Essays on Men and Manners, Volume 39

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William W. Morse, 1804 - 204 pages
 

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Page 161 - ... to curse him to his face. A GLASS or two of wine extraordinary only raises a valetudinarian to that warmth of social affection, which had naturally been his lot, in a better state of health. DEFERENCE is the most complicate, the most indirect, and the most elegant of all compliments. BE cautious not to consider a person as your superior, merely because he is your superior in the point of assurance. This has often depressed the spirit of a person of desert and diffidence.
Page 41 - There would not be any absolute necessity for reserve, if the world were honest: yet, even then, it would prove expedient. For, in order to attain any degree of deference, it seems necessary that people should imagine you have more accomplishments than you discover.
Page 124 - LANGUAGE is to the understanding what a genteel motion is to the body ; a very great advantage. But a person may be superior to another in understanding, that has not an equal dignity of expression ; and a man may boast a handsomer figure, that is inferior to another in regard to motion. THE words No More have a singular pathos ; reminding us at once of past pleasure and the future exclusion of it.
Page 86 - Prospects, should take in the blue distant hills ; but never so remotely, that they be not distinguishable from clouds. Yet this mere extent is what the vulgar value. LANDSCAPE should contain variety enough to form a picture upon canvas ; and this is no bad test, as I think the landscape painter is the gardener's best designer. The eye requires a sort of balance here ; but not so as to encroach upon probable nature.
Page 91 - ... with which the human mind is delighted. ART should never be allowed to set a foot in the province of nature, otherwise than clandestinely and by night. Whenever she is allowed to appear here, and men begin to compromise the difference — Night, gothicism, confusion and absolute chaos are come again. TO see one's urns, obelisks, and waterfalls laid open...
Page 152 - AVARICE is the most opposite of all characters to that of God Almighty, whose alone it is, to give and not receive. A MISER grows rich by seeming poor ; an extravagant man grows poor by seeming rich.
Page 90 - Some artificial beauties are so dexterously managed, that one cannot but conceive them natural ; some natural ones so extremely fortunate, that one is ready to swear they are artificial. Concerning scenes, the more uncommon they appear, the better, provided they form a picture, and include nothing that pretends to be of nature's production, and is not.
Page 177 - HE that lies a-bed all a summer's morning, loses the chief pleasure of the day: he that gives up his youth to indolence, undergoes a loss of the same kind. SPLEEN is often little else than obstructed perspiration. THE regard, men externally profess for their superiors, is oftentimes rewarded—in the manner it deserves.
Page 135 - Swift in poetry deserves a place somew.hat betwixt Butler and Horace. He has the wit of the - former, and the graceful negligence which we find in the latter's epistles and satires. I believe, few people discover less humour in Don Quixote than myself. For beside the general sameness of adventure, whereby it is easy to foresee what he will do on most occasions, it is not so easy to raise a laugh from the wild achievements of a madman. The natural passion in that case is pity, with some small portion...
Page 46 - If dress were only authorised in men of ingenuity, we should find many aiming at the previous merit, in hopes of the subsequent distinction. The finery of an empty fellow would render him as ridiculous as a star and garter would one never knighted ; and men would use as commendable a diligence to qualify themselves for a brocaded waistcoat, or a gold snuff-box, as they now do to procure themselves a right of investing their limbs in lawn or ermine. We should not esteem a man a coxcomb for his dress,...

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