[ 5^ 3 



charader of their country. They have, indeed, a claim to higher 

 praife than that of polifhed compofition ; they abounded in good 

 fenfe, and in fine genius, and had an extenfive knowledge of the 

 lettered and of the living world. Let not, therefore, the flimfy 

 and fuperficial, though, perhaps, more accurate writer of modern 

 times, pretend that becaufe his trifles fparkle with more brilliancy 

 and exhibit a fmoother furface, they are, therefore, fuperior to 

 the rich and folid, though lefs polifhed, produdions of this period: 

 our anceftors wrote for fame as they ftrove for liberty, with the 

 ftrong minds of men more attentive to things than words ; we, 

 perhaps, in the fickly tafte of modern refinement, prefer form 

 to fubftance, and fubftitute elegance of exprefllon for found 

 fenfe. 



With Addifon and his contemporaries originated the firft vari- 

 ation that occurred, fubfequent to the Revolution, in the com- 

 pofition of Englifh profe. Though the difFufe ftyle ftill continued 

 to prevail, it was no longer the loofe, inaccurate and clumfy ftyle 

 by which the compofitions of his predecefl'ors were difgraced. 

 So great, indeed, was the improvement, and fo ftriking the 

 variation introduced by Addifon, that he who compares the pro- 

 dudions of this elegant writer with thofe of the beft writers of 88, 

 will find it difiicult to avoid furprife, how, with fuch precedents 

 before him, he could have rifen at once to a degree of excellence 

 in ftyle which conftitutes him a model for imitation. The forced 

 metaphor, the dragging claufe, the harfli cadence, and the abrupt 

 clofe, are all of them ftrangers to the works of Addifon. In the 

 ftrudure of his fentences, though we may foraetimes meet marks 



of 



