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Should it be doubted, whether the improvement of ftyle which 

 took place in the time of Addifon — that variation which fubftituted 

 uniform and corredl neatnefs in compofition, for what was loofe, 

 inaccurate and capricious, be juftly attributed to him — the doubt 

 will vanifh when it is remembered that in no work prior to his 

 time is an equal degree of accuracy or neatnefs to be found, and 

 even among thofe periodical papers to which the moft eminent 

 of his cotcmporary writers contributed, the Clio of Addifon 

 flands eminently confpicuous. It was, indeed, from the produc- 

 tions of that claffic and copious mind that the public feems 

 to have caught the tafte for fine writing which has operated from 

 that time to the prefent, and which has given to our language 

 perhaps the greateft degree of elegance and accuracy of which it 

 is fufceptible — for if any thing is yet to be added to the improve- 

 ment of the Englifh ftyle, it mufl be more nerve and mufcle, 

 not a nicer modification of form or feature. 



fecflantem levia, nervi 



Deficiunt animique : 



While Addifon was communicating to Englifliprofe a degree of 

 corredlncfs with which it had been, till his time, tinacq\iainted, Swift 

 was exemplifying its precifion and giving a ftandard for its purity. 

 Swift was the firfl writer who attempted to exprefs his meaning 

 without fubfidiary words and corroborating phrafes. He nearly laid 

 afide the ufe of fynonimes in which even Addifon had a little in- 

 dulged, and without being very folicitous about the ftru<^ure or har- 

 mony 



