Select Essays, Volume 2Dent, 1889 |
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Page 3
... surely awaken tenderness in every human mind ; and tenderness once excited will be hourly increased by the natural contagion of felicity , by the repercussion of communicated pleasure , by the consciousness of the dignity of benefaction ...
... surely awaken tenderness in every human mind ; and tenderness once excited will be hourly increased by the natural contagion of felicity , by the repercussion of communicated pleasure , by the consciousness of the dignity of benefaction ...
Page 7
... surely no resentment can be equally painful with kindness thus undeserved , nor can severer punishment be imprecated upon a man not wholly lost in meanness and stupidity , than , through the tediousness of decrepitude , to be reproached ...
... surely no resentment can be equally painful with kindness thus undeserved , nor can severer punishment be imprecated upon a man not wholly lost in meanness and stupidity , than , through the tediousness of decrepitude , to be reproached ...
Page 28
... surely complaisance requires , that no man should , without proof , con- clude his company incapable of following him to the highest elevation of his fancy , or the utmost extent of his knowledge . It is always safer to err in favour of ...
... surely complaisance requires , that no man should , without proof , con- clude his company incapable of following him to the highest elevation of his fancy , or the utmost extent of his knowledge . It is always safer to err in favour of ...
Page 41
... surely , though some indulgence may be allowed to groans extorted by inevitable misery , no man has a right to repine at evils which , against warning , against experience , he deliberately and leisurely brings upon his own head ; or to ...
... surely , though some indulgence may be allowed to groans extorted by inevitable misery , no man has a right to repine at evils which , against warning , against experience , he deliberately and leisurely brings upon his own head ; or to ...
Page 51
... surely eligible to forgive early . Every passion is more easily subdued before it has been long accustomed to possession of the heart ; every idea is obliterated with less difficulty , as it has been more slightly impressed , and less ...
... surely eligible to forgive early . Every passion is more easily subdued before it has been long accustomed to possession of the heart ; every idea is obliterated with less difficulty , as it has been more slightly impressed , and less ...
Common terms and phrases
amuse ardour attention Bodleian Library Boswell Boswell's Johnson catenis Catiline censure common commonly consider contempt criticism danger David Fabricius death delight desire dignity diligence discovered Dunciad easily elegance endeavour enemies envy equally Essay Essay on Criticism Euryalus evil excellence expected eyes fancy favour fear felicity folly fortune Garrick genius give gratify happiness heart honour hope Horace Hudibras human idleness Idler imagination indulge John Le Clerc justly kind knowledge labour learning less live Lord Camden mankind memory ment mind misery nature neglect ness never NOVEMBER 17 observed opinion pain Paradise Lost passed passions perhaps pleasure poet Pope poverty praise present pride Rambler reason remember reputation Satires xiv SATURDAY says scarcely scrupulosity seldom sometimes sorrow Statius suffer talk tell things thought tion Trained Bands truth vanity virtue wisdom wish writing
Popular passages
Page 75 - 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 101 - The March begins in Military State, And Nations on his Eye suspended wait; Stern Famine guards the solitary Coast, And Winter barricades the Realms of Frost ; He comes, nor Want nor Cold his Course delay; — Hide, blushing Glory, hide Pultowa's day...
Page 107 - the cooling western breeze," In the next line, it "whispers through the trees:" If crystal streams "with pleasing murmurs creep...
Page 82 - When common words were less pleasing to the ear, or less distinct in their signification, I have familiarized the terms of philosophy by applying them to popular ideas...
Page 67 - How many thousand of my poorest subjects Are at this hour asleep ! O Sleep, O gentle Sleep, Nature's soft nurse, how have I frighted thee, That thou no more wilt weigh my eyelids down. And steep my senses in forgetfulness ! Why, rather, Sleep, liest thou in smoky cribs, Upon uneasy pallets stretching thee, And hush'd with buzzing night-flies to thy slumber ; Than in the perfumed chambers of the great...
Page 223 - No. 65., there is the following very extraordinary paragraph: " The authenticity of Clarendon's History, though printed with the sanction of one of the first universities of the world, had not an unexpected manuscript been happily discovered, would, with the help of factious credulity, have been brought into question, by the two lowest of all human beings, a scribbler for a party, and a commissioner of excise.
Page 110 - Whoe'er has travell'd life's dull round, Where'er his stages may have been, May sigh to think he still has found The warmest welcome at an inn.
Page 128 - I do now publish my Essays, which of all my other works have been most current, for that, as it seems, they come home to men's business and bosoms.
Page 178 - The sun grew low, and left the skies, Put down (some write) by ladies eyes ; The moon pull'd off her veil of light, That hides her face by day from sight, (Mysterious veil, of brightness made, That's both her lustre and her shade) And in the lanthorn of the night, With shining horns hung out her light : For darkness is the proper sphere Where all false glories use t
Page 193 - These are the great occasions which force the mind to take refuge in Religion: when we have no help in ourselves, what can remain but that we look up to a higher and a greater Power; and to what hope may we not raise our eyes and hearts, when we consider that the Greatest POWER is the BEST.