The Life of Samuel JohnsonAmerican book Company, 1895 - 70 pages |
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Abyssinia acquainted Addison appeared Beau Nash became bookseller Boswell Boswell's brilliant Burke called celebrated Charles Chesterfield classical criticism David Garrick death diction Dictionary died dramatist Dunciad edition eighteenth century eloquence eminent England English essay essayist fame famous folio Garrick genius George George III Greek guineas Gulliver's Travels Hebrides Henry Thrale Hervey honor Human Wishes hundred Idler Jacobite John Johnson's character lady language Latin learning letters lexicographer Lichfield literature lived London Lord Macaulay Macaulay's manners mind never opinion orator Oxford Parliament party patron patronage Pembroke College poems poet political Pope Pope's published Queen Rambler Rasselas received reign Roman Samuel Johnson satire Savage scholar Scotch Scotland Sejanus Shakespeare sometimes spirit statesman strange Streatham Street style taste Teutonic language thought Thrale tion Tory Vanity of Human verse Vicar of Wakefield Walpole Whig writer written wrote
Popular passages
Page 16 - I might boast myself le vainqueur du vainqueur de la terre, that I might obtain that regard for which I saw the world contending, but I found my attendance so little encouraged that neither pride nor modesty would suffer me to continue it.
Page 16 - I have been lately informed by the proprietor of ' The World,' that two papers, in which my ' Dictionary ' is recommended to the public, were written by your lordship. To be so distinguished, is an honour, which, being very little accustomed to favours from the great, I know not well how to receive, or in what terms to acknowledge. " When, upon some slight encouragement, I first visited your lordship, I was overpowered, like the rest of mankind, by the enchantment of your address, and could not...
Page 17 - Seven years, My Lord, have now passed since I waited in your outward rooms or was repulsed from your door, during which time I have been pushing on my work through difficulties of which it is useless to complain, and have brought it at last to the verge of publication without one act of assistance, one word of encouragement, or one smile of favour.
Page 17 - Is not a patron, my lord, one who looks with unconcern on a man struggling for life in the water, and when he has reached ground, encumbers him with help? The notice which you have been pleased to take of my...
Page 34 - I saved appearances tolerably well; but I took care that the Whig dogs should not have the best of it.
Page 65 - They are the judgments of a mind trammelled by prejudice and deficient in sensibility, but vigorous and acute. They therefore generally contain a portion of valuable truth which deserves to be separated from the alloy; and, at the very worst, they mean something, a praise to which much of what is called criticism in our time has no pretensions.
Page 53 - ... the effect was rather increased than diminished by the rollings of his huge form, and by the asthmatic gaspings and puffings in which the peals of his eloquence generally ended. Nor did the laziness which made him unwilling to sit down to his desk prevent him from giving instruction or entertainment orally. To discuss questions of taste, of learning, of casuistry, in language so exact and so forcible that it might have been printed without the alteration of a word, was to him no exertion, but...
Page 30 - He was a vicious man, but very kind to me. If you call a dog HERVEY, I shall love him.
Page 54 - Club, which gradually became a formidable power in the commonwealth of letters. The verdicts pronounced by this conclave on new books were speedily known over all London, and were sufficient to sell off a whole edition in a day, or to condemn the sheets to the service of the trunk-maker and the pastrycook.
Page 45 - Dictionary was hailed with an enthusiasm such as no similar work has ever excited. It was indeed the first dictionary which could be read with pleasure. The definitions show so much acuteness of thought and command of language, and the passages quoted from poets, divines, and philosophers are so skilfully selected, that a leisure hour may always be very agreeably spent in turning over the pages.