 | Robert Burns - 1896 - 462 pages
...out the line of Innocence.— The great misfortune of my life was, never to have AN AIM. — I had felt early some stirrings of Ambition, but they were...saw my father's situation entailed on me perpetual labor. — The only two doors by which I could enter the fields of fortune were the most niggardly... | |
 | Robert Burns - 1896 - 656 pages
...direction. He had neither the business disposition nor the business capacity. As lie tells us himself : ' The only two openings by which I could enter the Temple of Fortune were the gate of niggardly economy or the path of little chicaning bargain-making. The first is so... | |
 | Sir William Alexander Craigie - 1896 - 244 pages
...striking image in the letter to Dr. Moore, where the poet compares his early stirrings of ambition to "the blind gropings of Homer's Cyclops round the walls of his cave." No less picturesque in its own way is the one already quoted from this letter, where he describes himself... | |
 | John Clark Ridpath - 1898 - 544 pages
...life," says Burns, "was to want an aim. I had felt early some stirrings of amK.'ll l: I BUKNS. bition, but they were the blind gropings of Homer's Cyclops round the walls of his cave. I saw my father's condition entailed on me perpetual labor. The only openings by which I could enter the temple of Fortune... | |
 | James McKillop - 1898 - 218 pages
..." The great misfortune of my life," he says, " was to want an aim. I had felt early some strivings of ambition, but they were the blind gropings of Homer's Cyclops round the walls of his cave." Yet some have striven to maintain that his ability was such as to have enabled him to hold any office... | |
 | William Harvey - 1899 - 180 pages
...great misfortune of my life was never to have an aim. I had felt early some stirrings of ambition, tut they were the blind gropings of Homer's Cyclops round...situation entailed on me perpetual labour. The only two doors by which I could enter the fields of fortune were— the most niggardly economy, or the little... | |
 | Thomas Carlyle - 1900 - 250 pages
...above, are the following sentences: "The great misfortune of my life was never to have an aim. I had felt early some stirrings of ambition, but they were...saw my father's situation entailed on me perpetual labor. The only two doors by which I could enter the fields of fortune were — the most niggardly... | |
 | Thomas Carlyle - 1906 - 250 pages
...above, are the following sentences: "The great misfortune of my life was never to have an aim. I had felt early some stirrings of ambition, but they were...saw my father's situation entailed on me perpetual labor. The only two doors by which I could enter the fields of fortune were — the mos* niggardly... | |
 | Hendrik Poutsma - 1914 - 728 pages
...Sicily, strayed into the cave of Polyphemos, the giant Cyclops. BREWER, Read. Handb., 11566. I had felt early some stirrings of ambition, but they were...gropings of Homer's cyclops round the walls of his cave. BURNS, Letter to Dr. Moore, (53a). A little cyclops, with one eye | Staring to threaten and defy. WORDSWORTH,... | |
 | Thomas Finlayson Henderson - 1904 - 246 pages
...aim," and his father's dislike only made him more careless of finding one. Even thus early he had " stirrings of ambition," but they " were the blind...gropings of Homer's Cyclops round the walls of his cave." For years he had to concentrate his main attention merely on the completion of his " daily tale of... | |
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The great misfortune of my life was — to want an aim. I had felt early some stirrings of ambition, but they were the blind gropings of Homer's Cyclops round the walls of his cave. 
