Wisdom and Genius of Dr. Samuel Johnson: Selected from His Prose WritingsJ. Blackwood, 1875 - 298 pages |
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amusements attain attention calamity character common commonly considered conversation CUTHBERT BEDE delight desire diligence Dryden easily easy EDWARD HITCHCOCK endeavour enjoy enjoyment envy equally evil excellence expect fame fancy favour Fcap fear feel felicity flatter folly fortune FRANCIS QUARLES frequently FROST KING genius GEOFFREY CHAUCER give gratification happiness HENRY WARD BEECHER honour hope human idleness imagination inclination indulged intellectual JAMES BLACKWOOD Julius Cæsar kind Kind-The knowledge labour learning leisure lives London Lord Anson Lovell's Court luxury mankind marriage ment mind misery nature necessary necessity neglect ness never Numerous Illustrations observed opinion ourselves pain pass passion Paternoster Row perpetual pleasing pleasure poet poetry Pope possession praise present pride produce reason riches SAMUEL JOHNSON seldom sentiments Shakespeare sometimes sorrow suffer superiority things thoughts tion truth vanity vigour virtue wisdom wish writing young youth
Popular passages
Page 25 - I have often thought that there has rarely passed a life of which a judicious and faithful narrative would not be useful. For, not only every man has, in the mighty mass of the world, great numbers in the same condition with himself, to whom his mistakes and miscarriages, escapes and expedients, would be of immediate and apparent use; but there is such...
Page 170 - All the performances of human art, at which we look with praise or wonder, are instances of the resistless force of perseverance : it is by this that the quarry becomes a pyramid, and that distant countries are united with canals.
Page 244 - No, Sir ; there is nothing which has yet been contrived by man, by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern or inn.
Page 228 - The accidental compositions of heterogeneous modes are dissolved by the chance which combined them; but the uniform simplicity of primitive qualities neither admits increase, nor suffers decay. The sand heaped by one flood is scattered by another, but the rock always continues in its place. The stream of time, which is continually washing the dissoluble fabrics of other poets, passes without injury by the adamant of Shakespeare.
Page 130 - It has been so long said as to be commonly believed, that the true characters of men may be found in their letters, and that he who writes to his friend lays his heart open before him. But the truth is, that such were the simple friendships of the " Golden Age," and are now the friendships only of children.
Page 126 - But, the truth is, that the knowledge of external nature, and the sciences which that knowledge requires or includes, are not the great or the frequent business of the human mind.
Page 249 - He, who would bring home the wealth of the Indies, must carry the wealth of the Indies with him.
Page 26 - There are many who think it an act of piety to hide the faults or failings of their friends, even when they can no longer suffer by their detection; we therefore see whole ranks of characters adorned with uniform panegyric, and not to be known from one another but by extrinsic and casual circumstances. 'Let me remember (says Hale) when I find myself inclined to pity a criminal, that there is likewise a pity due to the country.
Page 223 - Shakespeare is, above all writers, — at least above all modern writers, — the poet of nature; the poet that holds up to his readers a faithful mirror of manners and of life.