Common Courtesy in Eighteenth-century English LiteratureIn one of his Idlers, Johnson indicated the problems involved in such an achievement as follows: "As a question becomes more complicated and involved, and extends to a greater number of relations, disagreement of opinion will always be multiplied: not because we are irrational, but because we are finite beings, furnished with different kinds of knowledge, exerting different degrees of attention, one discovering consequences which escape another, none taking in the whole concatenation of causes and effects, and most comprehending but a very small part, each comparing what he observes with a different criterion and each referring it to a different purpose. "Where, then, is the wonder, that they who see only a small part should judge erroneously of the whole? |
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Contents
| 5 | |
Berkeleys Philosophy | 17 |
Popes Poetry | 41 |
Sternes Fiction | 75 |
Johnsons Criticism | 101 |
Boswells Biography | 137 |
Conclusion | 162 |
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Common terms and phrases
acknowledges actually agreement allows apparent argument asserts attention Author believe Berkeley Berkeley's Boswell circle common sense concern Consider continually conversation course courteous courtesy critics described discourse discussion doubt effect enforces epistle Essay established evident example existence experience explains expression feel figures further give hope human Hylas ideas imagine immediately indicated individual instance intellectual Johnson judgment kind knowledge learned least letter literary Lord matter meaning mind nature never notice observed occasion once opinion particular passage passive philosophers poem poet polite Pope Pope's position possible practice present Press question quotes Rambler readers reason recognizes reference remarkable represented respondent seems Shandy share social society sometimes Sterne style suggests things thought throughout tion topics train Treatise Tristram truth turn uncle understanding universal writing
Popular passages
Page 7 - It was said of Socrates that he brought Philosophy down from heaven, to inhabit among men ; and I shall be ambitious to have it said of me, that I have brought Philosophy out of closets and libraries, schools and colleges, to dwell in clubs and assemblies, at tea-tables and in coffeehouses.
Bibliographic information
| Title | Common Courtesy in Eighteenth-century English Literature |
| Author | William Bowman Piper |
| Publisher | University of Delaware Press, 1997 |
| ISBN | 0874136458, 9780874136456 |
| Length | 200 pages |
| Subjects | › › Literary Criticism / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |