Select Essays of Dr. Johnson: The Rambler (Continued). The Adventurer. The Idler

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J.M. Dent, 1889
 

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Page 79 - Is not a patron, my lord, one who looks with unconcern on a man struggling for life in the water, and when he has reached ground encumbers him with help? The notice which you have been pleased to take of my labours, had it been early, had been kind; but it has been delayed till I am indifferent, and cannot enjoy it; till I am solitary, and •cannot impart it; till I am known, and do not want it.
Page 178 - An Ambassador is an honest man, sent to LIE ABROAD for the good of his country.
Page 111 - the cooling western breeze,' In the next line, it 'whispers through the trees;' If crystal streams 'with pleasing murmurs creep...
Page 105 - The March begins in Military State, And Nations on his Eye suspended wait; Stern Famine guards the solitary Coast, And Winter barricades the Realms of Frost ; He comes, nor Want nor Cold his Course delay; — Hide, blushing Glory, hide Pultowa's day...
Page 86 - When common words were less pleasing to the ear, or less distinct in their signification, I have familiarized the terms of philosophy by applying them to popular ideas...
Page 71 - How many thousand of my poorest subjects Are at this hour asleep ! O Sleep, O gentle Sleep, Nature's soft nurse, how have I frighted thee, That thou no more wilt weigh my eyelids down. And steep my senses in forgetfulness ! Why, rather, Sleep, liest thou in smoky cribs, Upon uneasy pallets stretching thee, And hush'd with buzzing night-flies to thy slumber ; Than in the perfumed chambers of the great...
Page 225 - No. 65., there is the following very extraordinary paragraph: " The authenticity of Clarendon's History, though printed with the sanction of one of the first universities of the world, had not an unexpected manuscript been happily discovered, would, with the help of factious credulity, have been brought into question, by the two lowest of all human beings, a scribbler for a party, and a commissioner of excise.
Page 114 - 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 236 - Waller, Poets lose half the praise they would have got, Were it but known what they discreetly blot.
Page 195 - These are the great occasions which force the mind to take refuge in Religion: when we have no help in ourselves, what can remain but that we look up to a higher and a greater Power; and to what hope may we not raise our eyes and hearts, when we consider that the Greatest POWER is the BEST.

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