Wit and Wisdom of the Rev. Sydney Smith |
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American appears beautiful become believe bishops body called Catholic cause character church cloth common considered conversation course dear death Edinburgh effect England English existence eyes father feeling give given habit hand happiness hear heart Holland honour hope human humour ideas important improvement interest Jeffrey keep kind knowledge Lady laws learning less letter light live London look Lord manner matter means Memoir mind moral nature never object observation once opinion passed person pleasure political poor present Price produce question reason relation remember respect Review rich seems sense society Sydney Smith talents talk things thought thousand tion truth turn understanding virtue whole wish women writes young
Popular passages
Page 417 - O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether.
Page 214 - Tis the sunset of life gives me mystical lore, And coming events cast their shadows before.
Page 184 - In the four quarters of the globe, who reads an American book ? or goes to an American play ? or looks at an American picture or statue...
Page 182 - ... that restores him to health — on the ermine which decorates the judge, and the rope which hangs the criminal ; on the poor man's salt, and the rich man's spice ; on the brass nails of the coffin, and the ribbons of the bride : at bed or board, couchant or levant, we must pay.
Page 399 - As one who long in populous city pent, Where houses thick and sewers annoy the air, Forth issuing on a summer's morn to breathe Among the pleasant villages and farms Adjoined, from each thing met conceives delight, The smell of grain, or tedded grass, or kine, Or dairy, each rural sight, each rural sound...
Page 228 - But when wit is combined with sense and information ; when it is softened by benevolence, and restrained by strong principle ; when it is in the hands of a man who can use it and despise it, who can be witty and something much better than witty, who loves honour, justice, decency, good-nature, morality, and religion, ten thousand times better than wit ; — wit is then a beautiful and delightful part of our nature.
Page 310 - ... and vigorously pushing away the Atlantic Ocean. The Atlantic was roused. Mrs Partington's spirit was up. But I need not tell you that the contest was unequal. The Atlantic Ocean beat Mrs Partington. She was excellent at a slop or a puddle, but she should not have meddled with a tempest.
Page 182 - ... paid a license of a hundred pounds for the privilege of putting him to death. His whole property is then immediately taxed from two to ten per cent. Besides the probate, large fees are demanded for burying him in the chancel ; his virtues are handed down to posterity on taxed marble ; and he is then gathered to his fathers, — to be taxed no more.
Page 328 - Sovereign and to the country : instead of being the ignorant man he pretends to be, before he meets the deputation of Tallow-Chandlers in the morning, he sits up half the night talking with Thomas Young about melting and skimming, and then, though he has acquired knowledge enough to work off a whole vat of prime Leicester tallow, he pretends next morning not to know the difference between a dip and a mould.
Page 421 - Let onion atoms lurk within the bowl, And, half-suspected, animate the whole. Of mordant mustard add a single spoon, Distrust the condiment that bites so soon; But deem it not, thou man of herbs, a fault To add a double quantity of salt; Four times the spoon with oil of Lucca crown, And twice with vinegar procured from town; And lastly o'er the flavoured compound toss A magic soupcon of anchovy sauce.
Bibliographic information
| Title | Wit and Wisdom of the Rev. Sydney Smith |
| Author | Sydney Smith |
| Editor | Evert Augustus Duyckinck |
| Publisher | Redfield, 1856 |
| Original from | the New York Public Library |
| Digitized | Nov 16, 2006 |
| Length | 458 pages |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |