Pursuit of Knowledge Under Difficulties: Its Pleasures and Rewards. Illustrated by Memoirs of Eminent Men, Volume 1Harper & Brothers, 1840 - Self-culture |
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able acquaintance acquired admirable afterward already appeared assistance attained attention became blind born brought called canal carried celebrated circumstances commenced complete considerable continued course died difficulties distinguished early employed engaged English example exertions father followed formed fortune French gave genius give given Greek hand instruct Italy knowledge known labours language Latin learned least letters literary literature lived manner master means ment mentioned merely mind natural never obliged observed obtained occupation original passed period person philosopher poor possession present principal probably published pursued pursuit received remained remarkable says scarcely scholar sent shillings short situation soon success teach thing thought tion told took turned University volume whole writing written young
Popular passages
Page 168 - This thought might lead me through the world's vain mask Content though blind, had I no better guide.
Page 166 - Thus with the year Seasons return ; but not to me returns Day, or the sweet approach of even or morn, Or sight of vernal bloom, or summer's rose, Or flocks, or herds, or human face divine ; But cloud instead, and everduring dark Surrounds me, from the cheerful ways of men Cut off, and for the book of knowledge fair Presented with a universal blank Of nature's works, to me expunged and rased, And wisdom at one entrance quite shut out.
Page 169 - Nothing is here for tears, nothing to wail Or knock the breast, no weakness, no contempt. Dispraise or blame, nothing but well and fair. And what may quiet us in a death so noble.
Page 77 - take a long thin piece of whalebone, hold one end of it fast between your finger and thumb, and wind it round your finger; it will then endeavour to unwind itself ; and if you fix the other end of it to the inside of a small hoop, and leave it to itself, it will turn the hoop round and round, and wind up a thread tied to the outside of the hoop.
Page 194 - This kind of life — the cheerless gloom of a hermit, with the unceasing moil of a galley-slave, brought me to my sixteenth year ; a little before which period I first committed the sin of rhyme. You know our country custom of coupling a man and woman together as partners in the labours of harvest.
Page 198 - This facility was partly owing to the method pursued by their father and me in instructing them, which was, to make them thoroughly acquainted with the meaning of every word in each sentence that was to be committed to memory.
Page 80 - it was much easier to draw from the life than from any picture whatever, as nature was more striking than any imitation of it." His success in this new profession struck his country patrons as so remarkable, that they determined upon carrying him to Edinburgh, in order that he might be regularly instructed in those parts of the art of which he was still ignorant, Lady Dipple liberally agreeing to allow him to live in her house for two years.
Page 275 - ... incomparably better pleased than he had been in all the stages of his life before. And it is a mortifying speculation, that of the different characters of this man's enjoyments, separated one from the other, and exposed to an indifferent choice, there is scarce any one but this I have here described, really worth taking up. And yet the slavery of our nature is such, that this must be despised, and all the rest, with the attendant evils of vexation, disappointments, dangers, loss of health, disgraces,...
Page 91 - To this spot,' says his amiable and intelligent biographer, Lord Teignmouth, ' he returned every evening after sunset, and in the •morning rose so early, as to reach his apartments in town, by walking, at the first appearance of dawn. The intervening period of each morning, until the opening of court, was regularly allotted and applied to distinct studies.
Page 89 - In after life his maxim was never to neglect any opportunity of improvement which presented itself. In conformity with this rule, while making the most wonderful exertions in the study of Greek, Latin, and the Oriental languages, at Oxford, he took advantage of the vacations to learn riding and fencing, and to read all the best authors in Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and French; thus, to transcribe an observation of his own, " with the fortune of a peasant, giving himself the education of a prince.
Bibliographic information
| Title | Pursuit of Knowledge Under Difficulties: Its Pleasures and Rewards. Illustrated by Memoirs of Eminent Men, Volume 1 Pursuit of Knowledge Under Difficulties: Its Pleasures and Rewards. Illustrated by Memoirs of Eminent Men |
| Publisher | Harper & Brothers, 1840 |
| Original from | Princeton University |
| Digitized | 19 Mar 2008 |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |