The Pursuit of Knowledge Under Difficulties: Illustrated by Anecdotes, Volumen 2

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C. Knight, 1831 - 3 páginas

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Página 80 - New Experiments Physico-Mechanical, touching the spring of the air and .its effects.
Página 322 - ... or perplexed with the verbiage of the dull books he perused, or the idle talk to which he listened ; but to have at once extracted, by a kind of intellectual alchemy, all that was worthy of attention, and to have reduced it for his own use, to its true value and to its simplest form. And thus it often happened that a great deal more was learned from his brief and vigorous account of the theories and arguments of tedious writers, than an ordinary student could ever have derived from the most...
Página 157 - I mention it only, as it shows the solicitude and extreme activity which he had about every thing that related to his art; that he wished to have his objects embodied as it were, and distinctly before him; that he neglected nothing which could keep his faculties in exercise, and derived hints from every sort of combination.
Página 321 - ... have been inferred from his usual occupations, and probably is not generally known, that he was curiously learned in many branches of antiquity, metaphysics, medicine, and etymology, and perfectly at home in all the details of architecture, music, and law. He was well acquainted too with most of the modern languages, and familiar with their most recent literature. Nor was it at all extraordinary to hear the great mechanician and engineer detailing and expounding, for hours together, the metaphysical...
Página 383 - I have known both hunger and nakedness to the utmost extremity of human suffering. I have known what it is to have food given me as charity to a madman ; and I have at times been obliged to shelter myself under the miseries of that character, to avoid a heavier calamity. My distresses have been greater than I have owned, or ever will own, to any man.
Página 53 - Briggs, purposely to be there when these two' so learned persons should meet. Mr. Briggs appoints a certain day when to meet at Edinburgh ; but failing thereof, the Lord Napier was doubtful he would not come. It happened, one day, as John Marr and the Lord Napier were speaking of Mr. Briggs ; ' Ah, John,' said Marchiston, ' Mr. Briggs will not now come.
Página 345 - April, 1785. This being done, I then condescended to see how other people wove ; and you will guess my astonishment when I compared their easy modes of operation with mine. Availing myself, however, of what I then saw, I made a loom in its general principles nearly as they are now made. But it was not till the year 1787 that I completed my invention, when I took out my last weaving patent, August the 1st of that year.
Página 170 - ... little indulgence to others, and a great deal of distrust of ourselves — which are not qualities of a mean spirit, as some may possibly think them, but virtues of a great and noble kind, and such as dignify our nature as much as they contribute to our repose and fortune ; for nothing can be so unworthy of a well-composed soul as to pass away life in bickerings and litigations, in snarling and scuffling with every one about us. Again and again, my dear Barry, we must be at peace with our species,...
Página 315 - Its aliment is coal, wood, charcoal, or other combustible ; it consumes none while idle ; it never tires, and wants no sleep ; it is not subject to malady when originally well made, and only refuses to work when worn out with old age ; it is equally active in all climates, and will do work of any kind ; it is a water-pumper, a miner, a sailor, a cotton-spinner, a weaver, a blacksmith, a miller, etc., etc.
Página 359 - Seathwaite, considering, as he says himself, that the annexation " would be apt to cause a general discontent among the inhabitants of both places, by either thinking themselves slighted, being only served alternately, or neglected in the duty, or attributing it to covetousness in me ; all which occasions of murmuring I would willingly avoid.

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