Since I am upon this Subject, I must observe that our English Poets have succeeded much better in the Stile, than in the Sentiment...s of their Tragedies. Their Language is very often noble and sonorous, but the sense either very trifling or very common. On the contrary, in the ancient Tragedies, and indeed in those of Corneille and Racine, tho' the Expressions are very great, it is the Thought that bears them up and swells them. For my own part, I prefer a noble Sentiment that is depressed with homely Language, infinitely before a vulgar one that is blown up with all the Sound and Energy of Expression. Whether this Defect in our Tragedies may arise from Want of Genius, Knowledge, or Experience in the Writers, or from their Compliance with the vicious Taste of their Readers, who are better Judges of the Language than of the Sentiments, and consequently relish the one more than the other, I cannot determine.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
No stile of writing is so delightful as that which is all pith, which never omits a necessary word, nor uses an unnecessary one.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I have thought of a pulley to raise me gradually; but that would give me pain, as it would counteract my natural inclination. I wo...uld have something that can dissipate the vis inertiae and give elasticity to the muscles.... We can heat the body, we can cool it; we can give it tension or relaxation; and surely it is possible to bring it into a state in which rising from bed will not be a pain.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
There was a crooked man, and he went a crooked mile, He found a crooked sixpence against a crooked stile:... He bought a crooked cat which caught a crooked mouse, And they all lived together in a little crooked house.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of the machine of government, let it go, let it go: perchance it will wear smoo...th,--certainly the machine will wear out. If the injustice has a spring, or a pulley, or a rope, or a crank, exclusively for itself, then perhaps you may consider whether the remedy will not be worse than the evil; but if it is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law. Let your life be a counter- friction to stop the machine. What I have to do is to see, at any rate, that I do not lend myself to the wrong which I condemn.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
When God at first made man, Having a glass of blessings standing by,... "Let us," said He, "pour on him all we can: Let the world's riches, which dispersed lie, Contract into a span."LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »