scribing something that is past or future, as actually passing before our eyes.* Q. What is Amplification? A. It is an artful exaggeration of all the cir cumstances of some object or action which we want to place in a strong light. Q. What is a Climax? A. A gradual rise of one circumstance above another, until our idea be raised to the utmost.† Q. What general observations may be made upon figures of speech? A. That they are not essential to the chief beauties of composition; that, to be beautiful, they must rise naturally from the subject; that they must not be employed too frequently; and that none should attempt them without a natural genius for them. Q. What is the foundation of all solid merit both in speaking and writing? A. Good sense, clear ideas, and perspicuity of language. These will always command at tention. "I seem to myself to behold this city, the ornament of the earth, and the capital of all nations, suddenly involved in one conflagration. I see before me the slaughtered heaps of citizens lying unburied in the midst of their ruined country. The furious countenance of Cethegus rises to my view, while with a savage joy he is triumphing in your miseries."-Cicero. + 66 It is a crime to put a Roman citizen in bonds; it is the height of guilt to scourge him: little less than parricide to put him to death. What name then shall I give to crucifying him ?"-Cicero. Q. What should be the endeavour of all who desire to excel in the liberal arts? A. To know their own genius well; to follow nature; and to seek to improve, but not to force it, GENERAL CHARACTERS OF STYLE. Q. What connexion is there between the manner in which every writer employs words, and his manner of thinking? A. A close one; whence there is a certain character imprinted on his style, which may be denominated his manner; commonly expressed by such general terms as strong, weak, dry, simple, affected. Q. Do different subjects require different sorts of style? A. They evidently do. Treatises of philosophy ought not to be composed in the same style with orations. Q. Whence arises one of the first and most obvious distinctions of style? A. From an author's spreading his thoughts more or less. Q. What does this distinction form ? A. The Concise and Diffuse styles. Q. In what consists the Concise style? A. In compressing our thoughts into the fewest possible words; employing none but such as are most expressive, and such as add something material to the sense. Q. Does the concise writer reject ornament ? A. No. He may be lively and figured; but his ornament is intended for force, rather than grace. Q. In what consists the Diffuse style? A. In unfolding the thought fully; placing it in a variety of lights, and giving the reader every possible assistance in understanding it. Q. What advantage, in written composition, has the Concise over the Diffuse style? A. It is more lively; commands better attention; makes a brisker and stronger impression; and gratifies the mind by supplying more exercise. Q. What writers are most remarkable for conciseness? A. Tacitus, the historian; and Montesquieu, in L'Esprit des Loix. Q. In whom do we find a beautiful and magnificent diffuseness? A. In Cicero and Addison. Q. In which style should description be? A. In the concise. Homer, Tacitus, and Milton, are always concise in their descriptions. Q. In which, addresses to the passions? A. It may be beautiful in either. Livy and Herodotus are diffuse. Thucidydes and Sallust concise, yet all are agreeable. Q. What do discourses, that are to be spoken, require? A. A flowing, copious style. Q. What are the Nervous and Feeble styles? A. Much the same as the Concise and Diffuse, yet there is some difference. A style may be concise or diffuse, and yet be beautiful; but a feeble style has neither beauty nor excellence. Q. Where is the foundation of a nervous or weak style laid ? A. In an author's manner of thinking. If he conceives an object strongly, he will express it with energy; if not, in weakness. Q. What was the fault of the early English Writers ? A. Harshness. They studied strength to the neglect of the other qualities of style. Q. When was our present style formed? A. At the restoration of King Charles II. Q. Who has improved our language most? A. Dryden. Q. What is the distinguishing quality of most of the good English writers? A. Elegance, rather than strength. Q. What is a dry style? A. One from which ornament of every kind is entirely excluded. Such is the style of Aristotle. Q. What is a plain style? A. It rises one degree above a dry one. Not only perspicuity, but propriety, purity, precision, and some degree of liveliness, are pursued. This is the style of Dean Swift. Q. What is a neat style? A. It is next above the plain, just within the region of ornament; the figures are short and correct, rather than bold and flowing; it is a style easily attained, and always agreea ble. Q. What is an elegant style? A. A style possessing all the virtues of ornament, without any of its excesses or defects. Such is the style of Addison, Dryden, and Pope. QWhat is the florid style? A. A style in which the ornaments are too rich and gaudy, for the subject. Such is the style of Hervey's Meditations. GENERAL CHARACTERS OF STYLEDIRECTIONS FOR FORMING A PROPER STYLE. Q. What are the four different acceptations in which, applied to writing, simplicity is taken? A. Simplicity of composition, as opposed to too great a variety of parts; simplicity of thought, in opposition to refinement; simpli |