It confifts in an artful exaggeration of all the circum ftances of fome object or action, which we wish to place in a strong light. It operates by a gradual rise of one circumstance above another, till our idea is raised to the highest pitch. We fhall give an instance of this figure from a printed pleading of a celebrated Lawyer in a charge to the jury in the case of a woman, who was accused of murdering her own child. "Gentlemen, if "one man had any how flain another; if an adversary "had killed his oppofer; or a woman occafioned the "death of her enemy; even these criminals would have "been capitally punished by the Cornelian law. But, "if this guiltlefs infant, who could make no enemy,, "had been murdered by its own nurfe; what punish"ments would not the mother have demanded? With “what cries and exclamations would she have stunned your ears? What fhall we fay then, when a woman, guilty of homicide; a mother, of the muder of her *innocent child, hath comprised all those misdeeds in

one fingle crime; a crime, in its own nature, detesta. "ble; in a woman prodigious; in a mother incredi"ble; and perpetrated against one, whofe age called "for compaflion; whofe near relation claimed affection; "and whofe innocence deferved the highest favor?" Such regular climaxes however, though they have great beauty; yet at the fame time have the appearance of art and study; and therefore, though they may be admitted into formal harangues; yet they are not the

language of paffion, which feldom proceeds by steps ís regular.

GENERAL CHARACTERS OF STYLE. DIFFUSE, CONCISE, FEEBLE, NERVOUS, DRY, PLAIN, NEAT, ELEGANT, FLOWERY.

THAT different fubjects ought to be treated in

different kinds of style is a pofition fo obvious, that it requires no illuftration. Every one knows that treatifes of philofophy fhould not be compofed in the fame style with orations. It is equally apparent, that different parts of the fame compofition require a variation in the ftyle. Yet amid this variety we ftill expect to find in the compofitions of any one man fome degree of uniformity in manner; we expect to find some prevail. ing character of style impressed on all his writings, which will mark his particular genius and turn of mind. The orations in Livy differ confiderably in ftyle, as they ought to do, from the reft of his hiftory. The fame may be observed in those of Tacitus. Yet in the orations of both these hiftorians the diftinguishing manner of each may be clearly traced; the fplendid fulnefs of the one, and the fententious brevity of the other. Wherever this is real genius, it prompts to one kind of style rather, than to another. Where this is wanting; where there is no marked, nor peculiar character in the compofitions of an author; we are apt to conclude, and

not without caufe, that he is a vulgar and trivial au thor, who writes from imitation, and not from the impulse of genius.

One of the first and most obvious diftinctions in ftyle arifes from an author's expanding his thoughts more or lefs. This diftinction forms, what are termed the dif fufe and concife ftyles. A concife writer compresses his ideas into the feweft words; he employs none, but the most expreffive; he lops off all thofe, which are not a material addition to the fenfe. Whatever ornament he admits, is adopted for the fake of force rather, than of grace. The fame thought is never repeated. The utmost precision is ftudied in his fentences; and they are generally defigned to fuggest more to the reader's imagination, than they exprefs..

A diffufe writer unfolds his idea fully. He places it in a variety of lights, and gives the reader every poffi ble affistance for understanding it completely. He is not very anxious to exprefs it at firft in its full ftrength, because he intends repeating the impreffion; and, what he wants in ftrength, he endeavors to fupply by copi oufnefs. His periods naturally flow into fome length, and, having room for ornament of every kind, he gives it free admittance..

Each of thefe ftyles has its peculiar advantages; and. each becomes faulty, when carried to the extreme. Of concifenefs carried as far, as propriety will allow, per

haps in fome cafes farther, Tacitus the hiftorian and Montefquieu in "l'Esprit de Loix” are remarkable examples. Of a beautiful and magnificent diffuseness Cicero is undoubtedly the nobleft inftance, which can be given. Addifon alfo and Sir William Temple may be ranked in the fame clafs.

In determining when to adopt the concife, and when the diffufe manner, we must be guided by the nature of the compofition. Discourses, that are to be spoken, require a more diffuse style than books, which are to be read. In written compofitions a proper degree of concifeness has great advantages. It is more lively; keeps up attention; makes a ftronger impreffion on the mind; and gratifies the reader by supplying more exercise to his thoughts. Defcription, when we wish to have it vivid and animated, should be concife. Any redundant words or circumstances encumber the fancy, and render the object, we prefent to it, confufed and indiftinct. The ftrength and vivacity of defcription, whether in profe or poetry, depend much more upon a happy choice of one or two important circumftances, than upon the multiplication of them. When we defire to ftrike the fancy, or to move the heart, we should be concife; when to inform the understanding, which is more deliberate in its motions, and wants the affiftance of a guide, it is better to be full. Historical narration may be beautiful either in a concife or diffuse manner

要

according to the author's genius. tus are diffufe; Thucydides and yet they are all agreeable.

Livy and Herodo

Salluft are concife ;

The nervous and the feeble are generally confidered, as characters of ftyle of the fame import with the concife and the diffufe. Indeed they frequently coincide; yet this does not always hold; fince there are inftances of writers, who in the midst of a full and ample style have maintained a confiderable degree of ftrength. Livy is an inftance of the truth of this obfervation. The foundation of a nervous or weak style is laid in an author's manner of thinking. If he conceive an object ftrongly, he will express it with energy; but, if he have an indiftinct view of his fubject, it will clearly appear in his ftyle. Unmeaning words and loofe epithets will escape him; his expreffions will be vague and general; his arrangement indiftin&t; and our conception of his meaning will be faint and confufed. But a nervous writer, be his ftyle concife or extended, gives us always a ftrong idea of his meaning. His mind be ing full of his fubject, his words are always expreffive; every phrafe and every figure renders the picture, which he would fet before us, more striking and complete.

It muft however be obferved, that too great ftudy of strength is apt to betray writers into a harsh manner. Harfhnefs proceeds from uncommon words, from forced inversions in the construction of a sentence, and