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Yet his pages abound with memorials of clofe attention to 

 harmony ; unfortunately with memorials equally deferving of 

 cenfure ; with heroic lines and lyric fragments. Thus, he fays, 

 " Pope forefaw the future efflorefcence of imagery juft budding 

 " in his mind, and refolved to fpare no art or induftry of 

 " cultivation ; the foft luxuriance of his fancy was already 

 " /hooting, and all the gay varieties of didion were ready at his 

 " hand to colour and embellifli it." " I will chafe the deer, I 

 " will fubdue the whale, refiftlefs as the froft of darknefs, and 

 " unwearied as the fummer fun." Surely this is to revive the 

 Pindaric licentioufnefs, to confound the diftindion between profe 

 and poetry, to introduce numbers by ftudy while negligence ad- 

 mits rhymes, and to annihilate the harmony of profe, by giving 

 the reader an obvious opportunity to compare it with the har- 

 mony of verfification. 



Indeed all the peculiarities of Johnfon's ftile, purfued to their 

 excefs, tend to raife profaic compofition above itfelf : they give 

 the admirers of Gray a fit occafion of retorting « the glittering 

 " accumulation of ungraceful ornaments, the double double toil 

 « and trouble, the ftrutting dignity which is tall by walking on 

 " tip-toe," which have fo harflily been objeded to their favourite. 

 Simplicity is too often given up for fplendor, and the reader's 

 mind is dazzled inftead of being enlightened. 



I SHALL now conclude this enquiry into the peculiarities' of 

 Johnfon's ftile with remarking, that if I have treated more of 

 blemifhes than beauties, I have done it, not fo much to pafs 

 cenfure on Johnfon, as to give warning to his imitators. I have 

 indeed feieded my inftances from his writings : but in writings 



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