public and in private, more than by any other man's, have guided their existence." JOHNSON'S sympathies were universal with all departments of life and thought, and therefore men of all tastes and pursuits will find in his Aphorisms much that is at once interesting and instructive. We venture to think that these Aphorisms will supply a desideratum in literature, considering that there are not more than half-a-dozen books of Aphorisms in the English language. We have arranged them alphabetically, that the work of reference may be an easy one. These have been gathered from many recondite sources, with great labour; but the labour has been a pleasure, which no amount of criticism can augment or diminish. We now dismiss them with "frigid tranquility," venturing to think that it will hardly be disputed by any one whose knowledge of literature makes his opinion at all valuable, that these Aphorisms form one of the richest treasuries for intellectual thought that has yet been discovered in the world of literature. APHORISMS. Abuse It is better a man should be abused than forgotten. Piozzi's Anecdotes, p. 181. Abuse They sting one, but as a fly stings a horse; (Newspaper) and the eagle will not catch flies.—Piozzi's Anecdotes, p. 186. Accom Adventitious Adventitious accomplishments may be posplishments sessed by all ranks, but one may easily distinguish the born gentlewoman.-Life. Maxwell's Collectanea, 1770. Young I love the young dogs of this age; they Acquaintance have more wit and humour and knowledge of life than we had; but then the dogs are not so good scholars.-Life. Maxwell's Collectanea, 1770. Action Morality of an The morality of an action depends on the motive from which we act. If I fling half-acrown to a beggar, with the intention to break his head, and he picks it up and buys victuals with it, the physical effect is good; but, with respect to me, the action is bad. -Life. May 24, 1763. In the pulpit, little action can be proper, Pulpit Action for action can illustrate nothing. Theology has few topics to which action can be appropriated.— The Idler, No. 90. Action Action can have no effect upon reasonable in Speaking minds. It may augment noise, but it never can enforce argument. If you speak to a dog, you use action you hold up your hand thus, because he is a brute; and in proportion as men are removed from brutes, action will have the less influence upon them.— Life. April 3, 1773. Admiration As a man advances in life he gets what is better than admiration-judgment to estimate things at their own value.-Life. April 16, 1775 Adversity has ever been considered as the Adversity state in which a man most easily becomes acquainted with himself, being free from flatterers.Rambler, No. 28. Advice Advice is offensive, because it shows us that we are known to others, as well as to ourselves. Rambler, No. 155. Good Few things are so liberally bestowed, or squandered with so little effect, as good advice. Rambler, No. 87. Distribution To love all men is our duty; but to love Affection all equally is impossible.-Rambler, No. 99. of Affection more than Empire It is always necessary to be loved, but not always necessary to be reverenced. -Rambler, No. 188. Affectation in Hardly any man dies without affectation. Dying. -Journal to the Hebrides. Collectanea by Boswell. Nov. II. Affliction To grieve for evils is often wrong; but it is much more wrong to grieve without them. -Letter No. 192, to Mrs. Piozzi. The world has few greater pleasures than Old Age that which two friends enjoy, in tracing back, at some distant time, those transactions and events through which they have passed together. One of the old man's miseries is, that he cannot easily find a companion able to partake with him of the past.-Letter to Saunders Welch. Feb. 3, 1778. Old Age It is a man's own fault, it is from want of use, if his mind grows torpid in old age. Life. April 9, 1778. Bluntedness In the decline of life shame and grief are of Old Age of short duration.-Rasselas, ch. iv. Dependence There is nothing against which an old man. in Old Age should be so much upon his guard as putting himself to nurse.-Life. March 26, 1776. Old Age and The old man pays regard to riches; the Youth youth reverences virtue. The old man deifies prudence the youth commits himself to magnanimity and chance.—Rasselas, ch. xxiv. If we estimate dignity by immediate usefulAgriculture ness, agriculture is undoubtedly the first and noblest science.-Rambler, No. 145. Disappointed Names which hoped to range over kingdoms and continents shrink at last into cloisters and colleges.-Rambler. Universality of Every man, however hopeless his pretenAmbition sions may appear to all but himself, has some project by which he hopes to rise to reputation.Rambler, No. 164. Worldly Power and superiority are so flattering and Ambition delightful, that scarcely any virtue is so cautious, or any prudence so timorous, as to decline them.-Rambler, No. 114. The Americans are a race of convicts, and The Americans ought to be thankful for anything we allow them short of hanging.-Life. March 21, 1775. Animal and All animal substances are less cleanly Substances than vegetable.-Tour to the Hebrides. September 16. Annihilation 15, 1778. Mental It is in the apprehension of it that the horror of annihilation consists.--Life. April It is dangerous for mean minds to venture Antagonisms themselves within the sphere of greatness.— Rambler, No. 104. |