Various / 2008-09-04 00:00:00


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The first Italian performer that made any distinguished figure in London
was Valentini, a true, sensible singer at that time, but of a throat too
weak to sustain those melodious warblings, for which the fairer sex have
since idolized his successors. However, this defect was so well supplied
by his action, that his hearers bore with the absurdity of his singing
his first part of Turnus, in _Camilla_, all in Italian, while every
other character was sung and recited to him in English.--_Life of
Colley Gibber._
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To attain complex and difficult ends by simple means, whether in
physics or politics, falls not to the lot of man. What should we think
of the man who should insist on having a _simple watch_, which should
answer every object of that machine, and yet possess the simplicity of a
sun-dial? The artificer would naturally say to such a customer, "Sir, if
you want a sun-dial, you can have a very cheap and a very simple one;
but if you desire a watch, I shall be glad to learn how its operations
are to be accomplished without complex mechanism."
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THE SELECTOR;
AND LITERARY NOTICES OF _NEW WORKS_.
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A RUSSIAN WEDDING.
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Parts: 1 2 3