English Men of Letters: Pope, by Leslie Stephen, 1900; Johnson by Leslie Stenphen, 1900; Gray, by Edmund Gosse, 1899Macmillan and Company, 1900 |
Common terms and phrases
acquaintance Addison admiration afterwards Ambrose Philips amusing antistrophe appeared became Bolingbroke Bonstetten Boswell Boswell's called Cambridge character companion criticism Curll death Dryden Dunciad edition Elegy English English poetry Eton feeling friendship Garrick genius give Goldsmith Gray Gray's happy Homer honour Horace Walpole kind Lady later less letters Lichfield literary literature lived London Lord Lucy Porter Mason melancholy mind Miss months nature never Nicholls once passages Pembroke Pembroke College perhaps person Peterhouse phrase Pindar pleasure poem poet poetical poetry poor Pope Pope's praise probably published Rambler received remark replied Johnson Reynolds Roger Long SAMUEL JOHNSON satire Savage says seems sense spirit stanza Stoke story Strawberry Hill Streatham style Swift talk tell Thomas Gray thought Thrale tion told took Twickenham vanity verses Wharton Whig whilst writing wrote young
Popular passages
Page 60 - Peace to all such! but were there One whose fires True Genius kindles, and fair Fame inspires ; Blest with each talent and each art to please, And born to write, converse, and live with ease : Should such a man, too fond to rule alone, Bear, like the Turk, no brother near the throne.
Page 101 - Sir, a woman's preaching is like a dog's walking on his hind legs. It is not done well ; but you are surprised to find it done at all.
Page 64 - Thy form benign, oh goddess, wear, Thy milder influence impart, Thy philosophic train be there To soften, not to wound, my heart. The generous spark extinct revive Teach me to love, and to forgive, Exact my own defects to scan, What others are to feel, and know myself a Man.
Page 98 - Me let the tender office long engage To rock the cradle of reposing age. With lenient arts extend a mother's breath, Make languor smile, and smooth the bed of death, Explore the thought, explain the asking eye, And keep awhile one parent from the sky!
Page 132 - Girt with many a baron bold, Sublime their starry fronts they rear; And gorgeous dames, and statesmen old In bearded majesty appear.
Page 46 - Having carried on my work thus far with so little obligation to any favourer of learning, I shall not be disappointed though I should conclude it, if less be possible, with less; for I have been long wakened from that dream of hope, in which I once boasted myself with so much exultation, My Lord, Your Lordship's most humble Most obedient servant, SAM. JOHNSON.
Page 179 - He must write as the interpreter of nature, and the legislator of mankind, and consider himself as presiding over the thoughts and manners of future generations ; as a being superior to time and place.
Page 45 - 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. Such treatment I did not expect, for I never had a Patron before. " The shepherd in Virgil grew at last acquainted with Love, and found him a native of the rocks.
Page 118 - There are few ways in which a man can be more innocently employed than in getting money.
Page 45 - 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. Such treatment I did not expect, for I never had a patron before.