A General Biographical Dictionary: Containing Lives of the Most Eminent Persons of All Ages and Nations, Volume 4

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A. Bell & Company, 1835
 

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Page 279 - ... perspicacity. To every work he brought a memory full fraught, together with a fancy fertile of original combinations, and at once exerted the powers of the scholar, the reasoner, and the wit. But his knowledge was too multifarious to be always exact, and his pursuits were too eager to be always cautious.
Page 280 - His abilities gave him a haughty confidence, which he disdained to conceal or mollify; and his impatience of opposition disposed him to treat his adversaries with such contemptuous superiority as made his readers commonly his enemies, and excited against the advocate the wishes of some who favoured the cause. He seems to have adopted the Roman Emperor's determination, 'oderint dum metuant'; he used no allurements of gentle language, but wished to compel rather than persuade.
Page 195 - ... that his person and property should be held sacred. But, notwithstanding these assurances, he was treacherously seized in the night, hurried on board a ship of war, and transported to Brest. He was conducted, first to close prison in Chateaux de Joux, and from thence to...
Page 311 - He did so ; and when the copy went to America, the profits arising from its exhibition enabled the committee of the hospital to enlarge the building and receive more patients.
Page 321 - England in 1755, and settled in the metropolis. He had for a while much employment; but he was at length doomed to undergo indifference and neglect, and was...
Page 69 - Christis Kirk of the Grene," a tale, the first part of which is attributed to James I of Scotland. The latter, though objectionable in point of delicacy, has been regarded as the happiest of the author's effusions. His chief excellence, indeed, lay in the description of rural characters, incidents, and scenery ; for he did not possess any very high powers, either of imagination or of understanding. He was well acquainted with the peasantry of Scotland, thtir lives and opinions.
Page 119 - Charles /), he was nominated a member, but was neither present when sentence was pronounced, nor signed the warrant for the execution. It appears, however, that he vindicated that measure, which has led to a supposition that, in withholding his signature, he only yielded to the influence of his father. A politician so inimical to the encroachments of authority was not likely to acquiesce in a usurpation; and he warmly opposed the designs of Cromwell. During the government both of the protector and...
Page 287 - His funds were not prodigally wasted on capricious and ill-examined schemes, nor refused to beneficial though costly improvements. They remained therefore competent to that expensive establishment which his reputation, added to a hospitable temper, had in some measure imposed upon him, and to those donations which real distress has a right to claim from opulence.
Page 314 - May, where he was received with great cordiality, and acquired considerable influence. Observing the deplorable want of education in the colony, he projected an orphan-house, for which he determined to raise contributions in England, where arrived in the beginning of 1739.
Page 353 - The Athenians placed so much confidence in his integrity, that they deposited the keys of their citadel in his hands, and decreed him a golden crown and a statue. He is said to have come rich into Greece, but he lived with great simplicity and abstemiousness; and the modesty of his disposition led him to shun crowds and personal distinctions. He reached the advanced age of ninety-eight, when, hurting one of his fingers in a fall, he interpreted the accident into a warning to depart, and, repeating...

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