The works of Samuel Johnson, Volume 41824 |
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Page 6
... knowledge in bulky volumes , and our girls forsake their samplers to teach kingdoms wisdom ; it may seem very unneces- sary to draw any more from their proper occu- pations , by affording new opportunities of lite- rary fame . I should ...
... knowledge in bulky volumes , and our girls forsake their samplers to teach kingdoms wisdom ; it may seem very unneces- sary to draw any more from their proper occu- pations , by affording new opportunities of lite- rary fame . I should ...
Page 24
... knowledge of the common people of England is greater than that of any other vulgar . This superiority we undoubtedly owe to the rivulets of intelligence which are continually trickling among us , which every one may catch , and of which ...
... knowledge of the common people of England is greater than that of any other vulgar . This superiority we undoubtedly owe to the rivulets of intelligence which are continually trickling among us , which every one may catch , and of which ...
Page 25
... knowledge . The tale of the morning paper is told again in the evening , and the nar- ratives of the evening are brought again in the morning . These repetitions , indeed , waste time , but they do not shorten it . The most eager pe ...
... knowledge . The tale of the morning paper is told again in the evening , and the nar- ratives of the evening are brought again in the morning . These repetitions , indeed , waste time , but they do not shorten it . The most eager pe ...
Page 36
... knowledge that he can want is within his attain- ment , and most of the arguments which he can hear are within his capacity . Yet so it is that an Idler meets every hour of his life with men who have different opinions upon every thing ...
... knowledge that he can want is within his attain- ment , and most of the arguments which he can hear are within his capacity . Yet so it is that an Idler meets every hour of his life with men who have different opinions upon every thing ...
Page 39
... knowledge or ignorance . From these dreams of idle speculation a slight survey of life , and a little knowledge of history , are sufficient to awaken any inquirer , whose am- bition of distinction has not overpowered his love of truth ...
... knowledge or ignorance . From these dreams of idle speculation a slight survey of life , and a little knowledge of history , are sufficient to awaken any inquirer , whose am- bition of distinction has not overpowered his love of truth ...
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Common terms and phrases
acquaintance amusement art of memory Bassora beauty business for pleasure censure common commonly considered critick curiosity custom delight desire diligence discovered Ditto dread Drugget easily easy elegance endeavour English equal evil expected eyes favour folly fortune friends genius give gout gratified hand happiness honour hope hour Hudibras human idleness Idler imagination Imlac inquiry knowledge labour lady learned less live look lost Louisbourg mankind marriage ment mind misery mistress Mohair morning nation nature neral ness never Newmarket night NUMB observed once opinion pain passed passions Peterhouse pleased pleasure portunities praise prince produce publick racters Rasselas reason resolved rience rieties SATURDAY scarcely seldom sleep sometimes stancy suffered supposed sure talk tell tence thing Thomas Warton thought tion told trained bands truth useless virtue weary wife wish wonder write
Popular passages
Page 405 - By what means," said the prince, "are the Europeans thus powerful ? or why, since they can so easily visit Asia and Africa for trade or conquest, cannot the Asiatics and Africans invade their coasts, plant colonies in their ports, and give laws to their natural princes? The same wind that carries them back would bring us thither.
Page 495 - He who has nothing external that can divert him, must find pleasure in his own thoughts, and must conceive himself what he is not ; for who is pleased with what he is ? He then expatiates in boundless futurity, and culls from all imaginable conditions that which for the present moment he should most desire, amuses his desires with impossible enjoyments, and confers upon his pride unattainable dominion. The mind dances from scene to scene, unites all pleasures in all combinations, and riots in delights,...
Page 374 - The sides of the mountains were covered with trees; the banks of the brooks were diversified with flowers; every blast shook spices from the rocks and every month dropped fruits upon the ground.
Page 360 - it is of little use to form plans of life. When I took my first survey of the world, in my twentieth year, having considered the various conditions of mankind, in the hour of solitude, I said thus to myself, leaning against a cedar, which spread its branches over my head : ' Seventy years are allowed to man ; I have yet fifty remaining.
Page 402 - I soon found that no man was ever great by imitation. My desire of excellence impelled me to transfer my attention to nature and to life. Nature was to be my subject, and men to be my auditors: I could never describe what I had not seen : I could not hope to move those with delight or terror whose interests and opinions I did not understand.
Page 295 - The Italian, attends only to the invariable, the great and general ; ideas which are fixed and inherent in universal nature; the Dutch, on the contrary, to literal truth and a minute exactness in the detail, as I may say, of nature modified by accident. The attention to these petty peculiarities is the very cause of this naturalness so much admired in the Dutch pictures, which, if we suppose it to be a beauty, is certainly...
Page 373 - YE WHO listen with credulity to the whispers of fancy and pursue with eagerness the phantoms of hope, who expect that age will perform the promises of youth and that the deficiencies of the present day will be supplied by the morrow, attend to the history of Rasselas,1 prince of Abyssinia.
Page 452 - I cannot forbear to flatter myself, that prudence and benevolence will make marriage happy. The general folly of mankind is the cause of general complaint. What can be expected but disappointment and repentance from a choice made in the immaturity of youth, in the ardour of desire, without judgment, without foresight, without inquiry after conformity of opinions, similarity of manners, rectitude of judgment, or purity of sentiment ? " Such is the common process of marriage.
Page 463 - A king, whose power is unlimited and whose treasures surmount all real and imaginary wants, is compelled to solace, by the erection of a pyramid, the satiety of dominion and tastelessness of pleasures, and to amuse the tediousness of declining life, by seeing thousands labouring without end, and one stone, for no purpose, laid upon another. Whoever thou art, that, not content with a moderate condition, imaginest happiness in royal magnificence, and dreamest that command or riches can feed the appetite...
Page 388 - So replied the mechanist, fishes have the water, in which yet beasts can swim by nature, and men by art. He that can swim needs not despair to fly: to swim is to fly in a grosser fluid, and to fly is to swim in a subtler. We are only to proportion our power of resistance to the different density of matter through which we are to pass.