work_id,theme,provenance,created_at,text,reviewed_on,id,comments,metaphor,dictionary,updated_at,context
5767,"",Reading,2005-09-19 00:00:00 UTC,"""I censured some ludicrous fantastick dialogues between two coach horses and other such stuff, which Baretti had lately published. He joined with me, and said, ""Nothing odd will do long. 'Tristram Shandy' did not last."" I expressed a desire to be acquainted with a lady who had been much talked of, and universally celebrated for extraordinary address and insinuation. JOHNSON. ""Never believe extraordinary characters which you hear of people. Depend upon it, Sir, they are exaggerated. You do not see one man shoot a great deal higher than another."" I mentioned Mr. Burke. JOHNSON. ""Yes; Burke is an extraordinary man. His stream of mind is perpetual."" It is very pleasing to me to record, that Johnson's high estimation of the talents of this gentleman was uniform from their early acquaintance. Sir Joshua Reynolds informs me, that when Mr. Burke was first elected a member of Parliament, and Sir John Hawkins expressed a wonder at his attaining a seat, Johnson said, ""Now we who know Mr. Burke, know, that he will be one of the first men in the country."" And once, when Johnson was ill, and unable to exert himself as much as usual without fatigue, Mr. Burke having been mentioned, he said, ""That fellow calls forth all my powers. Were I to see Burke now it would kill me."" So much was he accustomed to consider conversation a contest, and such was his notion of Burke as an opponent.
(p. 612)",,15368,"","""Yes; Burke is an extraordinary man. His stream of mind is perpetual.""","",2011-03-24 20:07:47 UTC,"A.D. 1776, Aetat. 67"
5767,"",Reading,2005-09-19 00:00:00 UTC,"We cannot tell the precise moment when friendship is formed. As in filling a vessel drop by dy drop, there is at last a drop which makes it run over; so in a series of kindesses there is at last one which makes the heart run over. We must not divide objects of our attention into minute parts, and think separately of each part. It is by contemplating a large mass of human existence, that a man, while he sets a just value on his own life, does not think of his death as annihilating all that is great and pleasing in this world, as it actually contained in his mind, according to Berkeley's reverie. If his imagination be not sickly and feeble, it ""wings its distant way"" far beyond himself, and views the world in unceasing activity of every sort. It must be acknowledged, however, that Pope's plaintive reflection, that all things would be as gay as ever, on the day of his death, is natural and common. We are apt to transfer to all around us our own gloom, without considering that at any given point of time there is, perhaps, as much youth and gaiety in the world as at another. Before I came into this life, in which I have had so many pleasant scenes, have not thousands and ten thousands of deaths and funerals happened, and have not families been in grief for their nearest relation?[...]
(p. 747)",,15369,"","""As in filling a vessel drop by dy drop, there is at last a drop which makes it run over; so in a series of kindesses there is at last one which makes the heart run over. ""","",2011-03-24 20:12:55 UTC,"A.D. 1777, Aetat. 68"
5767,"",Reading in ECCO-TCP,2018-04-26 23:11:25 UTC,"I cannot allow any fragment whatever that floats in my memory concerning the great subject of this work to be lost. Though a small particular may appear trifling to some, it will be relished by others; while every little spark adds something to the general blaze: and to please the true, candid, warm admirers of Johnson, and in any degree increase the splendour of his reputation, I bid defiance to the shafts of ridicule, or even of malignity. Showers of them have been discharged at my ""Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides;"" yet it still sails unhurt along the stream of time, and, as an attendant upon Johnson, ""Pursues the triumph, and partakes the gale.""
(II, 167)",,25190,"","""I cannot allow any fragment whatever that floats in my memory concerning the great subject of this work to be lost.""","",2018-04-26 23:11:25 UTC,""