The Essays of Samuel JohnsonW. Scott, Limited, 1888 - 346 pages |
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acquaintance advantage amusement appear Appendix Arthur Edward Waite attention Bennet Langton Boswell censure character common considered contempt criticism danger delight desire diligence discover easily Edited eminent endeavours envy equally Ernest Rhys excellence expect eyes fame fancy faults favour felicity folly fortune frequently friendship gain garret genius gratify happiness heart honour hope hour human idle Idler imagine indulge inquire J. A. Symonds J. S. Fletcher Johnson Joseph Skipsey justly kind knowledge labour learning less lives mankind Michael Johnson mind miscarriages misery nature necessary neglect negligence never observed once opinion ourselves OVID pain passed passions perhaps perpetual pleasing pleasure praise precepts present produce publick Rambler reason regard reputation retire Samuel Johnson Saturday scarcely seldom sentiments sometimes success suffer thought Tibullus topicks truth Tuesday vanity virtue WALTER SCOTT William Sharp writer
Popular passages
Page xii - The notice which you have been pleased to take of my labours, had it been early, had been kind; but it has been delayed till I am indifferent, and cannot enjoy it; till I am solitary, and cannot impart it; till I am known, and do not want it.
Page xii - Is not a Patron, my Lord, one who looks with unconcern on a man struggling for life in the water and, when he has reached ground, encumbers him with help...
Page 152 - This modest stone, what few vain marbles can, May truly say, Here lies an honest man : A Poet, blest beyond the Poet's fate, Whom Heaven kept sacred from the Proud and Great : Foe to loud praise, and friend to learned ease, Content with science in the vale of peace. Calmly he look'd on either life, and here Saw nothing to regret, or there to fear ; From Nature's...
Page 337 - Goldsmith said, that he thought he could write a good fable, mentioned the simplicity which that kind of composition, requires, and observed, that in most fables the animals introduced seldom talk in character.
Page 73 - LL joy or sorrow for the happiness or calamities of others is produced by an act of the imagination, that realizes the event however fictitious, or approximates it however remote, by placing us, for a time, in the condition of him whose fortune we contemplate ; so that we feel, while the deception lasts, whatever motions would be excited by the same good or evil happening to ourselves.
Page 123 - ... should sink last; and with this promise every one was satisfied, though he laughed at the rest for seeming to believe it. Hope, indeed, apparently mocked the credulity of her companions ; for, in proportion as their vessels grew leaky, she redoubled her assurances of safety ; and none were more busy in making provisions for a long voyage, than they whom all but themselves saw likely to perish soon by irreparable decay. In the midst of the current of Life, was the gulph of Intemperance, a dreadful...
Page 332 - When I was running about this town a very poor fellow, I was a great arguer for the advantages of poverty ; but I was, at the same time, very sorry to be poor.
Page xx - Vitus's dance, his rolling walk, his blinking eye, the outward signs which too clearly marked his approbation of his dinner, his insatiable appetite for fish-sauce and...
Page 99 - But, guilt has always its horrors and solicitudes; and to make it yet more shameful and detestable, it is doomed often to stand in awe of those, to whom nothing could give influence or weight, but their power of betraying.
Page 337 - Why, Dr. Johnson, this is not so easy as you seem to think; for if you were to make little fishes talk, they would talk like WHALES.