tests, created by political differences, diffused still more widely a knowledge of those best models of composition-for on a question of government or liberty, to whom could reference be so safely or na turally made as to those who were supposed to have known best the theory of the one and the practice of the other? In fact, classical learning was perhaps never more cultivated in England than for some time previous to the revolution; and in such circumstances it was impossible that style should not have improved in its most essential qualities. "It has been already observed that the style of Dryden was in almost every point of view much superior to that of the writers of his day. So far then as he exhibited to the public better models of prose composition, so far must he have contributed to improve the style of that and the succeeding period. But exclusive of this excellence in his writings, the nature of the subjects of which he treated in many of his prose works coutributed still more to improve the taste of bis countrymen in composition. Many of his prefaces are professedly critical dissertations on various kinds of writing, and in these he communicated to the public, even to those of them who were not the learned, such true principles of taste, and sound rules of judgement, as must necessarily have accelerated their approach to that accuracy and elegance which English prose so shortly afterward began to display. "There was a still more immediate cause of improvement in the style both of his prose and poetry. The polish and refinement of the court of Charles II. of which the dissoluteness was the grave of the morality of the nation, was perhaps the parent of much of that elegance which characterised Addison, and those authors who cultivated our language in the succeeding reigns. The public taste was improved by ingrafting the light beauties of French literature on the solid stock of English learning; and then by a happy concurrence of circumstances our language came to unite copiousness and strength with grace and elegance. "So wide was the variation of the style of Addison and his contemporaries from that of the period of 1788, that no subsequent variation was so great or so obvious. His sound judgment and fine taste raised the language in which he wrote, at one effort, as much above its former level as the continued improvements of succeeding writers raised it above that at which he left it. Improvement, however, it did receive; and among those who con tributed to that improvement the amiable Goldsmith holds, perhaps, the highest place. Possessing all the qualities which constitute a fine writer, intellect, erudition, and above all, taste in composition, distinguished equally by the mild fertility of his imagination, and the correct copiousness of his language, he seems to have carried the improvements of Addison's style almost as far as they could be carried. Buteven in this its highest state ofexcellence it was still the style of Addion, distinguished by nothing but a greater degree of those qualities for which the writings of Addison were remarkable. As it would, therefore, be improper, perhaps, to call those improvements variations in style, it will be permitted in an essay of this nature to pass them over without more particular notice, and come at once to those changes which have been introduced by Dr. Johnsonthe colossus of English literature— the the multiplicity and excellence of whose writings have raised up such an host of imitators, of friends and of enemies. alluded to; the cases in which it may properly be used, and the instances in which Johnson has used it improperly, are there mentioned, and to mention them again would be but to repeat what has already been eloquently said. "In the construction of his sentences he has many peculiarities. One of these is the habit of placing the oblique case at the beginning, and introducing between it and the word by which it is governed some qualifying circumstance. Instances abound: Of two objects tempt. ing at a distance on contrary sides, it is impossible to approach one "Johnson varied the style of English prose in three instances in the form of its phrases, in the construction of sentences, and in diction. To describe accurately these variations were to give an essay on his style and writings; and this has been already so ably done by a member of this society, that it would be unsafe and unnecessary again to attempt it. The nature of this essay, however, requires that on this subject something should be said, not to point out his beau-but by receding from the other? ties or defects, but merely to mark the variations which he has introduced. · Many conclusions did I form, and many experiments did I try, ' &c. From the hope of enjoying affluence by methods more compendious than those of la cable than those of genius, proceeds the common inclination to experiment and hazard,' &c. &c. pal is the substitution of the sub-bour, and more generally practistantive expressing the quality in the abstract for the adjective expressing it in concrete, or, the verbal substantive for the verb itself. Thus when he says that none of "the axioms which recommend the ancient sages to veneration seems to have required less extent of knowledge or less perspicacity of 'penetration than the remark of Bias, of wλecoves xaxo,' he substitutes extent for extensive, and perspicacity for acute: and when he makes Dicaculus say that every 'tongue was diligent in prevention or revenge,' he makes him say what in the language of other men would have been diligent to * prevent or revenge.' "By the frequent use of this phraseology Johnson has given a degree of strength and solidity to his sentences which he could have given them, perhaps, by no other means. The advantages of it have been pointed out in the essay above 1798. "Of this practice the principal effect seems to be that of strongly impressing the mind, by exhibiting first to its view the principal object of the sentence. In grave compo sitions it gives a tone of dignity and strength which admirably corresponds with the nature of the subject; and with respect to sound, its advantages are equally impor tant, as by affording a liberty of transposition it enables the writer to arrange his clauses in the most harmonious manner. The disad vantages of this practice are, that it gives a formality to composition which is not adapted to the easy familiarity of the lighter kinds of writing, and, by leading too frequently to transposition, may sometimes induce obscurity. "It may be reckoned among his peculiarities of this kind, that be G crowds of communication; it gave simpli city to what was complex, and unity to what was manifold. But let the writer who has not Johnson's stock of ideas, his sagacity or his comprehension, beware of imi tating. When trivial circumstances are enumerated in this pompous phrase, or words not of distinct meaning ex ibited in long-sounding triads, good sense and good taste are disgusted: the dwarf in giant's armour is more contemptible than in his native littleness. crowds together, generally at the end of his sentences, a number of phrases similarly constructed. Per haps there is no mode of expression of which he gives so many examples. He who is unfurnished with any arts that might ainuse 'his leisure, is condemued to wear ' out a tasteless life in calamities which few will hear, and which none will pity. A careless glance on a favourite author is generally sufficient to supply the first hint or seminal idea, which, enlarged by the gradual accretion of matter stored in the mind, is, by the warmth of fancy, easily expanded into flowers, and some times ripened into fruit.'' to sunk into humble 'companions without choice or influence, expected only to echo their opinions, facilitate their desires, and accompany their rambles. When the trader pretends anxiety about the payment of his bills, and the beauty re-quodque verbum Virgilius usurpavit, marks how frightfully she looks, then is the lucky moment to talk of riches, or of charms, of the death of lovers, or the honour of * a merchant." whom we "There is, probably, no mode of constructing a sentence better calculated than this for introducing, without confusion or obscurity, a great number of adjunct ideas. To a mind stored like that of Johnson with much of the best learning of ancient and modern times, and with that knowledge which only an attentive observation of life can be stow; to a sagacity like his, which saw almost intuitively through a chain of consequences, and to a comprehensive mind, such as he possessed, which took in at a glance a great number of collateral circumstances, this structure of a sentence was a necessary instrument "But however the style of Johnson may be characterised, or how. ever English prose composition may have been improved, by these peculiarities of construction, it is by his nice selection and correct use of words that he is principally distinguished, and the English language principally benefited. The student who, in translating Virgil into other Latin, complained of the dif ficulty of his task, quia optimum because Virgil had pre-occupied options Johnson has been blamed; and when an English word could be found commensurate in its meaning to the idea he would convey, and not debased by vulgar use, he was, no doubt, blameable in resorting to another language. That he has sometimes justly incurred this censure it were vain to deny: but it will be found, perhaps, on examination, that he did not often resort to exotic words, when he could have found English words of equal force and equal dignity. He did not generally, with the jealous policy of a conqueror, raise foreigners to favour to the exclusion of native worth; but in the true spirit of a patriot, sought abroad for a supply of those wants which be found to prevail at home. "The English is, perhaps, the only language sprung from the Gothic stock into which Greek and Latin words can easily be adopted, and it is to this facility of adoption that it owes its superior strength and richness. Johnson, therefore, when he adopts from those languages words more appropriate to his meaning than the English language could furnish, does only that which had been done by others before him, only carries farther an improvement which he did not begin, and adds to those stores which the industry of others had begun to accumulate. This consideration however will not always bear him out blameless; some words he has adopted, for the adoption of which he cannot plead ei ther necessity or use, for he could have found at home words of precisely the same import and of not less dignity. But it is contended that he has not often thus erred; that on the whole he has enriched the English language, and that, therefore, he deserves not merely impunity but praise. "Besides these distinguishing fea tures in the style of Johnson, by which he has varied the style of English prose, there is another equally prominent which it shall suffice barely to mention the frequent personification of virtues and vices, of habits and of actions. "Subsequent to Johnson there does not seem to have occurred any variation in the style of English prose, notwithstanding the immense numbers of modern writers under whose labours the press has groaned. Of these the greater num ber have no peculiar character in composition; others have imitated, some with more and some with less success, the style of Johnson; and some, as a Burke and a Reynolds, have risen in some instances, per haps, above him. Were we now considering the abstract merits of the authors we mention, it would be unpardonable indeed not to bestow on the vivid energy of Burke, and the mild and chaste elegance of sir Joshua, a large share of attention and panegyric. But such is not the object of this essay: we must therefore pass over these, as we have passed over Goldsmith and others, in silence, because, though the excellence of their writings is singularly great, that excellence does not consist in any variations which they have introduced into style, but in the height to which they have carried those principles of composition which had been cultivated, though less successfully, by others before them. ་་ In treating of the various styles which have successively appeared from the revolution to the present time, I have purposely omitted some which may be thought from G 2 their 1 their singularity to have deserved notice. Sucn, for instance, is that of Mr. Sterne. This I have passed over without remark, because, in the first instance, it was merely the style of an individual, and has never been generally adopted by English prose writers; and, in the second place, because it seems to have been the emanation of an eccentric mind, conveying its thoughts in language as capricious, and, perhaps, affected, as the sentiments which suggested them, and as loose as the moral principles by which they were regulated." REMARKS on PASTORAL POETRY, and its APPROPRIATE DICTION IMAGERY, and INCIDENTS. [From DR. DRAKE'S LITERARY HOURS.] N no species of poetry has with greater servility than in what is termed the eclogue; yet it might readily be supposed that be who was alive to the beauties of rural imagery; who possessed a just taste in selecting the more striking and picturesque features of the objects around him, would find in the inexhaustible stores of nature ample materials for decoration, while in cidents of sufficient simplicity and interest, neither too coarse on the one hand, nor too refined on the other, adapted to the country, and tinged with national manners and customs, might with no great diffi. culty be drawn from fact, or arranged by the fancy of the poet. Such combinations, however, under the epithet of pastoral, have not frequently occurred, owing, I conceive, to the mistaken idea that one peculiar form, style and manner, a tissue of hackneyed scenery and sentiment, cannot with propriety be deviated from. Under such a preposterous conception genius must expire, a languid monotony pervade every effort, and the incongruity of the imagery and incident excite nothing but contempt. The try, has done little more than paint the rich and romantic landscape of Sicily, the language and occupations of its rustic inhabitants; a beautiful and original picture, and drawn from the very bosom of simplicity and truth; and had succeeding poets copied him in this respect, and, instead of absurdly introducing the costume and scenery of Sicily, given a faithful representation of their own climate and rural character, our pastorals would not be the insipid things we are now, in general, obliged to consider them, but accurate imitations of nature herself, sketched with a free and liberal pencil, and glowing with appropriate charms. "Unfortunately, however, for those few authors who possess some originality in pastoral composition, the professed critics in this depart ment, with the exception of one or two, have exclusively and perversely dwelt and commented upon mere copyists, to the utter neglect of poets who might justly aspire to contest the palm of excellence with the Grecian. In most of our dissertations |