tions of Demofthenes furnish the full and perfect example of this fpecies of Style.

$31.

Blair.

31. Lord BOLINGBROKE excelled in the Vebement Style.

Among English writers, the one who has moft of this character, though mixed, indeed, with feveral defects, is Lord Boling broke. Bolingbroke was formed by nature to be a factious leader; the demagogue of a popular aflembly. According ly, the Style that runs through all his political writings, is that of one declaiming with heat, rather than writing with deliberation. He abounds in rhetorical figures; and pours himself forth with great impetuofity. He is copious to a fault; places the fame thought before us in many different views; but generally with life and ardour. He is bold, rather than correct; a torrent that flows ftrong, but often muddy. His fentences are varied as to length and fhortnefs; inclining, however, moft to long periods, fometimes including parenthefes, and frequently crowding and heaping a multitude of things upon one another, as naturally happens in the warmth of fpeaking. In the choice of his words, there is great felicity and precifion. In exact conftruction of fentences, he is much inferior to Lord Shaftsbury; but greatly fuperior to him in life and eafe. Upon the whole, his merit, as a writer, would have been very confiderable, if his matter had equalled his Style. But whilst we find many things to commend in the latter, in the former, as I before remarked, we can hardly find any thing to commend. In his reafonings, for the most part, he is fimfy and falfe; in his political writings, fictious: in what he calls his philofophical ones, irreligious and fophiftical in the highex degree.

Ilid.

32. Directions for forming a STYLE, It will be more to the purpofc, that I conclude thefe differtations upon Style with A few directions concerning the proper method of attaining a good Style in general; leaving the particular character of that Style to be either formed by the fubject on which we write, or prompted by the bent of genius.

The first direction which I give for this purpofe, is, to ftudy clear ideas on the fubJet concerning which we are to write or fpeak. This is a direction which may at Art appear to have small relation to Style,

Its relation to it, however, is extremely clofe. The foundation of all good Style, is good fenfe, accompanied with a lively imagination. The Style and thoughts of a writer are fo intimately connected, that, as I have feveral times hinted, it is fre quently hard to diftinguish them. Whereever the impreflions of things upon our minds are faint and indiftinét, or perplexed and confufed, our Style in treating of fuch things will infallibly be fo too. Whereas, what we conceive clearly and feel strong, ly, we will naturally exprefs with clearness and with ftrength. This, then, we may be affured, is a capital rule as to Style, to think clofely of the fubject, till we have attained a full and diftinct view of the matter which we are to clothe in words, till we become warm and interested in it; then, and not till then, fhall we find expreffion begin to flow. Generally speaking, the best and most proper expreffions, are thofe which a clear view of the fubject fuggefts, without much labour or enquiry after them. This is Quintilian's obfervation, Lib. viii. c. 1. Plerumque optima "verba rebus cohærent, et cernuntur fuo "lumine. At nos que rimus illa, tanquam lateant feque fubducant. Ita nunquam putamus verba effe circa id de quo dicendum eft; fed ex aliis locis pe"timus, et inventis vim afferimus*."

66

66

Ibid.

§33. Practice necesary for forming a
STYLE.

In the fecond place, in order to form a good Style, the frequent practice of compofing is indifpenfibly neceflary. Ma, ny rules concerning Style I have delivered; but no rules will anfwer the end without exercife and habit. At the fame time, it is not every fort of compofing that will improve Style. This is fo far from being the cafe, that by frequent, careless and hafty compofition, we fhall acquire certainly a very bad Style; we shall have more trouble afterwards in unlearning faults, and correcting negligences, than if we had not been accuflomed to compofition at all. In the begining, therefore,

we ought to write flowly and with much care. Let the facility and fpeed of writing, be the fruit of longer practice. "Moram et "folicitudinem," fays Quinctilian with the greatest reafon, L. x. c. 3. " initiis impero. "Nam primum hoc conftituendum ac obti"nendum eft, ut quam obtimè fcribamus; "celeritatem dabit confuetudo. Paulatim "res faciliùs fe oftendent, verba refponde "bunt, compofitio profequetur. Cuneta "denique et in familia benè inftituta in "officio erunt. Summa hæc eft rei: citò fcribendo non fit ut benè fcribatur; benè "fcribendo, fit ut citò*. Blair.

§ 34. Too anxious a Care about WORDS

to be avoided.

We must obferve, however, that there may be an extreme in too great and anxious a care about Words. We muft not retard the courfe of thought, nor cool the heat of imagination, by paufing too long on every word we employ. There is, on certain occafions, a glow of compofition which fhould be kept up, if we hope to exprefs ourfelves happily, though at the expence of allowing fome inadvertencies to país. A more fevere examination of thefe must be left to be the work of correction. For if the practice of compofition be useful, the laborious work of correcting is no less fo; it is indeed abfolutely neceffary to our reaping any benefit from the habit of compofition. What we have written fhould be laid by for fome little time, till the ardour of composition be past, till the fondness for the expreffions we have used be worn off, and the expreffions themfelves be forgotten; and then reviewing our work with a cool and critical eye, as if it were the performance of another, we fhall difcern many imperfections which at firft efcaped us. Then is the feafon for pruning redundancies; for weighing the arrangement of fentences; for attending to the juncture and connecting particles; and bringing Style into a regular, correct, and fupported form. This "Lime Labor" must be fubmitted to by all who would

"I enjoin that fuch as are beginning the “ praâice of compofition, write flowly, and with "anxious deliberation. Their great object at firft fhould be, to write as well as poffible; prac. "rice will enable them to write fpeedily. By "degrees matter will offer itfelé ftill more readily; words will be at hand; compofition will flow every thing, as in the arrangement of a well-ordered family, will prefent itself in " its proper place. The fum of the whole is this; by hafty compofition, we fhall never acquire "the art of compofing well; by writing well, we *in ll come to write fpecaily."

In the third place, with refpect to the affistance that is to be gained from the writings of others, it is obvious that we ought to render ourselves well acquainted with the Style of the best authors. This is requifite, both in order to form a just talle in Style, and to fupply us with a ful flock of words on every fubject. In reading authors with a view to Style, attes tion fhould be given to the peculiarities of their different manners; and in this and former Lectures I have endeavoured to fuggeft feveral things that may be ufefel in this view. I know no exercife that will be found more useful for acquiring a proper Style, than to tranflate fome pallage from an eminent English author, into our own words. What I mean is, to take, for inftance, fome page of one of Mr. Addifon's Spectators, and read it carefully over two or three times, till we have got a firm hold of the thoughts contained in it; then to lay afide the book; to attempt to write out the paffage from memory, in the belt way we can; and having done fo, next to open the book, and compare what we have written with the Style of the author. Such an exercife will, by comparifon, fhew us where the defects of our Style lie; will lead us to the proper attestions for rectifying them; and, among the different ways in which the fame thought may be expreffed, will make e perceive that which is the most beautiful

Ibid.

36. A fervile Imitation to be avoided. In the fourth place, I muft caution, at the fame time, against a fervile imitation of any one author whatever. This is always dangerous. It hampers genius; it is likely to produce a stiff manner; and thofe who are given to close imitation, generally imitate an author's faults as well as his beauties. No man will ever become a good writer, or fpeaker, who has not fome degree of confidence to follow his own genius. We ought to beware, in particular, of adopting any author's noted phrafes, or tranfcribing paffages from him.

Such

Such a habit will prove fatal to all genuine compofition. Infinitely better it is to have omething that is our own, though of mo derate beauty, than to affect to thine in borrowed ornaments, which will, at laft, betray the utter poverty of our genius. On thefe heads of compofing, correcting, reading and imitating, I advife every ftudent of oratory to confult what Quinctin has delivered in the Tenth Book of his Inftitutions, where he will find a variety of excellent obfervations and directions, that well deferve attention. Blair.

937 STYLE must be adapted to the

Subject.

In the fifth place, it is an obvious but material rule, with refpect to Style, that e always ftudy to adapt it to the fubject, and alfo to the capacity of our hearers, If we are to fpeak in public. Nothing meits the name of eloquent or beautiful, which is not fuited to the occafion, and to the perfons to whom it is addreffed. It is to the last degree awkward and abfurd, to attempt a poetical florid Style, on occons when it thould be our bufinefs cally to argue and reafon; or to speak with eaborate pomp of expreffion, before perfons who comprehend nothing of it, and who can only ftare at our unfeasonable magnificence. Thefe are defects not fo much in point of Style, as, what is much worfe, in point of common fenfe. When we begin to write or fpeak, we ought previously to fix in our minds a clear conception of the end to be aimed at; to keep tis fteadily in our view, and to fuit our Style to it. If we do not facrifice to this great object every ill-timed ornament that may occur to our fancy, we are unpardonable; and though children and fools may admire, men of fenfe will laugh at us and cur Style.

Ibid.

fent tafte of the age, in writing, feems to lean more to Style than to Thought. It is much easier to drefs up trivial and common fentiments with fome beauty of exprefion, than to afford a fund of vigorous, ingenious, and ufeful thoughts. The latter requires true genius; the former may be attained by induftry, with the help of very fuperficial parts. Hence, we find fo many writers frivolously rich in Style, but wretchedly poor in fentiment. The public ear is now fo much accustomed to a correct and ornamented Style, that no writer can, with fafety, neglect the ftudy of it. But he is a contemptible one, who does not look to fomething beyond it; who does not lay the chief ftrefs upon his matter, and employ fuch ornaments of Style to recommend it, as are manly, not foppifh,

Majore animo," fays the writer whom I have fo often quoted, "aggredienda eft eloquentia; quæ fi toto corpore valet, ungues polire et capillum componere, "non exiftimabit ad curam fuam pertinere. Ornatus et virilis et fortis et fan&tus fit; "nec effeminatam levitatem et fuco emen❝titum colorem amet; fanguine et viri"bus niteat.*" Ibid.

$39. Of the Rife of Poetry among the
ROMANS.

The Romans, in the infancy of their ftate, were entirely rude and unpolifhed. They came from thepherds; they were increafed from the refufe of the nations around them; and their manners agreed with their original. As they lived wholly on tilling their ground at home, or on plunder from their neighbours, war was their bu finefs, and agriculture the chief art they followed. Long after this, when they had fpread their conquefts over a great part of Italy, and began to make a confiderable figure in the world,-even their great men retained a roughnefs, which they raifed into a virtue, by calling it Roman Spirit; and which might often much better have been called Roman Barbarity. It feems to me, that there was more of aufterity than juftice, and more of infolence than courage,

"A higher fpirit ought to animate thofe who study eloquence. They ought to confult "the health and foundness of the whole body, " rather than bend their attention to fuch trifling "objects as paring the nails, and dreing the "hair. Let ornament be manly and chufte, "without effeminate galety, or artifial colouring, let it shine with the glow of health and "Strength."

Dd z

in

in fome of their most celebrated actions. However that be, this is certain, that they were at firft a nation of foldiers and hufbandmen: roughnefs was long an applauded character among them; and a fort of rufticity reigned, even in their fenatehoufe.

In a nation originally of fuch a temper as this, taken up almost always in extending their territories, very often in fettling the balance of power among themfelves, and Lot unfrequently in both thefe at the fame time, it was long before the politer arts made any appearance; and very long before they took root or flourified to any degree. Poetry was the fi ft that did fo; but fuch a poetry, as one might expect among a warlike, bufied, unpolished peo

Not to enquire about the fongs of triumph, mentioned even in Romulus's time, there was certainly fomething of poetry among them in the next reign under Numa: a prince, who pretended to converfe with the Mufes, as well as with Egeria; and who might poffibly homself have made the veries which the Salian priefts fung in his time. Pythagoras, either in the fame reign, or if you pleafe fome time after, gave the Romars a tincture of poetry as well as of philofophy; for Cicero affures us, that the Pythagoreans made great ufe of poetry and mufic: and probably they, like our old Druids, delivered most of their precepts in verfe. Indeed the chief employment of poetry, in that and the following ages, among the Romans, was of a religious kind. Their very prayers, and perhaps their whole liturgy, was poetical. They had also a fort of prophetic or facred writers, who feem to have wrote generally in verfe; and were fo numerous, that there were above two thoufand of their volumes remaining even to Auguftus's time. They had a kind of plays too, in thefe early times, derived from what they had feen of the Tufcan actors, when fent for to Rome to expiate a plague that raged in the city. Thefe feem to have been either like our dumb. fhews, or elfe a kind of extempore farces; a thing to this day a good deal in ufe all over Italy, and in Tufcany. In a more particular manner add to thefe, that extempore kind of jefting dialogues begun at their harvest and vintage feats; and carried on fo rudely and abufively afterwards, as to occafion a very fevere law to refrain their licentioufnels and thofe

lovers of poetry and good eating, wh feem to have attended the tables of t richer fort, much like the old provincia poets, or our own British bards, and far: there, to fome inftrument of mufic, the atchievements of their ancestors, and to roble deeds of those who had gone beto them, to inflame others to follow tr great examples.

The names of almost all thefe poets in peace with all their works; and, Fr may take the word of the other Ron writers of a better age, it is no great og to us. One of their best poets represe them as very cbicure and very contemp tible; one of their best hiftorians av quoting them, as too barbarous for p ears; and one of their most judicios perors ordered the greatest part as ther writings to be burnt, that the world migt. be troubled with them no longer.

All thele poets therefore may very w be dropt in the account: there being thing remaining of their works: and bably no merit to be fourd in them, tr had remained. And fo we may date the ginning of the Roman poetry from L Andronicus, the firft of their pees ef whom any thing does remain to us; a from whom the Romans themselves fem to have dated the beginning of their poetry. even in the Auguftan age.

The first kind of poetry that was follow ed with any fuccefs among the Roman, was that for the ftage. They were a ver religious people; and ftage plays in th times made no inconfiderable part in public devotions; it is hence, perhaps, the greatcft number of their oldeft po when we have any remains, and indeed. most all of them, aie dramatic poets. Spen

$ 40. Of LIVIUS, NEVIUs, and Ex

NIUS.

The foremost in this lift, were Livin Nævius, and Ennius. Livius's firftp' (and it was the firft written play that c appeared at Rome, whence perhaps H race calls him Livius Scriptor) was a in the 514th year from the building of t city. He feems to have got whatever putation he had, rather as their firft, as a good writer; for Cicero, who mired thefe old poets more than t were afterwards admired, is forced to g up Livius; and fays, that his pieces not deferve a fecond reading. He for fome time the fole writer for the fag till Nævius rofe to rival him, and pro