Modern Languages. 101 



great improvement which they have effected in this 

 kind of composition, since the time of Clarendon, 

 and of Rapin, must be obvious to the most care- 

 less reader. Mr. Gibbon has attempted to carry 

 the ornaments of this kind of style much higher than 

 his predecessors had ventured. But it seems to be 

 the opinion of most impartial judges, that many of 

 his favourite ornaments are meretricious; that his 

 loftiness is often nothing more than bombast and 

 affectation; that what he imagined to be beautiful 

 splendour of diction, is frequently disgusting glare; 

 that in aiming at a dignity far above the ease of dis- 

 course, he becomes so " fantastically infolded" as 

 to be obscure, if not unintelligible. His manner 

 has indeed many beauties, but it has also multi- 

 plied blemishes; and the reader of taste will pro- 

 bably allow that English style has rather suffered 

 deterioration than gained improvements by his li- 

 terary labours. 



The sum of the matter, then, seems to be this; 

 that English style, since the commencement of the 

 eighteenth century, has become more rich and 

 copious, by a large accession of words; that it has 

 gained a more " lofty part," and " moves with a 

 more firm and vigorous step;" that the structure of 

 sentences, in our best authors, is more compressed, 

 accurate, and philosophical; that " the connective 

 particles are used with more attention to their ge- 

 nuine meaning;" and, in general, that the scientific 

 spirit of the age has extended itself remarkably, in 

 giving to our language that precision, spirit, force, 

 polish, and chaste ornament, which are so fre- 

 quently met with at the present day/ 



i There are some good remarks on English style in the Inquirer, a Series 

 cf Essays y by William Godwin. Though no friend to human happiness 

 can recommend the moral or religious principles of this writer, which are 

 pre-emineutly fitted to delude, corrupt and destroy ; yet he is himself 

 master of a vigorous style, and his judgment on a question of literary taste 

 is entitled to respect. 



