the experience of reading in Britain, from 1450 to 1945...

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Lady Sidney Owenson Morgan : France

'I know not if there be a Goddess of Sloth - tho' considering that this of all our passions is the least turbulent and most victorious, it could not without partiality be left destitute - But if there be, she certainly looks on with an approving smile - when in a supine posture, I lie for hours with my eyes fixed upon the pages of Lady Morgan's France or the travels of Faujas St Fond - my mind seldon taking the pains even to execrate the imbecile materialism, the tawdry gossiping of the former, or to pity the infirm speculations and the already antiquated mineralogy of the latter.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle      Print: Book

Lady Sidney Morgan : Roderick, the Last of the Goths

'I know not if there be a Goddess of Sloth - tho' considering that this of all our passions is the least turbulent and most victorious, it could not without partiality be left destitute - But if there be, she certainly looks on with an approving smile - when in a supine posture, I lie for hours with my eyes fixed upon the pages of Lady Morgan's France or the travels of Faujas St Fond ... What shall I say to the woebegone Roderick last of the Goths; and others of a similar stamp? They go through my brain as light goes thro' an achromatic telescope.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle      Print: Book

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