English humorists of the eighteenth century - Sir Richard Steele, Joseph Addison, Laurence Sterne, Oliver Goldsmith (1906) (14782303382)

Identifier: englishhumorists00stee (find matches)
Title: English humorists of the eighteenth century : Sir Richard Steele, Joseph Addison, Laurence Sterne, Oliver Goldsmith
Year: 1906 (1900s)
Authors: Steele, Richard, Sir, 1672-1729 Addison, Joseph, 1672-1719 Sterne, Laurence, 1713-1768 Goldsmith, Oliver, 1730?-1774 Thackeray, William Makepeace, 1811-1863 Hogarth, William, 1697-1764, illus
Subjects: English literature English wit and humor
Publisher: New York : The Century co.
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: Sloan Foundation



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en, without shrinking, the desert sandsrise like a troubled ocean all aroimd me. Against these calamitiesI was armed with resolution; but in my passage to England, thoughnothing occurred that gave the mariners any uneasiness, to one whowas never at sea before, all was a subject of astonishment andterror. To find the land disappear — to see our ship mount thewaves, swift as an arrow from the Tartar bow — to hear the windhowling through the cordage — to feel a sickness which depresseseven the spirits of the brave, — these were unexpected distresses,and, consequently, assaulted me, unprepared to receive them. You men of Europe think nothing of a voyage by sea. With usof China, a man who has been from sight of land is regarded uponhis return with admiration. I have known some provinces wherethere is not even a name for the ocean. What a strange people,therefore, am I got amongst, who have founded an empire on thisunstable element, who build cities upon billows that rise higher 390
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CITIZEN OF THE WORLD than the mountains of Tipertala, and make the deep more formid-able than the wildest tempest! Such accounts as these, I must confess, were my first motives forseeing England. These induced me to undertake a journey ofseven hundred painful days, in order to examine its opulence,buildings, sciences, arts, and manufactures on the spot. Judge,then, how great is my disappointment on entering London, to seeno signs of that opulence so much talked of abroad: wherever Iturn, I am presented with a gloomy solemnity in the houses, thestreets, and the inhabitants: none of that beautiful gilding whichmakes a principal ornament in Chinese architecture. The streetsof Nankin are sometimes strewed with gold leaf; very different arethose of London: in the midst of their pavements a great lazy puddlemoves muddily along; heavy-laden machines, with wheels ofunwieldy thickness, crowd up every passage; so that a stranger,instead of finding time for observation, is often happy if he hast