The Rambler [by S. Johnson and others]., Volume 3

Front Cover
1750

From inside the book

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page 100 - ... to his fate, when he beheld through the brambles the glimmer of a taper. He advanced towards the light, and finding that it proceeded from the cottage of a hermit, he called humbly at the door, and obtained admission. The old man set before him such provisions as he had collected for himself, on which Obidah fed with eagerness and gratitude. When the repast was over,
Page 63 - If the Biographer writes from personal Knowledge, and makes haste to gratify the publick Curiosity, there is Danger lest his Interest, his Fear, his Gratitude, or his Tenderness, overpower his Fidelity, and tempt him to conceal, if not to invent. There are many who think it an Act of Piety to hide the Faults or Failings of their Friends, even when they can no longer suffer by their Detection; we therefore see whole Ranks of Characters adorned with uniform Panegyrick, and not to be known from one...
Page 62 - If a life be delayed till interest and envy are at an end, we may hope for impartiality, but must expect little intelligence ; for the incidents which give excellence to biography are of a volatile and evanescent kind, such as soon escape the memory, and are rarely transmitted by tradition.
Page 59 - I have often thought that there has rarely passed a life of which a judicious and faithful narrative would not be useful.
Page 58 - Our passions are therefore more strongly moved, in proportion as we can more readily adopt the pains or pleasure proposed to our minds, by recognising them as once our own, or considering them as naturally incident to our state of life.
Page 35 - Frugality may be termed the daughter of Prudence, the sister of Temperance, and the parent of Liberty. He that is extravagant will quickly become poor, and poverty will enforce dependence, and invite corruption...
Page 200 - For surely, nothing can so much disturb the passions, or perplex the intellects of man, as the disruption of his union with visible nature ; a separation from all that has hitherto delighted or engaged him ; a change not only of the place, but the manner of his being ; an entrance into a state not simply which he knows not, but which perhaps he has not faculties to know ; an immediate and perceptible communication with the supreme Being, and, what is above all distressful and alarming, the final...
Page 101 - by what chance thou hast been brought hither ; I have been now twenty years an inhabitant of the wilderness, in which I never saw a man before.
Page 61 - Melancthon affords a striking lecture on the value of time, by informing us, that when he made an appointment, he expected not only the hour, but the minute to be fixed, that the day might not run out in the idleness of...
Page 100 - At length, not fear but labour began to overcome him ; his breath grew short, and his knees trembled, and he was on the point of lying down in resignation to his fate ; when he beheld, through the brambles, the glimmer of a taper.

Bibliographic information