Macaulay's Life of Samuel Johnson |
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admiration affected appeared became become Boswell Boswell's called century character common conversation critics Dictionary early Edinburgh edition eloquence England English equally Essay expression fame father feeling five followed friends gave give hand happiness heart History hour human hundred important interesting Italy Johnson kind knowledge known lady language Latin learning less letters literary literature lived London looked Lord Macaulay Macaulay's manner means mind months mother natural never notes observed once Oxford Parliament passed person pleasure poem Poets political Pope published question reason received remember respect Review Samuel Johnson says scarcely seems seen sentence society sometimes soon spirit strange Street studies talk taste things thought took Trevelyan turned volumes whole writer written wrote young
Popular passages
Page 68 - I had exhausted all the art of pleasing which a retired and uncourtly scholar can possess. I had done all that I could ; and no man is well pleased to have his all neglected, be it ever so little.
Page 68 - 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...
Page 69 - ... should consider me as owing that to a patron which Providence has enabled me to do for myself. " Having carried on my work thus far with so little obligation to any...
Page 29 - Many of the greatest men that ever lived have written biography. Boswell was one of the smallest men that ever lived ; and he has beaten them all.
Page 69 - 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 labours, had it been early, had been kind ; but it has been delayed till I am indifferent, and cannot enjoy it ; till I am solitary and cannot impart it ; till I am known, and do not want it.
Page 67 - An author who has enlarged the knowledge of human nature, and taught the passions to move at the command of virtue;' and Numbers 44 and 100, by Mrs.
Page 57 - All his books are written in a learned language, in a language which nobody hears from his mother or his nurse, in a language in which nobody ever quarrels, or drives bargains, or makes love, in a language in which nobody ever thinks.
Page 69 - In this work, when it shall be found that much is omitted, let it not be forgotten that much likewise is performed; and though no book was ever spared out of tenderness to the author, and the world is little solicitous to know whence...
Page 59 - Gibbon tapping his snuff-box and Sir Joshua with his trumpet in his ear. In the foreground is that strange figure which is as familiar to us as the figures of those among whom we have been brought up, the gigantic body, the huge massy face, seamed with the scars of disease, the brown coat, the black worsted stockings, the grey wig with the scorched foretop, the dirty hands, the nails bitten and pared to the quick.
Page 31 - But these men attained literary eminence in spite of their weaknesses. Boswell attained it by. reason of his weaknesses. If he had not been a great fool, he would never have been a great writer.
Bibliographic information
| Title | Macaulay's Life of Samuel Johnson Standard English classics |
| Author | Thomas Babington Macaulay Baron Macaulay |
| Editor | Charles Lane Hanson |
| Publisher | Ginn, 1903 |
| Original from | Harvard University |
| Digitized | 21 Feb 2006 |
| Length | 94 pages |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |