The British Essayists: The RamblerJ. Johnson, J. Nichols and Son, R. Baldwin, F. and C. Rivington, W. Otridge and Son, W. J. and J. Richardson, A. Strahan, J. Sewell, R. Faulder, G. and W. Nicol, T. Payne, G. and J. Robinson, W. Lowndes, G. Wilkie, J. Mathews, P. McQueen, Ogilvy and Son, J. Scatcherd, J. Walker, Vernor and Hood, R. Lea, Darton and Harvey, J. Nunn, Lackington and Company, D. Walker, Clarke and Son, G. Kearsley, C. Law, J. White, Longman and Rees, Cadell, Jun. and Davies, J. Barker, T. Kay, Wynne and Company, Pote and Company, Carpenter and Company, W. Miller, Murray and Highley, S. Bagster, T. Hurst, T. Boosey, R. Pheney, W. Baynes, J. Harding, R. H. Evans, J. Mawman; and W. Creech, Edinburgh, 1802 - English essays |
Common terms and phrases
acquaintance amusements Anthea appearance beauty calamity censure challenge of honours character Cleobulus common considered contempt conversation danger delight desire discover easily ELPHINSTON eminent endeavour Epictetus equally error evil excellence eyes faults favour fear flattered folly force fortune frequently friends gain genius give happen happiness heart hinder honour hope hour human imagination incited indulge innu JOHNSON Jovianus Pontanus Jupiter kind knowledge labour lady learning Leniter less lest lives mankind marriage means Melanthia ment mind miscarriages misery moral nature nerally never objects observed once opinion ourselves OVID pain passions pastoral Penthesilea perhaps Periander pleasing pleasure Polyphilus portunity praise precepts Prudentius publick racter RAMBLER reason reflection regard reproach reputation rest rience riety SATURDAY seldom sentiments shew sometimes soon sophism stone of Sisyphus suffer thing thought tion told TUESDAY vanity vice virtue write
Popular passages
Page 23 - idem. BOETHIUS. O thou whose pow'r o'er moving worlds presides, Whose voice created, and whose wisdom guides, On darkling man in pure effulgence shine, And cheer the clouded mind with light divine. 'Tis thine alone to calm the pious breast With silent confidence and holy rest; From thee, great
Page 9 - For this reason these familiar histories may perhaps be made of greater use than the solemnities of professed morality, and convey the knowledge of vice and virtue with more efficacy than axioms and definitions. But if the power of example is so great, as to take possession of the memory by a kind of violence, and produce
Page vi - with an elegant compliment, as the production " of an author from whom the age has received greater favours, who has enlarged the knowledge of human nature, and taught the passions to move at the command of virtue.
Page li - tribute paid by an eminent friend* on the occasion of his death—" HE HAS MADE A CHASM, WHICH NOT ONLY NOTHING CAN FILL UP, BUT WHICH NOTHING HAS A TENDENCY TO FILL UP. JOHNSON IS DEAD—LET US GO TO THE NEXT BEST : THERE IS NOBODY ; NO MAN CAN BE SAID TO PUT YOU IN MIND OF JOHNSON.
Page xxxiii - to clear it from colloquial barbarisms, licentious idioms, and irregular combinations. Something he certainly has added to the elegance of its construction, and something to the harmony of its cadence*. Comparisons have been formed between the RAMBLER and its predecessors, or rather between the genius of JOHNSON and of
Page 24 - proverb, no man in the house is more a slave than the master. When a king asked Euclid, the mathematician, whether he could not explain his art to him in a more compendious manner? he was answered, that there was no royal way to geometry. Other things may be seized by might, or purchased with money, but
Page iv - that I would not go to sleep till I had fixed its title. The RAMBLER seemed the best that occurred, and I took it." The Italians have literally translated this name by // Vagabondo. The first paper was published on Tuesday, March 20, 1749-50, and the work continued without the least interruption, every Tuesday and Saturday, until Saturday March
Page 11 - led by degrees to interest ourselves in their favour, we lose the abhorrence of their faults, because they do not hinder our pleasure, or, perhaps, regard them with some kindness for being united with so much merit. There have been men indeed splendidly wicked, whose endowments threw a brightness on their crimes, and whom scarce any villany made
Page 2 - of an author is, either to teach what is not known, or to recommend known truths by his manner of adorning them ; either to let new light in upon the mind, and open new scenes to the prospect, or to vary the dress and situation of common objects, so as
Page 193 - avoid, is greater than that of joining elegance of thought with coarseness of diction. Spenser begins one of his pastorals with studied barbarity : Diggon Davie, I bid her good-day : Or, Diggon her is, or I missay, Dig. Her was her while it was day-light, But now her is a most wretched wight.