work_id,theme,provenance,created_at,text,reviewed_on,id,comments,metaphor,dictionary,updated_at,context
7541,"",Reading; text from DocSouth,2013-07-11 21:33:13 UTC,"I HAVE read, but have found nothing of the striking kind of sentimental novelty--which I expected from its great author--the language is good in most places--but never rises above the common pitch.--In many of our inferior tragedies--I have ever found here and there a flower strewn, which has been the grace and pride of the poetic par terre, and has made me involuntary cry out, Bravo!--from dress--scenery--action--and the rest of play-house garniture--it may shew well and go down--like insipid fish with good sauce;--the Prologue is well--the Epilogue worth the whole--such is my criticism--read--stare--and conclude your friend mad--tho' a more Christian supposition would be--(what's true at the same time) that my ideas are frozen, much more frigid than the play;--but allowing that--and although I confess myself exceeding cold, yet I have warmth enough to declare myself yours sincerely, [...]
(I.xl, pp. 107-8; p. 79 in Carretta)",,21679,"","""The Prologue is well--the Epilogue worth the whole--such is my criticism--read--stare--and conclude your friend mad--tho' a more Christian supposition would be--(what's true at the same time) that my ideas are frozen, much more frigid than the play;--but allowing that--and although I confess myself exceeding cold, yet I have warmth enough to declare myself yours sincerely.""","",2013-07-11 21:33:13 UTC,"Vol. I, letter xl"
7541,"",Reading; text from DocSouth,2013-07-11 21:35:00 UTC,"ZOUNDS! if alive--what ails you? if dead--why did you not send me word?--Where's my Tristram?--What, are all bucks alike?--all promise and no--but I won't put myself in a passion--I have but one foot and no head-- go-to--why, what a devil of a rate dost thou ride at anathematizing and reprobating poor--! pho! thou simpleton--he deserves thy pity--and whoever harbours a grain of contempt for his fellow creatures--either in the school of poverty or misfortune--that Being is below contempt--and lives the scorn of men--and shame of devils.--Thou shalt not think evil of----; nor shall he, either by word or thought, dispraisingly speak or think of M----.
In regard to thy N----, thou art right--guard her well--but chiefly guard her from the traitor in her own fair breast, which, while it is the seat of purity and unsullied honor--fancies its neighbours to be the same--nor sees the serpent in the flowery foliage--till it stings--and then farewell sweet peace and its attendant riches.
(I.xli, pp. 108-9; p. 80 in Carretta)
",,21680,"[fixing ""fees"" for ""sees""]","""In regard to thy N----, thou art right--guard her well--but chiefly guard her from the traitor in her own fair breast, which, while it is the seat of purity and unsullied honor--fancies its neighbours to be the same--nor sees the serpent in the flowery foliage--till it stings--and then farewell sweet peace and its attendant riches.""",Inhabitants and Throne,2013-07-11 21:35:00 UTC,"Vol. I, letter xli"
7541,"",Reading; text from DocSouth,2013-07-11 21:36:09 UTC,"[...] Never so struck in my life;--it was on Friday night, between ten and eleven, just preparing for my concluding pipe--the Duke of M----'s man knocks.--""Have you heard the bad news?""--No--""the Duchess of Queensbury died last night.""--I felt fifty different sensations--unbelief was uppermost--when he crushed my incredibility, by saying he had been to know how his Grace did--who was also very poorly in health.--Now the preceding day, Thursday (the day on which she expired) I had received a very penitential letter from S----, dated from St. Helena;--this letter I inclosed in a long tedious epistle of my own--and sent to Petersham, believing the family to be all there.--The day after you left town her Grace died--that day week she was at my door--the day after I had the honor of a long audience in her dressing-room.--Alas! this hour blessed with health--crowned with honors--loaded with riches, and encircled with friends--the next reduced to a lump of poor clay--a tenement for worms.--Earth re-possesses part of what she gave--and the freed spirit mounts on wings of fire;--her disorder was a stoppage--she fell ill the evening of the Friday that I last saw her continued in her full senses to the last.--The good she had done reached the skies long before her lamented death--and are the only heralds that are worth the pursuit of wisdom:--as to her bad deeds, I have never heard of them--had it been for the best, God would have lent her a little longer to a foolish world, which hardly deserved so good a woman;--for my own part--I have lost a friend--and perhaps 'tis better so.--""Whatever is,"" &c. &c.--I wish S---- knew this heavy news, for many reasons.--I am inclined to believe her Grace's death is the only thing that will most conduce to his reform.--I fear neither his gratitude nor sensibility will be much hurt upon hearing the news--it will act upon his fears, and make him do right upon a base principle.--Hang him! he teazes me whenever I think of him.--I supped last night with St.----; he called in just now, and says he has a right to be remembered to you.--You and he are two odd monkeys--the more I abuse and rate you, the better friend you think me.--As you have found out that your spirits govern your head--you will of course contrive every method of keeping your instrument in tune;--sure I am that bathing--riding--walking--in succession--the two latter not violent, will brace your nerves--purify your blood--invigorate its circulation--add to the rest continency--yes, again I repeat it, continency;--before you reply, think--re-think--and think again--look into your Bible--look in Young--peep into your own breast--if your heart warrants--what your head counsels--act then boldly.--Oh! apropos--pray thank my noble friend Mrs. H--for her friendly present of C-- J--; it did Mrs. Sancho service, and does poor Billy great good--who has (through his teeth) been plagued with a cough--which I hope will not turn to the whooping sort;--the girls greet you as their respected school-master.--As to your spirited kind offer of a F----, why when you please--you know what I intend doing with it.
(I.xliii, pp. 119-22; pp. 84-6 in Carretta)",,21681,"","""Earth re-possesses part of what she gave--and the freed spirit mounts on wings of fire;--her disorder was a stoppage--she fell ill the evening of the Friday that I last saw her continued in her full senses to the last.""",Animals,2013-07-11 21:36:09 UTC,"Vol. I, letter xliii"
7541,"",Reading; text from DocSouth,2013-07-11 21:37:53 UTC,"THERE is something so amazingly grand--so stupendously affecting--in the contemplating the works of the Divine Architect, either in the moral, or the intellectual world, that I think one may rightly call it the cordial of the soul--it is the physic of the mind-- and the best antidote against weak pride--and the supercilious murmurings of discontent.--Smoaking my morning pipe, the friendly warmth of that glorious planet the sun--the leniency of the air--the chearful glow of the atmosphere--made me involuntarily cry, ""Lord, ""what is man, that thou in thy mercy ""art so mindful of him! or what the son ""of man, that thou so parentally carest ""for him!"" David, whose heart and affections were naturally of the first kind (and who indeed had experienced blessings without number) pours fourth the grateful sentiments of his enraptured soul in the sweetest modulations of pathetic oratory;--the tender mercies of the Almighty are not less to many of his creatures--but their hearts--unlike the royal disposition of the shepherd King, are cold, and untouched with the sweet ray of gratitude.--Let us, without meanly sheltering our infirmities under the example of others--perhaps worse taught--or possessed of less leisure for self-examination--let us, my dear M----, look into ourselves--and by a critical examination of the past events of our lives, fairly confess what mercies we have received--what God in his goodness hath done for us--and how our gratitude and praise have kept pace in imitation of the son of Jesse.--Such a research would richly pay us--for the end would be conviction--so much on the side of miraculous mercy--such an unanswerable proof of the superintendency of Divine Providence, as would effectually cure us of rash despondency--and melt our hearts--with devotional aspirations--till we poured forth the effusions of our souls in praise and thanksgiving.--When I sometimes endeavour to turn my thoughts inwards, to review the power or properties the indulgent all-wise Father has endow'd me with, I am struck with wonder and with awe--worm, poor insignificant reptile as I am, with regard to superior beings--mortal like myself.--Amongst, and at the very head of our riches, I reckon the power of reflection:--Where? where, my friend, doth it lie?--Search every member from the toe to the nose--all--all ready for action--but all dead to thought--it lies not in matter--nor in the blood--it is a party, which though we feel and acknowledge, quite past the power of definition--it is that breath of life which the Sacred Architect breathed into the nostrils of the first man--image of his gracious Maker--and let it animate our torpid gratitude--it rolls on, although diminished by our cruel fall, through the whole race--""We are fearfully and wonderfully made,"" &c. &c. were the sentiments of the Royal Preacher upon a self-review--but had he been blessed with the full blaze of the Christian dispensation--what would have been his raptures?--the promise of never, never-ending existence and felicity, to possess eternity--""glorious dreadful thought!""--to rise, perhaps, by regular progression from planet to planet--to behold the wonders of immensity--to pass from good to better--increasing in goodness--knowledge--love--to glory in our Redeemer--to joy in ourselves--to be acquainted with prophets, sages, heroes, and poets of old times--and join in symphony with angels.--And now, my friend, thou smilest at my futile notions--why preach to thee?--For this very good and simple reason, to get your thoughts in return.--You shall be my philosopher--my Mentor--my friend;--you, happily disengaged from various cares of life and family, can review the little world of man with steadier eye, and more composed thought, than your friend, declining fast into the vale of years, and beset with infirmity and pain.--Write now and then, as thought prompts, and inclination leads--refute my errors--where I am just give me your plaudit.--Your welfare in truly dear in my sight--and if any man has a share in my heart, or commands my respect and esteem, it is I---- M----.
(I.xliv, pp. 123-7; pp. 87-9)
",,21682,"[fixing OCR error: ""all-wife,"" ""fight""]","""There is something so amazingly grand--so stupendously affecting--in the contemplating the works of the Divine Architect, either in the moral, or the intellectual world, that I think one may rightly call it the cordial of the soul--it is the physic of the mind--and the best antidote against weak pride--and the supercilious murmurings of discontent.""","",2013-07-11 21:37:53 UTC,"Vol. I, letter xliv"
7541,"",Reading; text from DocSouth,2013-07-11 21:39:16 UTC,"THERE is something so amazingly grand--so stupendously affecting--in the contemplating the works of the Divine Architect, either in the moral, or the intellectual world, that I think one may rightly call it the cordial of the soul--it is the physic of the mind-- and the best antidote against weak pride--and the supercilious murmurings of discontent.--Smoaking my morning pipe, the friendly warmth of that glorious planet the sun--the leniency of the air--the chearful glow of the atmosphere--made me involuntarily cry, ""Lord, ""what is man, that thou in thy mercy ""art so mindful of him! or what the son ""of man, that thou so parentally carest ""for him!"" David, whose heart and affections were naturally of the first kind (and who indeed had experienced blessings without number) pours fourth the grateful sentiments of his enraptured soul in the sweetest modulations of pathetic oratory;--the tender mercies of the Almighty are not less to many of his creatures--but their hearts--unlike the royal disposition of the shepherd King, are cold, and untouched with the sweet ray of gratitude.--Let us, without meanly sheltering our infirmities under the example of others--perhaps worse taught--or possessed of less leisure for self-examination--let us, my dear M----, look into ourselves--and by a critical examination of the past events of our lives, fairly confess what mercies we have received--what God in his goodness hath done for us--and how our gratitude and praise have kept pace in imitation of the son of Jesse.--Such a research would richly pay us--for the end would be conviction--so much on the side of miraculous mercy--such an unanswerable proof of the superintendency of Divine Providence, as would effectually cure us of rash despondency--and melt our hearts--with devotional aspirations--till we poured forth the effusions of our souls in praise and thanksgiving.--When I sometimes endeavour to turn my thoughts inwards, to review the power or properties the indulgent all-wise Father has endow'd me with, I am struck with wonder and with awe--worm, poor insignificant reptile as I am, with regard to superior beings--mortal like myself.--Amongst, and at the very head of our riches, I reckon the power of reflection:--Where? where, my friend, doth it lie?--Search every member from the toe to the nose--all--all ready for action--but all dead to thought--it lies not in matter--nor in the blood--it is a party, which though we feel and acknowledge, quite past the power of definition--it is that breath of life which the Sacred Architect breathed into the nostrils of the first man--image of his gracious Maker--and let it animate our torpid gratitude--it rolls on, although diminished by our cruel fall, through the whole race--""We are fearfully and wonderfully made,"" &c. &c. were the sentiments of the Royal Preacher upon a self-review--but had he been blessed with the full blaze of the Christian dispensation--what would have been his raptures?--the promise of never, never-ending existence and felicity, to possess eternity--""glorious dreadful thought!""--to rise, perhaps, by regular progression from planet to planet--to behold the wonders of immensity--to pass from good to better--increasing in goodness--knowledge--love--to glory in our Redeemer--to joy in ourselves--to be acquainted with prophets, sages, heroes, and poets of old times--and join in symphony with angels.--And now, my friend, thou smilest at my futile notions--why preach to thee?--For this very good and simple reason, to get your thoughts in return.--You shall be my philosopher--my Mentor--my friend;--you, happily disengaged from various cares of life and family, can review the little world of man with steadier eye, and more composed thought, than your friend, declining fast into the vale of years, and beset with infirmity and pain.--Write now and then, as thought prompts, and inclination leads--refute my errors--where I am just give me your plaudit.--Your welfare in truly dear in my sight--and if any man has a share in my heart, or commands my respect and esteem, it is I---- M----.
(I.xliv, pp. 123-7; pp. 87-9)",,21683,"[fixing OCR error: ""all-wife,"" ""fight""]","""David, whose heart and affections were naturally of the first kind (and who indeed had experienced blessings without number) pours fourth the grateful sentiments of his enraptured soul in the sweetest modulations of pathetic oratory;--the tender mercies of the Almighty are not less to many of his creatures--but their hearts--unlike the royal disposition of the shepherd King, are cold, and untouched with the sweet ray of gratitude.""","",2013-07-11 21:39:35 UTC,"Vol. I, letter xliv"
7541,"",Reading; text from DocSouth,2013-07-11 21:40:44 UTC,"THERE is something so amazingly grand--so stupendously affecting--in the contemplating the works of the Divine Architect, either in the moral, or the intellectual world, that I think one may rightly call it the cordial of the soul--it is the physic of the mind-- and the best antidote against weak pride--and the supercilious murmurings of discontent.--Smoaking my morning pipe, the friendly warmth of that glorious planet the sun--the leniency of the air--the chearful glow of the atmosphere--made me involuntarily cry, ""Lord, ""what is man, that thou in thy mercy ""art so mindful of him! or what the son ""of man, that thou so parentally carest ""for him!"" David, whose heart and affections were naturally of the first kind (and who indeed had experienced blessings without number) pours fourth the grateful sentiments of his enraptured soul in the sweetest modulations of pathetic oratory;--the tender mercies of the Almighty are not less to many of his creatures--but their hearts--unlike the royal disposition of the shepherd King, are cold, and untouched with the sweet ray of gratitude.--Let us, without meanly sheltering our infirmities under the example of others--perhaps worse taught--or possessed of less leisure for self-examination--let us, my dear M----, look into ourselves--and by a critical examination of the past events of our lives, fairly confess what mercies we have received--what God in his goodness hath done for us--and how our gratitude and praise have kept pace in imitation of the son of Jesse.--Such a research would richly pay us--for the end would be conviction--so much on the side of miraculous mercy--such an unanswerable proof of the superintendency of Divine Providence, as would effectually cure us of rash despondency--and melt our hearts--with devotional aspirations--till we poured forth the effusions of our souls in praise and thanksgiving.--When I sometimes endeavour to turn my thoughts inwards, to review the power or properties the indulgent all-wise Father has endow'd me with, I am struck with wonder and with awe--worm, poor insignificant reptile as I am, with regard to superior beings--mortal like myself.--Amongst, and at the very head of our riches, I reckon the power of reflection:--Where? where, my friend, doth it lie?--Search every member from the toe to the nose--all--all ready for action--but all dead to thought--it lies not in matter--nor in the blood--it is a party, which though we feel and acknowledge, quite past the power of definition--it is that breath of life which the Sacred Architect breathed into the nostrils of the first man--image of his gracious Maker--and let it animate our torpid gratitude--it rolls on, although diminished by our cruel fall, through the whole race--""We are fearfully and wonderfully made,"" &c. &c. were the sentiments of the Royal Preacher upon a self-review--but had he been blessed with the full blaze of the Christian dispensation--what would have been his raptures?--the promise of never, never-ending existence and felicity, to possess eternity--""glorious dreadful thought!""--to rise, perhaps, by regular progression from planet to planet--to behold the wonders of immensity--to pass from good to better--increasing in goodness--knowledge--love--to glory in our Redeemer--to joy in ourselves--to be acquainted with prophets, sages, heroes, and poets of old times--and join in symphony with angels.--And now, my friend, thou smilest at my futile notions--why preach to thee?--For this very good and simple reason, to get your thoughts in return.--You shall be my philosopher--my Mentor--my friend;--you, happily disengaged from various cares of life and family, can review the little world of man with steadier eye, and more composed thought, than your friend, declining fast into the vale of years, and beset with infirmity and pain.--Write now and then, as thought prompts, and inclination leads--refute my errors--where I am just give me your plaudit.--Your welfare in truly dear in my sight--and if any man has a share in my heart, or commands my respect and esteem, it is I---- M----.
(I.xliv, pp. 123-7; pp. 87-9)
",,21684,"[fixing OCR error: ""all-wife,"" ""fight""]","""Such a research would richly pay us--for the end would be conviction--so much on the side of miraculous mercy--such an unanswerable proof of the superintendency of Divine Providence, as would effectually cure us of rash despondency--and melt our hearts--with devotional aspirations--till we poured forth the effusions of our souls in praise and thanksgiving.""","",2013-07-11 21:40:44 UTC,"Vol. I, letter xliv"
7541,"",Reading,2013-07-11 21:41:36 UTC,"MY gall has been plentifully stirred--by the barbarity of a set of gentry, who every morning offend my feelings--in their cruel parade through Charles Street to and from market--they vend potatoes in the day--and thieve in the night season.--A tall lazy villain was bestriding his poor beast (although loaded with two panniers of potatoes at the same time) and another of his companions, was good-naturedly employed in whipping the poor sinking animal--that the gentleman-rider might enjoy the two-fold pleasure of blasphemy and cruelty--this is a too common evil--and, for the honor of rationality, calls loudly for redress.--I do believe it might be in some measure amended--either by a hint in the papers, of the utility of impressing such vagrants for the king's service--or by laying a heavy tax upon the poor Jack-asses--I prefer the former, both for thy sake and mine;--and, as I am convinced we feel instinctively the injuries of our fellow creatures, I do insist upon your exercising your talents in behalf of the honest sufferers.--I ever had a kind of sympathetic (call it what you please) for that animal--and do I not love you?--Before Sterne had wrote them into respect, I had a friendship for them--and many a civil greeting have I given them at casual meetings--what has ever (with me) stamped a kind of uncommon value and dignity upon the long ear'd kind of the species, is, that our Blessed Saviour, in his day of worldly triumph, chose to use that in preference to the rest of his own blessed creation--""meek and lowly, riding upon an ass."" I am convinced that the general inhumanity of mankind proceeds--first, from the cursed false principle of common education--and, secondly, from a total indifference (if not disbelief) of the Christian faith;--a heart and mind impressed with a firm belief of the Christian tenets, must of course exercise itself in a constant uniform general philanthropy--such a being carries his heaven in his breast--and such be thou! therefore write me a bitter Philippick against the misusers of Jack-asses--it shall honor a column in the Morning Post--and I will bray--bray my thanks to you--thou shalt figure away the champion of poor friendless asses here--and hereafter shalt not be ashamed in the great day of retribution.
(I.xlvii, pp. 133-5; pp. 91-2 in Carretta)",,21685,"","""I am convinced that the general inhumanity of mankind proceeds--first, from the cursed false principle of common education--and, secondly, from a total indifference (if not disbelief) of the Christian faith;--a heart and mind impressed with a firm belief of the Christian tenets, must of course exercise itself in a constant uniform general philanthropy--such a being carries his heaven in his breast--and such be thou!""",Impressions,2013-07-11 21:41:36 UTC,"Vol. I, letter xlvii"
7541,"",Reading,2013-07-11 21:42:47 UTC,"[...] Mrs. Sancho and her virgins are so, so--Mrs. Sancho--the virgins--well as youth and innocence--souls void of care and consciences of offence can be.--Dame Sancho would be better if she cared less.--I am her barometer--if a sigh escapes me, it is answered by a tear in her eye;--I oft assume a gaiety to illume her dear sensibility with a smile --which twenty years ago almost bewitched me;--and mark!--after twenty years enjoyment--constitutes my highest pleasure!--Such be your lot--with a competency--such as will make oeconomy a pleasant acquaintance--temperance and exercise your chief physician--and the virtues of benevolence your daily employ--your pleasure and reward;--and what more can friendship wish you?--but to glide down the stream of time--blest with a partner of congenial principles, and fine feelings--true feminine eloquence--whose very looks speak tenderness and sentiment.--Your infants growing--with the roseate bloom of health--minds cultured by their father--expanding daily in every improvement--blest little souls!--and happy--happy parents!--such be thy lot in life--in marriage;--but take a virgin--or a maiden--to thy arms;--but--be that as thy fate wills it.--Now for news.--Two hours ago (in tolerable health and cheary spirits) considering his journey not so fatigued as might be expected --followed by four superb carriages--their Royal Highnesses the Duke and Dutchess of Gloucester arrived in town. As to America, if you know any thing at Hull, you know more than is known in London.--Samuel Foote, Esq; is dead--a leg was buried some years since--and now the whole foote follows.--I think you love a pun.--Colman is the gainer, as he covenanted to give him 16001. per annum, for his patent;--in short, Colman is happy in the bargain--and I trust Foote is no loser.--I have seen poor Mr. de Groote but once--and then could not attend to speak with him--as I had customers in the shop.--I waited by appointment for Mr.----, to get your honor's address--and then three weeks before I could get the franks--a fortnight since for Mr.---- writing to you--I call this a string of beggarly apologies.--I told M---- you expected a line from him--be wanted faith.--I made him read your letter--and what then? ""truly he was not capable--he had no classical education--you write with elegance----ease----propriety.""----Tut, quoth I, pr'ythee give not the reins to pride--write as I do--just the effusions of a warm though foolish heart:--friendship will cast a veil of kindness over thy blunders--they will be accepted with a complacent smile--and read with the same eye of kindness--which indulges now the errors of his sincere friend,
(I.liii, pp. 157-60)",,21686,"","""Your infants growing--with the roseate bloom of health--minds cultured by their father--expanding daily in every improvement--blest little souls!--and happy--happy parents!""","",2013-07-11 21:42:47 UTC,"Vol. I, letter liii"
7541,"",Reading,2013-07-11 21:44:04 UTC,"[...] For your letter, thanks--it should have come sooner--better late, &c. &c.--What have I to do with your good or evil fortune--health or sickness--weal or woe?--I am resolved, from henceforth, to banish feelings--Misanthrope from head to foot!--Apropos--not five minutes since I was interrupted, in this same letter of letters, by a pleasant affair--to a man of no feelings.--A fellow bolted into the shop--with a countenance in which grief and fear struggled for mastery.--""Did you see any body go to my cart, Sir?""--""No, friend, how should I? you see I am writing--and how should I be able to see your cart or you either in the dark?""--""Lord in heaven pity me! cries the man, what shall I do? oh! what shall I do?--I am undone!--Good God!--I did but go into the court here--with a trunk for the lady at Captain G----'s (I had two to deliver) and somebody has stole the other;--what shall I do?--what shall I do?""--""Zounds, man!--who ever left their cart in the night with goods in it, without leaving some one to watch?""--""Alack, Sir, I left a boy, and told him I would give him something to stand by the cart, and the boy and trunk are both gone!""--Oh nature!--oh heart!--why does the voice of distress so forcibly knock at the door of hearts?--but to hint to pride and avarice--our common kindred--and to alarm self-love.--Mark, I do think, and will maintain it--that self-love alone--if rightly understood, would make man all that a dying Redeemer wills he should be.--But this same stolen trunk;--the ladies are just gone out of my shop--they have been here holding a council--upon law and advertisements;--God help them!--they could not have come to a worse--nor could they have found a stupider or sorrier adviser:--the trunk was seen parding between two in the Park--and I dare say the contents by this time are pretty well gutted.--Last Sunday I met, coming from church, Mr. C----; he looks well, better than when you left him.--I took occasion, as we were prating about and about your worship--to pin Mr. de Groote's interest upon the skirts of his feelings;--he desired, when I saw him next, I would send him into Crown-street--which I religiously performed--but have not seen Mr. de Groote since;--in truth, there is (despight of his nose) so much of the remains of better times--somewhat of the gentleman and artist in ruins--something creative of reverence as well as pity--that I have wished to do more than I ought--though at the same time too little for such a being to receive--without insult from the hands of a poor negroe--(pooh, I do not care for your prancings, I can see you at this distance);--we have agreed upon one thing;--which is, I have undertaken to write to Mr. G---- for him, in the way of local relief;--I will wager a tankard of porter, I succeed--in some sort;--I will aim at both sides of him--his pity and his pride--which, alas!--the last I mean, finds a first-floor in the breast of every son of Adam.--S---- called on me this day, and left a picture for you at your lodgings--and a very spirited head in miniature, of your own doing, with me--which I like so well--you will find it difficult to get it from me--except you talk of giving me a copy--self-love again.--How can you expect business in these hard times--when the utmost exertions of honest industry can scarce afford people in the middle sphere of life daily provisions?--When it shall please the Almighty that things shall take a better turn in America--when the conviction of their madness shall make them court peace--and the same conviction of our cuelty and injustice induce us to settle all points in equity--when that time arrives, my friend, America will be the grand patron of genius--trade and arts will flourish--and if it shall please God to spare us till that period--we will either go and try our fortunes there--or stay in Old England and talk about it.--While thou hast only one mouth to feed--one back to cloath--and one wicked member to indulge--thou wilt have no pity from me--excepting in the argument of health--may that cordial blessing be thine--with its sweet companion ease!--Peace follows rectitude--and what a plague would'st thou have more?--Write soon if thou dar'st--retort at thy peril--boy--girls--and the old Duchess, all pretty well--and so, so, is yours, [...]
(I. lv, pp. 167-71; pp. 107-9 in Carretta)
",,21687,"[fixing OCR ""fee""]","""Oh nature!--oh heart!--why does the voice of distress so forcibly knock at the door of hearts?""","",2013-07-11 21:44:04 UTC,"Vol. I, letter lv"
7541,"",Reading; text from DocSouth,2013-07-11 21:45:29 UTC,"[...] For your letter, thanks--it should have come sooner--better late, &c. &c.--What have I to do with your good or evil fortune--health or sickness--weal or woe?--I am resolved, from henceforth, to banish feelings--Misanthrope from head to foot!--Apropos--not five minutes since I was interrupted, in this same letter of letters, by a pleasant affair--to a man of no feelings.--A fellow bolted into the shop--with a countenance in which grief and fear struggled for mastery.--""Did you see any body go to my cart, Sir?""--""No, friend, how should I? you see I am writing--and how should I be able to see your cart or you either in the dark?""--""Lord in heaven pity me! cries the man, what shall I do? oh! what shall I do?--I am undone!--Good God!--I did but go into the court here--with a trunk for the lady at Captain G----'s (I had two to deliver) and somebody has stole the other;--what shall I do?--what shall I do?""--""Zounds, man!--who ever left their cart in the night with goods in it, without leaving some one to watch?""--""Alack, Sir, I left a boy, and told him I would give him something to stand by the cart, and the boy and trunk are both gone!""--Oh nature!--oh heart!--why does the voice of distress so forcibly knock at the door of hearts?--but to hint to pride and avarice--our common kindred--and to alarm self-love.--Mark, I do think, and will maintain it--that self-love alone--if rightly understood, would make man all that a dying Redeemer wills he should be.--But this same stolen trunk;--the ladies are just gone out of my shop--they have been here holding a council--upon law and advertisements;--God help them!--they could not have come to a worse--nor could they have found a stupider or sorrier adviser:--the trunk was seen parding between two in the Park--and I dare say the contents by this time are pretty well gutted.--Last Sunday I met, coming from church, Mr. C----; he looks well, better than when you left him.--I took occasion, as we were prating about and about your worship--to pin Mr. de Groote's interest upon the skirts of his feelings;--he desired, when I saw him next, I would send him into Crown-street--which I religiously performed--but have not seen Mr. de Groote since;--in truth, there is (despight of his nose) so much of the remains of better times--somewhat of the gentleman and artist in ruins--something creative of reverence as well as pity--that I have wished to do more than I ought--though at the same time too little for such a being to receive--without insult from the hands of a poor negroe--(pooh, I do not care for your prancings, I can see you at this distance);--we have agreed upon one thing;--which is, I have undertaken to write to Mr. G---- for him, in the way of local relief;--I will wager a tankard of porter, I succeed--in some sort;--I will aim at both sides of him--his pity and his pride--which, alas!--the last I mean, finds a first-floor in the breast of every son of Adam.--S---- called on me this day, and left a picture for you at your lodgings--and a very spirited head in miniature, of your own doing, with me--which I like so well--you will find it difficult to get it from me--except you talk of giving me a copy--self-love again.--How can you expect business in these hard times--when the utmost exertions of honest industry can scarce afford people in the middle sphere of life daily provisions?--When it shall please the Almighty that things shall take a better turn in America--when the conviction of their madness shall make them court peace--and the same conviction of our cuelty and injustice induce us to settle all points in equity--when that time arrives, my friend, America will be the grand patron of genius--trade and arts will flourish--and if it shall please God to spare us till that period--we will either go and try our fortunes there--or stay in Old England and talk about it.--While thou hast only one mouth to feed--one back to cloath--and one wicked member to indulge --thou wilt have no pity from me--excepting in the argument of health--may that cordial blessing be thine--with its sweet companion ease!--Peace follows rectitude--and what a plague would'st thou have more?--Write soon if thou dar'st--retort at thy peril--boy--girls--and the old Duchess, all pretty well--and so, so, is yours, [...]
(I. lv, pp. 167-71; pp. 107-9 in Carretta)
",,21688,"[fixing OCR ""fee""]
INTEREST. A new sort of architectural metaphor...","""I will aim at both sides of him--his pity and his pride--which, alas!--the last I mean, finds a first-floor in the breast of every son of Adam.""",Rooms,2013-07-11 21:45:29 UTC,"Vol. I, letter lv"