The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: With An Essay on His Life and Genius, Volum 11

Forside
Luke Hansard & Sons, 1810

Inni boken

Utvalgte sider

Innhold


Vanlige uttrykk og setninger

Populære avsnitt

Side 170 - 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.
Side 134 - Who but must laugh if such a man there be ? Who would not weep if Atticus were he?
Side 235 - Seasons wonders that he never saw before what Thomson shows him, and that he never yet has felt what Thomson impresses.
Side 126 - ... you have made my system as clear as I ought to have done, and could not. It is indeed the same system as mine, but illustrated with a ray of your own, as they say our natural body is the same still when it is glorified. I am sure I like it better than I did before, and so will every man else. I know I meant just what you explain ; but I did not explain my own meaning so well as you. You understand me as well as I do myself; but you express me better than I could express myself.
Side 379 - Churchyard" abounds with images which find a mirror in every mind, and with sentiments to which every bosom returns an echo. The four stanzas, beginning "Yet even these bones," are to me original; I have never seen the notions in any other place, yet he that reads them here persuades himself that he has always felt them. Had Gray written often thus, it had been vain to blame and useless to praise him.
Side 378 - In the character of his Elegy I rejoice to concur with the common reader; for by the common sense of readers uncorrupted with literary prejudices, after all the refinements of subtilty and the dogmatism of learning, must be finally decided all claim to poetical honours.
Side 169 - Dryden knew more of man in his general nature, and Pope in his local manners. The notions of Dryden were formed by comprehensive speculation, and those of Pope by minute attention. There is more dignity in the knowledge of Dryden, and more certainty in that of Pope.
Side 371 - ... You say you cannot conceive how Lord Shaftesbury came to be a philosopher in vogue ; I will tell you : first, he was a lord ; secondly, he was as vain as any of his readers ; thirdly, men are very prone to believe what they do not understand ; fourthly, they will believe any thing at all, provided they are under no obligation to believe it; fifthly, they love to take a new road, even when that road leads no where ; sixthly, he was reckoned a fine writer, and seems always to mean more than he...
Side 168 - ... none to himself. He examined lines and words with minute and punctilious observation, and retouched every part with indefatigable diligence, till he had left nothing to be forgiven. For this reason he kept his pieces very long in his hands, while he considered and reconsidered them. The only poems which can be supposed to have been written with such regard to the times as might hasten their publication were the two satires of Thirty-eight; of which Dodsley told me that they were brought to him...
Side 204 - To this sad shrine, whoe'er thou art, draw near, Here lies the friend most lov'd, the son most dear : Who ne'er knew joy, but friendship might divide, Or gave his father grief but when he dy'd.

Bibliografisk informasjon