The Works of Samuel Johnson, Volume 3Nichols and Son, 1816 - English literature |
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Page 3
... attention , that I might give a complete representation of that kind of writing , which was most esteemed by the Athe- nians and the wiser Greeks * , particularly by Sa- crates , who set no value upon comedy or comick actors . But the ...
... attention , that I might give a complete representation of that kind of writing , which was most esteemed by the Athe- nians and the wiser Greeks * , particularly by Sa- crates , who set no value upon comedy or comick actors . But the ...
Page 5
... attention , and are not much disposed to find beauties in that which requires long deductions to find it beautiful . If Helen had not appeared beautiful to the Greeks and Trojans but by force of argument , we had never been told of the ...
... attention , and are not much disposed to find beauties in that which requires long deductions to find it beautiful . If Helen had not appeared beautiful to the Greeks and Trojans but by force of argument , we had never been told of the ...
Page 23
... attention , at least after we have heard the moderns before him . This is then the sum of his judgment concern- ing Aristophanes and Menander . To Menan- der he gives the preference , without allowing much competition . He objects to ...
... attention , at least after we have heard the moderns before him . This is then the sum of his judgment concern- ing Aristophanes and Menander . To Menan- der he gives the preference , without allowing much competition . He objects to ...
Page 65
... attention to the wild exaggeration , the un- expected strokes , the pungent wit , and the malig- nity concealed under such wild flights as became the character of Harlequin . But though it so far resembled Aristophanes , our age is yet ...
... attention to the wild exaggeration , the un- expected strokes , the pungent wit , and the malig- nity concealed under such wild flights as became the character of Harlequin . But though it so far resembled Aristophanes , our age is yet ...
Page 67
... attention within , and that war was made without , not so much with wisdom and precaution , as with temerity and good luck ; that the love of novelty and fashion in the manner of managing the publick affairs was a madness universally ...
... attention within , and that war was made without , not so much with wisdom and precaution , as with temerity and good luck ; that the love of novelty and fashion in the manner of managing the publick affairs was a madness universally ...
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Common terms and phrases
adventures Alcibiades amuse ancient appear Aristophanes Athenians Athens beauty censure CHAP character comedy comick considered Cratinus danger delight desire discovered easily endeavoured envy equally Eschylus Eupolis Euripides evil expect eyes favour fear felicity Floretta folly fortune genius give Greek Greek comedy happiness happy valley honour hope human imagination imitation Imlac inquire justly kind knowledge labour laugh learned less likewise Lilinet live mankind manner Menander ment merriment mind misery Moliere mountains nation nature Nekayah ness never NUMB observed once opinion OVID passed passions Pekuah perhaps perpetual Plato Plautus pleased pleasure Plutarch poet praise present prince PRINCE OF ABISSINIA princess publick racter Rasselas reason ridicule scarcely sentiments Socrates solitude sometimes Sophocles success suffered suppose surely taste terrour Thespis thing thought Tibullus tion tragedy tragick truth virtue weary wish writers
Popular passages
Page 301 - YE who listen with credulity to the whispers of fancy, and pursue with eagerness the phantoms of hope ; who expect that age will perform the promises of youth, and that the deficiencies of the present day will be supplied by the morrow ; attend to the history of Rasselas, prince of Abyssinia.
Page 388 - I will not undertake to maintain, against the concurrent and unvaried testimony of all ages, and of all nations. There is no people, rude or learned, among whom apparitions of the dead are not related and believed. This opinion, which perhaps prevails as far as human nature is diffused, could become universal only by its truth : those, that never heard of one another, would not have agreed in a tale which nothing but experience can make credible. That it is doubted by single cavillers, can very little...
Page 330 - He must divest himself of the prejudices of his age or country ; he must consider right and wrong in their abstracted and invariable state ; he must disregard present laws and opinions, and rise to general and transcendental truths, which will always be the same...
Page 364 - The prince soon found that this was one of the sages whom he should understand less as he heard him longer. He therefore bowed and was silent; and the philosopher, supposing him satisfied and the rest vanquished, rose up and departed with the air of a man that had co-operated with the present system.
Page 128 - Just in the gate and in the jaws of hell, Revengeful Cares and sullen Sorrows dwell, And pale Diseases, and repining Age, Want, Fear, and Famine's unresisted rage; Here Toils, and Death, and Death's half-brother, Sleep, Forms terrible to view, their sentry keep; With anxious Pleasures of a guilty mind, Deep Frauds before, and open Force behind; The Furies' iron beds; and Strife, that shakes Her hissing tresses and unfolds her snakes.
Page 424 - Praise, said the sage, with a sigh, is to an old man an empty sound. I have neither mother to be delighted with the reputation of her son, nor wife to partake the honours of her husband.
Page 110 - The gates of hell are open night and day ; Smooth the descent, and easy is the way : But, to return, and view the cheerful skies — In this the task and mighty labour lies.
Page 300 - Johnson wrote it, that with the profits he might defray the expense of his mother's funeral, and pay some little debts which she had left. He told Sir Joshua Reynolds, that he composed it in the evenings of one week, sent it to the press in portions as it was written, and had never since read it over.
Page 309 - The old man was surprised at this new species of affliction, and knew not what to reply, yet was unwilling to be silent. "Sir," said he, " if you had seen the miseries of the world, you would know how to value your present state." " Now," said the prince, " you have given me something to desire ; I shall long to see the miseries of the world, since the sight of them is necessary to happiness.
Page 354 - He had now learned the power of money, and made his way by a piece of gold to the inner apartment, where he found the philosopher in a room half darkened, with his eyes misty, and his face pale. " Sir, said he, you are come at a time when all human friendship is useless ; what I suffer cannot be remedied, what I have lost cannot be supplied. My daughter, my only daughter, from whose tenderness I expected all the comforts of my age, died last night of a fever.