The Rambler, by S. Johnson, Volume 11806 |
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Page 10
... understanding of a man naturally sanguine , may indeed be easily vitiated by the luxurious in- dulgence of hope , however necessary to the pro- duction of every thing great or excellent , as some plants are destroyed by too open ...
... understanding of a man naturally sanguine , may indeed be easily vitiated by the luxurious in- dulgence of hope , however necessary to the pro- duction of every thing great or excellent , as some plants are destroyed by too open ...
Page 46
... understanding is best conducted to the knowledge of science , by what steps it is to be led forwards in its pursuit , how it is to be cured of its defects , and habituated to new studies , has been the inquiry of many acute and learned ...
... understanding is best conducted to the knowledge of science , by what steps it is to be led forwards in its pursuit , how it is to be cured of its defects , and habituated to new studies , has been the inquiry of many acute and learned ...
Page 65
... understanding or virtue , and are , therefore , not always treated with the severity which their neglect of the ease of all about them might justly provoke ; they have obtained a kind of prescription for their folly , and are considered ...
... understanding or virtue , and are , therefore , not always treated with the severity which their neglect of the ease of all about them might justly provoke ; they have obtained a kind of prescription for their folly , and are considered ...
Page 81
... understanding , or that an author could have advanced a position so remote from truth and reason any other ways than as a declaimer , to shew to what extent he could stretch his imagination , and with what strength he could press his ...
... understanding , or that an author could have advanced a position so remote from truth and reason any other ways than as a declaimer , to shew to what extent he could stretch his imagination , and with what strength he could press his ...
Page 82
... understanding of another , to mislead honest in- tentions , and an understanding not contemptible , it may not be superfluous to remark , that those things which are common among friends are only such as either possesses in his own ...
... understanding of another , to mislead honest in- tentions , and an understanding not contemptible , it may not be superfluous to remark , that those things which are common among friends are only such as either possesses in his own ...
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Common terms and phrases
acquaintance amusements appear beauty calamity cause caution censure challenge of honours common considered contempt danger daugh delight desire discover easily ELPHINSTON endeavour enjoy envy Epictetus equally error evil exer eyes fame faults favour fear felicity flattery folly force fortune frequently friends future gain genius give happen happiness heart hinder honour hope hope and fear human imagination indulge Jupiter kind knowledge labour lady learning lenitives less lest lives mankind MARCH 20 marriage means ment mind miscarriage misery nature necessary ness never objects observed once opinion ourselves OVID pain passion pastoral Penthesilea perhaps Periander perpetual persuaded pleasing pleasure portunities praise precepts Prudentius quire RAMBLER reason recreare regard remember reproach reputation SATURDAY seldom sentiments shew shewn soon sophism stone of Sisyphus suffer things thought tion TUESDAY vanity virtue wish write
Popular passages
Page 255 - Happy the man - and happy he alone He who can call today his own, He who, secure within, can say 'Tomorrow, do thy worst, for I have...
Page 266 - If a man was to compare the effect of a single stroke of a pickaxi or of one impression of the spade, with the general design and last result, he would be overwhelmed by the sense of their disproportion ; yet those petty operations, incessantly continued, in time surmount the greatest difficulties, and mountains are levelled, and oceans bounded, by the slender force of human beings.
Page 33 - O Thou whose power o'er moving worlds presides, Whose voice created, and whose wisdom guides, On darkling man in pure effulgence shine, And cheer the clouded mind with light divine. Tis thine alone to calm the pious breast, With silent confidence and holy rest : From thee, great God ! we spring, to thee we tend, Path, motive, guide, original, and end...
Page 18 - If the world be promiscuously described, I cannot see of what use it can be to read the account; or why it may not be as safe to turn the eye immediately upon mankind, as upon a mirror which shows all that presents itself without discrimination.
Page 255 - There is certainly no greater happiness than to be able to look back on a life usefully and virtuously employed, to trace our own progress in existence, by such tokens as excite neither shame nor sorrow.
Page 18 - ... it, to initiate youth by mock encounters in the art of necessary defence, and to increase prudence without impairing virtue.
Page 33 - ... he who has so little knowledge of human nature, as to seek happiness by changing any thing but his own dispositions, will waste his life in fruitless efforts, and multiply the griefs which he purposes to remove*.
Page 272 - ... to the beneficent Author of it ? Thus to enjoy the blessings he has sent, is virtue and obedience ; and to reject them merely as means of pleasure, is pitiable ignorance, or absurd perverseness. Infinite goodness is the source of created existence ; the proper tendency of every rational being, from the highest order of raptured seraphs, to the meanest rank of men, is to rise incessantly from lower degrees of happiness to higher. They have each faculties assigned them for various orders of delights.
Page 50 - Yet by some such fortuitous liquefaction was mankind taught to procure a body at once in a high degree solid and transparent, which might admit the light of the sun, and exclude the violence of the wind; which might extend the sight of the philosopher to new ranges of existence, and charm him at one time with the unbounded extent of the material creation, and at another with the endless subordination of animal life; and, what is yet of more importance, might supply the decays of nature, and succour...
Page 20 - I cannot discover why there should not be exhibited the most perfect idea of virtue; of virtue not angelical, nor above probability, for what we cannot credit we shall never imitate, but the highest and purest that humanity can reach, which, exercised in such trials as the various revolutions of things shall bring upon it, may, by conquering some calamities, and enduring others, teach us what we may hope, and what we can perform.