to expose that false taste and ridiculous manner of writing; and that it might also be of eminent use to letters, by decrying that abfurd Lexiphanick ftile, which from the great and universal reputation this pedant enjoyed, I reasonably imagined had become fashionable among us, and might, in a short time, bring on an entire decline and corruption, nay, a total alteration of our language, as had been the cafe with the Roman tongue under the Emperors. Therefore, as foon as I had an opportunity, I fet about the following work, with all the diligence and application I was master of. In the course of it, befides Mr. J-----n's, I carefully perused, it may fafely be faid, for the first time, what other modern writings came in my way; and I generally found them more or less Lexiphanick in proportion to the share of fame and reputation their several authors enjoyed. I now recollected, that your Lordship had written a 4 written Dialogues of the Dead, in imitation of Lucian, and that I had heard them highly applauded. I hope your Lordship will forgive me, for I can hardly forgive myself, if I concluded, not having then read them, that those applaufes might be owing, partly to their author's quality and exalted station, but much more to their Lexiphanicifm, or being written in compliance with the reigning taste of the times. I was ambitious, like the young Afcanius, who, hunting with his father Eneas, and Dido, -Dari pecora inter inertia votis Optat aprum, aut fulvum defcendere monte leonem. I thought your Lordship would be a much nobler object of Criticism, than even the great Mr. S-1 fn, and if I should not be able to extract a Rhapsody from the Dialogues, as easily as from the Ramblers, at least I hoped to to have the occafion of referring to them frequently in the notes, and making rhetorical flourishes on their author, who profeffing to imitate Lucian, had so imperfectly studied thrat great original, and fo little profited by his excellent Dialogue of Lexiphanes, and his admirable Essay on the best manner of writing history. With fuch views, and with fuch expectations, I immediately had recourse to your Dialogues. But it was not long before I found myself greatly difappointed, and difappointed in a moft agreeable manner. Instead of being able to shew them, pardon the freedom of the expreffion, as a fort of fcarecrow or beacon, a warning for others to avoid their faults; I perceived they were a model of imitation, a pattern for all to follow; and was foon made fenfible, I must content myself with becoming a diftant and humble imitator of an author, whom, but a few hours a 5 hours before, I thought to have made the object of my criticisms. But if this were a small mortification, it was foon followed by a much more fenfible pleasure. If I could not expose your Lordship's writings as a warning to others, I found I could do what was much more for my purpose, support my own opinion by their great and unqueftioned authority. The passage I have in view, is fo apposite to the fubject in hand, and coincides so entirely with my own fentiments, that I cannot refift the temptation of quoting it, notwithstanding it may be thought fomewhat improper in an address to your Lordship. It is in the Dialogue between Pliny the Elder, and Pliny the Younger, where the uncle says to the nephew ; ---" Your eloquence had, I think, "the fame fault as your manners : it was generally too affected. You professed to make Cicero your guide " and 66 66 i i " and pattern. But when one reads 66 66 Oratory: the latter appears the harangue of a florid Rhetorician; more "defirous to shine, and to set off his 66 66 own wit, than to extol the great man whose virtues he was praising." The other makes the following anfwer : 66 66 66 66 66 " I will not question your judgment, either of my life or my writings. They might both have been better, if I had not been too folicitous to render them perfect. It is, perhaps, some excuse for the affec"tation of my style, that it was the "fashion of the age in which I wrote. "Even the eloquence of Tacitus, " however nervous and fublime, was " not unaffected. Mine, indeed, was 66 more . |