The Works of Samuel Johnson: The Rambler

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W. Pickering, London; and Talboys and Wheeler, Oxford, 1825 - English literature

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Contents

The contrariety of criticism The vanity of objection An author obliged to depend upon his own judgment
113
The necessity of attending to the duties of common life The na tural character not to be forsaken
117
Rashness preferable to cowardice Enterprize not to be repressed
122
The mischief of extravagance and misery of dependence
127
An authors treatment from six patrons
132
The various arts of selfdelusion
136
The folly of anticipating misfortunes
142
The observance of Sunday recommended an allegory
146
The defence of a known mistake highly culpable
150
The vanity of stoicism The necessity of patience
156
An allegorical history of Rest and Labour
161
The uneasiness and disgust of female cowardice
165
A marriage of prudence without affection
171
The reasons why pastorals delight
176
The true principles of pastoral poetry
180
The advantages of mediocrity an eastern fable
185
The unhappiness of women whether single or married
190
The difficulty of giving advice without offending
194
The advantages of memory
199
The misery of a modish lady in solitude
204
The inconveniences of precipitation and confidence
208
Religion and Superstition a vision
213
The causes of disagreement in marriage
218
The mischiefs of rural faction
222
The proper means of regulating sorrow
227
The miseries of an infirm constitution
231
A disquisition upon the value of fame
235
A virtuous old age always reverenced
240
The employments of a housewife in the country
244
The contemplation of the calamities of others a remedy for grief
250
The folly and misery of a spendthrift
254
A deathbed the true school of wisdom The effects of death upon the survivors
258
The gay widows impatience of the growth of her daughter The his tory of Miss Maypole
263
The necessity of complaisance The Ramblers grief for offending his correspondents
268
Sententious rules of frugality 5273
277
An account of Suspirius the human screechowl
281
The dignity and usefulness of biography
285
The miseries and prejudice of old age
326
Different men virtuous in different degrees The vicious not always abandoned
330
No man believes that his own life will be short
334
The necessity of good humour
338
The lingering expectation of an heir
342
Peevishness equally wretched and offensive The character of Tetrica
347
The world never known but by a change of fortune The history of Melissa
352
The arts by which bad men are reconciled to themselves
357
The learned seldom despised but when they deserve contempt
361
The power of novelty Mortality too familiar to raise apprehensions
366
A suspicious man justly suspected
370
Variety necessary to happiness a winter scene
375
The great rule of action Debts of justice to be distinguished from debts of charity
381
The virtuosos account of his rarities
383
The virtuosos curiosity justified
388
A young ladys impatience of controul
393
The mischiefs of total idleness
398
an introduction to a criti cism on Miltons versification 402
402
The reasons why advice is generally ineffectual
408
A criticism on Miltons versification Elisions dangerous in English poetry 412
412
The luxury of vain imagination
417
The pauses in English poetry adjusted 421
421
The conduct of Patronage an allegory
426
The accommodation of sound to the sense often chimerical
431
The prejudices and caprices of criticism
438
94 An inquiry how far Milton has accommodated the sound to the sense
442
The history of Pertinax the sceptick
449
Truth Falsehood and Fiction an allegory
453
Advice to unmarried ladies
458
The necessity of cultivating politeness
464
The pleasures of private friendship The necessity of similar disposi tions
468
NUMB PAGE 100 Modish pleasures
472
A proper audience necessary to a wit
476
The voyage of life
484
The prevalence of curiosity The character of Nugaculus
486
The original of flattery The meanness of venal praise
491
The universal register a dream
495

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Page 440 - His praise, ye Winds, that from four quarters blow, Breathe soft or loud ; and, wave your tops, ye Pines, With every plant, in sign of worship wave. Fountains, and ye that warble, as ye flow, Melodious murmurs, warbling tune his praise.
Page 198 - Happy the man - and happy he alone He who can call today his own, He who, secure within, can say 'Tomorrow, do thy worst, for I have...
Page 433 - The sound must seem an echo to the sense : Soft is the strain when Zephyr gently blows, And the smooth stream in smoother numbers flows ; But when loud surges lash the sounding shore, The hoarse, rough verse should like the torrent roar: When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throw, The line too labours, and the words move slow : Not so, when swift Camilla scours the plain, Flies o'er th' unbending corn, and skims along the main.
Page 421 - Olympian hill I soar, Above the flight of Pegasean wing ! The meaning, not the name, I call ; for thou Nor of the Muses nine, nor on the top Of old Olympus dwell'st ; but...
Page 309 - ... yet remains one effort to be made ; that reformation is never hopeless, nor sincere endeavours ever unassisted ; that the wanderer may at length return after all his...
Page 39 - Evil into the mind of God or man May come and go, so unapproved, and leave No spot or blame behind...
Page 284 - ... 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 283 - The business of the biographer is often to pass slightly over those performances and incidents which produce vulgar greatness, to lead the thoughts into domestic privacies, and display the minute details of daily life, where exterior appendages are cast aside, and men excel each other only by prudence and by virtue.
Page 420 - Urania, and fit audience find, though few. But drive far off the barbarous dissonance Of Bacchus and his revellers, the race Of that wild rout that tore the Thracian bard In Rhodope, where woods and rocks had ears To rapture, till the savage clamour drown'd Both harp and voice ; nor could the muse defend Her son.
Page 306 - Here Obidah paused for a time, and began to consider whether it were longer safe to forsake the known and common track ; but remembering that the heat was now in its greatest violence, and that the plain was dusty and uneven, he resolved to pursue the new path, which he supposed only to make a few meanders, in compliance with the varieties of the ground, and to end at last in the common road.

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