The works of Samuel Johnson, Volume 4G. Offor, 1818 |
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Common terms and phrases
acquaintance Ajut Altilia amusement Anningait ardour attention beauty Bias of Priene censure character common considered contempt conversation criticks danger delight desire dignity diligence discovered domestick easily elegance endeavour envy equally excellence expected eye of providence eyes fashionable songs favour fear felicity flattered folly fortune frequently friends gain gratify Greenland happiness haste heard heart honour hope hour human imagination inclined indulgence JANUARY 18 kind knowledge labour lady learning lence less Leviculus live mankind ment merit mind miscarriage misery nature neglect neral ness never nosyllables NOVEMBER 9 observed obtain once opinion OVID passion perpetual pleased pleasure poverty praise present pride publick Pythagoras quired RAMBLER reason received regard reputation resolved riches SATURDAY scarcely Seged seldom sentiments smoke of hell solicit sometimes soon sorrow suffer thing thought Thrasybulus tion topicks TUESDAY vanity virtue wealth wish
Popular passages
Page 225 - I have laboured to refine our language to grammatical purity, and to clear it from colloquial barbarisms, licentious idioms, and irregular combinations. Something, perhaps, I have added to the elegance of its construction, and something to the harmony of its cadence.
Page 58 - You wait on nature's mischief! Come, thick night, And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell, That my keen knife see not the wound it makes, Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark, To cry " Hold, hold !
Page 9 - It ought to be the first endeavour of a writer to distinguish nature from custom ; or that which is established because it is right, from that which is right only because it is established; that he may neither violate essential principles by a desire of novelty, nor debar himself from the attainment of beauties within his view, by a needless fear of breaking rules which no literary dictator had authority to enact.
Page 300 - The same observation may be extended likewise to the passions : their influence is uniform, and their effects nearly the same in every human breast : a man loves and hates, desires and avoids, exactly like his neighbour ; resentment and ambition, avarice and indolence, discover themselves by the same symptoms in minds distant a thousand years from one another.
Page 130 - ... we are on every side in danger of error and of guilt, which we are certain to avoid only by speedy forgiveness. From this pacific and harmless temper, thus propitious to others and ourselves, to domestic tranquillity and to social happiness, no man is withheld but by pride, by the fear of being insulted by his adversary, or despised by the world. It may be laid down as an unfailing and universal axiom, that " all pride is abject and mean.
Page 129 - The man who retires to meditate mischief, and to exasperate his own rage ; whose thoughts are employed only on means of distress, and contrivances of ruin ; whose mind never pauses from the remembrance of his own sufferings, but to indulge some hope of enjoying the calamities of another, may justly be numbered among the most miserable of human beings, among those who are guilty without reward, who have neither the gladness of prosperity nor the calm of innocence.
Page 122 - ... envy- is mere unmixed and genuine evil; it pursues a hateful end by despicable means, and desires not so much its own happiness as another's misery. To avoid depravity like this, it is not necessary that any one should aspire to heroism or sanctity, but only that he should resolve not to quit the rank which nature assigns him, and wish to maintain the dignity of a human being.
Page 262 - Those who have past much of their lives in this great city, look upon its opulence and its multitudes, its extent and variety, with cold indifference ; but an inhabitant of the remoter parts of the kingdom is immediately distinguished by a kind of dissipated curiosity, a busy endeavour to divide his attention amongst a thousand objects, and a wild confusion of astonishment and alarm. The attention of a new comer is generally first struck by the multiplicity of cries that stun him in the streets,...
Page 228 - The gates of hell are open night and day ; Smooth the descent, and easy is the way : But, to return, and view the cheerful skies — In this the task and mighty labour lies.
Page 324 - Intrust thy fortune to the powers above. Leave them to manage for thee, and to grant What their unerring wisdom sees. thee want : In goodness, as in greatness, they excel ; Ah, that we lov'd ourselves but half so well!