'Johnson proceeded :— "The Scotchman has taken the right method in his 'Elements of Criticism.' I do not mean that he has taught us any thing; but he has told us old things in a new way." Murphy. "He seems to have read a great deal of French criticism, and wants to make it his own; as if he had been for years anatomizing the heart of man, and peeping into every cranny of it." Goldsmith. "It is easier to write that book, than to read it." Johnson. "We have an example of true criticism in Burke's 'Essay on the Sublime and Beautiful'; and, if I recollect, there is also Du Bos; and Bouhours, who shews all beauty to depend on truth. There is no great merit in telling how many plays have ghosts in them, and how this Ghost is better than that. You must shew how terrour is impressed on the human heart.— In the description of night in Macbeth, the beetle and the bat detract from the general idea of darkness,—inspissated gloom".'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Johnson Print: Book
'[having given the text of Parker's poem 'To Miss Salusbury', Mrs Thrale writes] For a long Time I believed this Conceit original; but it is not - There is an old Greek Epigram on Dercylis only of two Lines which the Doctor has here sopun into Length. Vide Anthol: Lib: 7.2 & there is some account of it too in Bouhours'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Hester Lynch Thrale Print: Book
'as I looked in the Glass this Morning & kept Bouhours Maniere de bien penser in my Hand - like Swift's Vanessa
Who we know - held Montagne and read-
While Mrs Susan comb's her Head.
I thought of the following enigmatical Verses: those which gave rise to them both in French & in Italian, may be found in the above mentioned little Volume' her verses are given]
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Hester Lynch Thrale Print: Book
