The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL. D.: With and Essay on His Life and Genius, Volume 2A. V. Blake, 1842 |
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Page 4
... excellence is truth ; he that professes love ought to feel its power . Petrarch was a real lover , and Laura doubtless deserved his tenderness . told by Barnes , who had means enough of in- Of Cowley , we are formation , that , whatever ...
... excellence is truth ; he that professes love ought to feel its power . Petrarch was a real lover , and Laura doubtless deserved his tenderness . told by Barnes , who had means enough of in- Of Cowley , we are formation , that , whatever ...
Page 6
... excellence . For the rejection of this play it is difficult now to find the reason ; it certainly has , in a very great degree , the power of fixing attention and exciting merriment . From the charge of disaf- fection he exculpates ...
... excellence . For the rejection of this play it is difficult now to find the reason ; it certainly has , in a very great degree , the power of fixing attention and exciting merriment . From the charge of disaf- fection he exculpates ...
Page 12
... excellence no other poet has hither - learning behind it ; the moralist , the politician , to afforded . To choose the best , among many good , is one of the most hazardous attempts of criticism . I know not whether Scaliger himself has ...
... excellence no other poet has hither - learning behind it ; the moralist , the politician , to afforded . To choose the best , among many good , is one of the most hazardous attempts of criticism . I know not whether Scaliger himself has ...
Page 17
... excellence . Clarendon represents him as having taken a flight beyond all that went before him ; and Milton is said to have declared , that the three greatest English poets were Spen- ser , Shakspeare , and Cowley . His manner he had in ...
... excellence . Clarendon represents him as having taken a flight beyond all that went before him ; and Milton is said to have declared , that the three greatest English poets were Spen- ser , Shakspeare , and Cowley . His manner he had in ...
Page 18
... excellence of this kind is merely fortui- tous he sinks willingly down to his general carelessness , and avoids with very little care either meanness or asperity . His contractions are often rugged and harsh : One flings a mountain ...
... excellence of this kind is merely fortui- tous he sinks willingly down to his general carelessness , and avoids with very little care either meanness or asperity . His contractions are often rugged and harsh : One flings a mountain ...
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Addison afterwards appears blank verse censure character considered court Cowley criticism death declared delight desire diligence discovered Drake Dryden Duke Dunciad Earl easily elegance endeavoured enemies English excellence father favour fortune French friends genius honour hope Hudibras Iliad imagination kind King King of Prussia known labour Lady language Latin learning letter lines lived Lord ment Milton mind nation nature never Night Thoughts nihil Nombre de Dios numbers observed opinion Paradise Lost perhaps Pindar pinnaces pleasure poem poet poetical poetry Pope Port Egmont pounds praise Prince published Queen racter reader reason received Religio Medici remarks reputation rhyme Savage says seems sent ship sometimes soon Spaniards supposed Swift Syphax Tatler thing thought tion told tragedy translation verses Virgil virtue Waller whigs write written wrote Young
Popular passages
Page 150 - What he attempted, he performed ; he is never feeble, and he did not wish to be energetic ; he is never rapid, and he never stagnates. His sentences have neither studied amplitude, nor affected brevity ; his periods, though not diligently rounded, are voluble and easy. Whoever wishes to attain an English style, familiar but not coarse, and elegant but not ostentatious, must give his days and nights to the volumes of Addison, HUGHES.
Page 254 - ... himself. He spent no time in struggles to rouse latent powers ; he never attempted to make that better which was already good, nor often to mend what he must have known to be faulty. He wrote, as he tells us, with very little consideration ; when occasion or necessity called upon him, he poured out what the present moment happened to supply...
Page 261 - After all this, it is surely superfluous to answer the question that has once been asked, Whether Pope was a poet, otherwise than by asking in return, If Pope be not a poet, where is poetry to be found?
Page 27 - But the truth is that the knowledge of external nature, and the sciences which that knowledge requires or includes, are not the great or the frequent business of the human mind. Whether we provide for action or conversation, whether we wish to be useful or pleasing, the first requisite is the religious and moral knowledge of right and wrong ; the next is an acquaintance with the history...
Page 174 - He began on it ; and when first he mentioned it to Swift, the Doctor did not much like the project. As he carried it on, he showed what he wrote to both of us, and we now and then gave a correction, or a word or two of advice ; but it was wholly of his own writing. When it was done, neither of us thought it would succeed. We showed it to Congreve ; who, after reading it over, said, it would either take greatly, or be damned confoundedly.
Page 245 - Arbuthnot was a man of great comprehension, skilful in his profession, versed in the sciences, acquainted with ancient literature, and able to animate his mass of knowledge by a bright and active imagination; a scholar with great brilliance of wit, a wit who, in the crowd of life, retained and discovered a noble ardour of religious zeal.
Page 42 - Lost;" a poem, which, considered with respect to design, may claim the first place, and with respect to performance, the second, among the productions of the human mind.
Page 10 - ... for they never attempted that comprehension and expanse of thought which at once fills the whole mind, and of which the first effect is sudden astonishment, and the second rational admiration. Sublimity is produced by aggregation, and littleness by dispersion. Great thoughts are always general, and consist in positions not limited by exceptions, and in descriptions not descending to minuteness. It is with great propriety that subtlety, which in its original import means exility of particles,...
Page 235 - O'er the dark trees a yellower verdure shed, And tip with silver every mountain's head ; Then shine the vales, the rocks in prospect rise, A flood of glory bursts from all the skies ; The conscious swains, rejoicing in the sight, Eye the blue vault, and bless the useful light.
Page 143 - No greater felicity can genius attain than that of having purified intellectual pleasure, separated mirth from indecency, and wit from licentiousness; of having taught a succession of writers to bring elegance and gaiety to the aid of goodness; and, if I may use expressions yet more awful, of having turned many to righteousness.