A Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen, Volume 2Blackie and son, 1870 - Scotland |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
Aberdeen afterwards appeared appointed army attended became British brother celebrated character church Church of Scotland circumstances College Colonel commenced continued court Covenanters daughter David Hume death died distinguished Duke Duke of Hamilton duties Earl Edinburgh eminent England English father favour Forbes formed fortune Fraserdale friends Glasgow Gordon Gregory Hamilton honour Hume Hunter Inverness James John king labours learned lectures letter literary London Lord Lord Ilay Lovat manner Marischal College memoir ment mind minister Montrose nature never occasion parish parliament party period person philosopher poet political presbytery principles profession professor published received remarkable returned Robert Haldane Royal says Scotland Scots Scottish seems sent Sir Walter Scott Sir William Sir William Hamilton Society soon spirit talents tion took university of Edinburgh volume whole writing young
Popular passages
Page 303 - I was assailed by one cry of reproach, disapprobation, and even detestation: English, Scotch, and Irish; Whig and Tory; churchman and sectary, freethinker and religionist; patriot and courtier united in their rage against the man, who had presumed to shed a generous tear for the fate of Charles I, and the Earl of Strafford...
Page 298 - Should it here be asked me, whether I sincerely assent to this argument, which I seem to take such pains to inculcate, and whether I be really one of those sceptics, who hold that all is uncertain, and that our judgment is not in any thing possessed of any measures of truth and falsehood ; I should reply, that this question is entirely superfluous, and that neither I, nor any other person, was ever sincerely and constantly of that opinion.
Page 7 - They will, therefore, be ready to enter upon the consideration of a treaty of peace and commerce not inconsistent with treaties already subsisting, when the king of Great Britain shall demonstrate a sincere disposition for that purpose.
Page 112 - For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of: for necessity is laid upon me ; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel...
Page 27 - For, to say nothing of half the birds, and some quadrupeds which are almost entirely supported by them, worms seem to be the great promoters of vegetation, which would proceed but lamely without them, by boring, perforating, and loosening the soil, and rendering it pervious to rains and the fibres of plants, by drawing straws and stalks of leaves and twigs into it ; and, most of all, by throwing up such infinite numbers of lumps of earth called worm-casts, which, being their excrement, is a fine...
Page 84 - He thought he saw an unusual blaze of light fall upon the book which he was reading, which he at first imagined might happen by some accident in the candle ; but lifting up his eyes, he apprehended, to his extreme amazement, that there was before him, as it were suspended in the air, a visible representation of the Lord Jesus Christ upon the cross, surrounded on all sides with...
Page 8 - I went into a field with a blanket about me, lay down on my back, and stretched a thread with small beads upon it, at arm's-length, between my eye and the stars, sliding the beads upon it till they hid such and such stars from my eye, in order to take their apparent distances from one another, and then, laying the thread down on a paper, I marked the stars thereon by the beads, according to their respective positions, having a candle by me.
Page 281 - Sincerity, Thou first of virtues! let no mortal leave Thy onward path, although the earth should gape, And from the gulf of hell destruction cry, To take dissimulation's winding way.
Page 84 - Struck with so amazing a phenomenon as this, there remained hardly any life in him, so that he sunk down in the arm-chair in which he sat, and continued, he knew not how long, insensible.
Page 303 - My friend, you owe this uncommon grief to having thrown off the principles of religion : for if you had not, you would have been consoled with the firm belief that the good lady, who was not only the best of mothers, but the most pious of Christians, was completely happy in the realms of the just.