which they might for ever dwell, settled at last in the breast of Addison.

His style is thus characterized by Dr. Johnson. "His prose is the model of the middle style; on grave subjects not formal, on light occasions not grovelling; pure without scrupulosity, and exact without apparent elaboration; always equable, and always easy, without glowing words or pointed sentences. Addison never deviates from his track to snatch a grace; he seeks no ambitious ornaments, and tries no hazardous innovations. His page is always luminous, but never blazes in unexpected splendour.

"It was apparently his principal endeavour to avoid all harshness and severity of diction: he is therefore sometimes verbose in his transitions and connexions, and sometimes descends too much to the language of conversation; yet if his language had been less idiomatical, it might have lost somewhat of its genuine Anglicism. What he attempted he performed; he is never feeble, and he did not wish to be energetic; he is never rapid, and he never stagnates. His sentences have neither studied amplitude, nor affected brevity: his periods, though not diligently rounded, are voluble and easy."t

Dryden, Pope, and Atterbury, are generally reckoned among the number of graceful writers; and to these we may safely add the names of Berkeley and Hume. In reference to Berkeley, Sir James Mackintosh has made the following remarks: "Of the exquisite grace and beauty of his diction, no man accustomed to English composition can need to be informed. His works are, beyond dispute, the finest models of philosophical style. since Cicero. Perhaps they surpass those of the orator, in the wonderful art by which the fullest light is thrown on the most minute and evanescent parts of the most subtile of human conceptions. Perhaps he also sur

*This appears to be a truism. The remark, when duly analyzed, seems to amount to this-if his language had been less idiomatical, it would have been less idiomatical. + Johnson's Lives of English Poets.

passed Cicero in the charm of simplicity; a quality eminently found in Irish writers before the end of the eighteenth century; conspicuous in the masculine severity of Swift, in the Platonic fancy of Berkeley, in the native tenderness and elegance of Goldsmith, and not witholding its attractions from Hutcheson and Leland, writers of classical taste, though of inferior powers." As a polished writer, Hume appears to great advantage in some of his essays; and his History of England, whatever may be thought of its matter or spirit, is written with consummate art. His style is often possessed of uncommon grace and suavity. It must, however, be acknowledged, that he sometimes adopts French idioms; a fault which was undoubtedly owing to his long residence on the continent.

Of a light and graceful style we discover many examples in the writings of Horace Walpole. It is very rare to find so much talent united to so much frivolity. His epistolary composition exhibits a peculiar air of ease and pleasantry; and if we could divest ourselves of the idea that we are reading the effusions of a heartless coxcomb, his letters might be read with a high degree of pleasure.

* Mackintosh's Dissertation on the Progress of Ethical Philosophy. + Dr. Aikin, speaking of the style of philosophical writings, makes the following observations. "Great precision in the use of words, clear arrangement of all the members of a sentence, closeness of method, strength and conciseness of expression, without harshness or obscurity, are essential to perfection in this department of writing; and if somewhat of the grace and amenity of language be added, which is not incompatible with the other requisites, the effect of conviction may be promoted, by leading on the reader pleasantly through a topic perhaps naturally dry and unalluring. I conceive Cicero and Hume to be examples of this union of every useful and agreeable quality in discussions purely philosophical. (Letters to his Son, vol. ii. p. 59.)

THE FLORID STYLE.

QUINCTILIAN regards it as a favourable presage in juve nile writers, that their compositions display a redundancy of fancy.* We must however beware of mistaking pomp of expression for luxuriance of imagination. The former is of easy access, but the latter is more rarely to be attained. It is in the power of everyone to load his style with high-sounding words and phrases; but to embellish a discourse with the glowing colours of fancy, requires the aid of inventive genius.

A certain degree of chaste ornament can never be unseasonable; though gaudy and meretricious ornaments are always disgusting. The over florid style therefore cannot be agreeable to a reader of taste. Although it may be allowed to youth in their first essays, it must not receive the same indulgence when employed by writers of maturer years. We may reasonably expect, that judgment, as it ripens, should chasten imagination, and reject as juvenile all such ornaments as are redundant or unsuitable. Nothing can be more contemptible than that tinsel splendour of language which some writers perpetually affect. It were well if this could be ascribed to the overflowing of a rich imagination; for, in that case, we should at least find something to amuse our fancy, if we found nothing to

་ "Andeat hæc ætas plura, et inveniat, et inventis gaudeat, sint licet illa non satis interim sicca et severa, Facile remedium est ubertatis; sterilia nullo labore vincuntur. Illa mihi in pueris natura minimum spei dederit, in qua ingenium judicio præsumitur. Materiam esse primum volo vel abundantiorem, atque ultra quam oporteat fusam. Multum inde decoquent anni, multum ratio limabit, aliquid velut usu ipso deteretur, sit modo unde excidi possit, et quod exsculpi; erit autem, si non ab initio tenuem nimium laminam duxerimus, et quam cælatura altior rumpat. Quod me de his ætatibus sentire minus mirabitur, qui apud Ciceronem legerit, Volo enim se efferat in adolescente fecunditas." (Quinctilian, de Institut. Orator. lib. ii. cap. iv.)

instruct our understanding. But it is luxuriancy of words, not of thought, that is exhibited by these frothy writers: we see a laboured attempt to rise to a splendour of composition, of which they have formed some kind. of loose idea; but not possessing sufficient strength of genius to attain the desired object, they endeavour to supply the defect by the use of poetical words, cold exclamations, and common-place figures. While they are so solicitous about every thing which has the appearance of pomp and magnificence, it has escaped. these writers that ornament fails to please when it is not marked by sobriety; and that, without a foundation of good sense and solid thought, the most florid style is but a childish imposition on the public. The public however is but too apt to be dazzled by a false lustre. The following passage may be produced as a specimen of over florid writing.

It was early in a summer morning, when the air was cool, the earth moist, the whole face of the creation fresh and gay. The noisy world was scarce awake. Business had not quite shook off his sound sleep, and Riot had but just reclined his giddy head. All was serene; all was still; everything tended to inspire tranquillity of mind, and invite to serious thought.-Only the wakeful lark had left her nest, and was mounting on high, to salute the opening day. Elevated in air, she seemed to call the laborious husbandman to his toil, and her fellow-songsters to their notes.-Earliest of birds, said I, companion of the dawn, may I always rise at thy voice! rise to offer the matin-song, and adore that beneficent Being, "who maketh the outgoings of the morning and evening to rejoice."-How charming to rove abroad, at this sweet hour of prime! to enjoy the calm of nature, to tread the dewy lawns, and taste the unrifled freshness of the air!-The greyness of the dawn decays gradually. Abundance of ruddy streaks tinge the fleeces of the firmament; till, at length, the dappled aspect of the East is lost in one ardent and boundless blush.-Is it the surmise of imagination, or do the skies really redden with shame, to see so many supinely stretched on their drowsy pillows?-Hervey's Reflections on a Flower-Garden.

There is a certain degree of elevation to which prose may be permitted to rise. Its elevation however must not be perpetual: when the writer affects unvaried magnificence, it is probable that his reader will at length be seized with satiety. Ornament loses its effect when every page is crowded with embellishments.

THE SIMPLE AND THE AFFECTED STYLE.

SIMPLICITY, applied to writing, is a term very frequently used; but, like other critical terms, it is often used in a very loose and vague manner. This circumstance has chiefly arisen from the variety of meanings attached to the word. It will therefore be necessary to distinguish these different significations, and to show in what sense the term is properly applicable to style. We may remark four different acceptations of which it is susceptible.

The first is simplicity of composition, as opposed to a great variety of parts. This is the simplicity of plan in dramatic or epic poetry, as distinguished from double plots, and crowded incidents. Thus we speak of the simplicity of Homer's Iliad, in opposition to the digressions of Lucan's Pharsalia. In this sense, simplicity is the same with unity.

The second sense is simplicity of thought, as opposed to refinement. Simple thoughts are what arise naturally, what the subject or the occasion suggests unsought, and what, when once suggested, are easily apprehended. Refinement in writing expresses a less natural and obvious train of thought, which it requires a peculiar bent of genius to pursue. Thus we say, that Parnell and Goldsmith exhibit greater simplicity of thought than Donne and Cowley; Cicero's thoughts on moral subjects are natural, Seneca's too refined and farfetched. In these two senses of simplicity, when it is opposed either to variety of parts or to refinement of thought, it bears no proper relation to style.

In the third place, simplicity stands opposed to superfluous ornament, or pomp of language. Thus Jortin is termed a simple, and Gibbon a florid writer.