Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Essays From the Rambler and the Idler: With Passages From the Lives of the Poets Prayer and Meditations and Other Writings
That vigorous personality is stamped upon the essays Of The Rambler and The Idler. It is by these essays, two or three poems, and the tale Of Rasselas, that John son earned the literary reputation that gave authority to his Dictionary. The essays are sometimes wordy and colorless, and over weighted with prosy sermonizings. Yet the great moralist trudges sturdily along through platitudes and piosities, and man ages to make you feel that it is worth while to accompany him. The readers of this little volume, indeed, are not called upon to make very protracted efforts; for the papers from The Rambler and The Idler that are given here either deal with themes of peren nial interest, or depict, with a graphic power which compels attention, the fortunes of books and the authors Of books a century and a half ago.
There is writing of a more masterly order, however, in the passages chosen to illustrate the Spirit and aim with which Johnson un dertook his English Dictionary. There are few pages in our literature more noble than those which sketch the plan Of the great work, and the concluding paragraphs Of the Preface. Between these two selections, I have printed, in its proper chronological place, the famous letter to Lord Chesterfield.
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