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wards oil fame occafions applies to indivuluils. But in what 

 manner this variety in thinking produces its effedts on the 

 clothing of the thought, and what are the peculiarities of ftyle 

 which are fuited thus to the feveral diverfities in temper and 

 genius — thefe arc points into which, though dircdtly connedled 

 with his explication of ftyle, he has not fyftematically enquired : 

 much Icfs has he gone into an examination of thofe difpofitions 

 and habits which give to individuals their peculiar caft of 

 thought, and account for the different mode in which different 

 authors treat the fame fubjedl. In fhort he has omitted the 

 confideratlon of that quality which, from its obvious analogy 

 to the difference of ftyle in language, the words of the queftion 

 propofed by the Academy have properly termed Style in thought. 

 This view of the fubjecfl being peculiarly interefling, and in 

 a great meafure new, the defign of the following pages is to 

 point out its importance, and to give fome flight fpecimens of 

 its utility : the author with great deference fubmits to the Aca- 

 demy what may perhaps ferve to furnifli fome hints as to the 

 mode in which it may be advantageovifly treated of by fuch 

 as have more leifure and fuperior talents to purfue the invef- 

 tigation. 



Those who have written on Style have ufually confidered 

 it as taking its charadler from the varieties of the fubjecl, and 

 the fpecies of compofition in which it was employed. Thus 

 the diftind ftyles of hiftory, of oratory and philofophy, of 

 epic, lyric and dramatic poetry, have been diffufively treated 

 of by numerous critics of the antient and modern world. But 



an 



