The miscellaneous writings, speeches and poems of lord Macaulay, Volume 1

Front Cover
 

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page 14 - ... called it, between him and his mother, where you told me he acted so fine, why, Lord help me, any man, that is, any good man, that had such a mother, would have done exactly the same. I know you are only joking with me; but indeed, madam, though I was never at a play in London, yet I have seen acting before in the country; and the king for my money; he speaks all his words distinctly, half as loud again as the other.— Anybody may see he is an actor.
Page 58 - A porter tells the story as if he had been hid behind the curtains of the royal bed at Windsor. "So Lord Goderich says, 'I cannot manage this business ; I must go out.
Page 302 - Let them be even as the grass growing upon the housetops, which withereth afore it be plucked up ; 7 Whereof the mower filleth not his hand, neither he that bindeth up the sheaves his bosom. 8 So that they who go by say not so much as, The LORD prosper you, we wish you good luck in the name of the LORD.
Page 102 - More than one illustrious stranger has landed on our island amidst the shouts of a mob, has dined with the King, has hunted with the master of the stag-hounds, has seen the Guards reviewed, and a Knight of the Garter installed, has cantered along Regent Street, has visited St. Paul's, and noted down its dimensions; and has then departed, thinking that he has seen England.
Page 263 - When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this mark — that the dunces are all in confederacy against him.
Page 107 - The instruction derived from history thus written would be of a vivid and practical character. It would be received by the imagination as well as by the reason. It would be not merely traced on the mind, but branded into it. Many truths, too, would be learned, which can be learned in no other manner. As the history of states is generally written, the greatest and most momentous revolutions seem to come upon them like supernatural inflictions, without warning or cause. But the fact is, that such revolutions...
Page 104 - But a truly great historian would reclaim those materials which the novelist has appropriated. The history of the government, and the history of the people, would be exhibited in that mode in which alone they can be exhibited justly, in inseparable conjunction and intermixture. We should not then have to look for the wars and votes of the Puritans in Clarendon, and for their phraseology in Old Mortality ; for one-half of King James in Hume and for the other half in the Fortunes of Nigel.
Page 13 - And during the whole speech of the ghost, he sat with his eyes fixed partly on the ghost and partly on Hamlet, and with his mouth open; the same passions which succeeded each other in Hamlet succeeding likewise in him. When the scene was over, Jones said, Why, Partridge, you exceed my expectations. You enjoy the play more than I conceived possible.
Page 28 - Bible, a book which, if everything else in our language should perish, would alone suffice to show the whole extent of its beauty and power.
Page 270 - All our effort ends in belief that for the evils of life there is some good reason, and in confession that the reason cannot be found." What says Paley ? " Of the origin of evil no universal solution has been discovered. I mean no solution which reaches to all cases of complaint. — The consideration of general laws, although it may concern the question of the origin of evil very nearly, which I think it does, rests in views disproportionate to our faculties, and in a knowledge which we do not possess....

Bibliographic information