[ 43 ] 



courfe of a long continued life of dllTertation became alfo his 

 flile of fpeaking. His authoritative decifions on the merit of 

 all our Englifh authors demand, and his conftant employment 

 in critical difquifition fliould have enabled him to grant it without 

 injury to his literary charadler, that his own ftile fhould be fairly 

 fubje£led to animadverfion : nor fhould negligence, which will 

 never be infifted on in diminution of his merit, be admitted as a 

 fufficient plea in extenuating his faults. 



As his peculiarities cannot be afcribed to carelefTnefs, fo neither 

 are they the eftedt of neceflity. Few of them would have appeared, 

 had Johnfon, intent only on communicating his ideas, defpifed all 

 aids of embellifhment. But that this did not fuit his ideas of lite- 

 rary perfediion, we are fufficiently informed in his remarks on the 

 flile of Swift ; an author who has at leaft this merit, that he has 

 efcaped all thofe faults which the critic has fallen into. The 

 eafy and fafe conveyance of meaning Johnfon there declares to 

 be " not the higheft praife : againft that inattention with which 

 " known truths are received, it makes," he fays, " no pro- 

 " vifion ; it inftrufls, but it does not perfuade." Our author 

 feems therefore to have thought it neceffary, in conformity with 

 his own principle, to introduce into his flile certain orna- 

 ments, which, in his opinion, would prove the effedual means 

 of captivating attention ; and thefe ornaments, too laborioufly 

 fought for, and ufed without fufEcient variety, have become the 

 peculiarities of his flile. I fhall comprize the principal of them 

 under two heads, as arifing either from his endeavours after 

 fplendor and magnificence, or from his endeavours after harmony ; 

 for to thefe two heads they may almoft all be referred. 



[F 2] ■ Not 



