I 33 ] 



frequently to deceive the reader, and prevent his feeing, that the 

 ideas thus cloaked are trite and hackneyed. Among thefe modern 

 improvements is the introdudion of another pecuHarity of the 

 Germans, an unconneded and disjointed flyle, full of breaks, in- 

 terjedions and apoftrophes. The German language was improving 

 rapidly under the culture of Ge/her^ JVieland and LeJ^iig, and would 

 have received the polifh and perfedion requifite to make it clafTi- 

 cal, had fucceeding writers trod in their foot-fteps; but the tem- 

 perate and judicious manner, the chafte fimplicity, and fober 

 graces introduced by them, and formed on a ftudy of the antique, 

 did not fatisfy the afpiring writers of the new School ; thefe ge- 

 niufes, in the rage of fingularity, and paflion for efFed, adopted this 

 Jingultive elocution, (if I may be allowed to coin a term) this 

 mental hiccup, fpeaking by fits and ftarts broken fentences ; not 

 content with the mutilation of words, they contrad whole fen- 

 tences in the fame manner as we would abbreviate words ; they 

 abolifti all conjundions and connedives, and in many of their 

 works the fentences are all feparate, like the different effata of an 

 oracle ; nor are any flops or divifions admitted, except full flops, 

 notes of admiration, or marks of interrogation, . . . — ! ! ! — ? ? ? 

 This peculiarity will be better underflood when I come to illuflrate 

 thefe obfervations by fome examples from the German writers. 



The immoderate length of the German plays is one of the iirft 



circumflances, which will flrike a reader in the perufal, and may. 



Vol. VIU. ( E) perhaps, 



