 | James Boswell - 1900 - 638 pages
...give much instruction or delight, and why most accounts of particular persons are barren and useless. If a life be delayed till interest and envy are at...evanescent kind, such as soon escape the memory, and are transmitted by tradition. We know how few can pourtray a living acquaintance, except by his most prominent... | |
 | John Forster - 1900 - 572 pages
...KATE, THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED BY THEIR FRIEND, AND THEIR FATHER'S FRIEND AND EXECUTOR, JOHN FORSTER. ' If a Life be delayed till interest and envy are at an end, we may hope for impartiality, but 1 must expect little intelligence ; for the incidents which give excellence to biography ate of a 1... | |
 | Samuel Johnson - 1901 - 206 pages
...give much instruction or delight, and why most accounts of particular persons are barren and useless. If a life be delayed till interest and envy are at...soon escape the memory, and are rarely transmitted bv tradition. We know how few can pourtray a living acquaintance, except by his most prominent and... | |
 | 1902 - 300 pages
...his literary method. " The incidents, which give excellence to biography," wrote Dr. Johnson, "are of volatile and evanescent kind, such as soon escape...the memory and are rarely transmitted by tradition." It requires a literary Martha to collect them, and Anthony was a literary Martha. Prof. Masson, who... | |
 | James Boswell - 1904 - 1590 pages
...give much instruction or delight, and why most accounts of particular persons are barren and useless. sometimes, indeed, happens, that some supervenient...with levity, or lost by negligence, than destroyed transmitted by tradition. We know how few can pourtray a living acquaintance, except by his most prominent... | |
 | William Henry Sheran - Criticism - 1905 - 602 pages
...delight, and why most accounts of particular persons are barren and useless. If a life be delayed until interest and envy are at an end, we may hope for impartiality,...how few can portray a living acquaintance, except by its most prominent and observable particularities, and the grosser features of his mind ; and it may... | |
 | Columbia Historical Society (Washington, D.C.) - Washington (D.C.) - 1906 - 340 pages
...servants, than from a formal and studied narrative begun with his pedigree and ended with his funeral. ... If a life be delayed till interest and envy are at...memory, and are rarely transmitted by tradition." — Rambler, No. 60. Dnane's footprints in the sands are not so frequent and so clearly impressed for... | |
 | Samuel Johnson - English literature - 1909 - 562 pages
...much instruction or delight, and why most accounts of particular persons are barren and useless. 5 If a life be delayed till interest and envy are at...kind, such as soon escape the memory, and are rarely transl0mitted by tradition. We know how few can portray a living acquaintance, except by his most prominent... | |
 | James Boswell - Authors, English - 1910 - 602 pages
...or delight, and why most accounts of particular persons are barren and useless. If a life be dejayed till interest and envy are at an end, we may hope...evanescent kind, such as soon escape the memory, and are transmitted by tradition. We know how few can pourtray a living acquaintance, except by his most prominent... | |
 | Reginald Lucas - Great Britain - 1913 - 436 pages
...I find myself in that predicament which Dr. Johnson has so well described, as quoted by Boswell : " If a life be delayed till interest and envy are at...little intelligence ; for the incidents which give interest to biography are of a volatile and evanescent kind, such as soon escape the memory, and are... | |
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If a life be delayed till interest and envy are at an end, we may hope for impartiality, but must expect little intelligence; for the incidents which give excellence to biography are of a volatile and evanescent kind, such as soon escape the memory, and... 
