The Classic; Or, Summary of Mental Improvement and Moral Entertainment ... in a Variety of the Most Approved Histories, Anecdotes, Allegories, Tales, Visions, Etc., Selected from the Best Classical Writers, to which is Prefixed, an Essay on Pronunciation Or DeliveryHodson, 1801 - 140 pages |
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Abdallah acquainted advantage æther Alcander Almalic Androcles animals appeared Balsora beauty behold blessings body bounds set Caliph Castilian cheerfulness consider Constantia conversation creation creatures daugh daughter death dervise discovered divine drachmas effeminacy endeavour eternity eunuchs eyes father favour give habit hand happy Hassan heart heaven Helim Herod honour infinite space inhabitants Inkle king kingdom of Castile kingdom of Naples labour length lion live look lovers manner Mariamne Mark Antony matter means midst mind Mirza mother nature never observed Omar omniscience ourselves passed passion pauses perceive perfection Persian empire person Physiognomist pitch the bar pleasure present reason received renegado reward Rhynsault rise secret sense sensible sent soon soul speak speaker species SPECTATOR Story tears thee Theodosius ther thing thou art thought tion told ture virtue voice whole wife wisdom women words youth
Popular passages
Page 111 - How can it enter into the thoughts of man, that the soul, which is capable of such immense perfections, and of receiving new improvements to all eternity, shall fall away into nothing almost as soon as it is created ? Are such abilities made for no purpose ? A brute arrives at a point of perfection that he can never pass : in a few years he has all the endowments he is capable of ; and were he to live ten thousand more, would be the same thing he is at present.
Page 112 - ... enlargements, I could imagine it might fall away insensibly, and drop at once into a state of annihilation. But can we believe a thinking being, that is in a perpetual progress of improvements, and travelling on from perfection to perfection, after having just looked abroad into the works of its Creator, and made a few discoveries of his infinite goodness, wisdom, and power, must perish at her first setting out, and in the very beginning of her inquiries ? A man, considered in his present state,...
Page 114 - With what astonishment and veneration may we look into our own souls, where there are such hidden stores of virtue and knowledge, such inexhausted sources of perfection ? We know not yet what we shall be, nor will it ever enter into the heart of man to conceive the glory that will be always in reserve for him. The soul, considered with its Creator, is like one of those mathematical lines that may draw nearer to another for all eternity without a possibility of touching it*: and can there be a thought...
Page 18 - ... us downwards : which, if it be probable, we have reason then to be persuaded, that there are far more species of creatures above us, than there are beneath ; we being in degrees of perfection much more remote from the infinite Being of God, than we are from the lowest state of Being, and that which approaches nearest to nothing. And yet of all those distinct species, we have no clear distinct ideas.
Page 18 - ... as his father, and the highest order of spirits as his brethren, may, in another respect, say to " corruption, thou art my father, and to the worm, thou art my mother and my sister.
Page 81 - ... near unto the rocks of Pleasure, that they might solace themselves with a short enjoyment of that delicious region, after which they always determined to pursue their course without any other deviation. Reason was...
Page 113 - There is not, in my opinion, a more pleasing and triumphant consideration in religion than this of the perpetual progress which the soul makes towards the perfection of its nature, without ever arriving at a period in it.
Page 111 - But among those and other excellent arguments for the immortality of the soul, there is one drawn from the perpetual progress of the soul to its perfection, without a possibility of ever arriving at it; which is a hint...
Page 49 - I have sinned ; what shall I do unto thee, O thou preserver of men? Why hast thou set me as a mark against thee, So that I am a burden to myself?
Page 116 - That particular scheme which comprehends the social virtues, may give employment to the most industrious temper, and find a man in business more than the most active station of life. To advise the ignorant, relieve the needy, comfort the afflicted, are duties that fall in our way almost every day of our lives. A man has frequent opportunities of mitigating the fierceness of a party ; of doing justice to the character of a deserving man ; of softening the envious, quieting the angry, and rectifying...