CONTAINING APHORISMS ON LITERATURE, LIFE, AND MANNERS; WITH ANECDOTES, OF DISTINGUISHED PERSONS: SELECTED AND ARRANGED FROM MR. BOSWELL'S LIFE OF JOHNSON. IN TWO VOLUMES VOL. I. He that questioneth much shall learn much, and content much; but especially if he LONDON: Bacon's Essays. PRINTED FOR J. MAWMAN; LONGMAN, HURST, REES, AND ADVERTISEMENT. THE approbation bestowed on BOSWELL's Life of Johnson, suggested the propriety of the selection now offered to the Public. The sentiments of that great moralist and judge of human nature on various interesting topics are here arranged and digested in a manner which it is hoped will prove agreeable to a numerous class of readers; those, namely, who seek for instruction from works which they may take up or lay down at pleasure, without interrupting the chain of an argument, or the circumstances of a nar ration. Dr. JOHNSON'S conversation possessed precisely that excellence so well described by LORD VERULAM in a sentence almost immediately preceding that which has been chosen for the motto to the Title Page of this work:-" It is good in discourse and speech of conversation (says his Lordship, in the quaint but expressive language of his age) to vary and intermingle speech of the present occasion with arguments; tales with reasons; asking of questions with telling of opinions; and jest with earnest." In this compilation are contained several authentic anecdotes of distinguished Literary Characters; rules for the conduct of life in the most serious and delicate conjunctures; and those sound remarks on works of genius and learning, which in a peculiar manner distinguished the beloved friend of Mr. Boswell. |