The Life and Writings of Samuel Johnson...Harper & Brothers, 1840 |
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Page xi
... knowledge 157 Unreasonableness of excessive Anxiety about the Future 163 Pertinacity in Defending our own Errors 168 The Duty and Benefits of Patience 174 Labour and Rest : an Allegory 179 A State of Mediocrity most favourable to ...
... knowledge 157 Unreasonableness of excessive Anxiety about the Future 163 Pertinacity in Defending our own Errors 168 The Duty and Benefits of Patience 174 Labour and Rest : an Allegory 179 A State of Mediocrity most favourable to ...
Page 17
... knowledge can often benefit and al- ways please . " This advice Johnson seems to have pursued with a good inclination . His reading was always desultory , seldom resting on any particular author , but rambling from one book to another ...
... knowledge can often benefit and al- ways please . " This advice Johnson seems to have pursued with a good inclination . His reading was always desultory , seldom resting on any particular author , but rambling from one book to another ...
Page 42
... knowledge , would not think his time well employed in an inquiry so curious , so interesting , and instruct- ive ? If Lauder's facts were really true , who would not be glad , without the smallest tincture of malevo- lence , to receive ...
... knowledge , would not think his time well employed in an inquiry so curious , so interesting , and instruct- ive ? If Lauder's facts were really true , who would not be glad , without the smallest tincture of malevo- lence , to receive ...
Page 55
... knowledge glean'd with toil and strife , That bright reward of a well - acted life . I view myself , while Reason's feeble light Shoots a pale glimmer through the gloom of night , While passions , error , phantoms of the brain , And ...
... knowledge glean'd with toil and strife , That bright reward of a well - acted life . I view myself , while Reason's feeble light Shoots a pale glimmer through the gloom of night , While passions , error , phantoms of the brain , And ...
Page 56
... knowledge . He was again reduced to the expedient of short compositions for the supply of the day . The wri- ter of this narrative has now before him a letter , in Dr. Johnson's handwriting , which shows the dis- tress and melancholy ...
... knowledge . He was again reduced to the expedient of short compositions for the supply of the day . The wri- ter of this narrative has now before him a letter , in Dr. Johnson's handwriting , which shows the dis- tress and melancholy ...
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admired appears ardour Brocklesby calamities cause censure character Colley Cibber consider contempt conversation crimes danger death delight desire dread duty Earse effects elegance eminent endeavour equally essays evil excellence eyes fame favour fear folly fortune frequently friendship Garrick genius Gentleman's Magazine give happiness heart honour hope hour human imagination incited inclined indulge Johnson kind knowledge known labour Learning lence less lives long con Lord Lord Bute Lord Chesterfield Lucy Porter mankind melancholy ment mind misery moral nature ness never objects observed opinion ourselves pain passions perhaps pleased pleasure praise Rambler reason regard rest riches SAMUEL JOHNSON Satire of Juvenal says seems seldom Sir John Hawkins soon sophism sorrow Streatham suffer things thought tion Topham Beauclerk Trans truth vanity vice vigour virtue wish writer younger Pliny
Popular passages
Page 35 - ... devout prayer to that eternal Spirit who can enrich with all utterance and knowledge, and sends out his seraphim, with the hallowed fire of his altar, to touch and purify the lips of whom he pleases...
Page 242 - I have often thought that there has rarely passed a life of which a judicious and faithful narrative would not be useful.
Page 28 - Johnson: one, in particular, praised his impartiality ; observing, that he dealt out reason and eloquence, with an equal hand to both parties. " That is not quite true," said Johnson ; " I saved appearances tolerably well; but I took care that the WHIG DOGS should not have the best of it.
Page 69 - Ay, but to die, and go we know not where ; To lie in cold obstruction, and to rot; This sensible warm motion to become A kneaded clod ; and the delighted spirit To bathe in fiery floods...
Page 242 - All joy or sorrow for the happiness or calamities of others is produced by an act of the imagination, that realizes the event however fictitious, or approximates it however remote, by placing us, for a time, in the condition of him whose fortune we contemplate; so that we feel, while the deception lasts, whatever motions would be excited by the same good or evil happening to ourselves.
Page 259 - We then relax our vigour, and resolve no longer to be terrified with crimes at a distance, but rely upon our own constancy, and venture to approach what we resolve never to touch.
Page 245 - ... more knowledge may be gained of a man's real character by a short conversation with one of his servants, than from a formal and studied narrative, begun with his pedigree and ended with his funeral.
Page 183 - ... to our happiness. There is certainly no greater felicity, than to be able to look back on a life usefully and virtuously employed ; to trace our own progress in existence, by such tokens as excite neither shame nor sorrow.
Page 272 - To be happy at home is the ultimate result of all ambition, the end to which every enterprise and labour tends, and of which every desire prompts the prosecution.
Page 100 - ... to obviate ; for such are the vicissitudes of the world, through all its parts, that day and night, labour and rest, hurry and retirement, endear each other ; such are the changes that keep the mind in action ; we desire, we pursue, we obtain, we are satiated ; we desire something else, and begin a new pursuit.