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To the want of fufEcient information in the art the abfurd 

 conjedlures which are often formed relpedling authors are to be 

 afcribed. The lady who from Thomfbn's poems found reafon to 

 perfuade herfelf that he was much addidled to fwimming at- 

 tempted a fpecies of mental phyfiognomy for which flie was not 

 qualified. It is not every defcription, made necelTary to an 

 author by his fubjecft, which is to be confidered as giving 

 certain information of his habits and propenfities : a man who 

 has chofen for his topic the pleafures of the country, may 

 be faid to have a general fondnefs for rural life or rural 

 fituation, but he will be obliged fometimes to depidl fcenes of 

 which he has not felt the pleafure, and fometimes to defcr-ibe 

 fports of which he has not partaken. The indolence and the 

 benevolence of Thomfoii appear in many parts of his writings ; 

 but unlefs he had gone out of his way to treat of fwimming, 

 or had treated of it more frequently or more fully than was 

 proportioned to its importance towards his general theme, there 

 was no reafon for fuppofing it an amufement in which he took 

 particular delight. 



An accurate and complete treatife on ftyle in writing, con- 

 fidered with refpedl to thoughts and fentiments as well as 

 words, and as indicating the writer's peculiar and charadleriftic 

 difpofitions, habits and powers of mind, would, it muft be 

 confefled, be a work of great difficulty : it would require a 

 perfedl knowledge of the human mind in all its varieties, 

 and an acquaintance with the works of authors who wrote 



in 



