The Life of Samuel Johnson: Comprehending an Account of His Studies and Numerous Works in Chronological Order; a Series of His Epistolary Correspondence and Conversations with Many Eminent Persons; and Various Original Pieces of His Composition Never Before Published ...

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T. Cadell, 1822
 

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Page 219 - Why, Dr. Johnson, this is not so easy as you seem to think; for if you were to make little fishes talk, they would talk like WHALES.
Page 213 - That is indeed but little for a man to get, who does best that which so many endeavour to do. There is nothing, I think, in which the power of art is shown so much as in playing on the fiddle. In all other things we can do something at first. Any man will forge a bar of iron, if you give him a hammer ; not so well as a smith, but tolerably. A man will saw a piece of wood, and make a box, though a clumsy one ; but give him a fiddle and a fiddlestick, and he can do nothing.
Page 140 - My request, therefore, is, that you would rectify this matter in your new edition. You are at liberty to make what use you please of this letter.
Page 235 - ... and that the gentleman on whose account she was divorced had gained her heart while thus unhappily situated. Seduced, perhaps, by the charms of the lady in question, I thus attempted to palliate what I was sensible could not be justified ; for when I had finished my harangue, my venerable friend gave me a proper check : ' My dear sir, never accustom your mind to mingle virtue and vice. The woman's a whore, and there's an end on't.
Page 76 - While he was talking loudly in praise of those lines, one of the company ventured to say, " Too fine for such a poem: — a poem on what?" JOHNSON, (with a disdainful look,) "Why, on dunces. It was worth while being a dunce then. Ah, Sir, hadst thou lived in those days ! It is not [94] worth while being a dunce now, when there are no wits.
Page 75 - talk no more of that. You are, perhaps, the worst — eh, eh ! " — Goldsmith was eagerly attempting to interrupt him, when Garrick went on, laughing ironically, " Nay, you will always look like a gentleman ; but I am talking of being well or ill drest."
Page 437 - Whoe'er has travell'd life's dull round, Where'er his stages may have been, May sigh to think he still has found The warmest welcome at an inn.
Page 245 - He was still more mortified, when talking in a company with fluent vivacity, and, as he flattered himself, to the admiration of all...
Page 224 - Goldsmith's abridgement is better than that of Lucius Florus or Eutropius ; and I will venture to say that if you compare him with Vertot, in the same places of the Roman History, you will find that he excels Vertot. Sir, he has the art of compiling and of saying everything he has to say in a pleasing manner. He is now writing a Natural History, and will make it as entertaining as a Persian Tale.
Page 6 - Redress the rigours of th' inclement clime ; Aid slighted truth with thy persuasive strain ; Teach erring man to spurn the rage of gain ; Teach him, that states of native strength...