The Works of Richard Bentley, D. D.

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F. Macpherson, 1836 - Phalaris - 402 pages

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Page 111 - Fables and Phalaris's Epistles, both living near the same time, which was that of Cyrus and Pythagoras. As the first has been agreed by all ages since for the greatest master in his kind, and all others of that sort have been but imitations of his original ; so I think the Epistles of Phalaris...
Page 111 - Phalaris to have more Race, more Spirit, more Force of Wit and Genius than any others I have ever seen, either Ancient or Modern.
Page 161 - Tis observable, that every one of the letters bear date after his banishment, and contain a complete narrative ol N 2 ISO ENGLISH GRAMMAR.
Page 111 - I know several learned men (or that usually pass for such, under the name of critics) have not esteemed them genuine, and Politian, with some others, have attributed them to Lucian: but I think he must have little skill in painting, that cannot find out this to be an original; such diversity of passions, upon such variety of actions and passages of life and government, such freedom of thought, such boldness of expression, such bounty to his friends, such scorn of his enemies, such honour of learned...
Page 149 - You feel, by the emptiness and deadness of them, that you converse with some dreaming pedant with his elbow on his desk; not with an active, ambitious tyrant, with his hand on his sword, commanding a million of subjects.
Page 1 - Every living language, like the perspiring bodies of living creatures, is in perpetual motion and alteration ; some words go off, and become obsolete ; others are taken in, and by degrees grow into common use ; or the same word is inverted to a new sense and notion, which in tract of time makes as observable a change in the air and features of a language, as age makes in the lines and mien of a face.
Page 60 - But, to let pass all further arguments from words and language, to me the very matter and business of the Letters sufficiently discovers them to be an imposture. What force of wit and spirit in the style, what lively painting of humour, some fancy they discern there, I will not examine nor dispute.
Page 66 - Phalaris, p. 487) might justly, though quaintly, observe that "you feel, by the emptiness and deadness of them, that you converse with some dreaming pedant, with his elbow on his desk ". 57 His birth is assigned to the year 314.
Page 210 - Twas an old tradition among the Greeks that ^Esop revived again and lived a second life. Should he revive once more and see the picture before the book that carries his name, could he think it drawn for himself? — or for the monkey, or some strange beast introduced in the
Page 111 - And then, in order to commit himself beyond remedy, he gravely remarked : " I know several learned men (or that usually pass for such, under the name of critics) have not esteemed them genuine, and Politian with some others have attributed them to Lucian; but I think he must have little skill in painting that cannot find out this to be an original : such diversity of passions, upon such variety of actions and passages of life and government, such freedom of thought, such boldness of expression, such...

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