The Hypochondriack: Being the Seventy Essays by the Celebrated Biographer, James Boswell, Appearing in the London Magazine, from November, 1777, to August, 1783, and Here First Reprinted, Volume 1Stanford University Press, 1928 |
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Account of Corsica admired agreeable allusion Anacharsis anecdotes appear Aulus Gellius Beggar's Opera believe Boswell quotes Boswell's Boswelliana censure character Cicero composition consider conversation criticism death degree doubt drinking Drunkenness edition effects elegant eminent English essay evidence evil excellent expression fancy fear feeling frequently friends give happiness Hebr Hebrides Horace Horace Walpole human nature Hypochondriack ibid idea imagination imitation instances James Boswell Johnson Letters lively London London Magazine Lord luxury mankind manner marriage melancholy mind nations never Night Thoughts notes observed occasion opinion original Oroonoko paper paragraph passage passion perhaps person philosopher phrase pity pleasure poem poet Pope present printed quotation Rambler readers reason references remark Rousseau savage says sensible sentiment Spectator spirits spleen suffer suppose sure talk taste Theopompus thing thought tion truth Voltaire Whig wine wish writing
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Page 281 - Full many a gem of purest ray serene The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear : Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, And waste its sweetness on the desert air. Some village- Hampden, that, with dauntless breast, The little tyrant of his fields withstood, Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest, Some Cromwell guiltless of his country's blood. Th...
Page 202 - Ay, but to die, and go we know not where ; To lie in cold obstruction, and to rot ; This sensible warm motion to become A kneaded clod ; and the delighted spirit To bathe in fiery floods, or to reside In thrilling regions of thick-ribbed ice ; To be imprison'd in the viewless winds, And blown with restless violence round about The pendent world...
Page 311 - Imlac, I will not undertake to maintain against the concurrent and unvaried testimony of all ages, and of all nations. There is no people, rude or learned, among whom apparitions of the dead are not related and believed. This opinion, which...
Page 351 - A good sherrissack hath a two-fold operation in it. It ascends me into the brain; dries me there all the foolish and dull and crudy vapours which environ it; makes it apprehensive, quick, forgetive, full of nimble fiery and delectable shapes; which, delivered o'er to the voice, the tongue, which is the birth, becomes excellent wit.
Page 201 - Cowards die many times before their deaths ; The valiant never taste of death but once. Of all the wonders that I yet have heard, It seems to me most strange that men should fear ; Seeing that death, a necessary end, Will come when it will come.
Page 195 - I love thee so, that I could sooner bear to see thee hanged than in the arms of another.
Page 311 - Why, Sir, if moral evil be consistent with the government of the Deity, why may not physical evil be also consistent with it ? It is not more strange that there should be evil spirits than evil men : evil unembodied spirits, than evil embodied spirits. And as to storms, we know there are such things ; and it is no worse that evil spirits raise them than that they rise.
Page 248 - Political institutions are formed upon the consideration of what will most frequently tend to the good of the whole, although now and then exceptions may occur. Thus it is better in general that a nation should have a supreme legislative power, although it may at times be abused. And then, sir, there is this consideration, that if the abuse be enormous, Nature will rise up, and claiming her original rights, overturn a corrupt political system.
Page 52 - To damp our brainless ardours, and abate That glare of life which often blinds the wise. Our dying friends are pioneers, to smooth Our rugged pass to death ; to break those bars Of terror and abhorrence Nature throws Cross our obstructed way, and thus to make Welcome, as safe, our port from every storm.
Page 252 - No, Sir ; you are not to talk such paradox : let me have no more on't. It cannot entertain, far less can it instruct. Lord Monboddo, one of your Scotch judges, talked a great deal of such nonsense. I suffered him ; but I will not suffer you." BOSWELL. " But, Sir, does not Rousseau talk such nonsense?" JOHNSON. "True, Sir ; but Rousseau knows he is talking nonsense, and laughs at the world for staring at him.