244 STUiJfES op NAtURE. 



quence charaderizes nothing. In order to painf 

 virtuCj it is neceflary to bring forward defedls and 

 vices, that conflidl and triumph may be. rendered 

 confpicuous. The ftyle employed in it is full of 

 pomp and luxuriance. It is crowded with reflec- 

 tions, and paintings, foreign, very frequently, to 

 the principal objed:. It refembles a Spanifli horfe; 

 it prances about wonderfully, but never gets for- 

 ward. This kind of eloquence, vague and inde- 

 cifive as it is, fuits no one great man in particular^ 

 becaufe it may be applied, in general, to all thofe 

 who have run the fame career. If you only change 

 a few proper names in the elogium of a General, 

 you may comprehend in it all Generals, paft and 

 future. Befides, it's bombaft tone is fo little 

 adapted to the fimple language of truth and virtue, 

 that when a Writer means to introduce charafterif- 

 tical traits of his hero, that we may know at lead 

 of whom he is fpeaking, he is Under the neceffity 

 of throwing them into notes, for fear of deranging 

 his academical order. 



AiTuredly, had Plutarch w^mttn the elogium only 

 of illuftrious men, he would have had as few 

 readers at this day as the Panegyric of Trajan, 

 whith coft the younger Pliny fo many years labour. 

 You will never find an academical elogium in the 

 hands of one of the common People. You might 

 fee them, parhaps, turning over thofe oï Fontenelle, 



and 



