The Life of Samuel Johnson ...: To which is Added The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, Volume 2

Front Cover
Sands & Company, 1900 - Hebrides (Scotland) - 726 pages
 

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page 370 - Biron they call him ; but a merrier man. Within the limit of becoming mirth, I never spent an hour's talk withal : His eye begets occasion for his wit ; For every object that the one doth catch, The other turns to a mirth-moving jest ; . Which his fair tongue (conceit's expositor) Delivers in such apt and gracious words, That aged ears play truant at his tales, And younger hearings are quite ravished ; So sweet and voluble is his discourse.
Page 366 - See, what a grace was seated on this brow : Hyperion's curls; the front of Jove himself; An eye like Mars, to threaten and command ; A station like the herald Mercury New-lighted on a heaven-kissing hill ; A combination, and a form, indeed, Where every god did seem to. set his seal, To give the world assurance of a man : This was your husband.
Page 61 - Having carried on my work thus far with so little obligation to any favourer of learning, I shall not be disappointed though I should conclude it, if less be possible, with less ; for I have been long wakened from that dream of hope, in which I once boasted myself with so much exultation, " My Lord, " Your Lordship's most humble " Most obedient servant,
Page 60 - I might obtain that regard for which I saw the world contending; but I found my attendance so little encouraged, that neither pride nor modesty would suffer me to continue it. When I had once addressed your Lordship in public, I had exhausted all the art of pleasing which a retired and uncourtly scholar can possess. I had done all that I could; and no man is well pleased to have his all neglected, be it ever so little. Seven years, my Lord, have now passed since I waited in your outward rooms, or...
Page 95 - I have preserved the following short minute of what passed this day. " Madness frequently discovers itself merely by unnecessary deviation from the usual modes of the world. My poor friend Smart showed the disturbance of his mind, by falling upon his knees, and saying his prayers in the street, or in any other unusual place. Now although, rationally speaking, it is greater madness not to pray at all, than to pray as Smart did, I am afraid there are so many who do not pray, that their understanding...
Page 134 - But, sir, does not affecting a warmth when you have no warmth, and appearing to be clearly of one opinion when you are in reality of another opinion, does not such dissimulation impair one's honesty? Is there not some danger that a lawyer may put on the same mask in common life, in the intercourse with his friends? JOHNSON: Why no, sir. Everybody knows you are paid for affecting warmth for your client; and it is, therefore, properly no dissimulation : the moment you come from the bar you resume your...
Page 93 - I found that I had a very perfect idea of Johnson's figure, from the portrait of him painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds soon after he had published his Dictionary, in the attitude of sitting in his easy chair in deep meditation, which was the first picture his friend did for him, which Sir Joshua very kindly presented to me, and from which an engraving has been made for this work.
Page 108 - Madam, I am now become a convert to your way of thinking. I am convinced that all mankind are upon an equal footing; and to give you an unquestionable proof, Madam, that I am in earnest, here is a very sensible, civil, well-behaved fellowcitizen, your footman; I desire that he may be allowed to sit down and dine with us.
Page 70 - There are two things which I am confident I can do very well: one is an introduction to any literary work, stating what it is to contain, and how it should be executed in the most perfect manner: the other is a conclusion, showing from various causes why the execution has not been equal to what the author promised to himself and to the publick.
Page 308 - had been in his mind before he left London. JOHNSON : " Why, yes, Sir, the topics were ; and books of travels will be good in proportion to what a man has previously in his mind ; his knowing what to observe : his power of contrasting one mode of life with another. As the Spanish proverb says, ' He who would bring home the wealth of the Indies, must carry the wealth of the Indies with him.

Bibliographic information