The Spectator: no. 474-555; Sept. 3, 1712-Dec. 6, 1712

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George Atherton Aitken
John C. Nimmo, 1898
 

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Page 331 - tis a consummation Devoutly to be wished. To die; — to sleep : — To sleep ! perchance to dream ; — ay, there's the rub; For in that sleep of death what dreams may come, When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause: there's the respect, That makes calamity of so long life; For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, The pangs of despised love, the law's delay, The insolence of office, and the spurns That patient merit of...
Page 330 - Farewell ! a long farewell, to all my greatness ! This is the state of man : to-day he puts forth The tender leaves of hope, to-morrow blossoms, And bears his blushing honours thick upon him . The third day comes a frost, a killing frost, And, — when he thinks, good easy man, full surely His greatness is a-ripening, — nips his root, And then he falls, as I do.
Page 332 - With a bare bodkin ? who would fardels bear, To grunt and sweat under a weary life, But that the dread of something after death, The undiscovered country from whose bourn No traveller returns, puzzles the will And makes us rather bear those ills we have Than fly to others that we know not of?
Page 76 - They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters ; These see the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep.
Page 77 - How are Thy servants blest, O Lord How sure is their defence ! Eternal wisdom is their guide, Their help, Omnipotence. 2 In foreign realms and lands remote, Supported by Thy care, Through burning climes they pass unhurt, And breathe in tainted air. 3...
Page 210 - KNOWING that you was my old master's good friend, I could not forbear sending you the melancholy news of his death, which has afflicted the whole country, as well as his poor servants, who loved him, I may say, better than we did our lives. I am afraid he caught his death the last county...
Page 279 - ... having, from what we experiment in ourselves, got the ideas of existence and duration, of knowledge and power, of pleasure and happiness, and of several other qualities and powers, which it is better to have, than to be without ; when we would frame an idea the most suitable we can to the Supreme Being, we enlarge every one of these with our idea of infinity ; and so putting them together, make our complex idea of God.
Page 326 - The sailing pine ; the cedar proud and tall; The vine-prop elm ; the poplar never dry ; The builder oak, sole king of forests all; The aspen, good for staves ; the cypress funeral. The laurel, meed of mighty conquerors And poets sage; the fir that weepeth still; The willow, worn of forlorn paramours; The yew, obedient to the bender's will; The birch for shafts; the sallow for the mill; The myrrh sweet-bleeding in the bitter wound ; The warlike beech ; the ash for nothing ill; The fruitful olive •...
Page 67 - ... of company; yet in one dream I can compose a whole comedy, behold the action, apprehend the jests, and laugh myself awake at the conceits thereof. Were my memory as faithful as my reason is then fruitful, I would never study but in my dreams; and this time also would I...
Page 76 - Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses. He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still.

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