The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL. D.

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Page 95 - But thou hast promised from us two a race To fill the earth, who shall with us extol Thy goodness infinite ; both when we wake, And when we seek, as now, thy gift of sleep.
Page 137 - The sound must seem an echo to the sense : Soft is the strain when Zephyr gently blows, And the smooth stream in smoother numbers flows ; But when loud surges lash the sounding shore, The hoarse, rough verse should like the torrent roar : When Ajax strives some rock's vast- weight to throw, The line too labours, and the words move slow ; Not so, when swift Camilla scours the plain, Flies o'er th' unbending corn, and skims along the main.
Page 120 - Adam, well may we labour still to dress This garden, still to tend plant, herb, and flower, Our pleasant task enjoin'd ; but, till more hands Aid us, the work under our labour grows, Luxurious by restraint ; what we by day Lop overgrown, or prune, or prop, or bind, One night or two with wanton growth derides, Tending to wild.
Page 61 - Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, even so do unto them ; for this is the law and the prophets.
Page 106 - Here, in close recess, With flowers, garlands, and sweet-smelling herbs, Espoused Eve deck'd first her nuptial bed...
Page 235 - When we have deducted all that is absorbed in sleep, all that is inevitably appropriated to the demands of nature, or irresistibly engrossed by the tyranny of custom ; all that passes in regulating the superficial decorations of life, or is given up in the reciprocations of civility to the disposal of others ; all that is torn from us by the violence of disease, or stolen imperceptibly away by lassitude and languor ; we shall find that part of our duration very small of which we can truly call ourselves...
Page 165 - O'er Rome and o'er the nations spread. FRANCIS. THE reader is indebted for this day's entertainment to an author from whom the age has received greater favours, who has enlarged the knowledge of human nature, and taught the passions to move at the command of virtue.
Page 200 - Hope, indeed, apparently mocked the credulity of her companions ; for, in proporton as their vessels grew leaky, she redoubled her assurances of safety ; and none were more busy in making provisions for a long voyage, than they whom all but themselves saw likely to perish soon by irreparable decay. In the midst of the current of...
Page 119 - Urania, and fit audience find, though few. But drive far off the barbarous dissonance Of Bacchus and his revellers, the race Of that wild rout that tore the Thracian bard In Rhodope, where woods and rocks had ears To rapture, till the savage clamour drown'd Both harp and voice ; nor could the muse defend Her son.

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