 | Edwin Paxton Hood - 1875 - 362 pages
...repetition, and the sanctity of the matter rejects the ornaments of figurative diction ; it is sufficient for Watts to have done better than others what no man has done well." If this is kindly said, still it is not true ; perhaps Johnson was confining his observation, which... | |
 | Charles Mackay - 1876 - 654 pages
...good poetry could not be written upon a religious topic. ' It is sufficient for Watts,' said he, ' to have done better than others, what no man has done well.' To introduce politics into poetry is thought to be wrong by many critics, who would think you injured... | |
 | 1878 - 1194 pages
...protesting with a sniff that hymns were not poetry and could not be expected to be. "It is sufficient for Watts to have done better than others what no man has done well," is Dr. Johnson's dictum. " Entirely unworthy of his powers," says Shaw of Cowper's contributions to... | |
 | 1878 - 594 pages
...protesting with a sniff that hymns were not poetry and could not be expected to be. "It is sufficient for Watts to have done better than others what no man has done well," is Dr. Johnson's dictum. " Entirely unworthy of his powers," says Shaw of Cowper's contributions to... | |
 | Augustus John Cuthbert Hare - 1878 - 528 pages
...in the strains which he prepared for them a century ago." — James Montgomery. " It is sufficient for Watts to have done better than others what no man has done well. . . He is at least one of the few poets with whom youth and ignorance may be safely pleased ; and happy... | |
 | Frederick Locker-Lampson - 1879 - 254 pages
...and the sanctity of the matter rejects the ornaments of figurative diction. It is sufficient for Dr. Watts to have done better than others what no man has done well.' This is trenchant enough, but it seems hardly adequate, and I think the reasons are not far to seek.... | |
 | Frederick Locker-Lampson - 1879 - 254 pages
...and the sanctity of the matter rejects the ornaments of figurative diction. It is sufficient for Dr. Watts to have done better than others what no man has done well.' This is trenchant enough, but it seems hardly adequate, and I think the reasons are not far to seek.... | |
 | Samuel Johnson - 1884 - 348 pages
...repetition, and the sanctity of the matter rejects the ornaments of figurative diction. It is sufficient for Watts to have done better than others what no man has done well. JOHN PHILIPS.—He unhappily pleased himself with blank verse, and supposed that the numbers of Milton,... | |
 | 1859 - 1128 pages
...We may say of them in this respect, what Dr. Johnson said of Watts, that it is sufficient for them to have done better than others, what no man has done well. We annex a few of the most favorable specimens, (some of which we are happy to trace to the Church... | |
 | James Boswell, Samuel Johnson - 1887 - 490 pages
...repetition, and the sanctity of the matter rejects the ornaments of figurative diction. It is sufficient for Watts to have done better than others what no man has done well.' Ib. viii. 386. See ante, i. 312. Mrs. Piozzi (Ante. p. 200) says that when 'Johnson would inveigh against... | |
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But his devotional poetry is, like that of others, unsatisfactory. The paucity of its topics enforces perpetual repetition, and the sanctity of the matter rejects the ornaments of figurative diction. It is sufficient for Watts to have done better than... 
