98 Modern Language. 



writers. Among the first of these Shaftesbury 

 and Bolingbroke hold an honourable place/ The 

 style of the former, though excessively and elabo- 

 rately delicate, and displaying a continual fond- 

 ness for artificial arrangement, and affected state- 

 liness, is still rich and musical, and contributed 

 not a little to improve the public taste. The 

 writings of the latter, exhibiting the ease and ele- 

 gance of Addison with more vigour, were also 

 useful in promoting the prevalence of correct and 

 elegant composition. Neither of them, however, 

 can be said to have introduced a fashion of writing 

 wholly new, or to have formed a remarkable era 

 in the history of the English language. The same 

 may be said of Middleton, Fielding, Sherlock, 

 Smollet, Hawkesworth, Goldsmith, Mel- 

 moth, and several others. With various talents 

 and modes of expression, and with different de- 

 grees of literary merit, they all contributed some- 

 thing to the cultivation of style, and each displayed 

 some new and peculiar excellence, without pro- 

 ducing, singly, any thing like a revolution in 

 manner. 



The change introduced into English style by Dr. 

 Johnson, deserves particular notice. This great 

 philologist, while he was ambitious to convey im- 

 portant moral and literary truth, laboured also to 

 <c refine the language of his country to grammatical 

 purity, and to clear it from colloquial barbarisms, 

 licentious idioms, and irregular combinations; to 

 add something to the elegance of its construction, 

 and something to the harmony of its cadence."^ 

 Nor did he labour in vain. He effected important 



/ It will readily occur to the reader that nothing is meant to be spokea 

 of here but the style of these writers. The tendency of their publications 9 

 in a moral and religious view, will be particularly noticed in a subsequent 

 part of this work. 



£ Rambler, vol. iv. No, »o£. 



