The Works, Volume 3

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J. Johnson, 1803

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Page 77 - As to his body there can be no dispute; but examine even the acquirements of his mind, you will find them all contribute in their order towards furnishing out an exact dress : to instance no more ; is not religion a cloak, honesty a pair of shoes worn out in the dirt, selflove a surtout, vanity a shirt, and conscience a pair of breeches, which, though a cover for lewdness as well ag nastinesa, is easily slipt down for the service of both...
Page 152 - Then I laid open his brain, his heart, and his spleen : but I plainly perceived at every operation, that the farther we proceeded, we found the defects increase upon us in number and bulk...
Page 68 - Wisdom is a hen, whose cackling we must value and consider, because it is attended with an egg ; but then lastly, it is a nut, which, unless you choose with judgment, may cost you a tooth, and pay you with nothing but a worm.
Page 152 - Last week I saw a woman flayed, and you will hardly believe how much it altered her person for the worse.
Page 129 - The most accomplished way of using books at present is two-fold: either first, to serve them as some men do lords, learn their titles exactly, and then brag of their acquaintance. Or secondly, which is indeed the choicer, the profounder, and politer method, to get a thorough insight into the index, by which the whole book is governed and turned, like fishes by the tail.
Page 51 - I hold fit to lay down this general maxim : whatever reader desires to have a thorough comprehension of an author's thoughts, cannot take a better method, than by putting himself into the circumstances and postures of life, that the writer was in upon every important passage, as it flowed from his pen : for this will introduce a parity, and strict correspondence of ideas, between the reader and the author.
Page 150 - But when a man's fancy gets astride on his reason; when imagination is at cuffs with the senses, and common understanding, as well as common sense, is kicked out of doors; the first proselyte he makes is himself...
Page 216 - Dulness and Vanity, Positiveness, Pedantry, and Ill-Manners. The goddess herself had claws like a cat; her head, and ears, and voice, resembled those of an ass; her teeth fallen out before, her eyes turned inward as if she...
Page 151 - ... than the colour, the shape, the size, and whatever other qualities dwell or are drawn by art upon the outward of bodies; and then comes reason officiously, with tools for cutting, and opening, and mangling, and piercing, offering to demonstrate that they are not of the same consistence quite through.
Page 270 - ... a topsy-turvy creature, his animal faculties perpetually mounted on his rational, his head where his heels should be, grovelling on the earth ! and yet, with all his faults, he sets up to be a universal reformer and corrector of abuses, a remover of grievances...

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