The life of Samuel Johnson ... including A journal of his tour to the Hebrides. To which are added, Anecdotes by Hawkins, Piozzi, &c. and notes by various hands, Volume 11835 |
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Page xiv
... seems odd enough ) any palpable imitation of Johnson . But in recording conversa- tions he is unrivalled : that he was eminently accurate in sub- stance , we have the evidence of all his contemporaries ; but he is also in a high degree ...
... seems odd enough ) any palpable imitation of Johnson . But in recording conversa- tions he is unrivalled : that he was eminently accurate in sub- stance , we have the evidence of all his contemporaries ; but he is also in a high degree ...
Page 6
... seems I judged too well of the world ; for , though I could scarcely believe it , I have been undoubtedly informed , that many persons , especially in distant quarters , not penetrating enough into Johnson's character , so as to ...
... seems I judged too well of the world ; for , though I could scarcely believe it , I have been undoubtedly informed , that many persons , especially in distant quarters , not penetrating enough into Johnson's character , so as to ...
Page 14
... seems to me , in my moments of self - complacency , that this extensive biographical work , however inferior in its nature , may in one respect be assimilated to the Odyssey . Amidst a thousand entertaining and instruc- tive episodes ...
... seems to me , in my moments of self - complacency , that this extensive biographical work , however inferior in its nature , may in one respect be assimilated to the Odyssey . Amidst a thousand entertaining and instruc- tive episodes ...
Page 21
... seems to lay it down as a principle , that every life must be a book , and , what's worse , it proves a book without a life ; for what do we know of Boileau , after all his tedious stuff ? You are the only one ( and I speak it without ...
... seems to lay it down as a principle , that every life must be a book , and , what's worse , it proves a book without a life ; for what do we know of Boileau , after all his tedious stuff ? You are the only one ( and I speak it without ...
Page 26
... seem very little acquainted with the nature of their task , or very negligent about the performance . They rarely afford any other account than might be collected from public papers , but imagine themselves writing a life , when they ...
... seem very little acquainted with the nature of their task , or very negligent about the performance . They rarely afford any other account than might be collected from public papers , but imagine themselves writing a life , when they ...
Other editions - View all
The Life of Samuel Johnson ... Including a Journal of His Tour to the ... James Boswell No preview available - 2019 |
The Life of Samuel Johnson ... Including a Journal of His Tour to the ... James Boswell No preview available - 2019 |
The Life of Samuel Johnson ... Including a Journal of His Tour to the ... No preview available - 2020 |
Common terms and phrases
acquaintance admiration Æsop afterwards anecdote appears Bathurst Beauclerk biographer Birmingham Bishop bookseller born Boswell Boswell's Cave character conversation copy CROKER David Garrick death Dictionary died Dodsley doubt Edial edition Edward Cave eminent English Essay excellent father favour Garrick Gentleman's Magazine happy Hector honour hope humble servant Irene James Boswell John Floyer kind knew labour lady Langton late Latin learned letter Lichfield literary lived London Lord Lucy Porter MALONE manner master mentioned Michael Johnson mind Miss mother never observed occasion Oxford paper Paul Whitehead Pembroke College person Piozzi pleased poem poet printed probably published quæ Rambler recollected remarkable remember Reynolds Richard Savage Samuel Johnson satire Savage Sir John Hawkins Sir Joshua style suppose Taylor thing thought told tragedy translation truth verses volumes Walmesley wife writing written wrote young
Popular passages
Page 226 - Where then shall hope and fear their objects find ? Must dull suspense corrupt the stagnant mind ? Must helpless man, in ignorance sedate, Roll darkling down the torrent of his fate...
Page 260 - In verbis etiam tenuis cautusque serendis, Dixeris egregie notum si callida verbum Reddiderit junctura novum. Si forte necesse est Indiciis monstrare recentibus abdita rerum, Fingere cinctutis non exaudita Cethegis Continget, dabiturque licentia sumpta pudenter ; Et nova fictaque nuper habebunt verba fidem si Graeco fonte cadant, parce detorta.
Page 105 - ... and I have ever thought that those who devote themselves to this employment, and do their duty with diligence and success, are entitled to very high respect from the community, as Johnson himself often maintained.
Page 235 - Somebody talked of happy moments for composition, and how a man can write at one time and not at another. "Nay," said Dr Johnson, "a man may write at any time if he will set himself doggedly to it.
Page 146 - Arts in their University. They highly extol the man's learning and probity ; and will not be persuaded, that the University will make any difficulty of conferring such a favour upon a stranger, if he is recommended by the Dean. They say, he is not afraid of the strictest examination, though he is of so long a journey ; and will venture it, if the Dean thinks it necessary : choosing rather to die upon the road, than be starved to death in translating for booksellers ; which has been his only subsistence...
Page 176 - It has been confidently related, with many embellishments, that Johnson one day knocked Osborne down in his shop, with a folio, and put his foot upon his neck. The simple truth I had from Johnson himself. " Sir, he was impertinent to me, and I beat him. But it was not in his shop: it was in my own chamber.
Page 69 - Law's Serious Call to a Holy Life,' expecting to find it a dull book (as such books generally are), and perhaps to laugh at it. But I found Law quite an overmatch for me ; and this was the first occasion of my thinking in earnest of religion, after I became capable of rational inquiry'.
Page 22 - I cannot conceive a more perfect mode of writing any man's life, than not only relating all the most important events of it in their order, but interweaving what he privately wrote, and said, and thought ; by which mankind are enabled, as it were, to see him live, and to ' live o'er each scene' * with him, as he actually advanced through the several stages of his life.
Page 142 - Has heaven reserved, in pity to the poor, No pathless waste, or undiscover'd shore ? No secret island in the boundless main ? No peaceful desert yet unclaim'd by Spain ? Quick let us rise, the happy seats explore, And bear Oppression's insolence no more.
Page 45 - ... when a boy he was immoderately fond of reading romances of chivalry, and he retained his fondness for them through life; so that [adds his Lordship] spending part of a summer at my parsonage-house in the country, he chose for his regular reading the old Spanish romance of Felixmarte of Hircania, in folio, which he read quite through. Yet I have heard him attribute to these extravagant fictions that unsettled turn of mind which prevented his ever fixing in any profession.