grown with willows, or a mountain shaded with ❝oaks, are not only more beautiful, but more be«neficial, than when they lie bare and unadorned. "Fields of corn make a pleasant prospect; and if "the walks were a little taken care of that lie be "tween them, and the natural embroidery of the < meadows were helped and improved by some "small additions of art, and the several rows of hedges were set off by trees and flowers that the soil was capable of receiving, a man might make "a pretty landscape of his own possessions."

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THE ideas here are just, and the style is easy and perspicuous, though in some places bordering on the careless. In that passage, for instance, "if "the walks were a little taken care of that lie be"tween them;" one member is clearly out of its place, and the turn of the phrase, "a little taken

care of," is vulgar and colloquial. Much better if it had run thus, "if a little care were bestowed "on the walks thet lie between them."

"Writers who have given us an account of "China tell us, the inhabitants of that country "laugh at the plantations of our Europeans, which " are laid out by the rule and the line; because, they say, any one may place trees in equal rows "and uniform figures. They choose rather to shew

a genius in works of this nature, and, therefore, "always conceal the art by which they direct them"selves. They have a word, it seems, in their

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language, by which they express the particular beauty of a plantation, that thus strikes the ima"gination at first sight, without discovering what "it is that has so agreeable an effect."

THESE Sentences furnish occasion for no remark, except that in the last of them, particular is improperly used instead of peculiar; "the peculiar "beauty of a plantation that thus strikes the ima"gination," was the phrase to have conveyed the idea which the author meant; namely, the beauty which distinguishes it from plantations of another kind.

"Our British gardeners, on the contrary, in"stead of humouring nature, love to deviate from "it as much as possible. Our trees rise in cones, globes, and pyramids. We see the marks of "the scissars on every plant and bush.

THESE sentences are lively and elegant. They make an agreeable diversity from the strain of those which went before; and are marked with the hand of Mr. Addison. I have to remark only, that, in the phrase," instead of humouring nature, love

to deviate from it," humouring and deviating are terms not properly opposed to each other; a sort of personification of nature is begun in the first of them which is not supported in the second. To humouring, was to have been opposed thwarting ;

or if deviating was kept, following, or going along with nature, was to have been used.

"I do not know whether I am singular in my

opinion, but, for my own part, I would rather "look upon a tree, in all its luxuriancy and dif"fusion of boughs and branches, than when it is "thus cut and trimmed into a mathematical figure; ❝ and cannot but fancy that an orchard, in flower, "looks infinitely more delightful, than all the "little labyrinths of the most finished parterre."

THIS sentence is extremely harmonious, and every way beautiful. It carries all the characteristics of our author's natural, graceful, and flowing language. A tree "in all its luxuriancy and dif"fusion of boughs and branches," is a remarkably happy expression. The auther seems to become luxuriant in describing an object which is so, and thereby renders the sound a perfect echo to the

sense,

"But as our great modellers of gardens have "their magazines of plants to dispose of, it is very “natural in them, to tear up all the beautiful "plantations of fruit trees, and contrive a plan "that may most turn to their profit, in taking off "their evergreens, and the like moveable plants, " with which their shops are plentifully stocked."

An author should always study to conclude,

when it is in his power, with grace and dignity. It is somewhat unfortunate, that this paper did not end, as it might very well have done, with the former beautiful period. The impression left on the mind by the beauties of nature with which he had been entertaining us, would then have been more agreeable. But in this sentence there is a great falling off; and we return with pain from those pleasing objects, to the insignificant contents of a nursery-man's shop.

LECTURE XXIV.

CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF THE STYLE IN A PASSAGE OF DEAN SWIFT'S WRITINGS.

My design, in the four preceding Lectures, was not merely to appretiate the merit of Mr. Addison's style, by pointing out the faults and the beauties that are mingled in the writings of that great author. They were not composed with any view to gain the reputation of a critic; but intended for the assistance of such as are desirous of studying the most proper and elegant construction of sentences in the English language. To such, it is hoped, they may be of advantage; as the proper application of rules respecting style will always be best learned by means of the illustration which examples afford. I conceived that examples, taken from the writings of an author so justly esteemed, would, on that account, not only be more attended to, but would also produce this good effect, of familiarising those who study composition with the style of a writer, from whom they may, upon the whole, derive great benefit. With the same view, I