No. XXXVI. OF THE MICROCOS M. MONDAY, July 16, 1787. Neglectum adhibere clientem.-Juv. A long neglected client to admit. DRYDEN. I Feel myself fo much obliged by the continued notice of my correfpondents, that I fhould confider myfelf as highly ungrateful, if I did not fometimes leave wholly to them the weekly entertainment of my readers. Ἡδὲ Τρίτηγε καὶ ΜΕΣΗ Τῶν ειρημένων δυοῖν Αρμόνιων την ΚΟΙΝΗΝ καλω σπανειτε κυρίως καὶ ΚΡΕΙΤΤΟΝΟΣ Ονόματος, σχῆμα μέν ἴδιον ἐδὲν ἔχει κεκέρεται δέ πως εξ εκείνων μετρίως. ΚΑΙ ΕΣΤΙΝ ΕΚΛΟΓΗ ΤΙΣ ΤΩΝ ΕΝ ΕΚΑΤΕΡΑ ΚΡΑΤΙΣΤΩΝ ΔΙΟΝΥΣ : Περι ΣΥΝΘ: Τμ: κδ. "But this third, and MIDDLE of the two "styles already mentioned, which from want of a "better name I call the common, has no peculiar drefs of its own; but is compofed equally of "both the other, and is, as it were, a felection of the beauties of each." Es TO GREGORY GRIFFIN, ESQ. 'As being commendably and fuccessfully engaged in the fame track, perhaps you will accept this VINDICATION of an illuftrious predeceffor, in the province of a periodical effayift; the inventor of that happy mode of imparting knowledge, of cultivating taste, and of recommending virtue. I therefore make use of the medium of your paper to entreat the public clemency in favor of an author, who, though more than paffable for his day, is in danger of being abfolutely eclipfed by by the tranfcendent radiance of these dazzling luminaries; or, to fpeak with antiquated fim"plicity, whofe fuppofed purity of ftyle is falling ⚫ into contempt, from a comparison with the per❝fect models exhibited by the Johnsonian School, '-though of that school the more characteristic merit perhaps be "turgid Eloquence," expreffed in a style which no inferior genius could har◄monize with fuch eloquence; "a ftyle refined to a degree of immaculate Purity." You fee, Sir, that when deviating into the filly plainnefs of the unpolifhed days of ANN, I exalt my phrafe and reinforce my style by calling in auxiliaries of a nobler port and gigantic elevation; auxiliaries, who by the union of incompatible qualities may confiftently be accounted potent beyond the limits of poffibility. But 'till a perfect uniformity of style be established among men, till the "want of a confecutive feries of fenfes in their nature colla"teral, when the radical idea branches into parallel "ramifications" fhall be tunefully lamented by the maidens, and fignificantly recited by the lifping babes, the rude and the ignorant, in their • advancement to an happier cultivation, may be permitted to indulge themfelves with an occafional page of ADDISON. It is indeed for this un • fortunate fortunate writer, that I dare to plead; notwithstanding he is convicted of two fuch faults in ftyle, (if one be not rather of the sentiment,) as would render any one who has written fo long fince, and upon fuch fubjects, utterly unworthy to be read:-" feebleness and inanity." "I will not fay, that to those who walk on ftilts a natural walk may appear a feeble one; or that where there is nothing grofs, nothing crouded, nothing out of its place, the medium pure, the object of aerial brightness, it may be loft to fome in the fimplicity of it's own light; like the sky ❝ of a fummer's evening, without clouds or mist. I will not fay this, because it muft occur to critics who are fo accomplished, as to fee ADDISON fo far beneath them. But I must fay fomething refpecting the "MIDDLE STYLE" of which he is ironically accufed. For the formidable cenfor, ex Cathedrá, thus pronounces, "I am not willing to deprive him of the Honor implied in Johnfon's "Testimony, that his profe is the model of the "Middle Style; but if he be but a MEDIOCRIST, ❝ is furely not a subject of imitation; it being a rule, that of examples the best are always to be felected. be • Now 'Now here I must move in ARREST Of JUDGES " MENT, "for that in the record there is manifeft 66 error," and shall contend, with certainty of fuc cefs, that, upon the face of the indictment, no 'crime is charged; that he is perhaps the only ⚫ inftance in our virtuous days, of a person indicted ' and convicted of a virtue. But "the MIDDLE ftyle," is firft taken as fynonimous with "the middling one," and that being equivalent to indifferent, low, vulgar, &c. ADDISON is conluded tó have been thus an author of the MIDDLE STYLE. But, Sir, the word is a word of good fame and 'honorable estimation.-It shall not, like the inno'cent Quaker, be brought under the difgrace of 'prostitution, because another word of very dif'ferent character appears habited like it. 'If I were to call my witneffes to its reputation, I could fill the Court with the firft literary worthies, from ARISTOTLE, to HARRIS of SALISBURY. Dionyfius of Halicarnaffus, Longinus, Hermogenes, Quintilian, Cicero himself, at once the • Commender and the great Example-are perpetual in its praife. The MEZH, the KOINH Ažiš, the aquabile et temperatum dicendi Genus, has Homer, Ifocrates in his best productions, Demofthenesin parts |