The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL. D.J.M. Dent & Company, 1901 - Authors, English |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
66 DEAR SIR acknowl acquaintance admirable afterwards answered appeared Ashbourne asked asthma attention authour Beauclerk believe Bennet Langton Bishop Brocklesby Burke Burney called character compliments consider conversation death dined edition eminent English entertained expressed favour Francis Barber Garrick gentleman Gentleman's Magazine give happy Hebrides History honour hope humble servant JAMES BOSWELL kind lady Langton learning letter Lichfield literary live London Lord Lord Bolingbroke Lordship LUCY PORTER Madam manner mentioned merit mind Miss never obliged observed occasion once opinion perhaps pleased pleasure poem Poets Pope pounds praise prayers publick published received recollect remark respect Reverend SAMUEL JOHNSON Scotland shew Sir John Hawkins Sir Joshua Reynolds Streatham suppose sure talked tell thing thought Thrale told translation verses Whig Wilkes wish wonderful write written wrote young
Popular passages
Page 387 - Canst thou not minister to a mind diseas'd ; Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow; Raze out the written troubles of the brain ; And with some sweet oblivious antidote Cleanse the stuffd bosom of that perilous stuff Which weighs upon the heart?
Page 148 - Hyperion's curls; the front of Jove himself; An eye like Mars, to threaten and command; A station like the herald Mercury, New-lighted on a heaven-kissing hill; A combination, and a form, indeed, Where every god did seem to set his seal, To give the world assurance of a man : This was your husband.
Page 314 - tis all a cheat; Yet, fooled with hope, men favour the deceit; Trust on, and think to-morrow will repay: To-morrow's falser than the former day; Lies worse, and, while it says, we shall be blest With some new joys, cuts off what we possest.
Page 170 - ... expression ; sometimes it lurketh under an odd similitude ; sometimes it is lodged in a sly question, in a smart answer, in a quirkish reason, in a shrewd intimation, in cunningly diverting or cleverly retorting an objection ; sometimes it is couched in a bold scheme of speech, in a tart irony, in a lusty hyperbole, in a startling metaphor, in a plausible reconciling of contradictions, or in acute nonsense...
Page 118 - Lives of the Poets,' which I wrote in my usual way, dilatorily and hastily, unwilling to work, and working with vigour and haste." l In a memorandum previous to this, he says of them : " Written, I hope, in such a manner as may tend to the promotion of piety.
Page 114 - Sir, a man has no more right to say an uncivil thing, than to act one ; no more right to say a rude thing to another than to knock him down.
Page 410 - ... from a spirit of contradiction and a delight in showing his powers, he would often maintain the wrong side with equal warmth and ingenuity; so that when there was an audience, his real opinions could seldom be gathered from his talk...
Page 160 - And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom ; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent; and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.
Page 164 - Biron they call him; but a merrier man, Within the limit of becoming mirth, I never spent an hour's talk withal : His eye begets occasion for his wit; For every object that the one doth catch, The other turns to a mirth-moving jest ; Which his fair tongue (conceit's expositor,) Delivers in such apt and gracious words, That aged ears play truant at his tales, And younger hearings are quite ravished ; So sweet and voluble is his discourse.
Page 125 - But, gracious God ! how well dost thou provide For erring judgments an unerring guide ! Thy throne is darkness in the' abyss of light, A blaze of glory that forbids the sight. O teach me to believe thee thus conceal'd, And search no farther than thyself reveal'd; But her alone for my director take Whom thou hast promised never to forsake...