sion, and all the embellishments of figurative language. In his endeavour, however, to attain this species of style, the Student should recollect that copiousness does not consist in cumbrous verbosity, the multitude of synonyms and circumlocutions, or stringing together sounding words in easy flowing language, but in suitableness of expression for the various modifications of thought. The employment of turgid amplification, of highsounding words and epithets,—or the ambition of expressing all one's thoughts in high-wrought, brilliant, and forcible language, with all the rest of the glare and tinsel of mock eloquence, is, to adopt Quinctilian's comparison, " to supply by paint the natural glow of a youthful and healthy complexion." Meretricious ornaments of the kind may dazzle and captivate those whose intellectual and cultivated powers are small, and who deem that good writing which contains the least possible meaning in the greatest possible number of words; but, in the opinion of persons possessing taste and judgment, they have quite a contrary effect, tending to render that which might have been forcible and effective flat and prosaic. Injurious, however, as the improper and redundant use of epithets, and of the other expletives of language, is to correct composition, their tasteful and judicious employment is often highly conducive to energy and vivacity of style. A well-chosen epithet often suggests and supplies the place of an entire argument.

The authors most distinguished in the English language for elegance of style are Addison, Goldsmith, Temple, Pope, Dryden, Hume, Gibbon, Robertson, Hawkesworth, Johnson, Burke, Bolingbroke, Melmoth, and the novelists Fielding, Scott, and Irving.

Hume's style is remarkable for uncommon grace and elegance, as well as for strength and conciseness of expression, but it

abounds with solecisms and violations of the idiom and structure of the English language. The style of Burke possesses the same qualities of grace and elegance, with much imagery and felicity of illustration. That of Bolingbroke is polished, musical, and highly eloquent. Johnson's style is distinguished for great strength, majestic sweep of sound, and periodicity of structure; but it is deficient in ease, conciseness, and simplicity. His violations of the two last mentioned constituents of correct composition, simplicity and conciseness, are occasioned by the constant recurrence of the antithetical structure of his sentences, and his practice of balancing one clause against another, for the purpose of producing roundness and majestic sound in his periods.

True antithetical composition consists in conciseness and vigour; but Dr. Johnson's employment of this property of composition often occasions a prolixity and heaviness of his style. The construction of his sentences into balanced periods, having frequently compelled him to introduce superfluous and high-sounding words and phrases, (a defect occasioned by his attempts at imitation of the magniloquence of the Latin language), gives to his style the cast of pomposity and diffuseness, and consequently has stripped it of that ease, liveliness, and variety of structure, which are essential attributes of correct and attractive composition. Another defect of his style is, that it preserves one uniform tenor: he treats the most trivial occurrences in the same strain and laboured diction as he bestows on the gravest and most important affairs of life. Nor are these his only faults of composition. His use of the idiomatic style, or the colloquial and current language of ordinary conversation, is very frequent, and detracts much from the dignity and effect of grave and didactic composition; and his substitution of

remote philosophical words and terms in the place of usual and current ones is not only injurious to the grace and simplicity of style, but occasions difficulty of comprehending the meaning where all should be plain and intelligible. His style is also, as has been observed in an early part of this volume, injured by his attempts to assimilate the genius and structure of the English language to the inversions of clauses and sentences, and the involved idioms of the Latin language; forms of composition destructive of the ease and idiomatic property on which the peculiar character of the English language depends.

By his introduction of polysyllabic words of Greek and Latin etymology and the Latin form of construction and idiom, he has, however, contributed greatly to harmonize the sound and cadence of the English language, improve the elegance of its structure, and render its rhythm agreeable by ridding it of the harsh and hissing qualities which it derived from its German extraction. To his writings also we are greatly indebted for the transfusion of dignity and strength into our language, which had a wholesome influence in checking the servile imitation of the diffused tameness of Addison and Swift's colloquialism, which had been adopted by many writers. To the Student in grammatical composition, it may also be useful to state, that the grammatical inaccuracies of Johnson are few; they may generally be reduced to five heads, namely, the substitution of the indicative for the subjunctive mood, the use of the plural verb with the disjunctive conjunction, the confusion of times or tenses and of verbs, and the substitution of the preposition upon for on, and of the demonstrative pronoun that

for the relative who.

In the introductory chapters of Fielding's perfect and matchless specimen of fictitious composition, "Tom Jones," are to be

found some of the finest examples of graceful and finished composition in the English language.

The style of Walter Scott is in general easy and elegant, but it is disfigured (like all the writings of Scottish authors, Robertson excepted) with many awkward peculiarities of phrase, grammatical inaccuracies, and violations of the idiom, genius, and structure of the English language.

Among the ancients, the works of Plato and Cicero exhibit the most beautiful and magnificent diffuseness, and all the graces and embellishments of elegant composition. No man, as Dr. Blair observes, knew the force and power of words better than Cicero. He rolls them along with the greatest pomp and beauty, and is always full and flowing. The language of Plato is pure and harmonious; and for richness and beauty of imagination, no philosophic writer, ancient or modern, is comparable to him. His works are the highest perfection of human knowledge, and fully justify Cicero's observation, that he is "the most weighty of all who ever wrote or spoke."

The sublime style is the highest and most difficult species of composition. Its office is to describe the grand and sublime agents and works of nature, the magnificent productions of art, the great actions of men, and the magnanimous and lofty affections of the human mind, with simplicity, conciseness, and strength.

Longinus, in his "Treatise on the Sublime," says, that there are five sources that produce sublimity :-" Bold thoughts— vehement passion-invention of figures-splendid dictionand lofty composition." But this distribution of the sources productive of sublimity of composition does not seem sufficiently definite and comprehensive. The true source of sublimity, both moral and mental, of composition consists in whatever

ennobles the nature of man, and indicates superior energy of intellectual or moral qualities. Thus the display of elevation of mind-heroic disregard of danger—presence of mind in difficulties and dangers-disinterested virtues-expanded benevolence--a strong sense of every generous feeling-a principle of virtue superior to the low and debased propensities of human nature and the corrupt and selfish institutions of society—a calm and dignified self-possession amid the storms and agitations of the passions, all furnish scope for the exhibition of sublime composition. Interrogation presents also much opportunity for its display. The speech of the Almighty in the thirty-eighth chapter of Job is a sufficient proof. Numerous, however, as are the sources of sublimity, the most general are those which consist in the thought and the artistic arrangement of rhetorical figures; and of all figures the climax, the prosopopoeia, and the interrogation are the best adapted for the purpose.

To write with sublimity and render great and magnificent objects sublime in description, not only should a vivid and energetic conception of them be formed in the mind, but a judicious selection should be made of the most important circumstances affecting them, and a skilful combination be effected of those circumstances into one group. Mean ideas, trivial circumstances, a parade of high-sounding words, accumulated epithets, pomp of expression, turgid amplification, and forced and affected embellishments, are destructive of sublimity of language. When employed to describe the lofty conceptions and strong emotions of the mind, those detractions from correct composition render the description tame and frigid, and often give it the character of fustian and rant. As strength of description lies in simple conciseness, a vivid exhibition of a sublime object can never be protracted. The mind cannot, by any force of genius,