I 6z ] 



manner. His ftyle in language is thus congenial to his %lc of 

 thinking. 



If it fhall be a matter for his option what words he fliall 

 prefer, or what arrangement he fhall give them, I do not fee what 

 there is to regulate that choice but the habits and powers of his 

 mind, direding a language congenial to the train and modes of 

 his thought, and exciting fimilar fenfations. The propriety and 

 beauty of language is this analogy to the train of thought to 

 be exprefTed by it ; and accordingly we find that all the terms 

 which are applied to denote diverfities of flyle do in ftridnefs of 

 primitive acceptation belong to thinking and its modes. 



The habits, difpofitions and powers of mind fometimes exert 

 a diredl influence over the words and language. Accuracy of 

 thought will naturally demand precife expreflion, and obfcurity in 

 ftyle will be the confequence of dull conceptions. Licentious 

 phrafes and ftraincd figures of fpeech will follow the unrcftrained 

 indulgence of wayward imagination, and foreign words always 

 affume a place in the works of an author who has been in ha- 

 bits of intercourfe with foreign learning, or is guided by a foppifh 

 affedation of polite fociety. Obfoletc idioms mark pedantic ha- 

 bits, and technical language is the neceffary refult of profeffional 

 employment. Redundance of copulatives and particles acknow- 

 ledge a difficulty in perceiving any connetlion but what cannot 

 polTibly be overlooked ; circumftances ill arranged betray habitual 



negligence 



