upon mankind, which did not cease until the north, by pouring forth successive swarms, was drained of people, and could no longer furnish instruments of destruction. Famine and pestilence, which always march in the train of war when it ravages with such inconsiderate cruelty, raged in every part of Europe, and completed its sufferings.-Robertson's View of Society.

Robertson's style is at once polished and energetic; and upon the whole, it appears the best model of an historical style that belongs to the English language.

Gibbon's style has sometimes been preferred to that of Robertson; but this seems to be an honour to which it

is scarcely entitled. It evinces less correctness, less compression, and less of a genuine classical taste; it abounds with affected circumlocutions, and with epithets which have the appearance of being introduced for the sake of the sound, rather than of the sense. Yet, with all this want of chasteness, it displays so many of the flowers of an elegant fancy, that it is very far from being entitled to the contempt which it has sometimes experienced.*

THE VEHEMENT STYLE.

THE vehement rises a degree above the nervous style. The former however always includes the latter; for in order to attain to any vehemence of diction, an author must necessarily be possessed of strength.

* Dr. Knox has thus characterized the style of Gibbon's History: "The style displays not the honest warmth of a Robertson, but appears with an air of soft and subtle insinuation, better adapted to introduce a lurking poison. The words are well chosen; but the collocation of them is feeble and effeminate, though painfully elaborate and affected. There is scarcely a sentence throughout the work without an idle epithet, which, while it loads and wearies the ear, adds little to the meaning, and less to the force of the period. There is a disgusting affectation of fastidious delicacy. There is also a tedious sameness in the style, which renders the reading a toil, and which will gradually consign the work to its peaceful shelf, as soon as the fashionable world shall have found another idol."-Knox's Essays.

The vehement style is distinguished by a peculiar ardour of expression: it is the language of a man whose imagination and passions are strongly affected by the subject which he contemplates; and who is therefore negligent of inferior graces, but pours forth his eloquence with the fulness and rapidity of a torrent. It belongs to the higher species of oratory; and indeed is rather expected from a man who declaims in a popular assembly, than from one who writes in the retirement of his closet. Of this style, the most striking examples in our language have been exhibited by Bolingbroke and Burke.

Lord Bolingbroke was fitted by nature to be the demagogue of a popular assembly. The style which predominates in all his political writings, is that of a person declaiming with heat, rather than writing with deliberation. He abounds with rhetorical figures, and pours himself forth with great impetuosity. He is copious to a fault; places the same thought before us in many different views, but generally with vivacity or ardour. He is bold rather than correct: his eloquence is a torrent that flows strong, but often muddy. His merit as a writer would have been considerable, if his matter had equalled his style; but while we find much to commend in the latter, the former is entitled to a scanty measure of praise. In his reasonings he is for the most part flimsy and false; in his political writings factious; and in what he calls his philosophical ones, irreligious and sophistical in the highest degree. The history of his life and writings affords a very striking and a very edifying example of the inutility of the most brilliant talents, unaccompanied by moral worth.

Burke was a man of the most splendid talents, and those talents had been improved by due cultivation. His imagination was fervent and brilliant, but his judgment was less vigorous than his imagination. In modern, and indeed in ancient times, the copiousness and force of his eloquence have not often been paralleled it rolls along like a rapid and impetuous torrent, and bears down every object that rises in opposition.

His illustrations are varied and striking; he is even profuse of poetical conceptions and poetical imagery: his metaphors however are not unfrequently coarse, and his language is deficient in purity and selection. When he has begun to descant on a subject which interests his morbid feelings, he knows not when to pass to another. Upon the whole, it may perhaps be affirmed with safety, that his various productions were more calculated to excite the astonishment or indignation of his contemporaries, than to secure the applause or imitation of posterity.

In treating of the vehement style, I have not, as upon former occasions, attempted to select examples. Vehemence of style can only be perceived and relished by attending to a long series of reasonings and illustrations.

THE PLAIN STYLE.

A PLAIN style rejects all ambitious ornaments. The writer who adopts this manner, may perhaps endeavour to display his meaning with perspicuity and precision; qualities of style which, it must be confessed, are of the highest order. His composition may also be possessed of force and vivacity; but he will shew an indifference for what is merely ornamental. He does not strive to captivate the fancy by employing rhetorical figures, or the ear by musical arrangement: yet it is not necessary that he disgust his reader by a dryness or harshness of manner. A plain style is consistent with smoothness of arrangement, and a temperate use of metaphor; though neither of these is absolutely requisite.

In discussions of a philosophical nature, the plain style ought to predominate; and accordingly many of

our philosophical writers have employed it with propriety. Even in works which admit or require much ornament, there are parts where the plain manner should be adopted. But it must be remembered, that when this is the character which a writer affects throughout his whole composition, great weight of matter, and great force of sentiment, are required to secure the reader's attention. Aristotle furnishes the most complete example of a dry style: never perhaps was there an author who adhered so rigidly to the strictness of a didactic manner throughout all his writings, and conveyed so much instruction without the least approach to ornament. With the most profound genius, and the most extensive views, he writes like a pure intelligence, who addresses himself solely to the understanding, without making any use of the channel of the imagination. But this is a manner that is not to be imitated: for although the value of the matter may compensate for the dryness or harshness of the style, yet is that dryness a considerable defect; it fatigues the attention, and conveys our sentiments with disadvantage to the reader or hearer.

Swift may be placed at the head of those who have employed the plain style. Few English writers have exhibited greater talents. Few were better acquainted with the extent, the purity, the precision of the English language; and therefore, to those who are ambitious of attaining a pure and sober style, he is one of the most useful models. But we must not look for much ornament or grace in his language. His haughty and morose. genius made him despise any embellishment of that kind as beneath his dignity. He delivers his sentiments in a plain, positive manner, like one who is sure he is always right, and is very indifferent whether his reader be pleased or not. His sentences are often negligently arranged the sense is sufficiently obvious, but little regard is paid to compactness or elegance. If a metaphor, or any other figure, chanced to render his satire more poignant, he would perhaps condescend to employ it, but if it tended only to embellish or illustrate,

he would rather throw it aside. Hence in his serious writings, his style often borders upon the dry and unpleasing. But in his humorous pieces, the plainness of his manner displays his wit to the greatest advantage.

"In

Dr. Johnson has commented on the style and manner of Swift with his usual powers of discrimination. his works he has given very different specimens both of sentiments and expression. His Tale of a Tub has little resemblance to his other pieces. It exhibits a vehemence and rapidity of mind, a copiousness of images, and vivacity of diction, such as he afterwards. never possessed, or never exerted. It is of a mode so distinct and peculiar, that it must be considered by itself; what is true of that, is not true of any thing else which he has written.

"In his other works is found an equable tenor of easy language, which rather trickles than flows. His delight was in simplicity. That he has in his works no metaphor, as has been said, is not true; but his few metaphors seem to be received rather by necessity than choice. He studied purity; and though perhaps all his strictures are not exact, yet it is not often that solecisms can be found; and whoever depends on his authority may generally conclude himself safe. His sentences are never too much dilated or contracted; and it will not be easy to find any embarrassment in the complication of his clauses, any inconsequence in his connexions, or abruptness in his transitions.

"His style was well suited to his thoughts, which are never subtilised by nice disquisitions, decorated by sparkling conceits, elevated by ambitious sentences, or variegated by far-sought learning. He pays no court to the passions; he excites neither surprise nor admiration; he always understands himself; and his readers always understand him: the peruser of Swift wants little previous knowledge; it will be sufficient that he is acquainted with common words and common things; he is neither required to mount elevations, nor to explore profundities; his passage is always on a level, along solid ground, without asperities, without obstruction.