[ 7° J 



Were we now confidering the abftrad merits of the authors we 

 mention, it would be unpardonable indeed not to beftow on the 

 vivid energy of Barke, and the mild and chafie elegance of 

 Sir Jofhua, a large Ihare of attention and panegyric. But fuch 

 is not the objeit of this effay : we muft therefore pafs over thefe, 

 as we have paffed over Goldfmith and others, in filence, be- 

 caufe though the excellence of thefe writings is fingularly great, 

 that excellence does not confift in any variations which thofe 

 have introduced into flyle, but in the height to which they 

 have carried thofe principles of compofition which had been cul- 

 tivated, though lefs fuccefsfully, by otliers before them. 



In treating of the various flyles which have fucceffively ap- 

 peared from the revolution to the prefent time I have purpofely 

 omitted fome which may be thought from their fingularity to have 

 deferved notice. Such, for inftance, is that of Mr. Sterne. This 

 I have paffed over without remark, becaufe, in the firft inftance, it 

 was merely the flyle of an individual, and has never been generally 

 adopted by Englifli profe writers ; and, in the fecond place, becaufe 

 it feems to have been the emanation of an eccentric mind,' con- 

 veying its thoughts in language as capricious, and, perhaps, aifeded, 

 as the fentiments which fuggeftcd them, and as loofe as the moral 

 principles by which they were regulated. 



