The Works of Samuel Johnson.LL.D..: The idler

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T. Longman, B. White and Son, B. Law, J. Dodsley, H. Baldwin, J. Robson, J Johnson, C. Dilly, T. Vernor, G. G. J. and J. Robinson, T. Cadell, J. Nichols, R. Baldwin, N. Conant, P. Elmsly, F. and C. Rivington, T. Payne, W. Goldsmith, R. Faulder, Leigh and Sotheby, G. Nicol, J. Murray, A. Strahan, W. Lowndes, T. Evans, W. Bent, S. Hayes, G. and T. Wilkie, T. and J. Egerton, W. Fox, P. M.'Queen, Ogilvie and Speale, Darton and Harvey, G. and C. Kearsley, W. Millar, B. C. Collins, and E. Newbery., 1792

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Page 310 - If there's a power above us, And that there is all nature cries aloud Thro' all her works, he muft delight in virtue, And that which he delights in muft be happy. Nor is eafe more contrary to wit than to
Page 280 - with the vulgar. This is a precept fpecious enough, but not always practicable. Difference of thoughts will produce difference of language. He that thinks with more extent than another will want words of larger meaning; he that thinks with more fubtilty will feek for terms of more nice difcrimination; and where is the wonder,
Page 331 - 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, deformity would then lofe the idea now annexed to it, and take that of beauty; as, if the whole world fhould agree that yes and no
Page 319 - only fay, that thofe who cenfure it are not converfant in the works of the great mafters. It is very difficult to determine the exact degree of enthufiafm that the arts of painting and poetry may admit. There may perhaps be too great an indulgence, as well as too great a
Page 319 - fometimes tranfgrefled thofe limits; and I think I have feen figures of him of which it was very difficult to determine whether they were in the higheft degree fublime or extremely ridiculous. Such faults may be faid to be the ebullitions of genius; but at leaft he had this merit, that he never was infipid, and whatever
Page 304 - the juft eftimation of the fublime beauties in works of genius; for whatever part of an art can be executed or criticifed by rules, that part is no longer the work of genius, which implies excellence out of the reach of rules. For my own part, I profefs myfelf an Idler, and love to give my
Page 123 - and another time in the morning, when all the world agrees to (hut out interruption. Thefe are the moments of which poor Sober trembles at the thought. But the mifery of thefe tirefome intervals he has many means of alleviating. He has perfuaded himfelf, that the manual arts are undefervedly overlooked; he has obferved in many trades the
Page 173 - but fhould live thoughtlefs of the paft, and carelefs of the future, without will, and perhaps without power, to compute the periods of life, or to compare the time which is already loft with that which may probably remain. But the courfe of time is fo vifibly marked, that it is
Page 319 - kind is the chief merit; but in painting, as in poetry, the higheft ftyle has the leaft of common nature. One may very fafely recommend a little more enthufiafm to the modern painters; too much is certainly not the vice of the prefent age. The Italians feem to
Page 317 - nature, and often arrives at his end, even by being unnatural in the confined fenfe of the word. The grand ftyle of painting requires this minute attention to be carefully avoided, and muft be kept as feparate from it as the ftyle of poetry from that of

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