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ing, combining, and arranging, thefe characSleriftic varieties arc 

 more confpicuous, and thofe who have made fuch works their 

 (tudy feldom fail to appropriate them to their refpe(5tive au- 

 thors. The fkilful mufician can readily difcover the compofer 

 by his ftyle, or the performer by his manner ; and the con- 

 noifleur in painting can readily diftinguifh the pidures of one 

 fchool from thofe of another, and even difcern the hand of 

 each mafter in pidlures of the fame age, and country, and 

 fubje(5l. Literary works may be found to exhibit eqiial or 

 greater variety, proceeding from the different habits of think- 

 ing in their refpedive authors. In the works of writers whofe 

 modes of life were very different, and charafters oppofite in 

 the extreme, thefe varieties are obvious to the lead: obfervant 

 reader, and a more accurate acquaintance with ftyle and 

 knowledge of charadler will enable the more judicious critic to 

 difcover diftinguifhing marks in the writings even of authors 

 who lived much together, and applied to the fame forts of 

 compofition. There is no man who will not perceive the dif- 

 ferent minds of Mr. Sterne and Doflor Johnfon in a fingle 

 page of their works ; and there is no reader poffeffmg any 

 claim to acutenefs or critical fagacity who will not in the 

 papers of the Spectator find internal evidence fufEcient to dif- 

 criminate the effays of Mr. Addifon from thofe of Sir Richard 

 Steele. 



Corporeal diverfities have a manifeft and important ufe : 

 they are marks which ferve to the purpofes of diftinguifhing 

 each individual from every other, and thus prevent infinite 



confufion 



