I scarcely know a more striking instance of
the strength and pregnancy of the Gothic mind.
Dryden's genius was of that sort which catches fire by its own motion; his
chariot wheels _get_ hot by driving fast.
* * * * *
Dr. Johnson seems to have been really more powerful in discoursing _viva
voce_ in conversation than with his pen in hand. It seems as if the
excitement of company called something like reality and consecutiveness
into his reasonings, which in his writings I cannot see. His antitheses are
almost always verbal only; and sentence after sentence in the Rambler may
be pointed out to which you cannot attach any definite meaning whatever. In
his political pamphlets there is more truth of expression than in his other
works, for the same reason that his conversation is better than his
writings in general. He was more excited and in earnest.
* * * * *
When I am very ill indeed, I can read Scott's novels, and they are almost
the only books I can then _read_. I cannot at such times read the Bible; my
mind reflects on it, but I can't bear the open page.
* * * * *
Unless Christianity be viewed and felt in a high and comprehensive way, how
large a portion of our intellectual and moral nature does it leave without
object and action!
* * * * *
Let a young man separate I from Me as far as he possibly can, and remove Me
till it is almost lost in the remote distance.
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