"The imperfect sense of some examples I lamented, but could not remedy, and hope they will be compensated by innumerable passages selected with propriety, and preserved with exactness; some shining with sparks of imagination, and some replete with treasures of wisdom."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)


Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed by W. Strahan
Date
1755
Metaphor
"The imperfect sense of some examples I lamented, but could not remedy, and hope they will be compensated by innumerable passages selected with propriety, and preserved with exactness; some shining with sparks of imagination, and some replete with treasures of wisdom."
Metaphor in Context
The imperfect sense of some examples I lamented, but could not remedy, and hope they will be compensated by innumerable passages selected with propriety, and preserved with exactness; some shining with sparks of imagination, and some replete with treasures of wisdom.
(p. 292 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.
Date of Entry
05/09/2012

The Mind is a Metaphor is authored by Brad Pasanek, Assistant Professor of English, University of Virginia.