Synthesized answer
Samuel Johnson was a highly learned individual, described as possibly "the most learned man in Europe" [2]. He possessed a vast knowledge across many fields, including science, history, criticism, metaphysics, morals, and politics, and had a refined taste in arts like painting and architecture [2]. His conversation was noted for being both instructive and entertaining, devoid of affectation or pedantry [3]. He was also a man of virtue and humanity, who abhorred religious persecution and was a sincere member of the Established Church, though he did not condemn dissenters [3].
One critical insight into Johnson's work is that he wrote "Lives of the Poets," which this volume completes, featuring twenty such lives, though only one is treated at length [1]. The period discussed includes poets born around the 1660s, such as Samuel Garth and Charles Montague [1]. Another insight is that Johnson's writing and thinking were influenced by a profound understanding of classical literature, as he advises seeking inspiration from the "remote and rich ancients" when facing a "famine of invention" [5]. The passages also reveal that Johnson was a man of principle, whose "faults had nothing of…
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From the book
Transcribed from the 1889 Cassell and Company edition by Les Bowler. [Picture: Book cover] CASSELL’S NATIONAL LIBRARY. * * * * * LIVES OF THE ENGLISH POETS Gay Thomson Young Gray etc. BY SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL.D. [Picture: Decorative graphic] CASSELL & COMPANY, LIMITED: _LONDON_, _PARIS_, _NEW YORK & MELBOURNE_. 1889. INTRODUCTION. THIS volume contains a record of…
to adopt, as Mr. Mason has done, from a letter written to my friend Mr. Boswell by the Rev. Mr. Temple, rector of St. Gluvias in Cornwall; and am as willing as his warmest well-wisher to believe it true:— “Perhaps he was the most learned man in Europe. He was equally acquainted with the elegant and profound parts of science, and that not superficially, but thoroughly. He knew every branch of history, both natural and civil; had read all the original historians of England, France, and Italy; and was a great antiquarian. Criticism, metaphysics, morals,…
ical history, in both of which he made great advances in the times he retired into the country, which was frequent. He expressed on all occasions his full persuasion of the truth of revealed religion; and, being a sincere member of the Established Church himself, he pitied, but condemned not, those that dissented from it. He abhorred the principles of persecuting men upon the account of their opinions in religion; and, being strict in his own, he took it not upon him to censure those of another persuasion. His conversation was pleasant, witty, and…
nuance of poverty, and long habits of dissipation, it cannot be expected that any character should be exactly uniform. There is a degree of want by which the freedom of agency is almost destroyed; and long association with fortuitous companions will at last relax the strictness of truth, and abate the fervour of sincerity. That this man, wise and virtuous as he was, passed always unentangled through the snares of life, it would be prejudice and temerity to affirm; but it may be said that at least he preserved the source of action unpolluted, that his principles were never shaken,…
lively letter in prose, on “Original Composition,” addressed to Richardson, the author of “Clarissa,” appeared in 1759. Though he despairs “of breaking through the frozen obstructions of age and care’s incumbent cloud into that flow of thought and brightness of expression which subjects so polite require,” yet it is more like the production of untamed, unbridled youth, than of jaded fourscore. Some sevenfold volumes put him in mind of Ovid’s sevenfold channels of the Nile at the conflagration:— “—ostia septem Pulverulenta vocant, septem sine flumine…
More questions about this book
- The introduction notes that only Edward Young's life is "treated at length" in this volume. What might this editorial decision suggest about Johnson's criteria for assessing poets, or the broader purpose of his "Lives" series?
- How does the chronological arrangement and brief descriptions of various poets, from Garth to Akenside, help us trace potential shifts or continuities in literary trends and poetic concerns from the late 17th to the mid-18th century?
- The text contrasts the "fresh sense of outward Nature" found in Thomson, Dyer, and Ramsay with William Shenstone's "true, although mixed with the conventions of his time." What deeper implications might these distinctions hold for understanding the evolving relationship between poets and nature in this era?
- Beyond listing poets, the introduction sprinkles specific details like Nicholas Rowe being Shakespeare's first editor, or the critical debate around "Rule Britannia." What does the inclusion of such details suggest about the multifaceted scope and intellectual curiosity present in Johnson's original biographical project?