The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D., Volume 1Alexander V. Blake, 1840 |
Contents
| i | |
| xxxv | |
| 11 | |
| 17 | |
| 23 | |
| 62 | |
| 68 | |
| 69 | |
| 75 | |
| 80 | |
| 81 | |
| 87 | |
| 93 | |
| 99 | |
| 105 | |
| 117 | |
| 124 | |
| 131 | |
| 138 | |
| 175 | |
| 176 | |
| 191 | |
| 373 | |
| 379 | |
| 392 | |
| 425 | |
| 432 | |
| 436 | |
| 441 | |
| 444 | |
| 447 | |
| 454 | |
| 461 | |
| 559 | |
| 567 | |
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Common terms and phrases
acquaintance amusements ance appear Aristotle beauty censure common considered contempt conversation curiosity danger daugh delight desire dignity dili diligence discover easily elegance eminent endeavour envy equally excellence expected eyes fame favour fear felicity flattered folly fortune frequently gain genius give gratify happiness heart honour hope hopes and fears hour human idleness Idler imagination inclined indulgence inquiry Johnson kind knowledge labour ladies learning lence less live look mankind marriage ment mind miscarriage misery nature necessary nerally ness never observed once opinion ourselves OVID pain passed passions perhaps perpetual pleased pleasure portunity praise present racter RAMBLER reason received regard rence SAMUEL JOHNSON SATURDAY scarcely seldom sentiments sion Sir John Hawkins sometimes soon suffer surely tain tence thing thought Thrasybulus tion truth TUESDAY tural vanity Virgil virtue wish writer
Popular passages
Page xiv - I had exhausted all the art of pleasing which a retired and uncourtly scholar can possess. I had done all that I could ; and no man is well pleased to have his all neglected, be it ever so little.
Page xiv - Is not a patron, my Lord, one who looks with unconcern on a man struggling for life in the water, and, when he has reached ground, encumbers him with help ? The notice which you have been pleased to take of my labours, had it been early, had been kind ; but it has been delayed till I am indifferent, and cannot enjoy it ; till I am solitary, and cannot impart it ; till I am known, and do not want it.
Page xiv - I have been lately informed by the proprietor of ' The World,' that two papers, in which my ' Dictionary ' is recommended to the public, were written by your lordship. To be so distinguished, is an honour, which, being very little accustomed to favours from the great, I know not well how to receive, or in what terms to acknowledge. " When, upon some slight encouragement, I first visited your lordship, I was overpowered, like the rest of mankind, by the enchantment of your address, and could not...
Page 102 - If we owe regard to the memory of the dead, there is yet more respect to be paid to knowledge, to virtue, and to truth.
Page 109 - By degrees we let fall the remembrance of our original intention, and quit the only adequate object of rational desire. We entangle ourselves in business, immerge ourselves in luxury, and rove through the labyrinths of inconstancy, till the darkness of old age begins to invade us, and disease and anxiety obstruct our way.
Page iii - He appears by his modest and unaffected narration to have described things as he saw them, to have copied nature from the life, and to have consulted his senses, not his imagination; he meets with no basilisks that destroy with their eyes, his crocodiles devour their prey without tears, and his cataracts fall from the rock without deafening the neighbouring inhabitants.
Page 109 - ... yet remains one effort to be made ; that reformation is never hopeless, nor sincere endeavours ever unassisted; that the wanderer may at length return after all his errors, and that he who implores strength and courage from above, shall find danger and difficulty give way before him. Go now, my son, to thy repose, commit thyself to the care of Omnipotence, and when the morning calls again to toil, begin anew thy journey and thy life.
Page 101 - ALL joy or sorrow for the happiness or calamities of others is produced by an act of the imagination, that realizes the event however fictitious, or approximates it however remote, by placing us, for a time, in the condition of him whose fortune we contemplate ; so that we feel, while the deception lasts, whatever motions would be excited by the same good or evil happening to ourselves.
Page 102 - Catiline, to remark that his walk was now quick, and again slow, as an indication of a mind revolving something with violent commotion. Thus the story of Melancthon affords a striking lecture on the value of time, by informing us that, when he made an appointment, he- expected not only the hour but the minute to be fixed, that the day might not run out in the idleness of suspense...
Page xiv - Having carried on my work thus far with so little obligation to any favourer of learning, I shall not be disappointed though I should conclude it, if less be possible, with less ; for I have been long wakened from that dream of hope, in which I once boasted myself with so much exultation. My Lord, your lordship's most humble, most obedient servant,