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Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) was an English writer, poet, and lexicographer best known for his influential work, "A Dictionary of the English Language," published in 1755. His contributions to literature also include essays, criticism, and the famous biography "The Life of Samuel Johnson" by James Boswell, which offers a detailed and vivid portrayal of his life and character. Johnson's profound impact on English literature and language endures, marking him as one of the most significant figures of the 18th century.
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Samuel Johnson
INTRODUCTION. Jeronimo Lobo was born in Lisbon in the year 1593. He entered the Order of the Jesuits at the age of sixteen. After passing through the studies by which Jesuits were trained for missionary work, which included special attention to the arts of speaking and writing, Father Lobo was sent as a missionary to India at the age of twenty-eight, in the year 1621. He reached Goa, as his book...
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Samuel Johnson
INTRODUCTION The pieces reproduced in this little volume are now beginning to bid for notice from their third century of readers. At the time they were written, although Johnson had already done enough miscellaneous literary work to fill several substantial volumes, his name, far from identifying an "Age", was virtually unknown to the general public. The Vanity of Human Wishes was the first of...
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Samuel Johnson
Invitation. 1 Come to the house of prayer, O ye afflicted, come! The God of peace shall meet you there, He makes that house His home. 2 Come to the house of praise, Ye who are happy now; In sweet accord your voices raise, In kindred homage bow. 3 Ye aged, hither come, For ye have felt His love; Soon shall ye lift a holier song In fairer courts above. 4 Ye young, before His throne, Come, bow; your...
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Samuel Johnson
THE ADVENTURER. No. 34. SATURDAY, MARCH 3, 1753. Has toties optata exegit gloria pænas. Juv. Sat. x. 187. Such fate pursues the votaries of praise. TO THE ADVENTURER. SIR, Fleet Prison, Feb. 24. To a benevolent disposition, every state of life will afford some opportunities of contributing to the welfare of mankind. Opulence and splendour are enabled to dispel the cloud of adversity, to dry up the...
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Samuel Johnson
It is the fate of those who toil at the lower employments of life, to be rather driven by the fear of evil, than attracted by the prospect of good; to be exposed to censure, without hope of praise; to be disgraced by miscarriage, or punished for neglect, where success would have been without applause, and diligence without reward. Among these unhappy mortals is the writer of dictionaries; whom mankind...
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Samuel Johnson
PREFATORY OBSERVATIONS TO THE PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES. The government of this country has long and justly been considered the best among the nations of Europe; and the English people have ever evinced a proportionate desire for information in its proceedings. But in the earlier days of our constitution, we shall find that much jealousy on the part of our rulers debarred the people from access to the...
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Samuel Johnson
REVIEWS. LETTER ON DU HALDE'S HISTORY OF CHINA, 1738. There are few nations in the world more talked of, or less known, than the Chinese. The confused and imperfect account which travellers have given of their grandeur, their sciences, and their policy, have, hitherto, excited admiration, but have not been sufficient to satisfy even a superficial curiosity. I, therefore, return you my thanks...
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Samuel Johnson
THE RAMBLER. No. 106. SATURDAY, MARCH 23, 1751. Opinionum commenta delet dies, naturæ judicia Confirmat. CICERO, vi. Att. 1. Time obliterates the fictions of opinion, and confirms the decisions of nature. It is necessary to the success of flattery, that it be accommodated to particular circumstances or characters, and enter the heart on that side where the passions stand ready to receive...
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Samuel Johnson
PRIOR. Matthew Prior is one of those that have burst out from an obscure original to great eminence. He was born July 21, 1664, according to some, at Winburn, in Dorsetshire, of I know not what parents; others say, that he was the son of a joiner of London: he was, perhaps, willing enough to leave his birth unsettled, in hope, like Don Quixote, that the historian of his actions might find him some...
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Samuel Johnson
MY LORD, When first I undertook to write an English Dictionary, I had no expectation of any higher patronage than that of the proprietors of the copy, nor prospect of any other advantage than the price of my labour. I knew that the work in which I engaged is generally considered as drudgery for the blind, as the proper toil of artless industry; a task that requires neither the light of learning, nor...
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