Thomas Wright

“ Life, the shadow of wide-winged time, Cast from the wings that change as they climb, Life may vanish in death, and seem Less than the promise of last year's prime. But not for us is the past a dream Wherefrom, as light from a clouded stream, Faith fades and shivers and ebbs away, Faint as the moon if the sundawn gleam. Faith, whose eyes in the low last ray Watch the fire that renews the day, Faith which lives in the living past, Rock-rooted, swerves not as weeds that sway. ”

“ Night, she knows, may in no wise cling To a soul that sinks not and droops not wing, A sun that sets not in death's false night Whose kingdom finds him not thrall but king. Souls there are that for soul's affright Bow down and cower in the sun's glad sight, Clothed round with faith that is one with fear, And dark with doubt of the live world's light. ”

“ Ignorance was produced by war and conquest. With the rise of the Roman power, the fate of literature was decided, although various causes delayed for a time its final fall. The Romans were a people whose genius was formed for war and not for civilization. When the world was conquered, and none other remained accessible to their arms, they gave themselves up not to literature but to luxury, and their patronage of learning was but a spirit of emulation. ”

“ The Pleasures arising from natural Philosophy are all undoubtedly great ones, whether we consider Nature in her highest, or in her lowest Capacity; the Beauties of the Creation are every Day varied to us below, as much as they are every Night above, and in both Cases, through every Object, the Creator shines so manifest, that we may justly consider him every where smiling full in the Face of all his Creatures, commanding as it were an awful Reverence, and Respect, due not only to his Omnipotency, but also to his infinite Goodness and endless Indulgencies. ”

“ Among the population of Greece, the worship of Dionysus, or Bacchus, had taken deep root from a very early period—earlier than we can trace back—and it formed the nucleus of the popular religion and superstitions, the cradle of poetry and the drama. The most popular celebrations of the people of Greece, were the Dionysiac festivals, and the phallic rites and processions which accompanied them, in which the chief actors assumed the disguise of satyrs and fawns, covering themselves with goat-skins, and disfiguring their faces by rubbing them over with the lees of wine. ”

“ Thus, the queen wishes to be able to love God and the king, and to live in peace; the duchess, to have all the enjoyments and pleasures of wealth; the countess, to have a husband who was loyal and brave; the knight’s lady, to hunt the stag in the green woods; the damoiselle, or lady of gentle blood, also loved hunting, and wished for a husband valiant in war; and the chamber-maiden took pleasure in walking in the fair fields by the river-side; while the bourgeoise loved above all things a soft bed at night, with a good pillow, and clean white sheets. ”

“ Verses on the Death of Richard Burton 703 By Algernon Charles Swinburne Night of light is it now, wherein Sleeps, shut out from the wild world's din, Wakes, alive with a life more clear, One who found not on earth his kin? Sleep were sweet for awhile, were dear Surely to souls that were heartless here, Souls that faltered and flagged and fell, Soft of spirit and faint of cheer. A living soul that had strength to quell Hope the spectre and fear the spell, Clear-eyed, content with a scorn sublime And a faith superb, can it fare not well? ”

“ February introduces us to the interior of a house in which a portly bon-vivant is enjoying the pleasures of the table beside a glowing fire, whilst an upper compartment of the picture shews us the dreary season without. ”

“ If the fall of empires is determined and hastened by an over-ruling Providence, it is when their diseases are become incurable, and consequently when the only mode of permanently bettering mankind must be by their entire destruction. The infidel will boast exultingly that Christianity brought on the world the barbarism, ignorance, and intolerance which marked the latter days of the empire of Rome, and that the religion of Islam is as equally marked by the stamp of miraculous success and divine authority as that of Christ. ”

“ London life is placed before us in all its more popular forms in one grand tableau, the one in which it would show itself in its more grotesque attitudes; the London citizen, his vain or easy wife, sharpers of every description, and their victims no less varied in character, the petty city officers, all come in for their share of satire. ”

“ To conclude, it evidently seems to be the End and Design of Providence, by this visible Variety of Beings, to lift the Minds of Men above this narrow Earth, in Search of that powerful Being upon which we are all so much dependant; and the Creator, no doubt, in this vast Display of his Wisdom and Power, designed the amazing Whole, as the adequate Object of every Part, and as such equally open on all Sides, to the penetrating Progress of human Minds, and through the most extensive Faculty of Sense, the Sight, to draw our Reason and Understanding by Degrees, from finite Objects into Infinity ”

“ It is hardly necessary to say that there were no banking-houses among the Anglo-Saxons. The chest, or coffer, in which people kept their money and other valuables, appears to have formed part of the furniture of the chamber, as being the most private apartment; and it may be remarked that a rich man’s wealth usually consisted much more in jewels and valuable plate than in money.
We cannot but remark how little change the manners and the sentiments of our Saxon forefathers underwent during the long period that we are in any way acquainted with them. ”

“ To one house, the hostess of which was one of the most fashionable women in London, Burton, no matter how much pressed, had never been prevailed upon to go. He disliked the lady and that was enough. "Here's an invitation for all of us to Lady ——'s," said Mrs. Burton to him one day in honied tones. "Now, Dick, darling, this time you must go just for Lisa's sake. It's a shame she should lose so excellent a chance of going into good society. Other people go, why shouldn't we? Eh, darling?"
"What won't people do," growled Burton, "for the sake of a dinner!" ”