[ 37 ] 



ner; and among other peculiarities of Sterne we find he delights 

 much in a peculiar and minute fpecification of looks and atti- 

 tudes. 



The writers of the German School feem to be further diftinguifh- 

 ed by an impofing affedation of originality. This charader they 

 endeavour to fupport, firft, by faying common things in an uncom- 

 mon manner, and adopting Angularities of ftyle, fome of which I 

 have noticed ; they labour, in the fecond place, to exalt themfelves 

 as the firft difcoverers of bold and hardy truths, which the reft of 

 mankind were too ftiort-fighted to difcover, or too ,pufillanimous 

 to maintain ; and to juftify their claims to the heroic office of 

 emancipating the human mind, they deal in flighty fentiments 

 and flimfy paradoxes; they vend, by retail, the crude innovations 

 of the new philofophy, the pernicious reveries of the anarchifts. 

 Yet, with all the pretenfions to originality, there are few writers 

 who avail themfelves more of imitation. From the Engli/h, in par- 

 ticular, they borrow with an unfparing hand ; with a prediledion, 

 however, for fuqh as have fomething excentric in their genius 

 and charadler, fomething wild and irregular in their ftyle and 

 manner*. To fortify, however their title to originality, they 

 fhew a generous difdain of the received rules and maxims of cri- 

 ticifm, a noble difregard of correflnefs and impatience of the 

 lima labor y mora. 



The 



* The Germans feem to have a peculiar fondnefs for the antient Englifti ballads 

 and metrical romances and the modern imitations of them ; for the writings of 

 Sterne, for Offian, and above all for Shakefpeare. 



