The works of Samuel Johnson, Volume 4F.C. and J. Rivington, 1823 - Authors, English |
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Page 23
... pleased with an op- portunity of mischief , that they toil without pro- spect of praise , and pillage without hope of profit . When any man has endeavoured to deserve distinction , he will be surprised to hear himself censured where he ...
... pleased with an op- portunity of mischief , that they toil without pro- spect of praise , and pillage without hope of profit . When any man has endeavoured to deserve distinction , he will be surprised to hear himself censured where he ...
Page 26
... pleased with imagining that he knows something not yet commonly divulged , secret history easily gains credit ; but it is for the most part believed only while it circulates in whispers ; and when once it is openly told , is openly ...
... pleased with imagining that he knows something not yet commonly divulged , secret history easily gains credit ; but it is for the most part believed only while it circulates in whispers ; and when once it is openly told , is openly ...
Page 53
... pleased with splendour , and equally careless of ex- pence ; they both justified their profusion to them- selves , by endeavouring to believe it necessary to the extension of their acquaintance , and improve- ment of their interest ...
... pleased with splendour , and equally careless of ex- pence ; they both justified their profusion to them- selves , by endeavouring to believe it necessary to the extension of their acquaintance , and improve- ment of their interest ...
Page 71
... pleased , and he who would not provoke rudeness must not practise it . But the question among those who establish rules for an epistolary performance is how gaiety or civility may be properly expressed ; as among the criticks in history ...
... pleased , and he who would not provoke rudeness must not practise it . But the question among those who establish rules for an epistolary performance is how gaiety or civility may be properly expressed ; as among the criticks in history ...
Page 76
... Pleased with an opportunity of im- parting my knowledge , and cager of any intelli- gence that might increase it , I delighted his curio- • sity with historical narratives and explications of nature , 76 N ° 153 . THE RAMBLER .
... Pleased with an opportunity of im- parting my knowledge , and cager of any intelli- gence that might increase it , I delighted his curio- • sity with historical narratives and explications of nature , 76 N ° 153 . THE RAMBLER .
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Acastus acquaintance amusement ancient antiquated journals appear ardour attention August 27 beauty calamity catenis censure common considered contempt conversation criticks curiosity danger delight desire dignity dili discovered easily elegance eminence endeavour envy equally escape excellence excite expected expence eyes fame families the land father favour favourite fear flattered folly fortes ante fortune gaiety genius gratify happiness heart honour hope human ignorance Iliad imagination imitation inclination indulge inquiry insolence insult kind knowledge labour ladies learning lence live mankind marriage ment merit mind miscarriage misery nature necessary neglect ness never NUMB observed opinion Ovid pain panegyrist passion pleasure praise present produce publick Pylades quired racter RAMBLER reason received regard reputation risum SATURDAY scarcely seldom sentiments September 24 shew solicit sometimes soon Stesichorus suffer superaddition terrour thought Thrasybulus tion TUESDAY vanity virtue wealth writer καὶ
Popular passages
Page 166 - You wait on nature's mischief! Come, thick night, And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell, That my keen knife see not the wound it makes, Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark, To cry " Hold, hold !
Page 386 - ... with which performance struggles after idea, is so irksome and disgusting, and so frequent is the necessity of resting below that perfection which we imagined within our reach, that seldom any man obtains more from his endeavours than a painful conviction of his defects, and a continual resuscitation of desires which he feels himself unable to gratify.
Page 166 - Yet the efficacy of this invocation is destroyed by the insertion of an epithet now seldom heard but in the stable, and dun night may come or go without any other notice than contempt.
Page 20 - 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 20 - And when I die, be sure you let me know Great Homer dy'd three thousand years ago. Why did I write? what sin to me unknown Dipt me in Ink, my parents, or my own? As yet a child, nor yet a fool to fame, I lisp'd in numbers, for the numbers came. I left no calling for this idle trade, No duty broke, no father disobey'd. The Muse but serv'd to ease some friend, not Wife, To help me thro...
Page 205 - The depravity of mankind is so easily discoverable, that nothing but the desert or the cell can exclude it from notice. The knowledge of crimes intrudes uncalled and undesired. They whom their abstraction from common occurrences hinders from seeing iniquity, will quickly have their attention awakened by feeling it. Even he who ventures not into the world, may learn its corruption in his closet.
Page 384 - SUCH is the emptiness of human enjoyment, that we are always impatient of the present. Attainment is followed by neglect, and possession by disgust; and the malicious remark of the Greek epigrammatist on marriage may be applied to every other course-of life, that its two days of happiness are the first and the last.
Page 165 - We are all offended by low terms, but are not disgusted alike by the same compositions, because we do not all agree to censure the same terms as low. No word is naturally or intrinsically meaner than another ; our opinion therefore of words, as of other things arbitrarily and capriciously established, depends wholly upon accident and custom.
Page 146 - It is particularly the duty of those who consign illustrious names to posterity, to take care lest their readers be misled by ambiguous examples. That writer may be justly condemned as an enemy to goodness, who suffers fondness or interest to confound right with wrong, or to shelter the faults which •even the wisest and the best have committed from that ignominy which guilt ought always to suffer, and with which it should be more deeply stigmatized when dignified by its neighbourhood to uncommon...
Page 166 - Yet this sentiment is weakened by the name of an instrument used by butchers and cooks in the meanest employments: we do not immediately conceive that any crime of importance is to be committed with a knife...