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physical accuracy is arbitrary and capricious, and therefore 

 to be avoided as a vice, particularly in philosophical and seri- 

 ous composition. This opinion they both seem to have formed 

 from a mistake of a censure passed by Lord Bacon, on the 

 old philosophers, for ornamenting their pieces with the graces 

 and elegances of rhetoric. " Auctoribus ipsis suspecta," says 

 he, " ideoque artificiis quibusdam munita fecere. But this 

 is not meant as a reprehension of an ornamented style in ge- 

 neral, but founded solely on the imperfect state of science 

 among them ; for so artful and ingenious was their method of 

 treating their subjects, that they succeeded in deceiving the 

 world into an opinion, that every science, which had received 

 the polish of their hands, was cultivated to the utmost possible 

 degree of perfection. The charge itself has been ably refuted 

 by Dr. Leland, in his Essay on Eloquence, and to mention any 

 thing here on the subject would be only to transcribe his in- 

 genious work. And though modern philosophers appear in 

 general to neglect the beauty of their language, or elegance 

 in arranging the parts of the question they consider, yet we 

 have a sufficient number to serve as instance? how much 

 might be done in this way. In metaphysics the style and 

 the matter of Stewart are equally topics for praise and ad- 

 miration ; and the fragment of the Latin imitation of I,ocke, 

 by Mr. Gray, shews of what an exquisite degree of poetical 

 beauty the subject is susceptible, 'i'lie lectures of Davy will 

 be long remembered in this city for their eloquence and per- 

 .spicuity, and the Anti-Lucretius of Polignac abounfls in har- 



