[ 30 ] 



peded a nice feleiRion of words, purely and radically Englifli, or 

 at leaft the ufe of fuch only as had been indifputably admitted 

 into the language : and the complexion of his readers, as well as 

 the popular fubjeds he treated of, were fuch as might be thought 

 to furnifh little temptation to learned and antiquated phrafeology. 

 Indeed, if rules for periodical eflays are to be drawn from the 

 pradice of their great Englifh original, Mr. Addifon, as the 

 rules of epic poetry from Homer's, nothing can be more 

 oppofite to their true charader ; for as their profeffed intent is 

 the improvement of general manners, their ftile, as w^cU as their 

 fubjedls, fhould be levelled to underftandings of every def- 

 cription. 



It may be faid, however, in favour of Johnfon, that the great 

 law-givers of criticifm have indulged writers of eminence in a 

 licenfe for calling in the aid of foreign words. But this in- 

 dulgence, which of right belongs only to poetry, and the more 

 dignified kinds of profe, is oven granted to them with but a 

 fparing hand ; " dabitur licentia fumptapudenter." Our Author, 

 vvho in his poems has made but little ufe of this privilege, has 

 in his profe, extended a limited fufferance to the moft un- 

 qualified permiflion and encouragement,: he has preferred, on 

 all occafions where a choice was to be made, the remote word of 

 Latin derivation to the received En^lifh one, and has brought in 

 the whole vocabulary of natural philofophy, to perplex and en- 

 cumber familiar Englifh writing. I do not fpeak of a few 

 words fcattered rarely through his works, but of the general 

 charadfer of his ftile appearing in every page ; not of fingle ads, 

 but of confirmed and prevailing habits ; of new-raifed colonics, 



difdaining 



