If A Man Is Prodigal, He Cannot

For My Own Part I Think No Innocent Species Of Wit Or Pleasantry Should Be Suppressed: And That A Good Pun May Be Admitted Among The Smaller Excellencies Of Lively Conversation.

Writing A Book I Have Found To Be Like Building A House. A Man Forms A Plan, And Collects Materials.

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.

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.

My Curiosity To See The Melancholy Spectacle Of The Executions Was So Strong That I Could Not Resist It, Although I Was Sensible That I Would Suffer Much From It.... I Got Upon A Scaffold Near The Fatal Tree So That I Could Clearly See All The Dismal Scene.... I Was Most Terribly Shocked, And Thrown Into A Very Deep Melancholy.