Soliloquy: Or, Advice to an Author |
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Common terms and phrases
abfolutely advanc'd Affiftance againſt antient Artiſt Authors befides beſt Cafe call'd Character cife comick confiderable cou'd Critick defcrib'd Defign defirous difcover Dramatick eafily Exercife fafe faid falfe fame Fancy Favour feems felf felves fent ferve fhall fhew fhou'd fide fince fingle firft fome fomething foon form'd ftand ftill fuch fufficient fuppofe fuppos'd fure Genius Genius's Gothick Grace Grace and Favour greateſt heroick higheſt himſelf Honour Humour Ideas impoffible Intereft juft kind leaft leaſt lefs Mankind manner Maſters meaſure moft Morals moſt muft muſt Nation Nature neceffity Numbers obferve occafion Paffion pafs Perfons Philofopher Pleaſure Poets poffible prefent preferve Prince Publick racter rais'd reafon refin'd refpect reprefent Science Se&t Sect ſelf Senfe SOLILOQUY Stile ſtill Tafte thefe themſelves theſe thing thofe thoſe thought tion tragick tural turn Twas underſtand Virtue whilft whofe Wiſdom worfe World wou'd Writing
Popular passages
Page 117 - ... yet by the justness of his moral, the aptness of many of his descriptions, and the plain and natural turn of several of his characters, he pleases his audience, and often gains their ear, without a single bribe from luxury or vice.
Page 119 - Tis a due sentiment of morals which alone can make us knowing in order and proportion, and give us the just tone and measure of human passion.
Page 21 - and cry up folly before the world. But to appear fools, madmen, or varlets to ourselves, and prove it to our own faces that we are really such, is insupportable. For so true a reverence has every one for himself when he comes clearly to appear before his close companion, that he had rather profess the vilest things of himself in open company than hear his character privately...
Page 55 - ... the amiable from the odious. The moral artist who can thus imitate the Creator, and is thus knowing in the inward form and structure of his fellow-creature, will hardly, I presume, be found unknowing in himself, or at a loss in those numbers which make the harmony of a mind. For knavery is mere dissonance and disproportion.
Page 80 - In the days of Attic'' elegance, as works were then truly of another form and turn, so workmen were of another humour and had their vanity of a quite contrary kind.
Page 66 - ... to the capacity or taste of those who, in a long series of degrees from the lowest peasant to the high slave of royal blood, are taught to idolize the next in power above them and think nothing so adorable as that unlimited greatness and tyrannic power, which is raised at their own expense and exercised over themselves.
Page 118 - It may be properly said of this Play, if I mistake not, that it has only ONE Character or principal Part. It contains no Adoration or Flattery of the...
Page 7 - The wit of the best poet is not sufficient to reconcile us to the campaign of a Joshua, or the retreat of a Moses by the assistance of an Egyptian loan. Nor will it be possible, by the Muses...
Page 69 - We are now in an age when liberty is once again in its ascendant. And we are ourselves the happy nation, who not only enjoy it at home, but by our greatness and power give life and vigour to it abroad, and are the head and chief of the European league, founded on this common cause.
Page 63 - Tis scarce a quarter of an age since such a happy balance of power was settled between our prince and people as has firmly secured our hitherto precarious liberties, and removed from us the fear of civil commotions, wars and violence, either on account of religion and worship, the property of the subject, or the contending titles of the Crown.