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Samuel Johnson's Essays

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Samuel Johnson's Essays

Monthly Archives: March 1751

No. 108. Life sufficient to all purposes if well employed.

March 30, 1751

Sapere aude: Incipe. Vivendi recte qui prorogat horam, Rusticus expectat dum defluat amnis; at ille Labitur et labetur in omne …

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No. 107. Properantia’s hopes of a year of confusion. The misery of prostitutes.

March 26, 1751

Alternis igitur contendere versibns ambo Coepere: alternos Musoe meminisse volebant. VIRG. Ec. vii. 18 On themes alternate now the swains …

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No. 106. The vanity of an author’s expectations. Reasons why good authors are sometimes neglected.

March 23, 1751

Opinionum commenta delet dies, natura judicia Confirmat. CICERO, vi. Att. 1. Time obliterates the fictions of opinion, and confirms the …

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No. 105. The universal register; a dream.

March 19, 1751

A universal register, an office, in which every man may lodge an account of whatever he desires to purchase or to sell.

No. 104. The original of flattery. The meanness of venal praise.

March 16, 1751

It is scarcely credible to what degree discernment may be dazzled by the mist of pride, and wisdom infatuated by the intoxication of flattery.

No. 103. The prevalence of curiosity. The character of Nugaculus.

March 12, 1751

Curiosity is one of the permanent and certain characteristicks of a vigorous intellect.

No. 102. The voyage of life.

March 9, 1751

Gaze not idly upon others when thou thyself art sinking. Whence is this thoughtless tranquillity, when thou and they are equally endangered?

No. 101. A proper audience necessary to a wit.

March 6, 1751

I resolved to quit the university, where I considered myself as a gem hidden in the mine, and to mingle in the crowd of publick life.

No. 100. Modish pleasures.

March 2, 1751

By encouraging people to employ their whole attention on trifles, and make amusement their sole study, you will teach them how to avoid many very uneasy reflections.

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