Johnsoniana: Life, Opinions, and Table-talk of Doctor JohnsonA. Boot, 1884 - 319 pages |
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Page vii
... replied , " her head looked so like that of a woman who shows puppets , and her voice so confirmed the fancy , that I could not bear her to - day . When she wears a large cap , I can talk to her . Again : By way of testing his taste as ...
... replied , " her head looked so like that of a woman who shows puppets , and her voice so confirmed the fancy , that I could not bear her to - day . When she wears a large cap , I can talk to her . Again : By way of testing his taste as ...
Page 4
... replied : " Ah , sir , I was mad and violent . It was bitterness which they mistook for frolic . I was miserably poor , and I thought to fight my way by my literature and my wit ; so I disregarded all power and all authority ...
... replied : " Ah , sir , I was mad and violent . It was bitterness which they mistook for frolic . I was miserably poor , and I thought to fight my way by my literature and my wit ; so I disregarded all power and all authority ...
Page 6
... replied : " Sir , if a man has a mind to prance , he must study at Christ Church and All Souls . " Somebody condemned the writing of verses in a dead lang- uage , maintaining that they were merely arrangements of so many words ; and ...
... replied : " Sir , if a man has a mind to prance , he must study at Christ Church and All Souls . " Somebody condemned the writing of verses in a dead lang- uage , maintaining that they were merely arrangements of so many words ; and ...
Page 46
... persevering in his question , replied : " Why , yes , sir , I would ; but I must have all conveniences . If I had no garden , I would make a shed on the roof , and take it there for fresh air . I should feed it , 46 JOHNSONIANA .
... persevering in his question , replied : " Why , yes , sir , I would ; but I must have all conveniences . If I had no garden , I would make a shed on the roof , and take it there for fresh air . I should feed it , 46 JOHNSONIANA .
Page 111
... replied the doctor ; " for Burke and I should have been of one opinion , if we had had no audience . " That the doctor's leading object in conversation was victory , not truth , will farther appear in the following specimens of it ...
... replied the doctor ; " for Burke and I should have been of one opinion , if we had had no audience . " That the doctor's leading object in conversation was victory , not truth , will farther appear in the following specimens of it ...
Common terms and phrases
answered appeared asked Beauclerk believe better blank verse bookseller Boswell mentioned Boswell talked character church Colley Cibber common consider conversation David Garrick Dictionary dine drinking eminent England English exclaimed expressed fellow Garrick genius gentleman give Goldsmith happy honour human humour instance Jacobite JOHNSON king king of Prussia lady Langton language laugh learning Lichfield literary live London lord Lord Bute lord Chesterfield Lord Mansfield lord Monboddo madam mankind manner marriage means merit mind moral nature never observed occasion once opinion Pembroke college perhaps pleased poem poet poetry poor Pope praise pretty woman religion remarked replied Scotch Scotland Sir Joshua Sir Joshua Reynolds speak strong suppose sure tell thing thought Thrale tion told truth verses Whig wine wish woman wonder words write wrong
Popular passages
Page 260 - If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father.
Page 194 - I believe, Sir, you have a great many. Norway, too, has noble wild prospects; and Lapland is remarkable for prodigious noble wild prospects. But, Sir, let me tell you, the noblest prospect which a Scotchman ever sees, is the high road that leads him to England!
Page 287 - Of genius, that power which constitutes a poet; that quality without which judgment is cold, and knowledge is inert; that energy which collects, combines, amplifies, and animates; the superiority must, with some hesitation, be allowed to Dryden.
Page 30 - Madness frequently discovers itself merely by unnecessary deviation from the usual modes of the world. My poor friend Smart showed the disturbance of his mind, by falling upon his knees, and saying his prayers in the street, or in any other unusual place. Now although, rationally speaking, it is greater madness not to pray at all than to pray as Smart did, I am afraid there are so many who do not pray that their understanding is not called in question.
Page 83 - Sir, if you wish to have a just notion of the magnitude of this city, you must not be satisfied with seeing its great streets and squares, but must survey the innumerable little lanes and courts. It is not in the showy evolutions of buildings, but in the multiplicity of human habitations which are crowded together, that the wonderful immensity of London consists.
Page 286 - In his Night Thoughts he has exhibited a very wide display of original poetry, variegated with deep reflections and striking allusions, a wilderness of thought, in which the fertility of fancy scatters flowers of every hue and of every odour. This is one of the few poems in which blank verse could not be changed for rhyme but with disadvantage.
Page 287 - 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 below it. Dryden is read with frequent astonishment, and Pope with perpetual delight.
Page 84 - They, whose narrow minds are contracted to the consideration of some one particular pursuit, view it only through that medium. A politician thinks of it merely as the seat of government in its different departments ; a grazier, as a vast market for cattle ; a mercantile man, as a place where a prodigious deal of business is done upon 'Change ; a...
Page 16 - All knowledge is of itself of some value. There is nothing so minute or inconsiderable, that I would not rather know it than not. In the same manner, all power, of whatever sort, is of itself desirable. A man would not submit to learn to hem a ruffle...
Page 287 - Pope had, in proportions very nicely adjusted to each other, all the qualities that constitute genius. He had Invention, by which new trains of events are formed, and new scenes of imagery displayed, as in the Rape of the Lock; and by which extrinsick and adventitious embellishments and illustrations are connected with a known subject, as in the Essay on Criticism...