Modern Languages. 99 



improvements in English style. He improved the 

 form of its phrases, the construction of its sentences, 

 and the precision and appropriateness of its diction. 

 He introduced a strength and solidity of expression ; 

 a dignity, not to say pomp of manner, which, 

 though becoming in him, can scarcely be imitated 

 without danger; and in the happy art of exhibit- 

 ing a number of adjunct ideas in the same sentence 

 with perspicuity and vigour, he has rarely if ever 

 been equalled. He enriched the language, also, 

 with many words, adopted from the Greek and 

 Latin. In this, indeed, he has been censured by 

 some, and perhaps with justice, as having gone 

 too far, and resorted to foreign aid without neces- 

 sity. But though it be admitted that he has, in 

 some instances, transgressed his own rules, yet he 

 certainly added largely to the stores of English dic- 

 tion, and may, on the whole, be considered one 

 of the greatest benefactors to English literature that 

 the age produced. 



But signal as the improvements in style which 

 Dr. Johnson either introduced, or contributed to 

 promote, yet it cannot be denied that, in some 

 respects, he gave countenance to a false taste in 

 -writing. He brought into vogue, a style, which 

 is, perhaps, too far removed from the ease and 

 simplicity of colloquial discourse; which too much 

 abounds in artificial embellishment, formal mo- 

 notonous structure, and elaborated figure; and 

 which, when employed on subjects less dignified 

 than those of which he usually treated, is extremely 

 faulty. His manner, perverted and extravagantly 

 extended, has led many fashionable writers to sup- 

 pose that a continual glare of metaphor, an un- 

 ceasing effort to exhibit epigrammatic point, and 

 an undistinguishing stateiiness of march, were 

 among the superior beauties of composition. These 

 faults, together with the short sentences, so much 



