The Listener, Volume 1

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Latimer and Company, 1832

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Page 81 - tis slander; Whose edge is sharper than the sword ; whose tongue Outvenoms all the worms of Nile; whose breath Rides on the posting winds, and doth belie All corners of the world : kings, queens, and states, Maids, matrons, nay, the secrets of the grave This viperous slander enters.
Page 26 - Yon cottager, who weaves at her own door, Pillow and bobbins all her little store: Content though mean, and cheerful if not gay, Shuffling her threads about the livelong day, Just earns a scanty pittance, and at night Lies down secure, her heart and pocket light; She for her humble sphere by nature fit, Has little understanding and no wit, Receives no praise; but though her lot be such, (Toilsome and indigent) she renders much; Just knows, and knows no more, her Bible true — A truth the brilliant...
Page 129 - Providence brings us in connexion, whether we meet them for a day or an hour, or the whole compass of our lives. We are not to be idle to please the idle; or ignorant to please the ignorant; or vicious to please the vicious: and, if we were, we should not succeed in pleasing them. But we are to rejoice with those that rejoice, and to weep with those that weep.
Page 16 - CONVERSATION. Conversation is the daughter of reasoning, the mother of knowledge, the breath of the soul, the commerce of hearts, the bond of friendship, the nourishment of contentment, and the occupation of men of wit. " HOLD your tongue, Miss Julia, little girls should be seen and not heard,
Page 31 - In the broad road, to use her own expressions, there were many walking, it was smooth and pleasant, and they got on fast — but the end of it was dark. On the narrow road she herself was treading and some few others — but the way was rugged — some turned back, and others sat down unable to proceed. She herself advanced till she reached a place more beautiful, she said, than any thing to which she could compare it. When asked what it was like, she could not say, but that it was very bright, and...
Page 28 - I might have determined that here at least was a spot where happiness could not dwell — one being, at least, to whom enjoyment upon earth must be forbidden by external circumstance — with whom to live was of necessity to be wretched. Well might the Listener in such a scene as this be startled by expressions of delight, strangely contrasted with the murmurs we are used to hear amid the world's abundance. But it was even so. From the pale shrivelled lips of this poor woman we heard a whispering...
Page 8 - ... them. Nature itself wore the garb of sadness, and man's too dependent spirits were ready to assume it — those, at least, that were not so happy as to find means of forgetting it. Such was the case with my unfortunate self. I had descended to the breakfast-room, at the usual hour, but no one appeared; I looked for a book, but found none but an almanac.
Page 10 - ... purpose was in the task. A third resumed the newspaper he had read for a whole hour before, and betook himself at last to the advertisements. A fourth repaired to the alcove — gathered some flowers, picked them to pieces, threw them away again, and returned. " Cease thy prating, thou never-resting time-piece," said I to myself,

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