Modern Languages. 97 



polish, Swift was successfully engaged in culti- 

 vating it, with a particular view to its purity and 

 precision. Endowed with a mind among the 

 most vigorous of the age in which he lived, and 

 directing particular attention to the subject of lan- 

 guage, he attained distinguished excellence as a 

 writer. He was the first who attempted to express 

 his meaning without " subsidiary words and cor- 

 roborating phrases." He was still more sparing in 

 the use of synonymes than Addison; and without 

 being very solicitous about the structure or har- 

 mony of his periods, he attended particularly to 

 the force of individual words. Less figurative and 

 adorned than Addison, he learned more success- 

 fully than he, to avoid the diffuse and feeble man- 

 ner which had so generally characterized English 

 composition. Mr. Hume supposes that the first 

 elegant prose in our language was written by 

 Swift. 



To Mr. Pope, also, English style is much in- 

 debted. " He cultivated the beauties of language 

 with so much diligence and art, that he has left, 

 in his Homer, a treasure of poetical elegances to 

 posterity. His version may be said to have tuned 

 his native tongue; for since its appearance, no 

 writer, however deficient in other powers, has 

 wanted melody."* The style of English versifica- 

 tion attained in his hands that sweetness of har- 

 mony, that grace of embellishment, that curiosa 

 felicitas, which have never since been surpassed. 

 There is scarcely a happy combination of words, or 

 a phrase musical and captivating, which is not to 

 be found in his writings. 



The improvements introduced by these benefac- 

 tors to English literature were pursued and ex- 

 tended by several contemporary and succeeding 



* Johnson's Lift of Poft. 

 VOL, II. o 



