The Works of Samuel Johnson, L.L.D.Hastings, Etheridge and Bliss, 1811 |
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Page 22
... better man in England . " He is represented by Dr. Sprat as the most amiable of mankind ; and this posthumous praise may safely be credited , as it has never been contra- dicted by envy or by faction . Such are the remarks and memorials ...
... better man in England . " He is represented by Dr. Sprat as the most amiable of mankind ; and this posthumous praise may safely be credited , as it has never been contra- dicted by envy or by faction . Such are the remarks and memorials ...
Page 38
... better taste , If it take air before its spirits waste . To the following comparison of a man that travels and his wife that stays at home , with a pair of com- passes , it may be doubted whether absurdity or inge- nuity has better ...
... better taste , If it take air before its spirits waste . To the following comparison of a man that travels and his wife that stays at home , with a pair of com- passes , it may be doubted whether absurdity or inge- nuity has better ...
Page 74
... better way , but has not pursued it with great success . His versions of Virgil are not pleasing ; but they taught Dryden to please better . 74 DENHAM .
... better way , but has not pursued it with great success . His versions of Virgil are not pleasing ; but they taught Dryden to please better . 74 DENHAM .
Page 75
Samuel Johnson. pleasing ; but they taught Dryden to please better . His poetical imitation of Tully on " Old Age , " has neither the clearness of prose , nor the sprightliness of poetry . The " strength , of Denham , " which Pope so em ...
Samuel Johnson. pleasing ; but they taught Dryden to please better . His poetical imitation of Tully on " Old Age , " has neither the clearness of prose , nor the sprightliness of poetry . The " strength , of Denham , " which Pope so em ...
Page 76
... better practice as he gains more confidence in himself . In his translation of Virgil , written when he was about twenty - one years old , may be still found the old manner of continuing the sense ungracefully from verse to verse : Then ...
... better practice as he gains more confidence in himself . In his translation of Virgil , written when he was about twenty - one years old , may be still found the old manner of continuing the sense ungracefully from verse to verse : Then ...
Common terms and phrases
Absalom and Achitophel admiration afterwards Almanzor ancient appears beauties better blank verse called censure character Charles Charles Dryden commission of array composition Comus confessed considered Cowley criticism death delight diction dramatick Dryden duke earl elegance English epick Euripides excellence fancy faults favour friends genius Georgics heroick honour Hudibras images imagination imitation Jacob Tonson JOHN DRYDEN kind king knowledge known labour lady language Latin learning lines lord lord Conway Milton mind musick nature never NIHIL numbers opinion Paradise Lost parliament passions perhaps Philips Pindar play pleasure poem poet poetical poetry pounds praise preface produced publick published reader reason relates remarks reputation rhyme satire says seems sentiments shew sometimes Sprat style supposed thee thing thou thought tion tragedy translation truth Tyrannick Love verses versification Virgil virtue Waller words write written wrote
Popular passages
Page 371 - From harmony, from heavenly harmony This universal frame began: From harmony to harmony Through all the compass of the notes it ran, The diapason closing full in Man.
Page 74 - O could I flow like thee, and make thy stream My great example, as it is my theme! Though deep, yet clear, though gentle, yet not dull, Strong without rage, without o'er-flowing full.
Page 92 - Memory and her siren daughters, but by devout prayer to that eternal Spirit, who can enrich with all utterance and knowledge, and sends out his seraphim, with the hallowed fire of his altar, to touch and purify the lips of whom he pleases.
Page 61 - Through optic glass the Tuscan artist views At evening from the top of Fesole Or in Valdarno to descry new lands, .Rivers or mountains in her spotty globe; His spear, to equal which the tallest pine Hewn on Norwegian hills to be the mast Of some great ammiral, were but a wand.
Page 140 - Among the flocks and copses and flowers appear the heathen deities, Jove and Phoebus, Neptune and /Eolus, with a long train of mythological imagery, such as a College easily supplies. Nothing can less display knowledge or less exercise invention than to tell how a shepherd has lost his companion and must now feed his flocks alone, without any judge of his skill in piping; and how one god asks another god what is become of Lycidas, and how neither god can tell. He who thus grieves will excite no sympathy;...
Page 86 - ... that by labour and intent study, which I take to be my portion in- this life, joined with the strong propensity of nature, I might perhaps leave something so written to after-times, as they should not willingly let it die.
Page 38 - Our two souls therefore, which are one, Though I must go, endure not yet A breach, but an expansion, Like gold to airy thinness beat. If they be two, they are two so As stiff twin compasses are two; Thy soul, the fix'd foot, makes no show To move, but doth, if th
Page 141 - ... combinations. The shepherd likewise is now a feeder of sheep, and afterwards an ecclesiastical pastor, a superintendent of a Christian flock. Such equivocations are always unskilful; but here they are indecent, and at least approach to impiety, of which, however, I believe the writer not to have been conscious. Such is the power of reputation justly acquired, that its blaze drives away the eye from nice examination. Surely no man could have fancied that he read Lycidas with pleasure, had he not...
Page 26 - Yet great labour directed by great abilities is never wholly lost : if they frequently threw away their wit upon false conceits, they likewise sometimes struck out unexpected truth ; if their conceits were far-fetched, they were often worth the carriage. To write on their plan, it was at least necessary to read and think.
Page 93 - ... but by devout prayer to that eternal spirit, who can enrich with all utterance and knowledge, and sends out his Seraphim with the hallowed fire of his altar to touch and purify the lips of whom he pleases; to this must be added industrious and select reading, steady observation, insight into all seemly and generous arts and affairs ; till which in some measure be compassed at mine own peril and cost I refuse not to sustain this expectation...