updated_at,id,text,theme,metaphor,work_id,reviewed_on,provenance,created_at,comments,context,dictionary
2009-09-14 19:33:34 UTC,8436,"With advising others to be charitable however, Dr. Johnson did not content himfelf. He gave away all he had, and all he ever had gotten, except the two thousand pounds he left behind; and the very small portion of his income which he spent on himself, with all our calculation, we never could make more than seventy, or at most fourscore pounds a year, and he pretended to allow himself a hundred. He had numberless dependents out of doors as well as in, ""who, as he expressed it, did not like to see him latterly unless he brought 'em money."" For those people he used frequently to raise contributions on his richer friends ; "" and this (says he) is [End Page 105] one of the thoufand reasons which ought to restrain a man from drony solitude and useless retirement. Solitude (added he one day) is dangerous to reason, without being favourable to virtue: pleasures of some sort are necessary to the intellectual as to the corporeal health; and those who resist gaiety, will be likely for the most part to fall a sacrifice to appetite; for the solicitations of senfe are always at hand, and a dram to a vacant and solitary perfon is a speedy and seducing relief. Remember (continued he) that the solitary mortal is certainly luxurious, probably superstitious, and possibly mad: the mind stagnates for want of employment, grows morbid, and is extinguished like a candle in foul air."" It was on this principle that Johnfon encouraged parents to carry their daughters early and much into company: ""for what harm can be done before so many witnesses ? Solitude is the sureft nurse of all prurient passions, [End Page 106] and a girl in the hurry of preparation, or tumult of gaiety, has neither inclination nor leisure to let tender expressions soften or sink into her heart. The ball, the show, are not the dangerous places: no, 'tis the private friend, the kind consoler, the companion of the easy vacant hour, whose compliance with her opinions can flatter her vanity, and whose conversation can just sooth, without ever stretching her mind, that is the lover to be feared: he who buzzes in her ear at court, or at the opera, must be contented to buzz in vain."" These notions Dr. Johnson carried so very far, that I have heard him say, ""if you would shut up any man with any woman, so as to make them derive their whole pleasure from each other, they would inevitably fall in love, as it is called, with each other; but at six months end if you would throw them both into public life where they might change partners at pleasure, each would soon forget that fondness [End Page 107] which mutual dependance, and the paucity of general amusement alone, had caused, and each would separately feel delighted by their release.""
(pp. 105-8)",Introspection; Madness,"""Remember (continued he) that the solitary mortal is certainly luxurious, probably superstitious, and possibly mad: the mind stagnates for want of employment, grows morbid, and is extinguished like a candle in foul air.""",6838,2009-02-18,Reading Watt's The Rise of the Novel (88),2004-04-18 00:00:00 UTC,"","",""
2011-05-08 07:20:15 UTC,18365,"
With advising others to be charitable, however, Dr. Johnson did not content himself. He gave away all he had, and all he ever had gotten, except the two thousand pounds he left behind; and the very small portion of his income which he spent on himself, with all our calculation, we never could make more than seventy, or at most four-score pounds a year, and he pretended to allow himself a hundred. He had numberless dependents out of doors as well as in, who, as he expressed it, ""did not like to see him latterly unless he brought 'em money."" For those people he used frequently to raise contributions on his richer friends; ""and this,"" says he, ""is one of the thousand reasons which ought to restrain a man from drony solitude and useless retirement. Solitude,"" added he one day, ""is dangerous to reason, without being favourable to virtue: pleasures of some sort are necessary to the intellectual as to the corporeal health; and those who resist gaiety will be likely for the most part to fall a sacrifice to appetite; for the solicitations of sense are always at hand, and a dram to a vacant and solitary person is a speedy and seducing relief. Remember,"" concluded he, ""that the solitary mortal is certainly luxurious, probably superstitious, and possibly mad: the mind stagnates for want of employment, grows morbid, and is extinguished like a candle in foul air."" It was on this principle that Johnson encouraged parents to carry their daughters early and much into company: ""for what harm can be done before so many witnesses? Solitude is the surest nurse of all prurient passions, and a girl in the hurry of preparation, or tumult of gaiety, has neither inclination nor leisure to let tender expressions soften or sink into her heart. The ball, the show, are not the dangerous places: no, it is the private friend, the kind consoler, the companion of the easy, vacant hour, whose compliance with her opinions can flatter her vanity, and whose conversation can just soothe, without ever stretching her mind, that is the lover to be feared. He who buzzes in her ear at court or at the opera must be contented to buzz in vain."" These notions Dr. Johnson carried so very far, that I have heard him say, ""If you shut up any man with any woman, so as to make them derive their whole pleasure from each other, they would inevitably fall in love, as it is called, with each other; but at six months' end, if you would throw them both into public life, where they might change partners at pleasure, each would soon forget that fondness which mutual dependence and the paucity of general amusement alone had caused, and each would separately feel delighted by their release.""
(pp. 105-8)","","""'Solitude,' added he one day, 'is dangerous to reason, without being favourable to virtue: pleasures of some sort are necessary to the intellectual as to the corporeal health; and those who resist gaiety will be likely for the most part to fall a sacrifice to appetite; for the solicitations of sense are always at hand, and a dram to a vacant and solitary person is a speedy and seducing relief.'""",6838,,Reading,2011-05-08 07:20:15 UTC,"","",""
2011-05-08 07:23:49 UTC,18366,"With advising others to be charitable, however, Dr. Johnson did not content himself. He gave away all he had, and all he ever had gotten, except the two thousand pounds he left behind; and the very small portion of his income which he spent on himself, with all our calculation, we never could make more than seventy, or at most four-score pounds a year, and he pretended to allow himself a hundred. He had numberless dependents out of doors as well as in, who, as he expressed it, ""did not like to see him latterly unless he brought 'em money."" For those people he used frequently to raise contributions on his richer friends; ""and this,"" says he, ""is one of the thousand reasons which ought to restrain a man from drony solitude and useless retirement. Solitude,"" added he one day, ""is dangerous to reason, without being favourable to virtue: pleasures of some sort are necessary to the intellectual as to the corporeal health; and those who resist gaiety will be likely for the most part to fall a sacrifice to appetite; for the solicitations of sense are always at hand, and a dram to a vacant and solitary person is a speedy and seducing relief. Remember,"" concluded he, ""that the solitary mortal is certainly luxurious, probably superstitious, and possibly mad: the mind stagnates for want of employment, grows morbid, and is extinguished like a candle in foul air."" It was on this principle that Johnson encouraged parents to carry their daughters early and much into company: ""for what harm can be done before so many witnesses? Solitude is the surest nurse of all prurient passions, and a girl in the hurry of preparation, or tumult of gaiety, has neither inclination nor leisure to let tender expressions soften or sink into her heart. The ball, the show, are not the dangerous places: no, it is the private friend, the kind consoler, the companion of the easy, vacant hour, whose compliance with her opinions can flatter her vanity, and whose conversation can just soothe, without ever stretching her mind, that is the lover to be feared. He who buzzes in her ear at court or at the opera must be contented to buzz in vain."" These notions Dr. Johnson carried so very far, that I have heard him say, ""If you shut up any man with any woman, so as to make them derive their whole pleasure from each other, they would inevitably fall in love, as it is called, with each other; but at six months' end, if you would throw them both into public life, where they might change partners at pleasure, each would soon forget that fondness which mutual dependence and the paucity of general amusement alone had caused, and each would separately feel delighted by their release.""
(pp. 105-8)","","""'Remember,' concluded he, 'that the solitary mortal is certainly luxurious, probably superstitious, and possibly mad: the mind stagnates for want of employment, grows morbid, and is extinguished like a candle in foul air.'""",6838,,"Cited in a talk by Yota Batsaki (Clark Library, May 7, 2011)",2011-05-08 07:23:49 UTC,INTEREST: The air pump reading is Yota's,"",""
2013-08-22 22:02:57 UTC,22162,"The purity of his intentions, and the uprightness of his principles--the transcript before you will sufficiently establish;--it is a mental mirror, in which you behold the features of the writer's mind, as distinctly as a looking glass reflects, to a young beauty, her cheek of roses, and her eye of fire. That he was popular as to courage and resolution, is plain from a formal petition sent to Parliament by the inhabitants of Portsmouth, praying that Sir William Waller might be made their Governor.
That he had a mind capable of the tenderest impressions, and alive to all the charms of love, appears, from this, that he never lived unmarried. Three times he exulted in the flowery hymeneal chain; and speaks of each Lady with exalted fondness and affection. But those, alas! were days in which the connubial passion was the only one tolerated!
(p. 98)","","""The purity of his intentions, and the uprightness of his principles--the transcript before you will sufficiently establish;--it is a mental mirror, in which you behold the features of the writer's mind, as distinctly as a looking glass reflects, to a young beauty, her cheek of roses, and her eye of fire.""",7585,,"Searching ""mind"" and ""mirror"" in ECCO-TCP",2013-08-15 23:18:04 UTC,"","",Mirror
2013-10-12 04:23:45 UTC,22934,"The sea here at Weymouth is not half as fine as our old sea on the Sussex coast, and a marine prospect is at best a dull one after the first week: the seasons have no effect on it; and when one has once seen it rough and once seen it smooth, all is over; while every hour of every day produces some change upon a land view, and excites new images in any mind not totally crushed down or exhausted. The look from my window is mighty pretty however, and exhibits so tranquil a scene as it is difficult for old Ocean to display. I can imagine it like the Lake of Geneva, so blue, so still, so elegantly serpentized as if Mr. Brown had laid it out. In short this is no Phœnician Neptune whose beard is said to be longer than the others, because that place produced the earliest navigators: this shall be an Otaheite Neptune, and we will strike a medal of him all shaven and shorn, to shew that no canoe even of the Society Islands need fear him, though ignorant of the act of sailing till the world was got into its dotage as Goldsmith said, when he made the sharper talk about cosmogony. This nonsense came into my head as I saw a sailor on horseback this morning, and began thinking what could inspire the ancients to make Neptune the Creator of a horse, for if any thing was ever foreign from the purpose, that was foreign, or the man that rode under my window to-day had grievously degenerated.--So as you say, my dear Sir, change of place does one some good, by giving one some new thing to think on though but for a moment. I advised our Miss H--- to the same remedy, but have a notion her mind is haunted by one particular image; if so, nothing will cure her; for if the heart be broken 'tis broken like a looking-glass, and the smallest piece will for ever preserve and reflect the same figure till 'tis again ground down into a new mass.
(pp. 306-307)","","""I advised our Miss H--- to the same remedy, but have a notion her mind is haunted by one particular image; if so, nothing will cure her; for if the heart be broken 'tis broken like a looking-glass, and the smallest piece will for ever preserve and reflect the same figure till 'tis again ground down into a new mass.""",7701,,Searching in Google Books,2013-10-12 04:23:45 UTC,INTEREST. USE IN ENTRY,"Letter CCCXIX. Mrs. Thrale to Dr. Johnson. (August 30, 1783).",Mirror