[ ^8 ] 



But this fentence is too general to be always jnft : there Is 

 fometimes an embarraffiiient in the fubjed-matter which caufes 

 an inevitable obfcurity in treating of it ; and there is often an 

 inability in the judge which felf-love fcreens from obfervation. 

 " The critic," fays Dr. Johnfon, in a paper of his Idler, which 

 he feems to have defigned as a defence of his own ftile againft 

 this objedion, " ought always to enquire whether he is incom- 

 " moded by the author's fault or his own." How far this paper 

 juftifies Johnfon's ftile fhall be confidered in the fubfequent part 

 of this effay : it is fufEcient at prefent to obferve, that as all 

 obfcurity is relative, its caufe may refide either in the reader or in 

 the writer, and even where the reader muft be acquitted, the 

 writer is not always to be condemned. 



That Johnfon's ftile is obfcure, the teftimony of all unlearned 

 readers abundantly confirms ; and from the fame authority the 

 caufe may be ftated to be his perpetual affedlation of cxpreffing 

 his thoughts by the ufe of polyfyllables of Latin derivation : 

 a fault, which confines to men of erudition the moft animating en- 

 forcements to virtue and the moft falutary rules of condud, by 

 difqualifying all who have not been made acquainted by a liberal 

 education with the Latin appellations for things, or thofe, from 

 whofe memories the common ufe of the Englifli names has in courfe 

 of time effaced them. And let it not be faid that fuch ^ clafs is 

 beneath the attention of an author, when it is confidered that 

 almoft the whole female world, from the circumftances of their 

 education are necefl"arily included in it. They learn the words 

 of their language from converfation or familiar books ; but with 

 whom are they to converfe, or what volumes of mufty pedantry 



are 



