Roderick, the Last of the Goths, Volume 1

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Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1818 - 297 pages

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Page xii - Rising behind a thick and lofty grove, Burns, like an unconsuming fire of light, In the green trees ; and, kindling on all sides Their leafy umbrage, turns the dusky veil Into a substance glorious as her own, Yea, with her own incorporated, by power Capacious and serene : like power abides In man's celestial spirit ; virtue thus Sets forth and magnifies herself ; thus feeds A calm, a beautiful, and silent fire, From the encumbrances of mortal life, From error, disappointment — nay, from guilt ;...
Page 170 - Beyond the arrows, shouts, and views of men. As oftentimes an eagle, ere the sun Throws o'er the varying earth his early ray, Stands solitary — stands immovable Upon some highest cliff, and rolls his eye, Clear, constant, unobservant, unabased, In the cold light above the dews of morn.
Page 17 - ... felt a thought Of pain ; repentance had no pangs to spare For trifles such as these : the loss of these Was a cheap penalty ; that he had fallen Down to the lowest depth of wretchedness, His hope and consolation. But to lose His human station in the scale of things ; To see brute nature scorn him, and renounce Its homage to the human form divine ; Had then Almighty vengeance thus revealed His punishment?
Page 5 - And threw his hands aloft in frantic prayer, . . Death is the only mercy that I crave, Death soon and short, death and forgetfulness ! Aloud he cried ; but in his inmost heart There answered him a secret voice, that spake Of righteousness and judgment after death, And God's redeeming love, which fain would save The guilty soul alive. 'Twas agony, And yet 'twas hope ; . . a momentary light, That flash'd through utter darkness on the Cross To point salvation, then left all within Dark as before.
Page 231 - Upon which ground, it is easy to see what judgment is to be passed upon all those affected, uncommanded, absurd austerities, so much prized and exercised by some of the Romish profession. Pilgrimages, going barefoot, hairshirts, and whips, with other such gospel artillery, are their only helps to devotion: things never enjoined, either by the prophets under the Jewish, or by the apostles under the Christian economy; who yet surely understood the proper and the most efficacious instruments of piety,...
Page 4 - Half-arm'd, and like a lover seeking death, The arrows past him by to right and left, The spear-point pierced him not, the scymitar Glanced from his helmet ; he, when he beheld The rout complete, saw that the shield of Heaven Had been extended over him once more, And bowed before its will.
Page 29 - She laid her spindle by, and running in Took bread, and following after call'd him back, And placing in his passive hands the loaf, She said, Christ Jesus for his Mother's sake Have mercy on thee ! With a look that...
Page 154 - Toward the kneeling troop he spread his arms, As if the expanded soul diffused itself, And carried to all spirits with the act Its effluent inspiration. Silently The people knelt, and when they rose, such awe Held them in silence, that the eagle's cry, Who far above them, at her highest flight A speck scarce visible, gyred round and round, Was heard distinctly ; and the mountain stream, Which from the distant glen sent forth its sounds Wafted upon the wind, grew audible In that deep hush of feeling,...
Page 232 - Jews, but we never read that he beat or scourged himself: and if they think that his keeping under of his body imports so much, they must first prove that the body cannot be kept under by a virtuous mind, and that the mind cannot be made virtuous but by a scourge; and consequently, that thongs and whipcord are means of grace, and things necessary to salvation. The truth is, if men's religion lies no deeper than their skin, it is possible that they may scourge themselves into very great improvements.
Page 11 - Thou seest, he cried, . . . thou seest, . . . but memory And suffocating thoughts repress'd the word, And shudderings like an ague fit, from head To foot convulsed him ; till at length, subduing His nature to the effort, he exclaim'd, Spreading his hands and lifting up his face, As if resolved in penitence to bear A human eye upon his shame. . . . Thou seest Roderick the Goth ! That name would have...

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