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ESSAY on the STILE of Boaor SAMUEL JOHNSON. 



No. L 

 By the Rev.'^^OWe.WV BURROWES, A. M, and M. R. I. A. 



J\. S the primary and immediate defire of every reader muft Read 



March I -i 



neceffarily be to underftand the meaning of his author, of all the 1785. 

 faults of flile obfcurity muft be the moft obvious and ofFenfive. 

 Equally unpleafing to him who ftudies for inftrudlion, and to him 

 who reads for entertainment ; to the indolent as demanding, and 

 to the adive as not rewarding his exertions, all clafTes unite to 

 reprobate it. Different from all other faults in this, that no critical 

 fagacity, no erudition is required to perceive it, in the fame mo- 

 ment it is perceived and condemned : the author is tried by judges 

 whofe only qualification is, that they do not pnderftand ; and as 

 ignorance is always fevere, the awful fentence " fi non vis in- 

 " telligi, debes negligi," dooms him without farther enquiry to 

 that punifhment, which the Republic of Letters has always efteemed 

 the moft mortifying. 



[D 2] But 



