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| James Basire Monument to Samuel Johnson in St Paul's Cathedral 1796 engraving National Galleries of Scotland |
from The Vanity of Human Wishes
When first the college rolls receive his name,
The young enthusiast quits his ease for fame;
Through all his veins the fever of renown
Spreads from the strong contagion of the gown;
O'er Bodley's dome his future labours spread,
And Bacon's mansion trembles o'er his head.
Are these thy views? proceed, illustrious youth,
And virtue guard thee to the throne of Truth!
Yet should thy soul indulge the gen'rous heat,
Till captive Science yields her last retreat;
Should Reason guide thee with her brightest ray,
And pour on misty Doubt resistless day;
Should no false Kindness lure to loose delight,
Nor Praise relax, nor Difficulty fright;
Should tempting Novelty thy cell refrain,
And Sloth effuse her opiate fumes in vain;
Should Beauty blunt on fops her fatal dart,
Nor claim the triumph of a letter'd heart;
Should no disease thy torpid veins invade,
Nor Melancholy's phantoms haunt thy shade;
Yet hope not life from grief or danger free,
Nor think the doom of man revers'd for thee:
Deign on the passing world to turn thine eyes,
And pause awhile from letters, to be wise;
These mark what ills the scholar's life assail,
Toil, envy, want, the patron, and the jail.
See nations slowly wise, and meanly just,
To buried merit raise the tardy bust.
– Samuel Johnson (1749)
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| Jan Frans van Bloemen Italian Garden with staircase before 1749 etching Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Daniel Marot Staircase, Het Loo Palace ca. 1700 etching Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
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| Antonio Zucchi Gallery in a classical building with staircase ca. 1783 drawing Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge |
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| Antonio Zucchi Exterior staircase of classical building before 1795 drawing Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge |
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| Jean-Antoine Watteau Study of head and hands with guitar before 1721 drawing Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Giovanni Battista Piranesi after Guercino Old Man Asleep 1764 etching National Galleries of Scotland |
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| circle of Luigi Valadier Bust of Laughing Faun (reduced copy of marble Albani Faun) ca. 1775-80 bronze Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
from I, Maximus of Gloucester, to You
the underpart is, though stemmed, uncertain
is, as sex is, as moneys are, facts!
facts, to be dealt with, as the sea is, the demand
that they be played by, that they only can be, that they must
be played by, said he, coldly, the
ear!
By ear, he sd.
But that which matters, that which insists, that which will last,
that! o my people, where shall you find it, how, where, where shall you listen
when all is become billboards, when, all, even silence, is spray-gunned?
when even our bird, my roofs,
cannot be heard
when even you, when sound itself is neoned in?
when, on the hill, over the water
where she who used to sing,
when the water glowed,
black, gold, the tide
outward, at evening
when bells came like boats
over the oil-slicks, milkweed
hulls
And a man slumped,
attentionless,
against pink shingles
o sea city)
– Charles Olson (1953)
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| attributed to John Michael Rysbrack Hercules Reposing before 1770 marble Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge |
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| Sir Stuart Threipland Académie ca. 1740 drawing National Galleries of Scotland |
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| Giambattista Tiepolo Eagle with Wings Spread before 1770 drawing on blue paper Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Allan Ramsay Study of Crown (for portrait of George III) ca. 1761 drawing on blue paper National Galleries of Scotland |
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| Pieter Anthony Wakkerdak after Jan Asselijn Classical Ruins in a Grotto ca. 1740-44 engraving Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Anonymous printmaker Ground-plan of Rome 1726 etching Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |