way of writing, enter into their thoughts, and imbibe their fenfe. There is no need of tying ourselves up to an imitation of any of them; much lefs to copy or tranfcribe them. For there is room for vast variety of thought and ftyle; as nature is various in her works, and is nature ftill. Good authors, like the celebrated masters in the feveral schools of painting, are originals in their way, and different in their manner. And when we can make the fame ufe of the Romans as they did of the Grecians, and habituate ourselves to their way of thinking and writing, we may be equal in rank, though different from them all, and be efteemed originals as well as they. And this is what I would have you do. Mix and incorporate with thofe ancient ftreams; and though your own wit will be improved and heightened by fuch a strong infufion, yet the fpirit, the thought, the fancy, the expreffion, which fhall flow from your pen, will be entirely your own. Felton. $88. The Method of Schools vindicated. It has been a long complaint in this poTite and excellent age of learning, that we lofe our time in words; that the memory of youth is charged and overloaded without improvement; and all they learn is mere cant and jargon for three or four years together. Now, the complaint is in fome measure true, but not eafily remedied; and perhaps, after all the exclamation of fo much time loft in mere words and terms, the hopeful youths, whofe lofs of time is fo much lamented, were capable of learning nothing but words at thofe years. I do not mind what fome quacks in the art of teaching fay; they pretend to work wonders, and to make young gentlemen mafters of the languages, before they can be masters of common fenfe; but this to me is a demonstration, that we are capable of little else than words, till twelve or thirteen, if you will obferve, that a boy fhall be able to repeat his grammar over, two or three years before his understanding opens enough to let him into the reafon and clear apprehenfion of the rules; and when this is done, fooner or later, it ceafeth to be cant and jargon: fo that all this clamour is wrong founded, and the caufe of complaint lies rather against the backwardness of our judgment, than the method of our fchools. And therefore I am for the old way in Schools fill, and children will be furnished there with a flock of words at leaft, when they come to know how to use them. Ibid. $89. Commendation of Schools. I am very far from having any mean thoughts of thofe great men who prefide in our chiefeft and most celebrated schools; it is my happiness to be known to the most eminent of them in a particular manner, and they will acquit me of any disrespect, where they know I have the greateft veneration; for with them the genius of claffic learning dwells, and from them it is derived. And I think myself honoured in the acquaintance of fome masters in the country, who are not lefs polite than they are learned, and to the exact knowledge of the Greek and Roman tongues, have joined a true tafte, and delicate relish of the claffic authors. But fhould you ever light into fome formal hands, though your fenfe is too fine to relish thofe pedantries I have been remonftrating againft, when you come to understand them, yet for the prefent they may impose upon you with a grave appearance; and, as learning is commonly managed by fuch perfons, you may think them very learned, becaufe they are very dull: and if you fhould receive the tincture while you are young, it may link too deep for all the waters of Helicon to take out. You may be fenfible of it, as we are of ill habits, which we regret but cannot. break, and fo it may mix with your ftudies for ever, and give bad colours to every thing you defign, whether in fpeech or writing. For thefe meaner critics drefs up their entertainments fo very ill, that they will fpoil your palate, and bring you to a vicious tafte. With them, as with distempered ftomachs, the finest food and nobleft juices turn to nothing but crudities and indigeftion. You will have no notion of delicacies, if you table with them; they are all for rank and foul feeding; and fpoil the beft provifions in the cooking; you must be content to be taught parfimony in fense, and for your most inoffenfive food to live upon dry meat and infipid stuff, without any poignancy or relish. So then thefe gentlemen will never be able to form your taste or your style; and thofe who cannot give you a true relish of the beft writers in the world, can neveṛ inftruct you to write like them. Ibid. $90. On forming a Style. Give me leave to touch this subject, and draw out, for your ufe, fome of the chief ftrokes, fome of the principal lineaments, and fairest features, of a just and beautiful ftyle. There is no neceffity of being methodical, and I will not entertain you with a dry fyftem upon the matter, but with what you will read with more pleasure, and, I hope, with equal profit, fome defultory thoughts in their native order, as they rife in my mind, without being reduced to rules, and marshalled according to art. To affift you, therefore, as far as art may be an help to nature, I fhall proceed to fay fomething of what is required in a finished piece, to make it complete in all its parts, and mafterly in the whole. I would not lay down any impracticable fchemes, nor trouble you with a dry formal method: the rule of writing, like that of our duty, is perfect in its kind; but we muft make allowances for the infirmities of nature; and fince none is without his faults, the most that can be faid is, That he is the best writer, against whom the feweft can be alledged. "A compofition is then perfect, when "the matter rifes out of the fubject; "when the thoughts are agreeable to the "matter, and the expreffions fuitable to the "thoughts; where there is no inconfiften"cy from the beginning to the end; when "the whole is perfpicuous in the beautiful "order of its parts, and formed in due "fymmetry and proportion." Felton. 91. Expreffion fuited to the Thought. In every fprightly genius, the expreffion will be ever lively as the thoughts. All the danger is, that a wit too fruitful fhould run out into unneceffary branches; but when it is matured by age, and corrected by judgment, the writer will prune the luxuriant boughs, and cut off the fuperfluous fhoots of fancy, thereby giving both ftrength and beauty to his work. Perhaps this piece of difcipline is to young writers the greatest felf-denial in the world: to confine the fancy, to ftifle the birth, much more to throw away the beautiful offspring of the brain, is a trial, that none but the most delicate and lively wits can be put to. It is their praife, that they are obliged to retrench more wit than others have to lavish: the chippings and filings of these jewels, could they be pre ferved, are of more value than the whole mass of ordinary authors; and it is a maxim with me, that he has not wit enough, who has not a great deal to fpare. It is by no means neceffary for me to run out into the feveral forts of writing: we have general rules to judge of all, without being particular upon any, though the ftyle of an orator be different from that of an historian, and a poet's from both. Ibid. § 92. On Embellishments of Style. The defign of expreffion is to convey our thoughts truly and clearly to the world, in fuch a manner as is most probable to attain the end we propofe, in communicating what we have conceived to the public; and therefore men have not thought it enough to write plainly, unless they wrote agree. ably, fo as to engage the attention, and work upon the affections, as well as inform the understanding of their readers: for which reason, all arts have been invented to make their writings pleafing, as well as profitable; and thofe arts are very commendable and honeft; they are no trick, no delufion, or impofition on the fenfes and understanding of mankind; for they are founded in nature, and formed upon obferving her operations in all the various paffions and workings of our minds. To this we owe all the beauties and embellishments of ftyle; all figures and schemes of fpeech, and those several decorations that are used in writings to enliven and adorn the work. The flourishes of fancy refemble the flourishes of the pen in mechanic writers; and the illuminators of manufcripts, and of the prefs, borrowed their title perhaps from the illumination which a bright genius every where gives to his work, and difperfes through his compofition. The commendation of this art of enlightening and adorning a fubject, lies in a right diftribution of the fhades and light. It is in writing, as in picture, in which the art is to obferve where the lights will fall, to produce the most beautiful parts to the day, and caft in fhades what we cannot hope will fhine to advantage. It were endless to purfue this fubject through all the ornaments and illuftrations of fpeech; and yet I would not difmifs it without pointing at the general rules and neceffary qualifications required in those who would attempt to fhine in the productions of their pen. And therefore you The first thing requifite to a just style, is a perfect maftery in the language we write in; this is not fo eafily attained as is commonly imagined, and depends upon a competent knowledge of the force and propriety of words, a good natural tafte of strength and delicacy, and all the beauties of expreffion. It is my own opinion, that all the rules and critical obfervations in the world will never bring a man to a juft ftyle, who has not of himself a natural eafy way of writing; but they will improve a good genius, where nature leads the way, provided he is not too fcrupulous, and does not make himself a flave to his rules; for that will introduce a stiffness and affectation, which are utterly abhorrent from all good writing. By a perfect maftery in any language, I underftand not only a ready command of words, upon every occafion, not only the force and propriety of words as to their fenfe and fignification, but more efpecially the purity and idiom of the language; for in this a perfect mastery does confift. It is to know what is English, and what is Latin, what is French, Spanish, or Italian, to be able to mark the bounds of each language we write in, to point out the diftinguishing characters, and the peculiar phrafes of each tongue; what expreffions or manner of expreting is common to any language befides our own, and what is properly and peculiarly our phrafe, and way of fpeaking. For this is to fpeak or write English in purity and perfection, to let the streams run clear and unmixed, without taking in ether languages in the courfe: in English, therefore, I would have all Gallicifms (for inftance) avoided, that our tongue may fincere, that we may keep to our own language, and not follow the French mode in our fpeech, as we do in our cloaths. It is convenient and profitable fometimes to import a foreign word, and naturalize the phrafe of another nation, but this is (paringly to be allowed; and every fyllable of foreign growth ought immediately to be discarded, if its use and ornament to our language be not very evident. x. be very Ibid. $94. On the Purity and Idiom of While the Romans ftudied and used the Greek tongue, only to improve and adorn their own, the Latin flourished, and grew every year more copious, more elegant, and expreffive; but in a few years after the ladies and beaux of Rome affected to fpeak Greek, and regarding nothing but the foftnefs and effeminacy of that noble language, they weakened and corrupted their native tongue: and the monstrous affectation of our travelled ladies and gentlemen to speak in the French air, French tone, French terms, to drefs, to cook, to write, to court in French, corrupted at once our language and our manners, and introduced an abominable gallimaufry of French and English mixed together, that made the innovators ridiculous to all men of fenfe. The French tongue hath undoubtedly its graces and beauties, and I am not against any real improvement of our own language from that or any other; but we are always fo foolish, or unfortunate, as never to make any advantage of our neighbours. We affect nothing of theirs, but what is filly and ridiculous; and by neglecting the fubftantial use of their language, we only enervate and spoil our own. Languages, like our bodies, are in a perpetual flux, and stand in need of recruits to fupply the place of those words that are continually falling off through difufe: and fince it is fo, I think 'tis better to raise them at home than abroad. We had bet ter rely on our own troops than foreign forces, and I believe we have fufficient ftrength and numbers within ourselves: there is a vaft treasure, an inexhaustible fund in the old English, from whence authors may draw conftant fupplies, as our officers make their fureft recruits from the coal-works and the mines. The weight, the ftrength, and fignificancy of many antiquated words, fhould recommend them to ufe again. 'Tis only wiping off the ruft they have contracted, and feparating them from the drofs they lie mingled with, and both in value and beauty they will rife above the ftandard, rather than fall below it. Perhaps our tongue is not fo mufical to the ear, nor fo abundant in multiplicity of words; but its ftrength is real, and its words are therefore the more expreffive: the peculiar character of our language is, that it is clofe, compact, and full; and our our writings (if you will excufe two Latin words) come nearest to what Tully means by his Prefja Oratio. They are all weight and fubftance, good measure preffed together, and running over in a redundancy of fenfe, and not of words. And therefore the purity of our language confifts in preferving this character, in writing with the English ftrength and fpirit: let us not envy others, that they are more foft, and diffuse, and rarified; be it our commendation to write as we pay, in true Sterling; if we want fupplies, we had better revive old words, than create new ones. I look upon our language as good bullion, if we do not debafe it with too much allay; and let me leave this cenfure with you, That he who corrupteth the purity of the English tongue with the moft fpecious foreign words and phrafes, is juft as wife as thofe modifh ladies that change their plate for china; for which I think the laudable traffic of old cloaths is much the fairest barter. Felton. $95. On Plainnefs and Perfpicuity. plainnefs and perfpicuity of ftyle, is an affectation of hard unusual words, and of clofe contracted periods: the faults of pedants and fententious writers! that are vainly oftentatious of their learning, or their wisdom. Hard words and quaint expreffions are abominable: wherever you meet fuch a writer, throw him afide for a coxcomb. Some authors of reputation have used a short and concife way of expreffion, I must own; and if they are not fo clear as others, the fault is to be laid on the brevity they labour after: for while we ftudy to be concife, we can hardly avoid being obfcure. We crowd our thoughs into too fmall a compafs, and are fo fparing of our words, that we will not afford enow to exprefs our meaning. There is another extreme in obfcure writers, not much taken notice of, which fome empty conceited heads are apt to run into out of a prodigality of words, and a want of fenfe. This is the extravagance of your copious writers, who lose their meaning in the multitude of words, and bury their fenfe under heaps of phrases. Their understanding is rather rarified than condenfed: their meaning, we cannot fay, is dark and thick; it is too light and fubtle to be difcerned: it is fpread fo thin, and diffufed fo wide, that it is hard to be collected. Two lines would exprefs all they fay in two pages: 'tis nothing but whipt fyllabub and froth, a little varnish and gilding, without any folidity or fubstance. Ibid. After this regard to the purity of our language, the next quality of a juft ftyle, is its plainnefs and perfpicuity. This is the greatest commendation we can give an author, and the best argument that he is mafter of the language he writes in, and the fubject he writes upon, when we underftand him, and fee into the fcope and tendency of his thoughts, as we read him. All obfcurity of expreffion, and darkness of fenfe, do arife from the confufion of the 96. On the Decorations and Ornament 1 writer's thoughts, and his want of proper words. If a man hath not a clear perception of the matters he undertakes to treat of, be his ftyle never fo plain as to the words he uses, it never can be clear; and if his thoughts upon this fubject be never fo juft and diftinct, unless he has a ready command of words, and a faculty of eafy writing in plain obvious expreflions, the words will perplex the fenfe, and cloud the clearness of his thoughts. It is the unhappiness of fome, that they are not able to exprefs themfelves clearly: their heads are crowded with a multiplicity of undigested knowledge, which lies confufed in the brain, without any order or diftinction. It is the vice of others, to affect obfcurity in their thoughts and language, to write in a difficult crabbed ftyle, and perplex the reader with an intricate meaning in more intricate words. The common way of offending againft of Style. The deepest rivers have the plaineft furface, and the pureft waters are always cleareft. Crystal is not the lefs folid for being transparent; the value of a ftyle rifes like the value of precious ftones. If it be dark and cloudy, it is in vain to polifh it: it bears its worth in its native looks, and the fame art which enhances its price when it is clear, only debafes it if it be dull. You fee I have borrowed fome metaphors to explain my thoughts; and it is, I believe, impoffible to describe the plainnefs and clearness of ftyle, without fome expreffions clearer than the terms I am otherwife bound up to use. You must give me leave to go on with you to the decorations and ornaments of ftyle: there is no inconfiftency between the plainnefs and perfpicuity, and the ornament of writing. A ftyle refembleth beauty, beauty, where the face is clear and plain as to fymmetry and proportion, but is capable of wonderful improvements, as to features and complexion. If I may tranfgrefs in too frequent allufions, because I would make every thing plain to you, I would pass on from painters to ftatuaries, whofe excellence it is at first to form true and just proportions, and afterwards to give them that foftnefs, that expreffion, that ftrength and delicacy, which make them almoft breathe and live. The decorations of style are formed out of those several schemes and figures, which are contrived to exprefs the paffions and motions of our minds in our fpeech; to give life and ornament, grace and beauty, to our expreffions. I fhall not undertake the rhetorician's province, in giving you an account of all the figures they have invented, and thofe feveral ornaments of writing, whofe grace and commendation lie in being used with judgment and propriety. It were endless to pursue this fubject through all the fchemes and illuftrations of speech: but there are fome common forms, which every writer upon every fubject may use, to enliven and adorn his work. Thefe are metaphor and fimilitude; and those images and reprefentations, that are drawn in the strongest and most lively colours, to imprint what the writer would have his readers conceive, more deeply on their minds. In the choice, and in the ufe of thefe, your ordinary writers are moft apt to offend. Images are very sparingly to be introduced: their proper place is in poems and orations; and their ufe is to move pity or terror, admiration, compaffion, anger, and refentment, by representing fomething very affectionate or very dreadful, very aftonishing, very miserable, or very provoking, to our thoughts. They give a wonderful force and beauty to the fubject, where they are painted by a mafterly hand; but if they are either weakly drawn, or unfkilfully placed, they raife no paffion but indignation in the reader. Felton. 597. On Metaphors and Similitudes. The most common ornaments are Metaphor and Similitude. One is an allufion to words, the other to things; and both have their beauties, if properly applied. Similitudes ought to be drawn from the moft familiar and best known particulars in the world: if any thing is dark and obfcure in them, the purpose of ufing them is defeated; and that which is not clear itself, can. never give light to any thing that wants it. It is the idle fancy of fome poor brains, to run out perpetually into a courfe of fimilitudes, confounding their fubject by the multitude of likeneffes; and making it like fo many things, that it is like nothing at all. This trifling humour is good for nothing, but to convince us, that the author is in the dark himself; and, while he is likening his fubject to every thing, he knoweth not what it is like. There is another tedious fault in fome fimile men; which is, drawing their comparifons into a great length and minute. particulars, where it is of no importance whether the refemblance holds or not. But the true art of illuftrating any subject by fimilitude, is, first to pitch on fuch a refemblance as all the world will agree in : and then, without being careful to have it run on all four, to touch it only in the ftrongest lines, and the nearest likeness. And this will fecure us from all stiffness and formality in fimilitude, and deliver us from the naufeous repetition of as and so, which fome fo fo writers, if I may beg leave to call them fo, are continually founding in our ears. I have nothing to fay to thofe gentlemen who bring fimilitudes and forget the resemblance. All the pleasure we can take, when we meet these promifing fparks, is in the difappointment, where we and their fancy is fo like their fubject, that it is not like at all. $ 98. On Metaphors. Ibid. Metaphors require great judgment and confideration in the ufe of them. They are a fhorter fimilitude, where the likeness is rather implied than expreffed. The fignification of one word, in metaphors, is transferred to another, and we talk of one thing in the terms and propriety of another. But there must be a common refemblance, some original likeness in nature, fome correfpondence and eafy transition, or metaphors are fhocking and confufed. The beauty of them difplays itfelf in their eafinefs and propriety, where they are naturally introduced; but where they are forced and crowded, too frequent and various, and do not rife out of the course of thought, but are conftrained and preffed into the fervice, instead of ma ing the dif |