The Autobiography of Mary Smith, Schoolmistress and Nonconformist, a Fragment of a Life: With Letters from Jane Welsh Carlyle and Thomas Carlyle, Volume 1

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Bemrose & Sons, 1892
 

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Page 46 - My boast is not, that I deduce my birth From loins enthroned and rulers of the earth ; But higher far my proud pretensions rise — The son of parents passed into the skies ! And now, farewell — Time unrevoked has run His wonted course, yet what I wished is done.
Page 45 - My soul doth magnify the Lord: and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour. For He hath regarded: the lowliness of His handmaiden. For behold, from henceforth: all generations shall call me blessed. For He that is mighty hath magnified me: and Holy is His name.
Page 28 - ... trees in summer yield him shade. In winter fire. Blest, who can unconcern'dly find Hours, days, and years slide soft away. In health of body, peace of mind, Quiet by day. Sound sleep by night; study and ease, Together mixt; sweet recreation: And innocence, which most does please With meditation.
Page 303 - ... Further, we were very poor, and further and worst, being an only child, and brought up to " great prospects," I was sublimely ignorant of every branch of useful knowledge, though a capital Latin scholar, and...
Page 303 - Craigenputtock a whit less of a peat bog, and a most dreary, untoward place to live at. In fact, it was sixteen miles distant on every side from all the conveniences of life, shops, and even post office. Further, we were very poor, and further and worst, being an only child, and brought up to 'great prospects...
Page 218 - But Knowledge to their eyes her ample page, Rich with the spoils of time, did ne'er unroll ; Chill Penury repressed their noble rage And froze the genial current of the soul.
Page 303 - Further, we were very poor, and, further and worst, being an only child, and brought up to "great prospects", I was sublimely ignorant of every branch of useful knowledge, though a capital Latin scholar and a very fair mathematician ! ! It behoved me in these astonishing circumstances to learn— to sew!
Page 304 - soured on his stomach' (oh Heaven!), and it was plainly my duty as a Christian wife to bake at home. So I sent for Cobbett's Cottage Economy, and fell to work at a loaf of bread.
Page 304 - After all, in the sight of the Upper Powers, what is the mighty difference between a statue of Perseus and a loaf of bread, so that each be the thing one's hand has found to do...
Page 304 - ... put into bed; and I remained the only person not asleep in a house in the middle of a desert. One o'clock struck, and then two, and then three, and still I was sitting there in an immense solitude, my whole body aching with weariness, my heart aching with a sense of forlornness and degradation.

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