Natural History of Intellect: And Other PapersHoughton, Mifflin, 1904 - 612 pages |
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Æschylus animal artist beauty better Boston called Carlyle character church criticism delight divine Emerson England English English Traits essay eternal expression fact faculties farm farmer feel genius give Goethe Harvard College heart heaven human Inspiration Instinct knowledge labor laws literature live look Massachusetts means memory Metonomy Michael Angelo Milton mind moral Natural History never object paint passage perception persons Philosophy Pindar plant Plato Plutarch poem poet poetic poetry praise RALPH WALDO EMERSON rich Samuel Hartlib Saumaise scholar secret seems sense sentiment Shakspeare silent poets Sistine Chapel society soul speak spirit talent thee things Thomas à Kempis thou thought tion true truth universe Vasari verses virtue walk WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR whilst whole wish wonder words Wordsworth write wrote
Popular passages
Page 256 - I was confirmed in this opinion, that he who would not be frustrate of his hope to write well hereafter in laudable things, ought himself to be a true poem...
Page 440 - At no goal will arrive; The heavens that now draw him With sweetness untold, Once found, — for new heavens He spurneth the old.
Page 434 - The inquiry leads us to that source, at once the essence of genius, of virtue, and of life, which we call Spontaneity or Instinct. We denote this primary wisdom as Intuition, whilst all later teachings are tuitions.
Page 284 - If there be, what I believe there is, in every nation, a style which never becomes obsolete, a certain mode of phraseology so consonant and congenial to the analogy and principles of its respective language, as to remain settled and unaltered ; this style is probably to be sought in the common intercourse of life, among those who speak only to be understood, without ambition of elegance.
Page 262 - ... true eloquence I find to be none, but the serious and hearty love of truth: and that whose mind soever is fully possessed with a fervent desire to know good things, and with the dearest charity to infuse the knowledge of them into others, when such a man would speak, his words (by what I can express), like so many nimble and airy servitors, trip about him at command, and in well-ordered files, as he would wish, fall aptly into their own places.
Page 264 - ... or to devotion ; in summer as oft with the bird that first rouses, or not much tardier, to read good authors, or cause them to be read, till the attention be weary or memory have its full fraught : then with useful and generous labours preserving the body's health and hardiness...
Page 261 - And ever against eating cares Lap me in soft Lydian airs Married to immortal verse, Such as the meeting soul may pierce In notes, with many a winding bout Of linked sweetness long drawn out, With wanton heed and giddy cunning, The melting voice through mazes running, Untwisting all the chains that tie The hidden soul of harmony; That Orpheus...
Page 264 - Only this my mind gave me, that every free and gentle spirit, without that oath, ought to be born a knight, nor needed to expect the gilt spur or the laying of a sword upon his shoulder to stir him up both by his counsel and his arms to secure and protect the weakness of any attempted chastity.
Page 267 - Thy soul was like a Star, and dwelt apart : Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free, So didst thou travel on life's common way, In cheerful godliness ; and yet thy heart The lowliest duties on herself did lay.
Page 447 - Life may be given in many ways, And loyalty to Truth be sealed As bravely in the closet as the field, So bountiful is Fate; But then to stand beside her, When craven churls deride her, To front a lie in arms and not to yield, This shows, methinks, God's plan And measure of a stalwart man, Limbed like the old heroic breeds, Who stands self-poised on manhood's solid earth, Not forced to frame excuses for his birth, Fed from within with all the strength he needs.