The Works of Samuel Johnson, Volume 3Nichols, 1823 - English literature |
From inside the book
Results 6-10 of 24
Page 26
... called The Entertain- ment , he gives that poet a distinguished place , and makes him speak , according to his character , with Socrates himself ; from which , by the way , it is apparent , that this dialogue of Plato was com- posed ...
... called The Entertain- ment , he gives that poet a distinguished place , and makes him speak , according to his character , with Socrates himself ; from which , by the way , it is apparent , that this dialogue of Plato was com- posed ...
Page 29
... called Ulysses , to burlesque Homer and his Odyssey ; which shows , that the wits and poets are , with respect to one another , much the same at all times , and that it was at Athens as here . I will prove this system by facts ...
... called Ulysses , to burlesque Homer and his Odyssey ; which shows , that the wits and poets are , with respect to one another , much the same at all times , and that it was at Athens as here . I will prove this system by facts ...
Page 30
... called by their names , and showed in dresses like their own , and masks resembling their faces , whom he branded in the sight of a whole city , extremely haughty and full of derision ; it is suf- ficient to say , that such a poet could ...
... called by their names , and showed in dresses like their own , and masks resembling their faces , whom he branded in the sight of a whole city , extremely haughty and full of derision ; it is suf- ficient to say , that such a poet could ...
Page 35
... called him but a demi- Menander , because he appears to want that spirit and vivacity which he calls the vis comica . We are now weary of the manner of Menander and Terence , and leave them for Moliere , who appears like a new star in a ...
... called him but a demi- Menander , because he appears to want that spirit and vivacity which he calls the vis comica . We are now weary of the manner of Menander and Terence , and leave them for Moliere , who appears like a new star in a ...
Page 39
... called the taste of an age . I am now speaking of an age sprightly and polite , an age which leaves works for a long time behind it , an age which is imitated or criticised when revolutions have thrown it GREEK COMEDY . 39.
... called the taste of an age . I am now speaking of an age sprightly and polite , an age which leaves works for a long time behind it , an age which is imitated or criticised when revolutions have thrown it GREEK COMEDY . 39.
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
able adventures amuse ancient appear Aristophanes Athenians Athens beauty Cairo censure CHAP character comedy comick considered Cratinus danger delight desire discovered easily endeavoured enjoy envy equally Eupolis Euripides evil expect eyes favour fear felicity Floretta folly fortune friends genius give gratified Greek comedy happiness happy valley honour hope human imagination Imlac inquire kind knowledge labour lady learned less likewise Lilinet live look mankind manner Menander ment merriment mind misery Moliere mountains 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 surely taste Terence terrour Thespis thing thought Tibullus tion tragedy tragick truth virtue weary wish writers
Popular passages
Page 303 - 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 Abissinia.
Page 309 - With observations like these the prince amused himself as he returned, uttering them with a plaintive voice yet with a look that discovered him to feel some complacence in his own perspicacity, and to receive some solace of the miseries of life from consciousness of the delicacy with which he felt and the eloquence with which he bewailed them.
Page 426 - 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 302 - 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 orer. 1 Mr. Strahan, Mr. Johnston, and Mr. Dodsley, purchased it for a hundred pounds ; but afterwards paid him twentyfive pounds more, when it came to a second edition.
Page 305 - Such was the appearance of security and delight which this retirement afforded that they to whom it was new always desired that it might be perpetual, and, as those on whom the iron gate had once closed were never suffered to return, the effect of longer experience could not be known.
Page 304 - The sides of the mountains were covered with trees, the banks of the brooks were diversified with flowers ; every blast shook spices from the rocks, and every month dropped fruits upon the ground.
Page 332 - His character requires that he estimate the happiness and misery of every condition, observe the power of all the passions in all their combinations, and trace the changes of the human mind as they are modified by various institutions, and accidental influences of climate or custom, from the sprightliness of infancy to the despondence of decrepitude.
Page 422 - There is no man whose imagination does not sometimes predominate over his reason, who can regulate his attention wholly by his will, and whose ideas will come and go at his command. No man will be found in whose mind airy notions do not sometimes tyrannize, and force him to hope or fear beyond the limits of sober probability.
Page 318 - He that can swim needs not despair to fly ; to swim is to fly in a grosser fluid, and to fly is to swim in a subtler. We are only to proportion our power of resistance to the different density of matter through which we are to pass.
Page 319 - You, sir, whose curiosity is so extensive, will easily conceive with what pleasure a philosopher, furnished with wings and hovering in the sky, would see the earth and all its inhabitants rolling beneath him and presenting to him successively, by its diurnal motion, all the countries within the same parallel.