Common Courtesy in Eighteenth-century English LiteratureIn one of his Idlers, Johnson indicated the problems involved in such an achievement as follows: "As a question becomes more complicated and involved, and extends to a greater number of relations, disagreement of opinion will always be multiplied: not because we are irrational, but because we are finite beings, furnished with different kinds of knowledge, exerting different degrees of attention, one discovering consequences which escape another, none taking in the whole concatenation of causes and effects, and most comprehending but a very small part, each comparing what he observes with a different criterion and each referring it to a different purpose. "Where, then, is the wonder, that they who see only a small part should judge erroneously of the whole? |
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Page 51
... never be made about Pope's shep- herds , whose language , although simple , is pure and whose manners , al- though plain , are unfailingly proper . They never refer to gross aspects of their work or their lives ; both love and grief ...
... never be made about Pope's shep- herds , whose language , although simple , is pure and whose manners , al- though plain , are unfailingly proper . They never refer to gross aspects of their work or their lives ; both love and grief ...
Page 115
... never quite descends in the Rambler papers : Mr. Rambler simply knows best . " It is scarcely to be doubted , that on many occasions we make the music which we imagine ourselves to hear ; that we modulate the poem by our own disposition ...
... never quite descends in the Rambler papers : Mr. Rambler simply knows best . " It is scarcely to be doubted , that on many occasions we make the music which we imagine ourselves to hear ; that we modulate the poem by our own disposition ...
Page 163
... never in good company until late in life . " He rejects a " solemn inaccuracy " of Hawkins with re- spect to Johnson's motives in composing and publishing The Vanity of Human Wishes . He challenges Hawkins's account of his own ...
... never in good company until late in life . " He rejects a " solemn inaccuracy " of Hawkins with re- spect to Johnson's motives in composing and publishing The Vanity of Human Wishes . He challenges Hawkins's account of his own ...
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acknowledges actually agreement allows apparent argument asserts attention Author believe Berkeley Boswell common sense concern Consider continually conversation course courteous courtesy critics described discourse discussion doubt effect enforces epistle Essay established evident example existence experience explains expression figures finally further give hope human Hylas ideas imagine immediately indicated individual instance intellectual Johnson judgment kind knowledge learned least letter literary Lord matter meaning mind nature never notice objects observed occasion once opinion particular passage passive philosophers poem poet polite Pope Pope's position possible practice present Press question quotes Rambler readers reason recognizes reference remarkable represented respondent seems Shandy share social society sometimes Sterne style suggests things thought throughout tion Toby's topics train Treatise Tristram truth turn uncle understanding universal writing