The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D., Volume 10Bell & Bradfute ... [and 3 others] and S. Campbell, New York, 1806 |
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admiration admitted Americans appears authority blank verse called censure charter claim Colonies Comus consent considered court Cowley danger death declared defend delight diction dignity disavowal discontent dominion Donne easily election endeavours English epick equal evil expected expence faction Falkland's Island fancy favour friends greater honour hope House of Commons human John Milton king king of Spain known labour language Latin learned lence less liberty lover Lycidas ment metaphysical poets Middlesex Milton mind nation nature never opinion Paradise Lost Paradise Regained parliament patriot perhaps Pindar pleasure poem poetical poetry poets Port Egmont praise produced publick punishment reason represented rhyme Salmasius says sedition seems sent sentiments shew shewn sion sometimes Spain Spaniards Spanish Sprat supposed tell thee thing thou thought tion told truth verse virtue vote write written
Popular passages
Page 148 - ... he became, as he relates, irrecoverably a poet. Such are the accidents which, sometimes remembered, and perhaps sometimes forgotten, produce that particular designation of mind, and propensity for some certain science or employment, which is commonly called genius. The true genius is a mind of large general powers, accidentally determined to some particular direction.
Page 182 - To move, but doth if th' other do. And though it in the center sit, Yet when the .other far doth roam, It leans and hearkens after it, And grows erect as that comes home. Such wilt thou be to me, who must, Like th...
Page 288 - Fancy can hardly forbear to conjecture with what temper Milton surveyed the silent progress of his work, and marked its reputation stealing its way in a kind of subterraneous current through fear and silence. I cannot but conceive him calm and confident, little disappointed, not at all dejected, relying on his own merit with steady consciousness, and waiting without impatience the vicissitudes of opinion, and the impartiality of a future generation.
Page 242 - I was destined of a child, and in mine own resolutions, till coming to some maturity of years and perceiving what tyranny had invaded the Church, that he who would take Orders must subscribe slave, and take an oath withal, which unless he took with a conscience that would retch he must either straight perjure, or split his faith, I thought it better to prefer a blameless silence before the sacred office of speaking bought, and begun with servitude and forswearing.
Page 297 - We drove a-field, and both together heard What time the gray-fly winds her sultry horn, Battening our flocks with the fresh dews of night, Oft till the star that rose at evening bright Toward heaven's descent had sloped his westering wheel.
Page 59 - ... fiction. War has means of destruction more formidable than the cannon and the sword. Of the thousands and ten thousands that perished in our late contests with France and Spain, a very small part ever felt the stroke of an enemy; the rest languished in tents and ships, amidst damps and putrefaction; pale, torpid, spiritless, and helpless; gasping and groaning, unpitied among men, made obdurate by long continuance of hopeless misery; and were at last whelmed in pits, or heaved into the ocean,...
Page 297 - Such equivocations are always unskilful ; but here they are indecent, and, at least, approach to impiety, of which, however, I believe the writer not to have been conscious. Such is the power of reputation justly acquired, that its blaze drives away the eye from nice examination. Surely no man could have fancied that he read Lycidas with pleasure, had he not known the author.
Page 252 - Memory and her siren daughters ; but by devout prayer to that Eternal Spirit who can enrich with all utterance and knowledge, and sends out his seraphim with the hallowed fire of his altar to touch and purify the lips of whom He pleases.
Page 312 - ... is the business of impartial criticism to discover. As, in displaying the excellence of Milton, I have not made long quotations, because of selecting beauties there had been no end, I shall in the same general manner mention that which seems to deserve censure; for what Englishman can take delight in transcribing passages, which, if they lessen the reputation of Milton, diminish in some degree the honour of our country...
Page 172 - On reading the following lines, the reader may perhaps cry out, "Confusion worse confounded": Here lies a she sun, and a he moon here, She gives the best light to his sphere, Or each is both, and all, and so They unto one another nothing owe.