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THE FLORID STYLE.

QUINCTILIAN regards it as a favourable presage in juvenile 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

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, 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.

All

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. 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.

In this sense, the simple coincides with the plain or with the neat style, which, as it has already been treated of, requires no further illustration.

To the term simplicity there is also another signification attached: this does not refer to the degree of ornament employed, so much as to the easy and natural manner in which our language expresses our thoughts. In this sense, simplicity is compatible with the highest ornament; it stands opposed, not to ornament, but to affectation. Thus Homer possesses this degree of simplicity in the greatest perfection; and yet no poet has more ornament and beauty.

A writer of simplicity expresses himself in a manner which every one thinks easy to be attained. There are no marks of art in his expression; it seems the very language of nature; we see in the style, not the writer and his labour, but the man in his own natural character. He may be rich in his expression; he may avail himself of the beauties of figurative language; yet everything seems to flow from him without effort; and he appears to write in this manner, not because he has studied it, but because it is most natural to him. It must not be imagined that a style of this kind is to be attained without study. To conceal its own efforts, is said to be the perfection of art: and when we find an author's style characterized by a beautiful simplicity, we may conclude that this is the effect of natural ingenuity, aided by an assiduous attention to the rules of composition. Some writers have recommended, not merely simplicity, but a certain negligence of style, more particularly in familiar compositions; but although negligence may be pardoned, it is by no means to be praised.

Reading an author of simplicity is like maintaining familiar conversation with a person of distinction, whe lays open his sentiments without affectation or disguise. But a mode of writing which seems artificial and elaborate, has always this disadvantage, that it exhibits an author in form, like a man at court, where the splendour of dress, and the ceremonial of behaviour.

conceal those peculiarities which distinguish one person from another.

The ancients are more remarkable for simplicity than the moderns, and the reason is obvious. The former wrote from the dictates of natural genius, and did not endeavour to model their own compositions according to those of others. When an author makes this attempt, he is always in danger of deviating into affectation. The more early Greek writers had no proper models to imitate; and accordingly they surpass those of every other learned nation in point of beautiful simplicity. This quality is highly conspicuous in the writings of Homer, Hesiod, Anacreon, Herodotus, and Xenophon. Rome can also boast of several writers of this description; particularly Terence, Lucretius, and Cæsar.

It has been remarked that "perfection in taste and style has no sooner been reached than it has been abandoned, even by those who not only professed the warmest, but felt the sincerest admiration for the models which they forsook. The style of Virgil and Horace in poetry, and that of Cæsar and Cicero in prose, continued to be admired and applauded through all the succeeding ages of Roman eloquence, as the true standards of taste and eloquence in writing. Yet no one ever attempted to imitate them; though there is no reason to suspect that their praises were not perfectly sincere : but all writers seek for applause; and applause is only to to be gained by novelty. The style of Cicero and Virgil was new in the Latin language, when they wrote; but in the age of Seneca and Lucan, it was no longer so; and though it still imposed by the stamp of authority, it could not even please without it; so that living writers, whose names depended on their works, and not their works upon their names, were obliged to seek for other means of exciting public attention, and acquiring public approbation. In the succeeding age the refinements of these writers became old and insipid; and those of Statius and Tacitus were successfully employed to gratify the restless pruriency of innovation. In all other ages and

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