The British Essayists, Volume 29Alexander Chalmers J. Johnson, 1808 - English essays |
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able acquaintance admirer agreeable appearance attend Bagnio called cards character chastity chuse CICERO companion Cribbage daughter death discovered double entendre dress endeavour entertaining expence fair fashion father favour Fitz-Adam fortune fretter genteel gentleman give gout happiness head Herodotus honour hope humble servant husband imagine Julius Cæsar Jupiter laughed LABOURING lady late least letter live look Luke Hansard mankind manner marriage married master means ment mind nation nature negligée never obliged observed occasion opinion pains panegyric paper passions PENTHESILEA persons play pleased pleasure polite poor post-chaise POSTILLION present pride proper PTOLEMY racter readers reason ridiculous shew soon spirit stept sure surprize taste Tatlers TELETHUSA tell thing thought THURSDAY tion told town truth tural utmost vice virtue Whist whole wife woman word XXIX young
Popular passages
Page 175 - I am for preserving a due subordination from inferiors to superiors, which an equality of profligacy must totally destroy. A fair character is a more lucrative thing than people are generally aware of; and I am informed that an eminent money-scrivener has lately calculated with great accuracy the advantage of it, and that it has turned out a clear profit of thirteen and a half per cent, in the general transactions of life, which advantage, frequently repeated, as it must be in the course of the year,...
Page 1 - ... they are fit only to be inhabitants of Lubberland, where, as the child's geography informs us, men lie upon their backs with their mouths open, and it rains fat pigs ready roasted.
Page 1 - Ihould be neglected, than to enforce the performance of it ; and to give up all authority, rather than take the pains to fupport it : from whence it happens, that in great and noble families, where the...
Page 286 - ... in the affairs of his office * he is as minute and as full of application as if he were always to remain in the same post ; and as exact and knowing as if he always had been in it. He is as attentive to the...
Page 197 - Iiave made no scruple of honestly confessing to my readers, that I look upon myself to be the wisest and most learned philosopher of this age and nation. But the word is gone forth, and I cannot retract it; nor indeed would it be fair in me to attempt it, as I find no manner of decay in my intellectual faculties, but, on the contrary, that I am treasuring up new knowledge day after day. I was aware, indeed, that such...
Page 287 - ... of nobility, — pride of what one can neither cause nor prevent. " I say nothing of his integrity, because I know nothing of it, but that it has never been breathed upon even by suspicion : it will be time enough to vindicate it, when it has been impeached. He is as well-bred as those who colour over timidity with gentleness of manners, and as...
Page 74 - The very name was obliterated every where, except where it pointed out the disposal of a very considerable fortune. All I could gather of him was, that he had increased a very good paternal inheritance by every art of thriving in trade, that is safely practicable ; that he was always called in the city, a hard money-getting man ; and that he had left his brothers, sisters, and grand-children to make their way without the least provision or assistance. There was a statue erecting for him, 1 found,...
Page 176 - These attentions bring in good interest ; the weak and the ignorant mistake them for the real sentiments of your heart, and give you their esteem and friendship in return. The wise, indeed, pay you in your own coin, or by a truck of commodities of equal value; upon which however there is no loss ; so that upon the whole, this commerce, skilfully carried on, is a very lucrative one. In all my schemes for the general good of mankind, I have always a particular attention to the utility that may arise...
Page 70 - ... concluded with telling them that he had been exhorting them with all diligence for sixteen years, when he had hardly been with them as many weeks, and talked of his high dignity in the church, some of the congregation said he was mad, most of them that he was dreaming. " I could wish indeed that these dreamers in the pulpit would contrive to dream their own dreams, or that they would take care not to convert the serious thoughts of others into something more absurd than dreams, for want of reading...
Page vii - ... the moft profligate, infolent, and extravagant fet of mortals any where to be found on the face of the "globe...