The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: With An Essay on His Life and Genius, Volume 7Luke Hansard & Sons, 1810 |
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Page 11
... pleased , if they consulted only their own minds ; but those who will not take the trouble to think for themselves , have always somebody that thinks for them ; and the diffi- culty in writing is to please those from whom others learn ...
... pleased , if they consulted only their own minds ; but those who will not take the trouble to think for themselves , have always somebody that thinks for them ; and the diffi- culty in writing is to please those from whom others learn ...
Page 12
... pleased him in his natu- ral state , has the same reason to complain of his instructor , as the madman to rail at his doctor ; who , when he thought himself master of Peru , physicked him to poverty . If men will struggle against their ...
... pleased him in his natu- ral state , has the same reason to complain of his instructor , as the madman to rail at his doctor ; who , when he thought himself master of Peru , physicked him to poverty . If men will struggle against their ...
Page 33
... pleased and angered me . Never did writer appear so delightful to me as you did when you adopted the name of the Idler . But what a falling - off was there when your first pro- duction was brought to light ! A natural irresistible ...
... pleased and angered me . Never did writer appear so delightful to me as you did when you adopted the name of the Idler . But what a falling - off was there when your first pro- duction was brought to light ! A natural irresistible ...
Page 69
... pleased with a refined amusement , and of hoping to be numbered among the votresses of harmony . She has the plea- sure of escaping for two hours the superiority of a sister , or the control of a husband ; and from all these pleasures ...
... pleased with a refined amusement , and of hoping to be numbered among the votresses of harmony . She has the plea- sure of escaping for two hours the superiority of a sister , or the control of a husband ; and from all these pleasures ...
Page 81
... pleased , for a while , with the novelty of in- dependence , and imagined that I had now found what every man desires . My time was in my own power , and my habitation was wherever my choice should fix it . I amused myself for two years ...
... pleased , for a while , with the novelty of in- dependence , and imagined that I had now found what every man desires . My time was in my own power , and my habitation was wherever my choice should fix it . I amused myself for two years ...
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Common terms and phrases
acquaintance admired amusement art of memory authors Bassora beauty censure common commonly considered critick curiosity custom danger delight desire dili diligence Ditto domestick dreaded Drugget easily easy elegance endeavour English equal evil expected eyes favour fortune friends genius give gout gratified hand happiness honour hope hour Hudibras human idleness Idler Iliad imagination impa innu inquiry king of Norway knowledge labour lady Lapland learned less live look lost Louisbourg Luke Hansard mankind marriage ment mind misery mistress morning nation nature necessary ness never Newmarket night NUMB observed once opinion pain passed passions perhaps Peterhouse pleased pleasure portunities praise produce publick readers reason resolved rich rience SATURDAY seldom sometimes soon Sophron suffered superiour supposed sure talk tell thing thought tion told truth uncon virtue weary wife wish wonder writers
Popular passages
Page 329 - I was led into the subject of this letter by endeavouring to fix the original cause of this conduct of the Italian masters. If it can be proved that by this choice they selected the...
Page 319 - There may perhaps be too great an indulgence, as well as too great a restraint of imagination; and if the one produces incoherent monsters, the other produces what is full as bad, lifeless insipidity. An intimate knowledge of the passions, and good sense, but not common sense, must at last determine its limits. It has been thought, and...
Page 118 - But this censure will be mitigated when it is seriously considered that money and time are the heaviest burdens of life, and that the unhappiest of all mortals are those who have more of either than they know how to use.
Page 306 - ... middle to have been on higher ground, or the figures at the extremities stooping or lying, which would not only have formed the group into the shape of a pyramid, but likewise contrasted the standing figures. Indeed...
Page 402 - ... passed, will store my mind with images, which I shall be busy, through the rest of my life, in combining and comparing. I shall revel in inexhaustible accumulations of intellectual riches ; I shall find new pleasures for every moment, and shall never more be weary of myself.
Page 44 - This distinction of seasons is produced only by imagination operating on luxury. To temperance, every day is bright ; and every hour is propitious to diligence. He that shall resolutely excite his faculties, or exert his virtues, will soon make himself superiour to the seasons ; and may set at defiance the morning mist and the evening damp, the blasts of the east, and the clouds of the south.
Page 280 - That some of them have been adopted by him unnecessarily, may perhaps be allowed ; but in general they are evidently an advantage, for without them his stately ideas would be confined and cramped. "He that thinks with more extent than another, will want words of larger meaning.
Page 174 - The traveller visits in age those countries through which he rambled in his youth, and hopes for merriment at the old place. The man of business, wearied with unsatisfactory prosperity, retires to the town of his nativity, and expects to play away the last years with the companions of his childhood, and recover youth in the fields where he once was young.
Page 252 - June 30, 1/59HPHE natural progress of the works of men is from rudeness to convenience, from convenience to elegance, and from elegance to nicety.
Page 143 - ... and it can seldom happen but he that understands himself, might convey his notions to another, if, content to be understood, he did not seek to be admired; but when once he begins to contrive how his sentiments may be received, not with most ease to his reader, but with most advantage to himself, he then transfers his consideration from words to sounds, from sentences to periods, and, as he grows more elegant, becomes less intelligible.