The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.Alexander V. Blake, 1840 |
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Page 8
... imagination is sions ; their learning instructs , and their sub- not always gratified , at least the powers of re- tlety surprises ; but the reader commonly thinks flection and comparison are employed ; and , in his improvement dearly ...
... imagination is sions ; their learning instructs , and their sub- not always gratified , at least the powers of re- tlety surprises ; but the reader commonly thinks flection and comparison are employed ; and , in his improvement dearly ...
Page 15
... imagination overaw- it can be adapted only to high and noble sub - ed and controlled . We have been accustomed jects ; and it will not be easy to reconcile the poet with the critic , or to conceive how that can be the highest kind of ...
... imagination overaw- it can be adapted only to high and noble sub - ed and controlled . We have been accustomed jects ; and it will not be easy to reconcile the poet with the critic , or to conceive how that can be the highest kind of ...
Page 40
... imagination ; but , so far as the action is merely human , it ought to be reasonable , which can hardly be said of the conduct of the two brothers ; who , when their sister sinks with fatigue in a pathless wilderness , wander both away ...
... imagination ; but , so far as the action is merely human , it ought to be reasonable , which can hardly be said of the conduct of the two brothers ; who , when their sister sinks with fatigue in a pathless wilderness , wander both away ...
Page 41
... imagination represent thing human , some slight exceptions may be them , is the task which this mighty Poet has un - made ; but the main fabric is immoveably sup- dertaken and performed . ported . In the examination of epic poems , much ...
... imagination represent thing human , some slight exceptions may be them , is the task which this mighty Poet has un - made ; but the main fabric is immoveably sup- dertaken and performed . ported . In the examination of epic poems , much ...
Page 42
... imagination in the highest de- gree fervid and active , to which materials were supplied by incessant study and unlimited curi- osity . The heat of Milton's mind may be said to sublimate his learning , to throw off into his work the ...
... imagination in the highest de- gree fervid and active , to which materials were supplied by incessant study and unlimited curi- osity . The heat of Milton's mind may be said to sublimate his learning , to throw off into his work the ...
Common terms and phrases
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 lence 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 remarks reputation rhyme Savage says seems sent ship sion 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 275 - He had employed his mind chiefly upon works of fiction, and subjects of fancy ; and by indulging some peculiar habits of thought, was eminently delighted with those flights of imagination which pass the bounds of nature, and to which the mind is reconciled only by a passive acquiescence in popular traditions. He loved fairies, genii, giants, and monsters ; he delighted to rove through the meanders of enchantment, to gaze on the magnificence of golden palaces, to repose by the water-falls of Elysian...
Page 279 - I have found out a gift for my fair; I have found where the wood-pigeons breed; But let me that plunder forbear, She will say 'twas a barbarous deed...
Page 96 - To judge rightly of an author, we must transport ourselves to his time, and examine what were the wants of his contemporaries, and what were his means of supplying them.
Page 148 - His prose is the model of the middle style; on grave subjects not formal, on light occasions not grovelling; pure without scrupulosity, and exact without apparent elaboration; always equable, and always easy, without glowing words or pointed sentences. Addison never deviates from his track to snatch a grace; he seeks no ambitious ornaments, and tries no hazardous innovations. His page is always luminous, but never blazes in unexpected splendour.
Page 8 - ... what, on any occasion, they should have said or done; but wrote rather as beholders than partakers of human nature; as Beings looking upon good and evil, impassive and at leisure; as Epicurean deities making remarks on the actions of men and the vicissitudes of life without interest and without emotion. Their courtship was void of fondness, and their lamentation of sorrow. Their wish was only to say what they hoped had never been said before.
Page 21 - Cooper's Hill is the work that confers upon him the rank and dignity of an original author. He seems to have been, at least among us, the author of a species of composition that may be denominated local poetry, of which the fundamental subject is some particular landscape, to be poetically described with the addition of such embellishments as may be supplied by historical retrospection, or incidental meditation.
Page 46 - He was naturally a thinker for himself, confident of his own abilities, and disdainful of help or hinderance : he did not refuse admission to the thoughts or images of his predecessors, but he did not seek them. From his contemporaries he neither courted nor received support; there is in his writings nothing by which the pride of other authors might be gratified, or favour gained ; no exchange of praise, nor solicitation of support.
Page 211 - ... nothing will supply the want of prudence; and that negligence and irregularity, long continued, will make knowledge useless, wit ridiculous, and genius contemptible.
Page 252 - What his mind could supply at call, or gather in one excursion, was all that he sought, and all that he gave. The dilatory caution of Pope enabled him to condense his sentiments, to multiply his images, and to accumulate all that study might produce, or chance might supply. If the flights of Dryden therefore are higher, Pope continues longer on the wing. If of Dryden's fire the blaze is brighter, of Pope's the heat is more regular and constant. Dryden often surpasses expectation, and Pope never falls...
Page 111 - Tis not enough that Aristotle has said so, for Aristotle drew his models of tragedy from Sophocles and Euripides ; and, if he had seen ours, might have changed his mind.