the only comfort (saith Jovius) he had to ease his melancholy thoughts, was to hear news, and to listen after those ordinary occurrents, which were brought him cum primis, by letters or otherwise, out of the remotest parts of Europe.
It is known that once a clay is fired at a certain temperature and then cooled down, it freezes at a stage which can not be altered by subsequent refirings unless the initial temperature is exceeded.
Klopstock has banished Alexandrines from German poetry; he has substituted in their stead hexameters, and ïambic verses without rhyme, according to the practice of the English, which give much greater liberty to the imagination.[…]The harmony of hexameters, and above all of ïambic verses, when without rhyme, is only natural harmony, inspired by sentiment: it is a marked and distinct declamation; while the Alexandrine verse imposes a certain species and turn of expression, from which it is difficult to get free.
We found that he had no real connexion with any church nor with the L.M.S., but had somehow managed to get enrolled as a pageanteer, with the intention, no doubt, of rifling any pockets that he found convenient.