The poorest man may in his cottage bid defiance to all the force of the Crown. It may be frail; its roof may shake; the wind may blow through it; the storms may enter, the rain may enter, but the King of England cannot enter; all his forces dare not cross the threshold of the ruined tenement ! Speech on the Excise Bill. We have a Calvinistic creed, a Popish liturgy, and an Arminian clergy. Prior's Life of Burke (1790). SAMUEL JOHNSON. 1709-1784. Let observation with extensive view. Survey mankind, from China to Peru.1 Vanity of Human Wishes. Line t. There mark what ills the scholar's life assail, He left the name at which the world grew pale, Line 159. Line 221. Hides from himself his state, and shuns to know That life protracted is protracted woe. Line 257. An age that melts in unperceiv'd decay, Superfluous lags the veteran on the stage. Fears of the brave, and follies of the wise! Line 293. Line 308. From Marlb'rough's eyes the streams of dotage flow, 1 All human race, from China to Peru, Pleasure, howe'er disguised by art, pursue. Line 316. THOMAS WARTON: Universal Love of Pleasure. De Quincey (Works, vol. x. p. 72) quotes the criticism of some writer, who contends with some reason that this high-sounding couplet of Dr. Johnson amounts in effect to this: Let observation with extensive observa tion observe mankind extensively. Must helpless man, in ignorance sedate, Line 362. London. Line 166. For patience, sov'reign o'er transmuted ill. Line 176. Prologue to the Tragedy of Irene. Each change of many-colour'd life he drew, Prologue on the Opening of Drury Lane Theatre. And panting Time toil'd after him in vain. Catch, then, oh catch the transient hour; He dies-alas! how soon he dies! Officious, innocent, sincere, Ibid. Ibid. Winter. An Ode. Of every friendless name the friend. Verses on the Death of Mr. Robert Levet. Stanza 2. In misery's darkest cavern known, His useful care was ever nigh Where hopeless anguish pour'd his groan, And lonely want retir'd to die. And sure th' Eternal Master found 1 Nothing in poverty so ill is borne Stanza 5. Stanza 7. As its exposing men to grinning scorn. 2 Three years later Johnson wrote, "Mere unassisted merit advances what is not very common-it advances at all." slowly, if 8 Var. His ready help was always nigh. Then with no throbs of fiery pain,1 Death broke at once the vital chain, Verses on the Death of Mr. Robert Levet. Stanza 9. That saw the manners in the face. Lines on the Death of Hogarth. Philips, whose touch harmonious could remove Epitaph on Claudius Philips, the Musician. A Poet, Naturalist, and Historian, Epitaph on Goldsmith. How small of all that human hearts endure, Our own felicity we make or find. With secret course, which no loud storms annoy, Lines added to Goldsmith's Traveller. Trade's proud empire hastes to swift decay. Line added to Goldsmith's Deserted Village. From thee, great God, we spring, to thee we tend, - Motto to the Rambler. No. 7. Ye who listen with credulity to the whispers of fancy, and pursue with eagerness the phantoms of hope; who See Chesterfield, page 353. 3 A translation of Boethius's "De Consolatione Philosophiæ," iii. 9, 27 expect that age will perform the promises of youth, and that the deficiencies of the present day will be supplied by the morrow,-attend to the history of Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia. Rasselas. Chap. i. "I fly from pleasure," said the prince, "because pleasure has ceased to please; I am lonely because I am miserable, and am unwilling to cloud with my presence the happiness of others." Chap. iii. A man used to vicissitudes is not easily dejected. Chap. zii. Ibid. Few things are impossible to diligence and skill. Chap. xiii. I live in the crowd of jollity, not so much to enjoy company as to shun myself. Chap. zvi. Many things difficult to design prove easy to per formance. The first years of man must make provision for the last. Ibid. Chap. xvii. Example is always more efficacious than precept. Chap. zzz. The endearing elegance of female friendship. Chap. xlvi. I am not so lost in lexicography as to forget that words are the daughters of earth, and that things are the sons of heaven.2 Preface to his Dictionary. Words are men's daughters, but God's sons are things. Boulter's Monument. (Supposed to have been inserted by Dr. Johnson, 1745.) 1 See Bacon, page 168. 2 The italics and the word "forget" would seem to imply that the saving was not his own. 8 Sir William Jones gives a similar saying in India: "Words are the daughters of earth, and deeds are the sons of heaven." See Herbert, page 206. Sir THOMAS BODLEY: Letter to his Librarian, 1604. Whoever wishes to attain an English style, familiar but not coarse, and elegant but not ostentatious, must give his days and nights to the volumes of Addison. Life of Addison. To be of no church is dangerous. Religion, of which the rewards are distant, and which is animated only by faith and hope, will glide by degrees out of the mind unless it be invigorated and reimpressed by external ordinances, by stated calls to worship, and the salutary influence of example. Life of Milton. The trappings of a monarchy would set up an ordinary commonwealth. Ibid. His death eclipsed the gayety of nations, and impoverished the public stock of harmless pleasure. Life of Edmund Smith (alluding to the death of Garrick). That man is little to be envied whose patriotism would not gain force upon the plain of Marathon, or whose piety would not grow warmer among the ruins of Iona. Journey to the Western Islands: Inch Kenneth. He is no wise man that will quit a certainty for an uncertainty. The Idler. No. 57. What is read twice is commonly better remembered than what is transcribed. No. 74. Tom Birch is as brisk as a bee in conversation; but no sooner does he take a pen in his hand than it becomes a torpedo to him, and benumbs all his faculties. Life of Johnson (Boswell).1 Vol. i. Chap. vii. 1743. Wretched un-idea'd girls. This man [Chesterfield], I thought, had been a lord. among wits; but I find he is only a wit among lords.2 1 From the London edition, 10 volumes, 1835. Vol. ii. Chap. i. 1754. write a life of him, announced, with decision enough, that if he thought Dr. Johnson, it is said, when he first heard of Boswell's intention to Boswell really meant to write his life he would prevent it by taking Boswell's!-CARLYLE: Miscellanies, Jean Paul Frederic Richter. 2 See Pope, page 331. |