to fome fuch paffages as the following, where Doctor Johnfon in the character of critic and biographer is pronouncing upon the poet Con greve. "His fcenes exhibit not much of hu"mour, imagery or paffion: his personages are " a kind of intellectual gladiators; every fen"tence is to ward or ftrike; the conteft of "fmartness is never intermitted; his wit is a "meteor playing to and fro with alternate co«rufcations." If he can learn to embroider with as much spendor, taste and addrefs as this and many other famples from the fame mafter exhibit, he cannot ftudy in a better fchool.

On the contrary, if fimplicity be his object, and a certain ferenity of stile, which seems in unifon with the foul, he may open the Spectator, and take from the first paper of Mr. Addison the first paragraph, that meets his eye the following for inftance"There is nothing that makes "its way more directly to the foul than Beauty, " which immediately diffufes a fecret fatisfac❝tion and complacency through the imagina❝tion, and gives a finishing to any thing that ❝is great or uncommòn: the very first dif "covery of it ftrikes the mind with an in"ward joy, and spreads a chearfulness and de<light through all its faculties." Or again

in the fame effay. «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 those different stains of light, that show "themfelves 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 fpendid diction, as that of Doctor Johnson; thefe little famples therefore, though felected with little or no care, but taken as they came to hand, may serve to exemplify my meaning, and in fome degree characterize the different ftiles of the respective writers.

Now as every ftudent, who is capable of copying either of thefe ftiles, or even of comparing them, muft difcern on which fide the greater danger of mifcarrying lies, as well as the greater disgrace in cafe of such miscarriage, 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 studying to be simple and perfpicu

ous;

ous; he will put his thoughts into language naturally as they present themselves, giving them for the prefent little more than mere grammatical correction; afterwards, upon a closer review, he will polifh thofe parts that seem rude, harmonize them where they are unequal, compress what is too diffufive, raise what is low, and attune the whole to that general cadence, which seems most grateful to his ear.

But if our student hath been smitten with the turbulent oratory of the senate, the acrimonious declamation of the bar, or the pompous eloquence of the pulpit, and shall take the lofty Speakers in these feveral orders for his models, rather than fuch as address, the ear in humbler tones, his paffions will in that cafe hurry him înto the florid and figurative stile, to a sublime and swelling period; and if in this he excels, it must be owned he accomplishes a great and arduous task, and he will gain a liberal share of applause 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, "whose "discourse" (to use the words of the learned Doctor Bentley)" after the genius of the Eastern "nations, is thick fet with metaphor and alle

gory

σε gory; the fame bold comparisons and dithy"rambic liberty of ftile every where occurring "-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 re"prefented to their view, fo that their hearts

were ravished with joy, and their imagina"tions turgid and pregnant with the glorious "ideas; then furely, if ever, their stile would "be ftrong and lofty, full of allufions to all that "is great and magnificent in the kingdoms of

this world." (Commencement Sermon.)-And thefe flights of imagination, these effufions of rapture and fublimity will occafionally be found in the pulpit eloquence of fome of our most correct and temperate writers; witness that brilliant apostrophe 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 thoufands, who fell "by his victorious fword: Shew her the cities, VOL. V. "which

G

" which he fet in flames, the countries which "he ravaged and destroyed, and the miferable "diftrefs of all the inhabitants of the earth "When she has viewed him in this fcene, carry ❝ her into his retirements; fhew her the pro"phet'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 she is tired "with this profpect, then fhew her the blessed "Jefus, humble and meek, doing good to all "the fons of men, patiently inftructing both the "ignorant and perverfe; let her see him in his "most retired privacies; let her follow him to "the mount, and hear his devotions and fuppli"cations to God; carry her to his table to view "his poor fare, and hear his heayenly difcourfe: "Let her fee him injured but not provoked; "let her attend him to the tribunal, and confi"der the patience with which he endured 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

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