Search -
The British Essayists: To Which are Prefixed Prefaces, Biographical, Historical, and Critical
The British Essayists To Which are Prefixed Prefaces Biographical Historical and Critical Author:James Ferguson Volume: 3 General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1819 Original Publisher: Printed by J. Haddon for G. Offer Subjects: English essays History / General Literary Collections / Essays Literary Criticism / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. I... more »t has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: I am extremely at a loss how to act against such open enemies, who have not shame enough to be touched with our reproaches, and are as well defended against what we can say as what we can do. -- Railing, therefore, we must turn into complaint, which I cannot forbear making, when I consider that all the labours of my long life may be disappointed by the first man that pleases to rob me. I had flattered myself, that my stock of learning was worth a hundred and fifty pounds per annum, which would very handsomely maintain me and my little family, who are so happy, or so wise, as to want only necessaries. Before men had come up to this bare-faced impudence, it was an estate to have a competency of understanding. An ingenious droll, who is since dead (and indeed it is well for him he is so, for he must have starved had he lived to this day), used to give me an account of his good husbandry in the management of his learning. He was a general dealer, and had his amusements, as well comical as serious. The merry rogue said, " When he wanted a dinner, he writ a paragraph of Table Talk, and his book-seller upon sight paid the reckoning." He was a very good judge of what would please the people, and could aptly hit both the genious of his readers, and the season of the year, in his writings. His brain, which was his estate, had as regular a different produce as other men's land. From the beginning of November unt...« less