John Collins

“ We have consulted the letters and letter-books in the custody of the Royal Society, and those found among the papers of Mr. John Collins, dated between the years 1669 and 1677, inclusive; and showed them to such as knew and avouched the hands of Mr. Barrow, Mr. Collins, Mr. Oldenburg, and Mr. Leibnitz; and compared those of Mr. Gregory with one another, and with copies of some of them taken in the hand of Mr. Collins; and have extracted from them what relates to the matter referred to us; all which extracts herewith delivered to you we believe to be genuine and authentic. ”

“ Collins went to the old servant with a quick movement and took his hand.
“Now listen to me, John. I will tell you exactly what happened. You have been allowing yourself to brood over your old master’s death, and it has got on your nerves. You were probably thinking of him because the house was quiet, and when you came into the dining-room, the sun was shining right on to the portrait of Sir James, and you imagined he was standing on the rug. It is really quite a common thing. It’s what we call hallucination. You must not let it worry you. ”

“ The father was a mathematician, and in 1824 published a volume of 'Spiritual Songs.' He died in 1839. Collins, his only child, was educated at private schools, and while still a schoolboy contributed to papers. He was anxious to become a journalist, but by his mother's desire accepted a tutorship. About 1849 he married Susannah, daughter of John Hubbard, and widow of the Rev. J. H. Crump. He had by her one daughter, married in 1871 to Mr. Keningale Cook. Soon after his marriage he went to Guernsey, where he was appointed mathematical master of Queen Elizabeth's College. ”

“ She came back to me unwillingly, like a woman acting under some influence which the utmost exertion of her will was powerless to resist.
"Do you believe John Jago is still a living man?"
She put the question vehemently, desperately, as if the words rushed out of her mouth in spite of her.
"I do not believe it," I answered.
"Remember what John Jago has suffered at the hands of my brothers," she persisted. "Is it not in your experience that he should take a sudden resolution to leave the farm?" ”

“ John gives the orders now. The boys do the work; but they have no voice in it when John and the old man put their heads together over the business of the farm. I have been long in telling you of it, sir; but now you know how the envy and the hatred grew among the men, before my time. Since I have been here, things seem to get worse and worse. There's hardly a day goes by that hard words don't pass between the boys and John, or the boys and their father. The old man has an aggravating way, Mr. Lefrank—a nasty way, as we do call it—of taking John Jago's part. ”

“ John Want! John Want! whatever had you done with your natural senses when you made up your mind to go to sea?”
A new voice hailed the cook, speaking from one of the bed-places in the side of the hut. It was the voice of Francis Aldersley.
“Who’s that croaking over the fire?”
“Croaking?” repeated John Want, with the air of a man who considered himself the object of a gratuitous insult. “Croaking? You don’t find your own voice at all altered for the worse—do you, Mr. Frank? I don’t give him,” John proceeded, speaking confidentially to himself, “more than six hours to last. ”

“ The man (with a man's temperament) doesn't live who could have left her. Midwinter went in.
A stupid, sleepy lad opened the house door. Even he, being a male creature, brightened under the influence of Miss Gwilt. "The urn, John," she said, kindly, "and another cup and saucer. I'll borrow your candle to light my candles upstairs, and then I won't trouble you any more to-night." John was wakeful and active in an instant. "No trouble, miss," he said, with awkward civility. Miss Gwilt took his candle with a smile. "How good people are to me!" ”

“ John's Wood, she was alive, by Sir Percival's own showing, at Blackwater—and, on the day after, she was to take a journey! When the proof of that journey was obtained from the flyman, the evidence would be complete.
"A quarter-past five," said the Count, looking at his watch. "Time for my restorative snooze. I personally resemble Napoleon the Great, as you may have remarked, Mr. Hartright—I also resemble that immortal man in my power of commanding sleep at will. Excuse me one moment. I will summon Madame Fosco, to keep you from feeling dull." ”

“ In 1901 the philanthropist, John Passmore Edwards [q. v. Suppl. II] , gave, at Collins's personal persuasion, the sum of 1675l. to found at Oxford a scholarship for the encouragement of the study of English literature in connection with the classical literatures of Greece and Rome. The scholarship was first awarded at Michaelmas 1902. A chair in English literature was established in 1903. Collins's victory brought him no personal reward. He applied for the new chair at Oxford without result.
Collins was always extending his journalistic and teaching work at the risk of his health. ”

“ It is enough that he did triumphantly what he set himself to do; the best and most precious things in life are not often the most lasting; and whether or not his work is immortal, it was great in its kind and an art beyond the genius of novelists who seem destined to outlive him.
And, as a form of literature, the novel of sensation, crime, mystery is immortal if its authors are not. Collins has been dethroned, but his successors are legion, and none has made out a stronger title to the inheritance of his mantle than Phillips Oppenheim. ”

“ That same night, Colson and Collins were taken into the room where Emanuel Thomson lay, when they were told the governor was pleased to grant mercy to one of the three, and desired they might draw lots, when the free lot fell to Edward Collins, who was then carried to the chamber of the acquitted persons before-named. John Beaumont was soon after brought to the same place, and told that he owed his life to Peter Johnson, the Dutch merchant of Loho, and the secretary, who had begged his life. ”

“ Ragdale relates that Collins was in the habit of writing numerous fragments, and then throwing them into the flames. Jackson, of Exeter, says the same of John Bampfylde. A sensitive mind is scarce ever satisfied with the reception it meets, when, in first heat of composition, it hopes to delight some listener, to which it first communicates its new effusions. It almost always considers itself to be “damn’d by faint praise.” ”

“ The young man was not long a member of the firm when he became enamoured of a young lady named Collins, whom he had met at the house of a mutual friend. For a longtime he paid attention to this young lady, taking her to balls, concerts and operas, and finally he proposed for her hand and was accepted.
Miss Collins was scarcely what one would call a beautiful girl, yet there was an attractiveness of manner peculiar to her which caused her to be much, sought after and admired in social circles, and many were the sad and heavy when it became known that she was about to marry John Wilkie. ”

“ The Collins family or families of Kentucky have been notably distinguished. General Richard H. Collins was a lawyer of great ability. His sons, also lawyers, were brilliant and cultivated men. John A. Collins was a member of the Cincinnati bar, and a partner of Senator Pugh. Charles and William were writers of ability and distinction. Richard was a gallant Confederate soldier and the artillerist of Shelby's command. Their father welcomed John Quincy Adams to Kentucky when he made his famous speech in vindication of Mr. Clay. ”

“ She took up the knife once more, and went on cleaning it as industriously as ever.
"I mustn't tell you," she resumed, with her head down over the knife. "I have promised not to tell anybody. That's the truth. Forget all about it, sir, as soon as you can. Hush! here's the spy who saw us last night on the walk, and who told Silas!"
Dreary Miss Meadowcroft opened the kitchen-door. She carried an ostentatiously large Prayer Book; and she looked at Naomi as only a jealous woman of middle age can look at a younger and prettier woman than herself. ”

“ Meadowcroft the elder, having not spoken one word thus far, himself introduced the new-comer to me, with a side-glance at his sons, which had something like defiance in it—a glance which, as I was sorry to notice, was returned with a similar appearance of defiance by the two young men.
"Philip Lefrank, this is my overlooker, Mr. Jago," said the old man, formally presenting us. "John Jago, this is my young relative by marriage, Mr. Lefrank. He is not well! he has come over the ocean for rest, and change of scene. Mr. Jago is an American, Philip. I hope you have no prejudice against Americans. ”

“ The discourse made a great sensation. In the preface to his Scheme of Literal Prophecy Considered, 1727, in which he replied to his critics, Collins gives a list of thirty-five answers which had already appeared. Collins gave the principal attention to Bishop Chandler. Lesser fry suggested persecution. Dr. John Rogers, Canon of Wells, wrote: “A confessor or two would be a mighty ornament to his cause. If he expects us to believe that he is in earnest, and believes himself, he should not decline giving us this proof of his sincerity. ”

“ We had at first, indeed, no manner of notion how a diurnal paper could be continued in the spirit and style of our present Spectators: but, to our no small surprise, we find them still rising upon us, and can only wonder from whence so prodigious a run of Wit and Learning can proceed; since some of our best judges seem to think that they have hitherto, in general, outshone even the Esquire's first Tatlers.
Most people fancy, from their frequency, that they must be composed by a
Society: I withal assign the first places to Mr. STEELE and his Friend. ”

“ Collins" appeared to be a capitalist, and interested himself in studying the resources of the country with a view to investment. The Governor of the place showed him the only lion in Fremantle, the great penal institution, which "Mr. Collins" visited more than once during his stay. During one of his visits, he conveyed a letter to the six political prisoners, and soon after met James Wilson, with whom he arranged the details of the escape. ”

“ One of these natives made his escape presently afterwards, but the other grew reconciled to his situation, and lives with the governor: he is a very intelligent man, and much information may, no doubt, be procured from him, when he can be well understood. Mr. Collins, the judge-advocate, is very assiduous in learning the language, in which he has made a great progress. ”

“ And in this, all our Poets are extremely peccant; even BEN. JOHNSON himself, in SEFANUS and CATILINE, has given this Oleo [hodge-podge] of a Play, this unnatural mixture of Comedy and Tragedy; which, to me, sounds just as ridiculous as The History of DAVID, with the merry humours of GOLIAS. In SEFANUS, you may take notice of the Scene between LIVIA and the Physician; which is a pleasant satire upon the artificial helps of beauty. In CATILINE, you may see the Parliament of Women; the little envies of them to one another ”

“ COLLINS, JOHN (1725?–1759?) , landscape painter, was from an early age patronised by the aristocracy. At the expense of the Duke of Ancaster, the Marquis of Exeter, and others, he travelled in Italy and studied his art there. On his return to England he painted scenes for one of the principal theatres in London. He died of an infectious fever at a silversmith's in Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, about 1758 or 1759. ”

“ Johnson is perfectly right in saying that Collins is too harsh and obscure, too apt to lose his way "in quest of mistaken beauties": where he is wrong is in not saying that he produced one of the most perfect Odes in our own or any other language. And even in Gray's case, where he is at his worst, there are things which an intelligent lover of Gray is the better for reading. ”

“ COLLINS, JOHN (d. 1808) , actor and poet, obtained great popularity at the close of the last century for his musical entertainments, and his fame as a poet has recently been revived through the circumstance that one of his compositions, 'the truly noble poem' of 'To-morrow,' was included in Mr. Palgrave's 'Golden Treasury,' and two other pieces were inserted in Mr. Locker's 'Lyra Elegantiarum.' He was born at Bath, and from some lines in his own collection of poems, entitled 'Scripscrapologia,' he would seem to have been a tailor's son. ”

“ I rose to go up to my room. Everybody else in the farm had retired to bed, as usual, more than an hour since. The stillness in the house was breathless. I walked softly, by instinct, as I crossed the room to look out at the night. A lovely moonlight met my view: it was like the moonlight on the fatal evening when Naomi had met John Jago on the garden-walk. ”

“ Several French songs were sung by Mr. Sheares, with proper explanations for those ignorant of the language.' [401] Glimpses of further feasts are caught, revealing the same familiar faces: men who had not yet begun to realise the gruesome fact that the handwriting was on the wall.
John Keogh is not often mentioned as present; and never after 1793. In October '92 Collins furnishes an abstract of a spirited speech delivered by Keogh. This led to queries, and in reply Collins tells Cooke: 'The leaders are Hamilton Rowan, Tandy, Jackson, Bond, Dowling, McCormick, Warren, and some others. ”