Platt's Essays, Volume 1Simpkin, Marshall, 1883 |
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Popular passages
Page 158 - As the partridge sitteth on eggs, and hatcheth them not; so he that getteth riches, and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end shall be a fool.
Page 73 - Tis education forms the common mind ; Just as the twig is bent the tree's inclined.
Page 180 - To gild refined gold, to paint the lily, To throw a perfume on the violet, To smooth the ice, or add another hue Unto the rainbow, or with taper-light To seek the beauteous eye of heaven to garnish, Is wasteful, and ridiculous excess.
Page 32 - And weltering in his blood ; Deserted at his utmost need By those his former bounty fed ; On the bare earth exposed he lies With not a friend to close his eyes.
Page 470 - One man draws out the wire, another straightens it, a third cuts it, a fourth points it, a fifth grinds it at the top for receiving the. head...
Page 119 - Man's Unhappiness, as I construe, comes of his Greatness; it is because there is an Infinite in him, which with all his cunning he cannot quite bury under the Finite.
Page 162 - Parsimony, and not industry, is the immediate cause of the increase of capital. Industry, indeed, provides the subject which parsimony accumulates. But whatever industry might acquire, if parsimony did not save and store up, the capital would never be the greater.
Page 16 - But och ! it hardens a' within, And petrifies the feeling! To catch Dame Fortune's golden smile, Assiduous wait upon her; And gather gear by every wile That's justified by honour ; Not for to hide it in a hedge, Nor for a train attendant; But for the glorious privilege Of being independent.
Page 180 - Those only are happy (I thought) who have their minds fixed on some object other than their own happiness; on the happiness of others, on the improvement of mankind, even on some art or pursuit, followed not as a means, but as itself an ideal end. Aiming thus at something else, they find happiness by the way.
Page 470 - ... to make the head requires two or three distinct operations; to put it on is a peculiar business; to whiten the pins is another; it is even a trade by itself to put them into the paper; and the important business of making a pin is, in this manner, divided into about eighteen distinct operations, which in some manufactories are all performed by distinct hands, though in others the same man will sometimes perform two or three of them.