offered once Othello PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY perhaps persons poem poor possessed preach preacher pulpit racter reader remarkable remember ROBERT LISTON scarcely seemed sermons Shelley singular sketch solemn sorrow soul Street suffering sympathy talent talked talker tell tender Thomas Campbell Thomas Moore thought throng tion told truth uttered voice woman words young
Popular passages
Page 112 - Midst others of less note, came one frail Form, A phantom among men; companionless As the last cloud of an expiring storm Whose thunder is its knell; he, as I guess, Had gazed on Nature's naked loveliness, Actaeon-like, and now he fled astray With feeble steps o'er the world's wilderness, And his own thoughts, along that rugged way, Pursued, like raging hounds, their father and their prey.
Page 42 - The bleak wind of March Made her tremble and shiver; But not the dark arch, Or the black flowing river; Mad from life's history, Glad to death's mystery Swift to be hurled— Anywhere, anywhere Out of the world...
Page 335 - Honored as a Minister, Beloved as a Man, He awakened the holiest feelings In Poor and Rich, in Ignorant and Learned : Therefore is he lamented, As their guide and comforter, By many, who, in the bond of brotherhood And in grateful remembrance, Have erected this monument. Glory to the Saviour, who was his all...
Page 114 - ... nervous and unselfpossessed as if she had been detected in the commission of some offence against the conventionalities of society, or the code of morality. . . . I really think she deemed it unwomanly to print and publish ; and had it not been for the hard cash which, like so many of her craft, she so often stood in need of, I do not think she would ever have come before the world as an authoress.
Page 172 - His warm and sunshiny nature soon made itself felt by those approaching him — you caught the allpervading glow and radiance. He seemed so keenly and vividly to enjoy existence — making so light of its cares and burdens — on the other hand, so heightening and intensifying its pleasures, that his society exercised over you a species of happy spell, which you grieved to be divorced from and bereft of.
Page 330 - Pentecost, and sweep over the heart " as a mighty rushing wind," and find utterance in "new tongues," and hurry its Stephen upon heresy and death. One who, like Robertson, speaks to the sleeping nobleness of men's hearts out of the waking nobleness of his own, wields a truly revealing power; opening unsuspected worlds where the inner eye saw nothing before, and so lifting the roof as to let in the heavens. The eagerness with which such men are listened to shows how little the influence of the pulpit...
Page 109 - ... demeanour and action, and if she sat down it was just in the attitude an artist would have selected. This was not the result of study ; she did nothing for effect. There was a settled sadness, a grave, gentle melancholy in her face and gait, which at once aroused sympathy and interest. Gentleness was ever her distinguishing characteristic. Many years' friendship never showed me a deviation from it. But with the softness was neither irresolution nor feebleness. The most steadfast purpose would...
Page 113 - Hence she was most intolerant to deceit and falsehood, in any shape or guise, and those who attempted to practise it on her aroused as much bitter indignation as her nature was capable of. ... It is too often the case that authors talk too much of their writings, and all thereunto belonging. Mrs. Shelley was the extremest reverse of this. In fact, she was almost morbidly averse to the least allusion to herself as an authoress. To call on her and find her table covered with all the accessories and...
Page 233 - He was alone, equally alone, in force, energy, power, originality, and conception. Every impersonation was instinct with truth, and bore evidence of the highest genius. " What was, perhaps, his most remarkable distinctiveness was his perfect transfusion, as it were, of himself into and lifelike embodiment of the character he represented. For the time being, he was wholly and absolutely the person he enacted. " It was this complete identification of his own nature with, and his absorption into himself,...
Page 293 - Let him who is without sin amongst you cast the first stone," implying that each sex owes the same fidelity. It reached, she adds, no further than this. "Christianity, which women accepted as a deliverance with so much enthusiasm, and died for as martyrs, has not fulfilled their hopes." Even as regards the moral equality of the sexes in marriage, the position...