It Is Not Every Man Who Can

In Comparing These Two Writers, He [samuel Johnson] Used This Expression: "that There Was As Great A Difference Between Them As Between A Man Who Knew How A Watch Was Made, And A Man Who Could Tell The Hour By Looking On The Dial-plate." This Was A Short And A Figurative Statement Of His Distinction Between Drawing Characters Of Nature And Characters Only Of Manners, But I Cannot Help Being Of Opinion, That The Neat Watches Of Fielding Are As Well Constructed As The Large Clocks Of Richardson, And That His Dial Plates Are Brighter.

Many Infidels Have Maintained That Ignorance Is The Mother Of Devotion.

My Readers, Who May At First Be Apt To Consider Quotation As Downright Pedantry, Will Be Surprised When I Assure Them, That Next To The Simple Imitation Of Sounds And Gestures, Quotation Is The Most Natural And Most Frequent Habitude Of Human Nature. For, Quotation Must Not Be Confined To Passages Adduced Out Of Authors. He Who Cites The Opinion, Or Remark, Or Saying Of Another, Whether It Has Been Written Or Spoken, Is Certainly One Who Quotes; And This We Shall Find To Be Universally Practiced.

One Must Be Strict Even In Little Things.

After We Came Out Of The Church, We Stood Talking For Some Time Together Of Bishop Berkeley's Ingenious Sophistry To Prove The Non-existence Of Matter, And That Every Thing In The Universe Is Merely Ideal. I Observed, That Though We Are Satisfied His Doctrine Is Not True, It Is Impossible To Refute It. I Never Shall Forget The Alacrity With Which Johnson Answered, Striking His Foot With Mighty Force Against A Large Stone, Till He Rebounded From It, "i Refute It Thus."