The Art of Writing & Speaking the English Language, Volume 1old Greek Press., 1903 |
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Page 10
... thought that we shall become geniuses , or any- thing of the kind . For us , why should there be any difference between plumbing and writing ? If all men were born plumbers , still some would be much better than others , and no doubt ...
... thought that we shall become geniuses , or any- thing of the kind . For us , why should there be any difference between plumbing and writing ? If all men were born plumbers , still some would be much better than others , and no doubt ...
Page 12
... thought , I was vanquished more by his fluency than by the strength of his reasons . As we parted without settling the point , and were not to see one another again for some time , I sat down to put my arguments in writing , which I ...
... thought , I was vanquished more by his fluency than by the strength of his reasons . As we parted without settling the point , and were not to see one another again for some time , I sat down to put my arguments in writing , which I ...
Page 13
... thought the writing excellent , and wished if possible to imitate it . With this view I took some of the papers , and making short hints of the sen- timents in each sentence , laid them by a few days , and then , without looking at the ...
... thought the writing excellent , and wished if possible to imitate it . With this view I took some of the papers , and making short hints of the sen- timents in each sentence , laid them by a few days , and then , without looking at the ...
Page 14
... thoughts . By com- paring my work with the original , I discovered my faults and amended them ; but I sometimes had the pleasure of fancying , that , in certain particulars of small import , I had been fortunate enough to improve the ...
... thoughts . By com- paring my work with the original , I discovered my faults and amended them ; but I sometimes had the pleasure of fancying , that , in certain particulars of small import , I had been fortunate enough to improve the ...
Page 18
... thought . The word drunk calls up a picture horrid and disgusting ; violet suggests blueness , sweetness , and innocence ; oak suggests sturdy courage and strength ; love sug- gests all that is dear in the histories of our own lives ...
... thought . The word drunk calls up a picture horrid and disgusting ; violet suggests blueness , sweetness , and innocence ; oak suggests sturdy courage and strength ; love sug- gests all that is dear in the histories of our own lives ...
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Common terms and phrases
Addison art of writing artistic Barbox Brothers beauty called carver CHAPTER Charles Lamb child composition contrast dialogue effect English essay example expressing fact faults fiction figure of speech Franklin friends gives Golden River gram grammar human humor idea idiom illustrate imitate instinct Jack Ketch kind language Learned to Write letters literary lofty style logical long sentence look Macaulay master Matthew Arnold meaning metaphor method Metonymy mind models narrative natural ness never observed paragraph pass passage perfect periodic sentence person phrase pinnace Polly POOR RICHARD says Poor Richard's Almanac prose Puritans Quincey reader repetition rhetoric ridicule Ruskin Sainte-Beuve Sam Patch satire seems sense short sentences simple speak story suggestion tence Thackeray thing thought tion Tom Fool trast Treasure Valley trying turn Vanity Fair verb whole William Ellery Channing wish words
Popular passages
Page 24 - Vice is a monster of so frightful mien, As, to be hated, needs but to be seen; Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face, We first endure, then pity, then embrace.
Page 105 - If Time be of all Things the most precious, wasting Time must be, as Poor Richard says, the greatest Prodigality; since, as he elsewhere tells us, Lost Time is never found again; and what we call Time enough, always proves little enough...
Page 26 - Sport that wrinkled Care derides, And Laughter holding both his sides. Come, and trip it as you go On the light fantastic toe...
Page 64 - Thus the Puritan was made up of two different men, the one all self-abasement, penitence, gratitude, passion, the other proud, calm, inflexible, sagacious. He prostrated himself in the dust before his Maker : but he set his foot on the neck of his king.
Page 63 - The Puritans were men whose minds had derived a peculiar character from the daily contemplation of superior beings and eternal interests. Not content with acknowledging, in general terms, an overruling Providence, they habitually ascribed every event to the will of the Great Being, for whose power nothing was too vast, for whose inspection nothing was too minute.
Page 13 - I had gone on making verses; since the continual occasion for words of the same import, but of different length, to suit the measure, or of different sound for the rhyme, would have laid me under a constant necessity of searching for variety, and also have tended to fix that variety in my mind, and make me master of it. Therefore, I took some of the tales and turned them into verse; and after a time, when I had pretty well forgotten the prose, turned them back again.
Page 64 - People who saw nothing of the godly but their uncouth visages, and heard nothing from them but their groans and their whining hymns, might laugh at them. But those had little reason to laugh, who encountered them in the hall of debate or in the field of battle.
Page 29 - I saw her bright reflection In the waters under me, Like a golden goblet falling And sinking into the sea. And far in the hazy distance Of that lovely night in June, The blaze of the flaming furnace Gleamed redder than the moon. Among...
Page 65 - These fanatics brought to civil and military affairs a coolness of judgment and an immutability of purpose, which some writers have thought inconsistent with their religious zeal, but which were in fact the necessary effects of it. The intensity of their feelings on one subject made them tranquil on every other.
Page 68 - Nor love thy life, nor hate; but what thou livest Live well; how long, or short, permit to Heaven: And now prepare thee for another sight." He look'd, and saw a spacious plain, whereon Were tents of various hue; by some were herds Of cattle grazing; others, whence the sound Of instruments, that made melodious chime, Was heard, of harp and organ, and who moved Their stops and chords was seen; his volant touch, Instinct through all proportions, low and high, Fled and pursued transverse the resonant...