The Works of Samuel Johnson, L. L. D.: In Twelve Volumes, Volume 7

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William Durell, 1811

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Page 273 - 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 279 - ... takes it in the most obvious sense, - that objects are represented naturally, when they have such relief that they seem real. It may appear strange, perhaps, to hear this sense of the rule disputed; but it must be considered, that if the excellency of a Painter consisted only in this kind of imitation, Painting must lose its rank, and be no longer considered as a liberal art...
Page 51 - ... who asks advice which he never takes; to the boaster, who blusters only to be praised; to the complainer, who whines only to be pitied; to the projector, whose happiness is to entertain his friends with expectations which all but himself know to be vain; to the economist, who tells of bargains and settlements...
Page 354 - I still wished to see distant countries; listened with rapture to the relations of travellers; and resolved some time to ask my dismission, that I might feast my soul with novelty : but my presence was always necessary ; and the stream of business hurried me along. Sometimes I was afraid lest I should be charged with ingratitude : but I still proposed to travel, and therefore would not confine myself bv marriaee.
Page 272 - She bow'd, obey'd him, and cut paper. This vexing him who gave her birth, Thought by all Heaven a burning shame, What does she next, but bids on earth Her Burlington do just the same?
Page 82 - The most fatal disease of friendship is gradual decay, or dislike hourly increased by causes too slender for complaint and too numerous for removal.— Those who are angry may be reconciled; those who have been injured may receive a...
Page 152 - THE natural advantages which arise from the position of the earth which we inhabit, with respect to the other planets, afford much employment to mathematical speculation, by which it has been discovered, that no other conformation of the system could have given such commodious distributions of light and heat, or imparted fertility and pleasure to so great a part of a revolving sphere. It may be, perhaps, observed by the moralist, with equal reason, that our globe seems particularly fitted for the...
Page 279 - ... perhaps, to hear this sense of the rule disputed ; but it must be considered, that, if the excellency of a painter consisted only in this kind of imitation, painting must lose its rank, and be no longer considered as a liberal art, and sister to poetry, this imitation being merely mechanical, in which the slowest intellect is always sure to succeed best ; for the painter of genius cannot stoop to drudgery, in which the understanding has no part; and what pretence has the art to claim kindred...
Page 270 - I shall trouble you no longer with my friend's observations, which, I suppose, you are now able to continue by yourself. It is curious to observe, that, at the same time that great admiration is pretended for a name of fixed reputation, objections are raised against those very qualities by which that great name was acquired.
Page 268 - ... the just estimation of the sublime beauties in works of genius ; for whatever part of an art can be executed or criticised by rules, that part is no longer the work ' of genius, which implies excellence out of the reach of rules.

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