"Ideas of the same race, though not exactly alike, are sometimes so little different, that no words can express the dissimilitude, though the mind easily perceives it, when they are exhibited together; and sometimes there is such a confusion of acceptations, that discernment is wearied, and distinction puzzled, and perseverance herself hurries to an end, by crouding together what she cannot separate."
— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)
Author
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed by W. Strahan
Date
1755
Metaphor
"Ideas of the same race, though not exactly alike, are sometimes so little different, that no words can express the dissimilitude, though the mind easily perceives it, when they are exhibited together; and sometimes there is such a confusion of acceptations, that discernment is wearied, and distinction puzzled, and perseverance herself hurries to an end, by crouding together what she cannot separate."
Metaphor in Context
This is specious, but not always practicable; kindred senses may be so interwoven, that the perplexity cannot be disentangled, nor any reason be assigned why one should be ranged before the other. When the radical idea branches out into parallel ramifications, how can a consecutive series be formed of senses in their nature collateral? The shades of meaning sometimes pass imperceptibly into each other; so that though on one side they apparently differ, yet it is impossible to mark the point of contact. Ideas of the same race, though not exactly alike, are sometimes so little different, that no words can express the dissimilitude, though the mind easily perceives it, when they are exhibited together; and sometimes there is such a confusion of acceptations, that discernment is wearied, and distinction puzzled, and perseverance herself hurries to an end, by crouding together what she cannot separate.
(pp. 286-7 in Brady and Wimsatt)
(pp. 286-7 in Brady and Wimsatt)
Categories
Provenance
Reading
Citation
First and 2nd edition in 1755-1756; 3rd edition in 1765; 4th edition, rev. by author, in 1773; 5th edition in 1784; 6th and 7th in 1785. Over 25 entries in ESTC (1755, 1756, 1765, 1773, 1784, 1785; with abridgments extracted from the folio edition in 1756, 1758, 1760, 1764, 1765, 1766, 1768, 1770, 1775, 1777, 1778, 1783, 1786, 1790, 1792, 1793, 1794, 1795, 1796, 1797, 1798, 1799, 1800).
See A Dictionary of the English Language: in Which the Words Are Deduced from Their Originals, and Illustrated in Their Different Significations by Examples from the Best Writers. To Which Are Prefixed, a History of the Language, and an English Grammar. By Samuel Johnson, A.M. 2 vols. (London: Printed by W. Strahan, for J. and P. Knaptor; T. and T. Longman; C. Hitch and L. Hawes; A. Millar; and R. and J. Dodsley, 1755). <Link to ESTC><2nd edition>
Text from Jack Lynch's online edition <Link>. Reading facsimile edition of A Dictionary of the English Language: In Which the Words Are Deduced from Their Originals, and Illustrated in Their Different Significations by Examples from the Best Writers. (New York: AMS Press, 1967). Reading also Samuel Johnson: Selected Poetry and Prose, eds. Frank Brady and W. K. Wimsatt (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977), 277-298.
See A Dictionary of the English Language: in Which the Words Are Deduced from Their Originals, and Illustrated in Their Different Significations by Examples from the Best Writers. To Which Are Prefixed, a History of the Language, and an English Grammar. By Samuel Johnson, A.M. 2 vols. (London: Printed by W. Strahan, for J. and P. Knaptor; T. and T. Longman; C. Hitch and L. Hawes; A. Millar; and R. and J. Dodsley, 1755). <Link to ESTC><2nd edition>
Text from Jack Lynch's online edition <Link>. Reading facsimile edition of A Dictionary of the English Language: In Which the Words Are Deduced from Their Originals, and Illustrated in Their Different Significations by Examples from the Best Writers. (New York: AMS Press, 1967). Reading also Samuel Johnson: Selected Poetry and Prose, eds. Frank Brady and W. K. Wimsatt (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977), 277-298.
Date of Entry
05/09/2012
