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 xvi
... rest on his " His- tory of Poetry , " which has been justly said to ex- hibit the most singular combination of extraordi- nary talents and attainments ; but in all his writ- ings there are excellencies which mark the univer- sal scholar ...
... rest on his " His- tory of Poetry , " which has been justly said to ex- hibit the most singular combination of extraordi- nary talents and attainments ; but in all his writ- ings there are excellencies which mark the univer- sal scholar ...
Page 19
... rest are totally destroyed . Little therefore , did it avail this wonderful lady to be received , however joyfully , with such obsolete and barren ceremonies of praise . Had the way been covered with guineas , though but for the tenth ...
... rest are totally destroyed . Little therefore , did it avail this wonderful lady to be received , however joyfully , with such obsolete and barren ceremonies of praise . Had the way been covered with guineas , though but for the tenth ...
Page 33
... rest , and no longer disturb the world or himself by bustle or competition . Thus I have endeavoured to give him that infor- mation which , perhaps , after all , he did not want : for a true Idler often calls for that which he knows is ...
... rest , and no longer disturb the world or himself by bustle or competition . Thus I have endeavoured to give him that infor- mation which , perhaps , after all , he did not want : for a true Idler often calls for that which he knows is ...
Page 38
... rest shall be lulled by a shower , or broken by a tempest . We there- fore rejoice mutually at good weather , as at an escape from something that we feared ; and mutually com- plain of bad , as of the loss of something that we hoped ...
... rest shall be lulled by a shower , or broken by a tempest . We there- fore rejoice mutually at good weather , as at an escape from something that we feared ; and mutually com- plain of bad , as of the loss of something that we hoped ...
Page 61
... rest are ab- sent , and of telling them that she saw the opera , on pretence of inquiring why they would miss it . She has the pleasure of being supposed to be pleased with a refined amusement , and of hoping to be numbered among the ...
... rest are ab- sent , and of telling them that she saw the opera , on pretence of inquiring why they would miss it . She has the pleasure of being supposed to be pleased with a refined amusement , and of hoping to be numbered among 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.