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A direction the more necessary, as the present state of the age in writing, seems to lean more to Style than to thought. It is much easier to dress up trivial and common sentiments with some beauty of expression, than to afford a fund of vigorous, ingenious, and useful thoughts. The latter requires true genius; the former may be attained by industry, with the help of very superficial parts. Hence, we find so many writers frivolously rich in Style, but wretchedly poor in Sentiment. The public ear is now so much accustomed to a correct and ornamented Style, that no writer can, with safety, neglect the study of it. But he is a contemptible one, who does not look to something beyond it; who does not lay the chief stress upon his matter, and employ such ornaments of Style to recommend it, as are manly not foppish: "Majore animo," says the writer whom I have so often quoted, "aggredienda est eloquentia ; quæ si toto corpore valet, ungues polire et capillum "componere, non existimabit ad curam suam perti"nere. Ornatus et virilis et fortis, et sanctus sit; "nec effeminatam levitatem, et fuco ementitum "colorem amet; sanguine et viribus niteat."*

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*"A higher spirit ought to animate those who study eloquence. "They ought to consult the health and soundness of the whole body, " rather than bend their attention to such trifling objects as paring "the nails and dressing the hair. Let ornament be manly and "chaste, without effeminate gaiety, or artificial colouring; let it shine with the glow of health and strength."

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LECTURE XX.

CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF THE STYLE OF MR. ADDISON, IN N° 411. OF THE SPECTATOR.

I HAVE insisted fully on the subject of Language and Style, both because it is, in itself, of great importance, and because it is more capable of being ascertained by precise rule, than several other parts of composition. A critical analysis of the Style of some good author will tend further to illustrate the subject; as it will suggest observations which I have not had occasion to make, and will shew, in the most practical light, the use of those which I have made. Mr. Addison is the author whom I have chosen for this purpose. The Spectator, of which his papers are the chief ornament, is a book which is in the hands of every one, and which cannot be praised too highly. The good sense, and good writing, the useful morality, and the admirable vein of humour which abound in it, render it one of those standard books. which have done the greatest honour to the English nation. I have formerly given the general character of Mr. Addison's Style and manner, as natural and unaffected, easy and polite, and full of those graces which a flowery imagination diffuses over writing. At the same time, though one of the most beautiful writers in the language, he is not the most correct;

a circumstance which renders his composition the more proper to be the subject of our present criticism. The free and flowing manner of this amiable writer sometimes led him into inaccuracies, which the more studied circumspection and care of far inferior writers have taught them to avoid. Remarking his beauties, therefore, which I shall have frequent occasion to do as I proceed, I must also point out his negligences and defects. Without a free impartial discussion of both the faults and beauties which occur in his composition, it is evident this piece of criticism would be of no service: and from the freedom which I use in criticising Mr. Addison's Style, none can imagine, that I mean to depreciate his writings, after having repeatedly declared the high opinion which I entertain of them. The beauties of this author are so many, and the general character of his Style is so elegant and estimable, that the minute imperfections I shall have occasion to point out, are but like those spots in the sun, which may be discovered by the assistance of art, but which have no effect in obscuring its lustre. It is, indeed, my judgment, that what Quinctilian applies to Cicero, "Ille se profecisse sciat, cui Cicero valde placebit," may, with justice, be applied to Mr. Addison; that to be highly pleased with his manner of writing, is the criterion of one's having acquired a good taste in English Style. The paper on which we are now to enter, is N° 411., the first of his celebrated Essays on the Pleasures of the Imagination, in the Sixth Volume of the Spectator. It begins thus:

Our sight is the most perfect, and most delightful of all our senses.

This is an excellent introductory sentence. It is

clear, precise, and simple. The author lays down, in a few plain words, the proposition which he is going to illustrate throughout the rest of the paragraph. In this manner we should always set out. A first sentence should seldom be a long, and never an intricate one.

He might have said, Our sight is the most perfect and the most delightful. But he has judged better, in omitting to repeat the article the. For the repetition of it is proper chiefly when we intend to point out the objects of which we speak, as distinguished from, or contrasted with, each other; and when we want that the reader's attention should rest on that distinction. For instance; had Mr. Addison intended to say, That our sight is at once the most delightful, and the most useful, of all our senses, the article might then have been repeated with propriety, as a clear and strong distinction would have been conveyed. But as between perfect and delightful, there is less contrast, there was no occasion for such repetition. It would have had no other effect, but to add a word unnecessarily to the sentence. He proceeds:

It fills the mind with the largest variety of ideas, converses with its objects at the greatest distance, and continues the longest in action, without being tired or satiated with its proper enjoyments.

This sentence deserves attention, as remarkably harmonious and well constructed. It possesses, indeed, almost all the properties of a perfect sentence. It is entirely perspicuous. It is loaded with no superfluous or unnecessary words. For, tired or satiated, towards the end of the sentence, are not used for synonymous terms. They convey distinct

ideas, and refer to different members of the period; that this sense continues the longest in action without being tired, that is, without being fatigued with its action; and also, without being satiated with its proper enjoyments. That quality of a good sentence which I termed its unity, is here perfectly preserved. It is our sight of which he speaks. This is the object carried through the sentence, and presented to us in every member of it, by those verbs, fills, converses, continues, to each of which it is clearly the nominative. Those capital words are disposed of in the most proper places; and that uniformity is maintained in the construction of the sentence, which suits the unity of the object.

Observe, too, the music of the period; consisting of three members, each of which, agreeably to a rule I formerly mentioned, grows, and rises above the other in sound, till the sentence is conducted, at last, to one of the most melodious closes which our language admits; without being tired or satiated with its proper enjoyments. Enjoyments is a word of length and dignity, exceedingly proper for a close which is designed to be a musical one. The harmony is the more happy, as this disposition of the members of the period, which suits the sound so well, is no less just and proper with respect to the sense. It follows the

order of nature. First, we have the variety of objects mentioned, which sight furnishes to the mind; next, we have the action of sight on those objects; and lastly, we have the time and continuance of its action. No order could be more natural or happy. This sentence has still another beauty. It is figurative, without being too much so for the subject. A metaphor runs through it. The sense of sight is,

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