began to dip my pen in gall, and as foon as I had fingled out a proper object for my fpleen, I looked round him for his weak fide, where I could place a blow to beft ef fect, and wound him undiscovered: the author abovementioned had a full fhare of my attention; he was an irritable man, and I have feen him agonized with the pain, which my very fhafts had given him, whilft I was foremost to arraign the feurrility of the age, and encourage him to difregard it: the practice I had been in of masking my ftile facilitated my attacks upon every body, who either moved my envy, or provoked my fpleen.

The meanest of all paffions had now taken entire poffeffion of my heart, and I furrendered myfelf to it without a ftruggle: ftill there was a consciousness about me, that funk me in my own esteem; and when I met the eye of a man, whom I had fecretly defamed, I felt abashed, fociety became painful to me; and I fhrunk into retirement, for my felf-esteem was loft; though I had gratified my malice, I had deftroyed my comfort; I now contemplated myself a folitary being at the very moment when I had every requifite of fortune, health, and endowments to have recommended me to the world, and to thofe tender ties and engagements, which are natural to man, and conftitute his beft enjoyments.

The folitude I reforted to made me every day more morofe, and fupplied me with reflections that rendered me intolerable to myself and unfit for fociety. I had reafon to apprehend, in fpite of all my caution, that I was now narrowly watched, and that ftrong fufpicions were taken up against me; when,

as I was feafting my jaundiced eye one morning with a certain newfpaper, which I was in the habit of employing as the vehicle of my venom, I was startled at difcovering myself confpicuously pointed out in an angry column as a cowardly defamer, and menaced with perfonal chastisement, as foon as ever proofs could be obtained against me; and this threatening denunciation evidently came from the very author, who had unknowingly given me fuch umbrage, when he recited my poem.

The fight of this resentful paragraph was like an arrow to my brain habituated to skirmish only behind entrenchments, I was ill prepared to turn into the open field, and had never put the queftion to my heart, how it was provided for the emergency. In early life I had not any reafon to fufpect my courage, nay it was rather forward to meet occafions in thofe days of innocence; but the meannefs I had lately funk into had fapped every manly principle of my nature, and I now discovered to my forrow, that in taking up the lurking malice of an aflaffm, I had loft the gallant fpirit of a gentleman.

There was ftill one alleviation to my terrors it fo chanced that I was not the author of the particular libel, which my accufer had imputed to me; and though I had been father of a thoufand others, I felt myself fupported by truth in almost the only charge, against which I could have fairly appealed to it. It seemed to me therefore adviseable to lofe no time in difculpating myfelf from the accufation; yet to feek an interview with this ira cible man was a service of fome danger: chance threw the opportunity in my

way,

way, which I had probably else wanted spirit to mvite; I accofted him with all imaginable civility, and made the ftrongeft affeverations of my innocence: whether I did this with a fervility that might aggravate his fufpicions, or that he had others impreffed upon him befides thofe I was labouring to remove, fo it was, that he treated all I faid with the most contemptuous incredulity, and elevating his voice to a tone that petrified me with fear, bade me avoid his fight, threatening me both by words and actions in a manner too humiliating to relate.

Alas! can words exprefs my feelings? Is there a being more wretched than myself? to be friend1fs, an exile from fociety, and at enmity with my felf, is a fituation deplorable in the extreme: let what I have now written be made public; if I could believe my fhame would be turned to others' profit, it might perhaps become lefs painful to myfelf; if men want other motives to divert them from defamation, than what their own hearts fupply, let them turn to my example, and if they will not be reasoned, let them be frightened out of their propenfity.

I am, Sir, &c. WALTER WORMWOOD.

fruction, and fomething to the barmony of its cadence. I hope our language hath gained all the profit, which the labours of this meritorious writer were exerted to produce: in ftile of a certain defcription he undoubtedly excels; but though I think there is much in his effays for a reader to admire, I should not recommend them as a model for a difciple to copy.

Simplicity, eafe and perfpicuity fhould be the first objects of a young writer: Addifon and other authors of his clafs will furnish him with examples, and affift him in the attainment of these excellencies; but after all, the ftile, in which a man fhall write, will not be formed by imitation only; it will be the file of his mind; it will affimilate itself to his mode of thinking, and take its colour from the complexion of his ordinary difcourfe, and the company he conforts with. As for that diftinguishing characteristic, which the ingenious effayift terms very properly the harmony of its cadence; that I take to be incommunicable and immediately dependant upon the ear of him who models it. This harmony of cadence is fo ftrong a mark of difcrimination between authors of note in the world of letters, that we can depofe to a stile, whose modulation we are familiar with, almost as confidently as to the hand

But

though I think there will be found in the periods of every established writer a certain peculiar tune, (whether harmonious or otherwife) which will depend rather upon the natural ear than upon the imitative powers, yet I would not be underflood to fay that the ftudy of good models can fail to be of ufe in the first formation of it. When a fub

ject

ject prefents itself to the mind, and thoughts arife, which are to be committed to writing, it is then for a man to chufe whether he will express himself in fimple or in elaborate diction, whether he will comprefs his matter or dilate it, ornament it with epithets and robe it in metaphor, or whether he will de liver it plainly and naturally in fuch language as a well-bred perfon and a fcholar would ufe, who affects no parade of speech, nor aims at any flights of fancy. Let him decide as he will, in all these cafes he hath models in plenty to chufe from, which may be faid to court his imi tation.

For inftance; if his ambition is to glitter and furprize with the figurative and metaphorical brilliancy of his period, let him tune his ear to fome fuch paffages as the following, where Doctor Johnfon in the character of critic and biographer is pronouncing upon the poet Congreve. "His fcenes exhibit not much of humour, imagery or paffion: his perfonages are a kind of intellectual gladiators; every fentence is to ward or ftrike; the contest of smartness is never intermitted; his wit is a meteor playing to and fro with alternate corufcations." If he can learn to embroider with as much fplendor, taite and addrefs as this and many other famples from the fame maiter exhibit, he cannot study in a better fchool..

On the contrary, if fimplicity be his object, and a certain ferenity of ftile, which feems in unifon with the foul, he may open the Spectator, and take from the first paper of Mr. Audion the first paragraph, that his eye-the following for There is nothing that Is its way more directly to the

I

i

foul than Beauty, which immediately diffufes a fecret fatisfaction and complacency through the imagination, and gives a finishing to any thing that is great or uncommon: the very firft difcovery of it strikes the mind with an inward joy, and fpreads a chearfulness and delight through all its faculties." Or again in the fame eflay: "We no where meet with a more glorious or pleafing fhow in nature than what appears in the heavens at the rifing and fetting of the fun, which is wholly made up of thofe different ftains of light, that show themielves in clouds of a different fituation.” A florid writer would hardly have refifted the opportunities, which here court the imagination to indulge its flights, whereas few writers of any fort would have been tempted on a topic merely critical to have employed fuch figurative and fplendid diction, as that of Doctor Johnfon; thefe little famples therefore, though felected with little or no care, but taken as they came to hand, may ferve to exemplify my meaning, and in fome degree characterize the different ftiles of the refpective writers.

Now as every ftudent, who is capable of copying either of these ftiles, or even of comparing them, must difcern on which fide the greater danger of mifcarrying lies, as well as the greater difgrace in cafe of fuch mifcarriage, prudence will direct him in his outfet not to hazard the attempt at a florid diction. If his ear hath not been vitiated by vulgar habitudes, he will only have to guard against mean expreffions, whilft he is ftudying to be fimple and perfpicuous; he will put his thoughts into language naturally as they prefent themfelves,

1

giving them for the prefent little more than mere grammatical correction; afterwards, upon a clofer review, he will polish those parts that feem rude, harmonize them where they are unequal, comprefs what is too diffufive, raise what is low, and attune the whole to that general cadence, which feems most grateful to his ear.

But if our ftudent hath been fmitten with the turbulent oratory of the fenate, the acrimonious declamation of the bar, or the pompous eloquence of the pulpit, and fhall take the lofty speakers in these feveral orders for his models, rather than fuch as addrefs the ear in humbler tones, his paffions will in that cafe hurry him into the florid and figurative ftile, to a fublime and fwelling period; and if in this he excels, it must be owned he accomplishes a great and arduous tafk, and he will gain a liberal share of applaufe from the world, which in general is apt to be captivated with thofe high and towering images, that ftrike and furprize the fenfes. In this ftile the Hebrew prophets write, "whofe difcourfe" (to ufe the words of the learned Doctor Bentley) after the genius of the Eastern nations, is thick fet with metaphor and allegory; the fame bold comparisons and dithyrambic liberty of file every where occur-ring-For when the Spirit of God *came upon them, and breathed a new warmth and vigour through all the powers of the body and foul; when by the influx of divine light the whole fcene of Chrift's heavenly kingdom was reprefented to their view, fo that their hearts were ravished with joy, and their imaginations turgid and pregnant with the glorious ideas; then furely, if ever,

their ftile would be ftrong and lofty, full of allufions to all that is great and magnificent in the kingdoms of this world." (Commencement Sermon.And these flights of imagination, thefe effufions of rapture and fublimity will occasionally be found in the pulpit eloquence of fame of our most correct and temperate writers; witnefs that brilliant apoftrophe at the conclufion of the ninth difcourfe of Bishop Sherlock, than whom few or none have written with more didactic brevity and fimplicity" Go," (fays he to the Deifts) "go to your natural religion: Lay before her Mahomet and his difciples arrayed in armour and in blood, riding in triumph over the spoils of thousands and tens of thousands, who fell by his victorious fword: Shew her the cities which he fet in flames, the countries which he ravaged and deftroyed, and the miferable diftrefs of all the inhabitants of the earth. When she has viewed him in this scene, carry her into his retirements; fhew her the prophet's chamber, his concubines and wives; let her fee his adultery, and hear him alledge revelation and his divine commiffion to justify his luft and oppreffion. When the is tired with this profpect, then fhew her the bleffed Jefus, humble and meek, doing good to all the fons of men, patiently inftructing both the ignorant and perverfe; let her fee him in his moft retired privacies; let her follow him to the mount, and hear his devotions and fupplications to God; carry her to his table to view his poor fare, and hear his heavenly difcourfe: Let her fee him injured but not provoked; let her attend him to the tribunal, and confider the patience with which he endured

the

the fcoffs and reproaches of his enemies: Lead her to his cross, and let her view him in the agony of death, and hear his last prayer for his perfecutors-Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."

This is a lofty paffage in the high imperative tone of declamation; it is richly coloured, boldly contrafted and replete with imagery, and is amongst the strongest of thofe inftances, where the orator addreffes himself to the fenfes and paffions of his hearers: But let the difciple tread this path with caution; let him wait the call, and be fure he has an occafion worthy of his efforts before he makes them.

Allegory, perfonification and metaphor will prefs upon his imagination at certain times, but let him foberly confult his judgment in thofe moments, and weigh their fitness before he admits them into his ftile. As for allegory, it is at beft but a kind of fairy form; it is hard to naturalize it, and it will rarely fill a graceful part in any manly compoition. With refpect to perfoninica-, tion, as I am fpeaking of profe only, it is but an exotic ornament, and may be confideréd rather as the loan of the mufes than as the property of profe; let our ftudent therefore beware how he borrows the feathers of the jay, left his unnatural finery fhould only ferve to make him pointed at and defpifed. Metaphor, on the other hand, is common property, and he may take his fhare of it, provided he has difcretion not to abufe his privilege, and neither furfeits the appetite with repletion, nor confounds the palate with too much variety: Let his metaphor be appofite, fingle and unconfufed, and it will ferve him as a kind of rhetorical lever to lift

and elevate his ftile above the pitch of ordinary discourse; let him alfo, fo apply this machine, às to make it touch in as many points as poffible; otherwife it can never fo poife the weight above it, as to keep it firm and steady on its proper center.

To give an example of the right use and application of this figure, I again apply to a learned author already quoted-" Our first parents having fallen from their native ftate of innocence, the tincture of evil, like an hereditary disease, infected all their pofterit; and the leaven of in having once corrupted the whole 'maís of mankind," all the fpecies ever after would be Cured and tainted with it; the vitious ter ment perpetually diffufing and propagating itself through all generations."-(Bentley, Com. Sermon.)

There will be found alfo in cer tain writers a profufion of ords, ramifying indeed from the fame root, yet rifing into climax by their power and impo ance, which feems to burst forth from the overflow and impetuofity of the imagination; refembling at first fight what Quintilian characterises as the Abandantia Juvenilis, but which, when tempered by the hand of a master, will upon clofer examination be found to bear the stamp of judgment under the appearance of precipitancy. I need only turn to the famous Commencement Sermon before quoted, and my meaning will be fully illuftrated" Let them tell us then what is the chain, the cement, the magnetifm, what they will call it, the invifible tie of that union, whereby matter and an incorporeal mind, things that have no fimilitude or alliance to each other, can fo fympathize by a mutual league of motion and fenfation. No; they