The following quotation may ferve as an inftance of the copious and diffufe ftyle:

I can easily admire poetry, and yet without adoring it; I can allow it to arife from the greateft excellency of natural temper, or the greatest race of native genius, without exceeding the reach of what is human, or giving it any approaches of divinity, which is, I doubt, debafed or difhonoured by afcribing to it any thing that is in the compafs of our action, or even comprehenfion, unless it be raised by In immediate influence from itself. 1 cannot allow poetry to be more divine in its effects than in its caufes, nor any operation produced by it to be more than purely natural, or to deferve any other fort of wonder than thofe of mufic, or of natural magic, however any of them have appeared to minds little verfed in the fpeculations of nature, of occult qualities, and the force of numbers or of founds. Whoever talks of drawing down the moon from heaven, by force of verfessor of charms, either believes not himself, or too eafily believes what others told him, or perhaps follows an opinion begun by, the practice of fome poet, upon the facility of fome people, who, knowing the time when an eclipfe would happen, told them he would by his charms call down the moon at fuch an hour, and was by them thought to have performed it.

When I read that charming defcription in Virgil's eighth Rológie of all forts of charms and fafcinations by verfes, by images, by knots, by numbers, by Lr, by herbs, em-. ployed upon occafion of a violent paflion, from a jealous or difappointed love; I have recourfe to the ftrong impreffions of fables and of poetry, to the eafy mistakes of popular opinions, to the force of imagination, to the fecret virtues of Several herbs, and to the powers of founds: and I am forry the natural history or account of fafcination, has not employed the pen of fome peifon of fuch excellent wit and deep thought and learning as Cafaubon, who writ that cus rious and useful treatife on enthufiafm, and by it difcovered the hidden or mistaken fources of that delufion, fo frequent in all regions and religions of the world, and which had fo fatally spread over our country in that age in which this treafure was fo feafonably published.Tis too much to be lamented that he lived not to complete that work in the fe cond part he promised; or that his friends neglected the pub

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lihing it, if it were left in papers, though Loofe and unf nifhed. I think a clear account of enthufiafm and fafcina-" tion, from their natural caufes, would very much deferve from mankind in general, as well as from the commonwealth of learning; might perhaps prevent fo many public diforders, and fave the lives of fo many innocent, deluded, or deluding people, who fuffer fo frequently upon account of witchesĮ and wizards. I have feen many miferable examples of this kind in my youth at home; and though the humours oro fashion be a good deal worn out of the world within thirty or forty years paft, yet it ftill remains in feveral remote parts of Germany, Sweden, and fome other countries. Temple on Poetry

Of the concife ftyle, I fhall fubjoin another examples:

A man, while awake, is confcious of a continued trainp of perceptions and ideas paffing in his mind. It requires no activity, on his part to carry on the train nor can he ato will add to the train any idea that has no connection with it. At the fame time we learn from daily experience, that the train of our thoughts is not regulated by chance and if it depend not upon will, nor upon chance, by what law is it governed? The question is of importance in the fcience of human nature; and I promife beforehand, that it will be found of great importance in the fine arts!

It appears that the relations by which things are linkedI together, have a great influence in directing the train of thought. Taking a view of external objects, we fee that their inherent properties are not more remarkable than their various relations which connect them together: one thing, perceived to be a caufe, is connected with its feveral effects; fome things are connected by contiguity in time, others by contiguity in fpace; fome are connected by refemblances fome by contraft; fome go before, fome follow not a finglé thing appears folitary and altogether devoid of connection the only difference is, that fome are ultimately connected, fome more flightly, fome near, fome at a diftance...

Experience will fatisfy us of what reason makes probable, i that the train of our thoughts is in a great measure regulated: by the foregoing connections: an external object is no fooner prefented to us in idea, than it fuggefts to the mind! other objects with which it is connected; and in this manner

is a train of thoughts compofed. Such is the law of fucceffion; whether an original law, or whether directed by fome latent principle, is doubtful; and probably will for. ever remain fo. This law, however, is not inviolable: it fometimes happens, that an idea arifes in the mind without that connection; as for example, after a profound fleep.* Kames's Elements of Criticism, In this paffage nothing is vague or redundant: every word and expreffion is appropriate.

Of all writers, ancient or modern, Ariftotle, Tacitus, and Montefquieu afford the noft remarkable inftances of cencifenefs in ftyle. The language of Locke and Clarke, though far from being polifhed, is alfo concife, and, upon the whole, not badly adapted to the profound fpeculations of thefe authors. The style of Dr. Reid is entitled to no fmall degree of praife on account of this quality. He always expreffes himself with clearness, and feldom makes use of a word that could be changed for a better.

Of a beautiful and magnificent diffufenefs, the works of Plato and Cicero exhibit, beyond doubt, the most illuftrious inftances that can be given. And, among our own countrymen, Addifon and Temple afford examples of the fame kind of excellence.

OF THE NERVOUS AND THE FEEBLE STYLE.

Tis generally imagined, that the terms nervous, and feeble, when applied to tyle, are fynonymous with concife: and diffufe. This however is not the cafe. It is indeed' true, that diffufe writers have, for the most part, foine de

Iis, apping to my le tre

The doctrine which Lord Kames here inculcates is of the utmost importance; it is indeed the very foundation of the philofophy of the human mind. The reader will find it completely unfolded in the writings of Hobbes, Locke, Hartley, Hume, Beattie, Gerard, Priestley, and Stewart.

gree of feebleness, and that nervous writers will generally incline to concifenefs of expreffion: but this is by no means an univerfal rule. There are inftances of writers who, in the midit of a full and copious ftyle, have maintained a great degree of strength. And on the other hand, an author may be parsimonious of his words, without attaining to any remarkable vigour of diction.

The foundations of a nervous or a weak ftyle are laid in an author's manner of thinking. If his conceptions, are trong, his expreffions will be energetic. But if he have only an indiftin&t view of his fubject; if his ideas be loofe and wavering; if his genius be fuch, or, at the time of his writing, fo carelessly exerted, that he has no firm hold of the conception which he would communicate to us, the marks of all this will plainly appear in his ftyle. Several unmean ing words and loofe epithets will be found his expreffions, will be vague and general; his arrangement indifcreet and feeble. We fhall be able to conceive fomewhat of his meaning, but our conceptions will be faint. Whereas a nervous writer, whether he employs an extended or a concife ftyle, gives us always a ftrong impreffion of his nyeaning: his mind is full of his fubject, and his words are all expreffive; every phrafe and every figure which he ufes, tends to render, the pleafure which he would fet before us, more lively and complete.

Every author, in every compofition, ought to ftudy to exprefs himself with fome degree of ftrength. In proportion as he approaches the feeble, he becomes a bad writer. In all kinds of writing, however, the fame degree of ftrength is not required. But the more grave and weighty any compofition is, the more fhould this quality predominate in the ftyle. Hiftory, philosophy, and fome fpecies of oratory require it in an eminent degree; while in romances, epif tles, and effays of a lighter caft, it is not so abfolutely requifite.

Too great a ftudy of ftrength, to the neglect of other defirable qualities of ftyle, is apt to betray writers into a Harfhness of manner. Harfhuef's arifes from the ufe of unauthorifed words, from forced inverfions in the conftruction of fentences, and from the neglect of fmoothuefs or harmony. This is reckoned the general fault of fome of the earlieft of our English claffics; fuch as Bacon, Raleigh,

Hooker, Milton, and other writers of thofe days. The ftyle of thefe writers is, for the most part, nervous and energetic in an eminent degree: but the language in their hands was very different from what it is at prefent. They were too fond of Latin idioms: in the structure of their fentences, inverfion is often carried to an unwarrantable length. Of that kind of tyle which is here alluded to, it will be proper to produce a few examples:

Though for no other caufe, yet for this, that posterity may know we have not loofely, through filence, permitted things to pafs away as in a dream, there fhall be for men's information, extant this much concerning the prefent ftate of the church of God established amongst us, and their careful endeavours which would have upheld the fame.

Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity.

We fee fcholars many, more than others ordinarily, fubject to melancholy, because their retired courfes of life, and privacy of study is a great means to feed that humour where it is naturally found: yet neither followeth it therefore, that all fcholars live uncomfortable lives, because fome do fo, that are poffeffed and oppreffed with that humour. Nor may that rightly be afcribed to ftudy and learning, which not it, but the conftitution of fome Audents, produceth.. Gataker's Joy of the Just.

With regard to the tranfpofition of words and members out of their natural order, critics have entered into much difcuffion. It is agreed on all hands, that fuch tranfpofition or inverfion beftows upon a period a very fenfible degree of force and elevation: and yet writers feem to be at a lofs in what manner to account for this effect. Whether, upon the whole, we have gained or loft by departing from this mode of arrangement, has by fome been doubted. It appears to me, that the genius of the English language does not naturally admit of much inverfion. But, however this may be, fuch violent inftances of tranfpofition as occur in the paffages lately quoted, are altogether obfolete and no modern writer could adopt them without the cenfure of harfhnefs and affectation..

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Among thofe who first laid afide the frequent inverfions which prevailed among writers of the former age, we may reckon Cowley and Clarendon. The writings of Temple alfo