...careful to glease than to PREFACE 21 without any moral purpose. From his writings indeed «, a^system of social duty may be selected, for he that ^ thinks...','.!• and axioms drop casually from him ; he makes no j • distribution of good or evil, nor is always careful to ,',. shew in the virtuous a disapprobation...

...appeal. It is Shakespeare's defect, says Johnson, that he seems to write without any moral purpose. . . He makes no just distribution of good or evil, nor is always careful to shew in the virtuous a disapprobation of the wicked. . . It is always a writer's duty to make the world...

...judgments are often misguided, for, in Johnson's phrasing: 'he makes no just distribution of good and evil, nor is always careful to show in the virtuous a disapprobation of the wicked'. Addison is almost alone in going against the general trend when, in Spectator no. 40 (Monday, 16 April...

...appeal. It is Shakespeare's defect, says Johnson, that he seems to write without any moral purpose ... He makes no just distribution of good or evil, nor is always careful to shew in the virtuous a disapprobation of the wicked ... It is always a writer's duty to make the world...

...purity of mind; openness; ingenuity; kindness'. It often has the sense of 'generosity' in this period. that he seems to write without any moral purpose....from him; he makes no just distribution of good or evil,2 nor is always careful to shew in the virtuous a disapprobation of the wicked; he carries his...

...a Young Poet (1786), 14. 20. Johnson could only find grains of instruction in Shakespeare's works: "From his writings indeed a system of social duty...distribution of good or evil, nor is always careful to shew in the virtuous a disapprobation of the wicked; he carries his persons indifferently through right...

...and it is true that Johnson appreciates the quantity and importance of Shakespearean moral statement: "From his writings indeed a system of social duty...for he that thinks reasonably must think morally" (p. 71). Johnson's point is, however, that Shakespeare does not always think morally. Because Shakespeare...

...Shakespeare. 'Shakespeare', said Jobnson, '. . . seems to write without any moral purpose . . . his precepts drop casually from him; he makes no just distribution...show in the virtuous a disapprobation of the wicked.' 'Jobnson', says Leavis, 'cannot understand that works of art enact their moral valuations. It is not...

...instruct, that he seems to write without any moral purpose' (vol. 7, p. 71). Although he concedes that 'from his writings indeed a system of social duty...for he that thinks reasonably must think morally', Johnson is uneasy about the need for the reader to actively construct Shakespeare's morality. Both...