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compoiition. He excels in that fpecies to which his habits of 

 thinking are adapted; and in others the degree of his failure is 

 always proportioned to the degree of their diftance from this. 

 The cafe of literary mimickry is no exception, very few per- 

 fons having ever fucceeded in varieties of imitation ; and of 

 fuch as have pradlifed it with fuccefs it has been obferved, 

 that few of them have had marked peculiarities in their own 

 manner, or have given proofs of original genius. The fecond 

 obfervation is, that thofe authors who by the peculiar fpecies 

 of compofition they are engaged in are compelled to introduce 

 different perfons fpeaking in their proper charaders, have not 

 often fucceeded in their efforts to give them their appropriate ftyle 

 of thought and fentiment. In dramatic writing this circum- 

 ftance conftitutes an acknowledged difficulty, diminifhed how- 

 ever by the characters originating often in the author's mind, 

 without any external ftandard to which they are referred, and 

 being known only by that dialogue which the author has 

 given : diminiflied alfo by the hurry of adVion, the brifk inter- 

 ruptions of different perfonages, and the fhortnefs of each fe- 

 parate fpeech. The difficulty is more evident in periodical 

 effays where introduced characters write letters of confiderable 

 length ; and in hiftories, where fpeeches are given at large, as 

 fuppofed to have been fpoken by the orators in perfon. In the 

 orations recorded by Thucidydes there is mvich good fenfe, in- 

 formation and argument, but in not more than one or two 

 of them is there any nice difcrimination of charadler. 



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