The British Essayists;: IdlerJ. Johnson, J. Nichols and son, R. Baldwin, F. and C. Rivington, W. Otridge and son, W.J. and J. Richardson, A. Strahan, R. Faulder, ... [and 40 others], 1808 - English essays |
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Page
... reason for writing 4. Charities and hospitals . 5. Proposal for a female army .. 6. Lady's performance on horseback 7. Scheme for news - writers . 8. Plan of military discipline 9. Progress of idleness 10. Political credulity 11 ...
... reason for writing 4. Charities and hospitals . 5. Proposal for a female army .. 6. Lady's performance on horseback 7. Scheme for news - writers . 8. Plan of military discipline 9. Progress of idleness 10. Political credulity 11 ...
Page ii
... reason for Mr. NEWBERY'S wishing to have an ESSAY in his paper , that the occurrences during the intervals of its publication were not sufficient to fill its co- lumns . If this was the case , it is a curious fact in the history of ...
... reason for Mr. NEWBERY'S wishing to have an ESSAY in his paper , that the occurrences during the intervals of its publication were not sufficient to fill its co- lumns . If this was the case , it is a curious fact in the history of ...
Page vi
... reason to change his opinion , or had been convinced by his opponent . In one instance only in this work , he recalled what he had asserted : finding that some of his remarks on imprisonment for debt in Nos . 22 and 38 , were founded on ...
... reason to change his opinion , or had been convinced by his opponent . In one instance only in this work , he recalled what he had asserted : finding that some of his remarks on imprisonment for debt in Nos . 22 and 38 , were founded on ...
Page 2
... reason as a quality of which many creatures partake . He has been termed , likewise , a laughing animal ; but it is said that some men have never laughed . Perhaps man may be more properly distinguished as an idle animal ; for there is ...
... reason as a quality of which many creatures partake . He has been termed , likewise , a laughing animal ; but it is said that some men have never laughed . Perhaps man may be more properly distinguished as an idle animal ; for there is ...
Page 11
... reason to complain of his instructor , as the madman to rail at his doctor , who , when he thought himself master of Peru , physicked him to poverty . If men will struggle against their own advantage , they are not to expect that the ...
... reason to complain of his instructor , as the madman to rail at his doctor , who , when he thought himself master of Peru , physicked him to poverty . If men will struggle against their own advantage , they are not to expect that the ...
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Common terms and phrases
acquaintance admiration amusement art of memory beauty censure character common commonly considered curiosity danger delight desire dili diligence Ditto dreaded Drugget easily easy elegance endeavour equal evil expected eyes favour forded rivers fortune friends genius give gout gratified happiness hearts in motion honour hope Hudibras human idleness Idler imagination innu inquiry knowledge labour lady learned less live look lost Louisbourg mankind marriage ment mind misery mistress Mohair morning nation nature necessary ness never Newmarket night observed once opinion pain Pandæmonium passed passions perhaps Persian palace Peterhouse pleased pleasure praise produce pupillage quires racter readers reason resolved rich rience SATURDAY scarcely seldom sometimes soon Sophron suffered sure talk tell thing THOMAS WARTON thought tion told truth uncon virtue weary wife wish wonder writer XXXIII
Popular passages
Page vii - A hateful tax levied upon commodities, and adjudged not by the common judges of property, but wretches hired by those to whom excise is paid.
Page 285 - The Italian, attends only to the invariable, the great and general ; ideas which are fixed and inherent in universal nature; the Dutch, on the contrary, to literal truth and a minute exactness in the detail, as I may say, of nature modified by accident. The attention to these petty peculiarities is the very cause of this naturalness so much admired in the Dutch pictures, which, if we suppose it to be a beauty, is certainly...
Page 287 - ... reason why we approve and admire it, as we approve and admire customs and fashions of dress for no other reason than that we are used to them; so that though habit and custom cannot be said to be the cause of beauty, it is certainly the cause of our liking it: and I have no doubt but that if we were more used to deformity than beauty, deformity would then lose the idea now annexed to it, and take that of beauty; as if the whole world should agree, that yes and no should change their meanings;...
Page 270 - Here will I hold. If there's a power above us (And that there is, all Nature cries aloud Through all her works), he must delight in virtue ; And that which he delights in must be happy.
Page x - I have to mention, that the late Mr. Strahan the printer told me, that 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 over.
Page 277 - There may perhaps be too great an indulgence, as well as too great a restraint of imagination; and if the one produces incoherent monsters, the other produces what is full as bad, lifeless insipidity. An intimate knowledge of the passions, and good sense, but not common sense, must at last determine its limits.
Page 39 - Surely nothing is more reproachful to a being endowed with reason, than to resign its powers to the influence of the air, and live in dependence on the weather and the wind for the only blessings which nature has put into our power, tranquillity and benevolence.
Page 57 - To be idle and to be poor, have always been reproaches, and therefore every man endeavours, with his utmost care, to hide his poverty from others, and his idleness from himself.
Page 244 - That some of them have been adopted by him unnecessarily, may perhaps be allowed ; but in general they are evidently an advantage, for without them his stately ideas would be confined and cramped. "He that thinks with more extent than another, will want words of larger meaning.