Essays: Biographical, Critical, and Historical; Illustrative of the Rambler, Adventurer & Idler ; and of the Various Periodical Papers Which, in Imitation of the Writings of Steele and Addison, Have Been Published Between the Close of the Eight Volume of the Spectator and the Commencement of the Year 1809, Volume 1 |
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Page 115
It must not be inferred , however , from this account , that he neglected the
cultivation of his intellectual powers ; he was , in fact , during the three years
which he spent at Pembroke College , an intense , though desultory reader , and
stored up ...
It must not be inferred , however , from this account , that he neglected the
cultivation of his intellectual powers ; he was , in fact , during the three years
which he spent at Pembroke College , an intense , though desultory reader , and
stored up ...
Page 421
... of the tragedy is occupied by incidents which directly conduce to the
catastrophe , and but for which it could not have come to pass . To this able
defence , therefore , of the injured poet , I refer the reader . * The seven following
essays , which ...
... of the tragedy is occupied by incidents which directly conduce to the
catastrophe , and but for which it could not have come to pass . To this able
defence , therefore , of the injured poet , I refer the reader . * The seven following
essays , which ...
Page 436
This is , in fact , the work in which the excellencies and defects of Johnson are
placed before the reader with their full prominence ; in which the lovers of
philology and biography , the friends of moral and ethic wisdom , will find much to
...
This is , in fact , the work in which the excellencies and defects of Johnson are
placed before the reader with their full prominence ; in which the lovers of
philology and biography , the friends of moral and ethic wisdom , will find much to
...
Page 447
To have rendered this edition an entire body of British Poetrę , still a desideratum
to the phi . lologer and critical reader of poetry , the following names should have
been included ; Langland , Barbour , Gower , Lydgate , James I . Barclay ...
To have rendered this edition an entire body of British Poetrę , still a desideratum
to the phi . lologer and critical reader of poetry , the following names should have
been included ; Langland , Barbour , Gower , Lydgate , James I . Barclay ...
Page 489
1738 . Preface to the Gentleman ' s Magazine . 1739 . Address to the Reader of
the Gentleman ' s Magazine , Appeal to the Public in behalf of the Editor .
Considerations on the case of Dr . Trapp ' s Sermons . 1740 . Preface to the
Gentleman ...
1738 . Preface to the Gentleman ' s Magazine . 1739 . Address to the Reader of
the Gentleman ' s Magazine , Appeal to the Public in behalf of the Editor .
Considerations on the case of Dr . Trapp ' s Sermons . 1740 . Preface to the
Gentleman ...
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Popular passages
Page 339 - I have protracted my work till most of those whom I wished to please have sunk into the grave; and success and miscarriage are empty sounds. I therefore dismiss it with frigid tranquillity, having little to fear or hope from censure or from praise.
Page 301 - tis too horrible ! The weariest and most loathed worldly life, That age, ache, penury, and imprisonment Can lay on nature, is a paradise To what we fear of death.
Page 248 - 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 330 - 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 132 - Yet, when the sense of sacred presence fires, And strong devotion to the skies aspires, Pour forth thy fervours for a healthful mind, Obedient passions, and a will resign'd ; For love, which scarce collective man can fill ; For patience, sov'reign o'er transmuted ill ; For faith, that, panting for a happier seat, Counts death kind Nature's signal of retreat...
Page 367 - DISORDERS of intellect,' answered Imlac, ' happen much more often than superficial observers will easily believe. Perhaps, if we speak with rigorous exactness, no human mind is in its right state. There is no man whose imagination does not sometimes predominate over his reason, who can regulate his attention wholly by his will, and whose ideas will come and go at his command.
Page 332 - This man (said he) I thought had been a Lord among wits; but, I find, he is only a wit among Lords.
Page 167 - I have often thought that there has rarely passed a life of which a judicious and faithful narrative would not be useful.
Page 338 - ... author, and the world is little solicitous to know whence proceeded the faults of that which it condemns, yet it may gratify curiosity to inform it that the English Dictionary was written with little assistance of the learned, and without any patronage of the great...
Page 368 - He who has nothing external that can divert him must find pleasure in his own thoughts, and must conceive himself what he is not ; for who is pleased with what he is? He then expatiates in boundless futurity, and culls from all imaginable conditions that which for the present moment he should most desire, amuses his desires with impossible enjoyments, and confers upon his pride unattainable dominion.