The Works of Samuel Johnson: The Adventurer and Idler

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

From inside the book

Contents

On the trades of London
41
Idle hope
46
Apology for neglecting officious advice
52
Incitement to enterprise and emulation Some account of the admirable Crichton
57
Folly of false pretences to importance A journey in a stagecoach
62
Study composition and converse equally necessary to intellectual accomplishment
68
Criticism on the Pastorals of Virgil
73
Apology for apparent plagiarism Sources of literary variety
79
Projectors injudiciously censured and applauded
84
Infelicities of retirement to men of business
89
Different opinions equally plausible
94
On the uncertainty of human things
100
The pleasures and advantages of industry
104
The itch of writing universal
109
The folly of creating artificial wants
114
The miseries of life
122
Solitude not eligible
123
Men differently employed unjustly censured by each other
128
Singularities censured
133
Writers not a useless generation
139
Their happiness and infelicity
144
THE IDLER
149
NUMB PAGE 1 THE IDLERS character
153
Invitation to correspondents
154
Idlers reason for writing
157
Charities and hospitals
160
Proposal for a female army
163
Ladys performance on horseback
166
Scheme for newswriters
169
Plan of military discipline
172
Progress of idleness
175
Political credulity
179
Discourses on the weather
183
Marriages why advertised
184
The imaginary housewife
187
Robbery of time
190
Treacles complaint of his wife
193
Druggets retirement
196
Expedients of idlers
198
Drugget vindicated
201
Whirlers character
203
Capture of Louisbourg
207
Lingers history of listlessness
210
Imprisonment of debtors
213
Uncertainty of friendship
216
Man does not always think
219
New actors on the stage
221
Betty Brooms history
224
Power of habits
227
Weddingday Grocers wife Chairman
230
Betty Brooms history continued
233
Corruption of newswriters
236
Disguises of idleness Sobers character
239
On Sleep
242
Journal of a fellow of a college
245
Punch and conversation compared
249
NUMB PAGE 35 Auctionhunter described and ridiculed
252
On painting Portraits defended
281
Molly Quicks complaint of her mistress
285
Deborah Gingers account of citywits
288
The bustle of idleness described and ridiculed
291
Marvels journey narrated
294
Marvels journey paralleled
297
Domestick greatness unattainable
299
Selfdenial necessary
302
Mischiefs of good company
305
Mrs Savecharges complaint
308
Authors mortifications
312
Virtuosos whimsical
315
Character of Sophron
318
Expectations of pleasure frustrated
322
Books fall into neglect
323
Minim the critic
325
Minim the critic
329
Rangers account of the vanity of riches
332
Progress of arts and language
335
Rangers complaint concluded
338
Fate of posthumous works
341
Loss of ancient writings
343
Scholars journal
349
History of translation
350
History of translation
353
Hard words defended
355
Dick Shifters rural excursion
358
Regulation of memory
362
Tranquils use of riches
365
Memory rarely deficient
367
Gelaleddin of Bassora
370
False criticisms on painting
373
Easy writing
376
Steady Snug Startle Solid and Misty
379
Grand style of painting
383
Ladies journey to London
385
Indians speech to his countrymen
388
Scruple Wormwood Sturdy and Gentle
395
Biography how best performed
398
Books multiplied by useless compilations
401
Miss Heartless want of a lodging
403
Amazonian bravery revived
406
What have ye done?
409
Physical evil moral good
411
Rhetorical action considered
414
Sufficiency of the English language
417
Nature of cunning
420
Sam Softlys history
422
Obstructions of learning
425
Tim Wainscots son a fine gentleman
427
Hacho of Lapland
430
Narratives of travellers considered
433
Sophia Heedful
437
The good sort of woman
440
Omars plan of life
443
Authors inattentive to themselves
446
Horrour of the last
448

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Page 366 - 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 365 - Reynolds. ejected without diminution of the sense, any curious iteration of the same word, and all unusual, though not ungrammatical structure of speech, destroy the grace of easy poetry. The first lines of Pope's Iliad afford examples of many licences which an easy writer must decline : Achilles...
Page 15 - Just in the gate and in the jaws of hell, Revengeful Cares and sullen Sorrows dwell, And pale Diseases, and repining Age, Want, Fear, and Famine's unresisted rage; Here Toils, and Death, and Death's half-brother, Sleep, Forms terrible to view, their sentry keep; With anxious Pleasures of a guilty mind, Deep Frauds before, and open Force behind; The Furies' iron beds; and Strife, that shakes Her hissing tresses and unfolds her snakes.
Page 379 - 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 432 - thou to whose voice nations have listened, and whose wisdom is known to the extremities of Asia, tell me how I may resemble Omar the prudent. The arts by which...
Page 318 - He has read all our poets with particular attention to this delicacy of versification, and wonders at the supineness with which their works have been hitherto perused, so that no man has found the sound of a drum in this distich : — When pulpit, drum ecclesiastic, Was beat with fist instead of a stick...
Page 245 - Every man speaks and writes with intent to be understood; and it can seldom happen but he that understands himself might convey his notions to another, if, content to be understood, he did not seek to be admired: but when once he begins to contrive how his sentiments may be received, not with most ease to his reader, but with most advantage to himself, he then transfers his consideration from words to sounds, from sentences to periods, and as he grows more elegant becomes less intelligible.
Page 365 - She bow'd, obey'd him, and cut paper. This vexing him who gave her birth, Thought by all Heaven a burning...
Page 117 - to pass through things temporal," with no other care than " not to lose finally the things eternal," I look with such veneration as inclines me to approve his conduct in the whole, without a minute examination of its parts ; yet I could never forbear to wish, that while vice is every day multiplying...
Page 426 - this palace is the seat of happiness, where pleasure .succeeds to pleasure, and discontent and sorrow can have no admission. Whatever nature has provided for the delight of sense, is here spread forth to be enjoyed. What can mortals hope or imagine, which the master of this palace has not obtained ? The dishes of luxury cover his table, the voice of harmony lulls him in his bowers ; he breathes the fragrance of the groves of Java, and sleeps upon the down of the cygnets of Ganges.

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