86 ohservations on Wat'oti's history. Marcf> 21* 



OBSERVATIONS ON WATSON's HISTORY. 

 Continued from vol. vii. />, 169. 



The stile and narration of this history deserve 

 much praise ; it is easy, flowing, and natural, always 

 correct, and well adapted to the different subjects 

 which come under review ; it pofsefses, however, 

 more of the dignified simplicity and strength of the 

 philosopher, than the flowery embellifhments of the 

 poet. Watson rests none of his merit upon external 

 ornament; he is 'chiefly anxious to relate facts, clear- 

 ly and completely, in their' due proportion arid pro- 

 per connection, and to please, and interest, rather by 

 what he has to tell, than by any adventitious co- 

 louring. But though he does not seem ambitious t<J 

 decorate his narration with beauty and sublimity of 

 diction, we feel no want of it ; we meet with nothing 

 harfh, redundant, or inelegant ; we can on no occasion 

 say, thathe has not done justice to his subject, that his 

 conceptions are ever inadequate, his views deficient,, 

 or his description feeble. His aim is never solely ta 

 please the ear, but always to fill and satisfy the mind^ 

 Very different from the manly modesty of this au- 

 thor, is the practice of many modern writers, who 

 are always attempting to draw^ our attention from the 

 subject to themselves and their manner of describing 

 it ; who are ever on the watch to catch r.t an elegant 

 phrase; and who wifti, one would think, to cover the 

 deformity or poverty of their tiiought?:, with the 

 gaudy ornaments of stile and ezfrefsion. In a nar- 



