had read it over the way above mentioned; only the title-page, and the heads of the chapters; and then thanked him very kindly for his excellent treatise. The author, in some pain, asked him, "Whether that was all he intended to read of his book?" Magliabechi coolly answered, “Yes; for I know very well every thing that is in it." My author for this anecdote endeavoured to account for it in the following manner: Magliabechi, says he, knew all that the writers before had said of this saint; he knew this particular father's turn and character; and from thence judged what he would chuse out of the m, and what he would omit.-Spence's Life of Magliabechi. This passage seems to exhibit almost every possible fault. The sentences are constructed in a very unskilful manner: the circumstances are often improperly placed, and the members loose and disjointed; nothing is expressed with energy; all is feeble and ungraceful. The commencement of the third sentence presents so violent a separation of correspondent words, that the sense is involved in a considerable degree of obscurity. Nor is the author's phraseology less exceptionable: it is altogether mean if not vulgar, as the expressions in Italics will sufficiently testify. CHAP. XX. OF THE VEHEMENT STYLE. THE vehement rises a degree above the nervous style. The former however always includes the latter; for in order to attain to any vehemence of diction, an author must necessarily be possessed of strength. The vehement style is distinguished by a peculiar ardour of expression: it is the language of a man whose imagination and passions are strongly affected by the subject which he contemplates; and who is therefore negligent of inferior graces, but pours forth his eloquence with the fulness and rapidity of a torrent. It belongs to the higher species of oratory; and indeed is rather expected from a man who declaims in a popular assembly, than from one who writes in the retirement of his closet. Of this style, the most striking examples in our language have been exhibited by Bolingbroke and Burke. Lord Bolingbroke was fitted by nature to be the demagogue of a popular assembly. The style which predominates in all his political writings, is that of a person declaiming with heat, rather than writing with deliberation. He abounds with rhetorical figures, and pours himself forth with great impetuosity. He is copious to a fault; places the same thought before us in many different views, but generally with vivacity or ardour. He is bold rather than correct: his eloquence is a torrent that flows strong, but often muddy. His merit as a writer would have been considerable, if his matter had equalled his style; but while we find much to commend in the latter, the former is entitled to a scanty measure of praise. In his reasonings, he is for the most part flimsy and false; in his political writings factious; and in what he calls his philosophical ones, irreligious and sophistical in the highest degree.* The history of his life * The earl of Chesterfield, having mentioned Lord Bolingbroke's Spirit of Patriotism, proceeds in the following manner: "I desire and writings affords a very striking and a very edifying example of the inutility of the most brilliant talents, unaccompanied by moral worth. Mr. Burke was a man of the most splendid talents, and those talents had been improved by due cultivation. His imagination was fervent and brilliant, but his judgment was less vigorous than his imagination. In modern, and indeed in ancient times, the copiousness and force of his eloquence have not often been paralleled it rolls along like a rapid and impetuous torrent, and bears down every object that rises in opposition. His illustrations are variegated and striking; he is even profuse of poetical conceptions and poetical imagery: his metaphors however are not unfrequently coarse, and his language is deficient in purity and selection. When he has begun to descant on a subject which interests his morbid feelings, he knows not when to pass to another. Upon the whole, it may perhaps be affirmed with safety, that his va that you will read it over and over again, with particular attention to the style, and to all those beauties of oratory with which it is adorned. Till I read that book, I confess I did not know all the extent and powers of the English language. Lord Bolingbroke has both a tongue and a pen to persuade; his manner of speaking in private conversation, is full as elegant as his writings; whatever subject he either speaks or writes upon, he adorns with the most splendid eloquence; not a studied or laboured eloquence, but such a flowing happiness of diction, which (from care perhaps at first) is become so habitual to him, that even his most familiar conversations, if taken down in writing, would bear the press, without the least correction either as to method or style. If his conduct, in the former part of his life, had been equal to all his natural and acquired talents, he would most justly have merited the epithet of all-accomplished." (Letters to his Son, vol. i. p. 515. Lond. 1774, 2 vols. 4to.) rious productions were more calculated to excite the astonishment or indignation of his contemporaries, than to secure the applause or imitation of posterity.* In treating of the vehement style, I have not, as upon former occasions, attempted to select examples. The subject cannot in the present instance be elucidated in this manner: vehemence of style can only be perceived and relished by attending to a long series of reasonings and illustrations. CHAP. XXI. OF THE PLAIN STYLE. A PLAIN style rejects all ambitious ornaments. The writer who adopts this manner, may perhaps endeavour to display his meaning with perspicuity and precision; qualities of style which, it must be confessed, are of the highest order. His composition may also be possessed of force and vivacity; but he will shew an indifference for what is merely ornamental. He does not strive to captivate the fancy or the ear by employing rhetorical figures, or musical arrangement: yet it is not necessary that he disgust his reader by a dryness or harshness of manA plain style is consistent with smoothness of ner. * Αἰσχρόν γ ̓ ὅταν τις, εὐεπὴς γλώσσῃ φυείς, Menandri Fragmenta, p. 225. edit. Meineke. arrangement, and a temperate use of metaphor ; though neither of these is absolutely requisite. In discussions of a philosophical nature, the plain style ought to predominate; and accordingly many of the English philosophers have employed it with propriety. Even in works which admit or require much ornament, there are parts where the plain manner should be adopted. But it must be remembered, that when this is the character which a writer affects throughout his whole composition, great weight of matter, and great force of sentiment, are required to secure the reader's attention. Unless he happen to treat of mathematical subjects, an author ought always to beware of falling into a dryness of manner. This excludes ornaments of every description. Content with being understood, it has not the least aim to please either the fancy or the ear. Aristotle furnishes the most complete example of a dry style: never perhaps was there an author who adhered so rigidly to the strictness of a didactic manner throughout all his writings, and conveyed so much instruction without the least approach to ornament. With the most profound genius, and the most extensive views, he writes like a pure intelligence, who addresses himself solely to the understanding, without making any use of the channel of the imagination. But this is a manner which deserves not to be imitated: for although the value of the matter may compensate for the dryness or harshness of the style, yet is that dryness a considerable defect; it fatigues the attention, and conveys our sentiments with disadvantage to the reader or hearer. It would however appear that Aristotle L |