Deformities of Dr Samuel Johnson: Selected from His Worksauthor; and sold, 1782 - 63 pages |
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abſurdity admirers almoſt alſo anſwer Arbuthnot aſſertion beauties becauſe beſides cenfure character Chesterfield circumſtance common conſequence contempt converſation Decemviri definitions deſign diftinguiſh diſplay Doctor Dr Johnſon Dryden Engliſh eſcaped eſteem Excife expreſſed faid fame fatire firſt flatulence folio dictionary fome fuch genius Gray's hiſtorian Hudibras Ibid Idler ignorant infult inſtrument itſelf Johnson juſt language laſt learning leſs loſs mankind mean Milton moſt muſt never nonſenſe noſe obſervations octavo paſſage pedant perhaps Pericranium peruſe pleaſe poem poet poetry Pope Pope's praiſe Preface preſent racter Rambler reader remark reſpect reſt ridiculous Roman Legion Roman republic ſaid ſame ſays ſcenes ſcience ſee ſeems ſeen ſenſe ſet ſeveral Shakespeare ſhall ſhort ſhould ſmall ſociety ſome ſometimes ſpeak ſpecies ſpecimen ſtands ſtate ſtile ſtill ſtring ſtudy ſtupid ſubject ſuch ſuperior ſupport ſuppoſed Swift tell theſe thing thoſe tion utmoſt verſes Vide whig wiſer woman words writer
Popular passages
Page 17 - The mind of the writer seems to work with unnatural violence. Double, double, toil and trouble. He has a kind of strutting dignity, and is tall by walking on tiptoe. His art and his struggle are too visible, and there is too little appearance of ease and nature.
Page 19 - ... he had a notion not very peculiar, that he could not write but at certain times, or at happy moments; a fantastic foppery, to which my kindness for a man of learning and of virtue wishes him to have been superior.
Page 17 - Gray thought his language more poetical as it was more remote from common use: finding in Dryden honey redolent of Spring, an expression that reaches the utmost limits of our language, Gray drove it a little more beyond common apprehension, by making gales to be redolent of joy and youth.
Page 54 - He has scenes of undoubted and perpetual excellence, but perhaps not one play, which, if it were now exhibited as the work of a contemporary writer, would be heard to the conclusion.
Page 5 - ... habit and cuftom cannot be faid to be the caufe of beauty, it is certainly the caufe of our liking it: and I have no doubt but that if we were more ufed to deformity than beauty...
Page 55 - If any one asks me, what this solidity is, I send him to his senses to inform him : let him put a flint or a football between his hands, and then endeavor to join them, and he will know.
Page 20 - Bard more force, more thought, and more variety. But to copy is less than to invent, and the copy has been unhappily produced at a wrong time. The fiction of Horace was to the Romans credible; but its revival disgusts us with apparent and unconquerable falsehood.
Page 49 - In hope of giving longevity to that which its own nature forbids to be immortal, I have devoted this book, the labour of years, to the honour of my country, that we may no longer yield the palm of philology, without a contest, to the nations of the continent.
Page 10 - ... Gulliver's Travels ; all of which have justly been considered as master-pieces in the different departments to which they relate. Johnson, indeed, in referring to the Memoirs of Scriblerus, has asserted,* that " this joint production of three great writers has never obtained any notice from mankind ; that it has been little read, or when read has been forgotten, as no man could be wiser, better, or merrier for remembering it...
Page 23 - At this time a long course of opposition to sir Robert Walpole had filled the nation with clamours for liberty, of which no man felt the want, and with care for liberty, which was not in danger.