prints a character of moderate elevation on our composition, and carries a decent degree of ornament, which is not unsuitable to any subject whatA familiar letter, or a law paper, on the driest subject, may be written with neatness; and a sermon or a philosophical treatise, in a neat style, will be read with pleasure.

ever.

An elegant style is a character expressing a higher degree of ornament than a neat one; and, indeed, is the term usually applied to style, when possessing all the virtues of ornament, without any of its excesses or defects. From what has been. formerly delivered, it will easily be understood, that complete elegance implies great perspicuity and propriety; purity in the choice of words, and care and dexterity in their harmonious and happy arrangement. It implies, farther, the grace and beauty of imagination spread over style, as far as the subject admits it; and all the illustration which figurative language adds, when properly employed. In a word, an elegant writer is one who pleases the fancy and the ear, while he informs the understanding; and who gives us his ideas clothed with all the beauty of expression, but not overcharged with any of its misplaced finery. In this class, therefore, we place only the first-rate writers in the language; such as Addison, Dryden, Pope, Temple, Bolingbroke, Atterbury, and a few more: writers who differ widely from one another in many of the attributes of style, but whom we

now class together, under the denomination of elegant, as in the scale of ornament possessing nearly the same place.

WHEN the ornaments, applied to style, are too rich and gaudy in proportion to the subject; when they return upon us too fast, and strike us either with a dazzling lustre, or a false brilliancy, this forms what is called a florid style; a term commonly used to signify the excess of ornament. In a young composer this is very pardonable. Perhaps, it is even a promising symptom in young people, that their style should incline to the florid and luxuriant: Volo se efferat in adolescente fæcunditas," says Quinctilian; "multum inde decoquent anni, multum ratio limabit, aliquid velut usu ipso deteretur; sit modo unde excidi possit quid et elxscupi.-Audeat 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 *." But, although the florid style may be allowed to

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*❝In youth, I wish to see luxuriancy of fancy appear. "Much of it will be diminished by years; much will be cor"rected by ripening judgment; some of it, by the mere prac"tice of composition, will be worn away. Let there be only "sufficient matter, at first, that can bear some pruning and "lopping off. At this time of life, let genius be bold and "inventive, and pride itself in its efforts, though these should "not, as yet, be correct. Luxuriancy can easily be cured; but for barrenness there is no remedy."

youth, in their first essays, it must not receive the same indulgence from writers of maturer years. It is to be expected, that judgment, as it ripens, should chasten imagination, and reject, as juvenile, all such ornaments as are redundant, unsuitable to the subject, or not conducive to illustrate it. 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 real overflowing of a rich imagination. We should then have something to amuse us, at least, if we found little to instruct us. But the worst is, that with those frothy writers, it is a luxuriancy of words, not of fancy. We see a laboured attempt to rise to a splendour of composition, of which they have formed to themselves some loose idea; but having no strength of genius for attaining it, they endeavour to supply the defect by poetical words, by cold exclamations, by common-place figures, and every thing that has the appearance of pomp and magnificence. It has escaped these writers, that sobriety in ornament is one great secret for. rendering it pleasing; 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, are but too apt to be so imposed on; at least the mob of readers, who are very ready to be caught, at first, with whatever is dazzling and gaudy.

I CANNOT help thinking, that it reflects more honour on the religious turn, and good dispositions

of the present age, than on the public taste, that Mr. Harvey's Meditations have had so great a currency. The pious and benevolent heart, which is always displayed in them, and the lively fancy, which, on some occasions, appears, justly merited applause but the perpetual glitter of expression, the swoln imagery, and strained description which abound in them, are ornaments of a false kind. I would, therefore, advise students of oratory to imitate Mr. Harvey's piety, rather than his style; and, in all compositions of a serious kind, to turn their attention, as Mr. Pope says, "from sounds "to things, from fancy to the heart." Admonitions of this kind I have already had occasion to give, and may hereafter repeat them; as I conceive nothing more incumbent on me, in this course of lectures, than to take every opportunity of cautioning my readers against the affected and frivolous use of ornament; and, instead of that slight and superficial taste in writing, which I apprehend to be at present too fashionable, to introduce, as far as my endeavours can avail, a taste for more solid thought, and more manly simplicity in style.

LECTURE XIX.

GENERAL CHARACTERS OF STYLE-SIMPLE, AFFECTED, VEHEMENT-DIRECTIONS FOR FORMING A PROPER STYLE.

HAVING

AVING entered, in the last Lecture, on the consideration of the general characters of stylę, I treated of the concise and diffuse, the nervous and feeble manner. I considered style also, with relation to the different degrees of ornament employed to beautify it; in which view, the manner of different authors rises according to the following gradation dry, plain, neat, elegant, flowery.

I AM next to treat of style under another character, one of great importance in writing, and which requires to be accurately examined; that of simplicity, or a natural style, as distinguished from affectation. Simplicity, applied to writing, is a term very frequently used; but like many other critical terms, often used loosely and without precision. This has been owing chiefly to the different meanings given to the word simplicity, which,