A Brief Retrospect of the Eighteenth Century: Part the First in Three Volumes ; Containing a Sketch of the Revolutions and Improvements in Science, Arts, and Literature During that Period, Volume 2

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J. Johnson, 1805 - Art, Modern

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Page 271 - The Sanscrit language, whatever be its antiquity, is of a wonderful structure; more perfect than the Greek, more copious than the Latin, and more exquisitely refined than either, yet bearing to both of them a stronger affinity, both in the roots of verbs and in the forms of grammar, than could possibly have been produced by accident; so strong indeed, that no philologer could examine them all three, without believing them to have sprung from some common source, which, perhaps, no longer exists...
Page 396 - They are the entertainment of minds unfurnished with ideas, and therefore easily susceptible of impressions; not fixed by principles, and therefore easily following the current of fancy; not informed by experience, and consequently open to every false suggestion and partial account.
Page 374 - Why, Sir, if you were to read Richardson for the story, your impatience would be so much fretted that you would hang yourself. But you must read him for the sentiment, and consider the story as only giving occasion to the sentiment.
Page 404 - And something previous even to taste - 'tis sense: Good sense, which only is the gift of Heaven, And, though no science, fairly worth the seven: A light, which in yourself you must perceive ; Jones and Le Notre have it not to give.
Page 394 - Many writers, for the sake of following nature, so mingle good and bad qualities in their principal personages, that they are both equally conspicuous ; and as we accompany them through their adventures with delight, and are led by degrees to interest ourselves in their favour, we lose the abhorrence of their faults, because they do not hinder our pleasure, or, perhaps, regard them with some kindness for being united with so much merit.
Page 382 - CCLXV. SENTIMENT. WHAT is called sentimental writing, though it be understood to appeal solely to the heart, may be the product of a bad one. One would imagine that Sterne had been a man of a very tender heart; yet I know, from indubitable authority, that his mother, who kept a school, having run in debt, on account of an extravagant daughter, would have rotted in jail if the parents of her scholars had not raised a subscription for her.. Her son had too much sentiment to have any feeling. A dead...
Page 395 - They teach the youthful mind to sigh after beauty and happiness that never existed; to despise the little good which fortune has mixed in our cup, by expecting more than she ever gave; and, in general, take the word of a man who has seen the world, and who has studied human nature more by experience than precept: take my word for it, I say, that books teach us very little of the world.
Page 150 - The advantages of this instrument are, that its tones are incomparably sweet beyond those of any other ; that they may be swelled and softened at pleasure by stronger or weaker pressures of the finger, and continued to any length ; and that the instrument, being once well tuned, never again wants tuning.
Page 64 - But now the great map of mankind is unrolled at once, and there is no state or gradation of barbarism, and no mode of refinement, which we have not at the same moment under our view...
Page 133 - ... memorable men of his time. He was the first Englishman who added the praise of the elegant arts to the other glories of his country. In taste, in grace, in facility, in happy invention, and in the richness and harmony of colouring, he was equal to the great masters of the renowned ages. In portrait, he went beyond them ; for he communicated to that description of the art, in which English artists are the most engaged...

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