this rule some of our writers do not appear to have paid proper attention. In the prose compositions of Lord Shaftesbury and Mr. Hervey, for example, we often find regular and sonorous verses. It is easy to be a character has an uncouth sound. The author might certainly have expressed himself with greater propriety. "The same application, the same quantity of habit will fit us for one, as completely as for the other. And as to those who tell us with an air of seeming wisdom, that 'tis men and not books we must study to become knowing; this I have always remarked from repeated experience, to be the common consolation and language of dunces." The second sentence is not altogether correct: the conclusion of it does not bear a proper and legitimate reference to the beginning. When we meet with the words as to those who tell us, we are led to expect that the author's succeeding observation will apply immediately to those persons themselves; whereas it only applies to the language to which they have recourse for consolation. A few alterations may be suggested : "As to the observation which has so frequently been made with an air of seeming wisdom, that it is men, and not books that we ought to study in order to aequire useful knowledge; this I have always remarked from repeated experience to be the common consolation of dunces." They shelter their ignorance under a few bright examples, whose transcendant abilities, without the common helps, have been sufficient of themselves to great and important ends. But, alas ! Decipit exemplar vitiis imitabile.” * ed. In the expression abilities sufficient to great and impor tant, tant ends, there is something awkward. The sentence appears susceptible of improvement: "They shelter their ignorance under the bright example of a few individuals whose transcendant abilities, without the common helps, have been adequate to great and important undertakings.” "In truth, each man's understanding, when ripened and mature; is a composite of natural capacity, and of superinduced habit.” This application to composite savours of pedantry : why it is preferred to composition, is not altogether obvious ; for the latter is certainly a more sonorous word. No other writer, so far as my information serves me, has ever used composite as a noun substantive. It is an adjective that is only used in treating of architecture. "Some are of opinion," says Mr. Addison, "that the composite pillars of this arch were made in imitation of the pillars of Solomon's temple." "Hence the greatest men will be necessarily those who possess the best capacities, cultivated with the best habits. Hence, also, moderate capacities, when adorned with valuable science, will far transcend others the most acute by nature, when either neglected, or applied to low and base purposes. And thus for the honour of culture and good learning, they are able to render a man, if he will take the pains, intrinsically more excellent than his natural superior.” And thus for the honour and culture of good learningThis expression appears somewhat antiquated. If he will take the pains, is a phrase which may justly be charged with vulgarity. "And so much at present as to general ideas; how we acquire them; whence they are derived; what is their nature; and what their connection with language. So much, likewise, as to the subject of this treatise, Universal Grammar,” 99* * Harris's Hermes, book iii. chap. v. This is a conclusion truly Grecian. I have sometimes been surprised that Mr. Harris did not commence his treatise in the same antique mode. He might, for example, have begun in this manner: "James Harris wrote the following discourse concerning the principles of universal grammar. CHAP. XXX. CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF A PASSAGE IN "WHILE these sentiments prevailed among her subjects, Elizabeth thought she might safely venture to strike the blow which she had so long meditated. She commanded Davison, one of the secretaries of state, to bring to her the fatal warrant ; and her behaviour, on that occasion, plainly shewed that it is not to hu manity that we must ascribe her forbearance hitherto. The latter of these sentences is not constructed with the usual skill of this beautiful writer; the conclusion of it is by no means graceful. "At the very moment she was subscribing the writ which gave up a woman, a queen, and her own nearest relation, into the hands of the executioner, she was capable of jesting. Go,' says she to Davison, and tell Walsingham what I have now done, though I am afraid he will die for grief when he hears it.' Her chief anxiety was how to secure the advantages which would arise from Mary's * The most ancient philosophical treatise now extant begins nearly in the above manner. 6. Τά δὲ συνέγραψεν “Σκελλος ὁ Λευκαδ περὶ τῆς τῶ παντὸς φύσεως.”OCELLUs de Universi Natura. death, without appearing to have given her consent to a deed so infamous. In this passage every thing is accurate and luminous. "She often hinted to Paulet and Drury, as well as to some other courtiers, that now was the time to discover the sincerity of their concern for her safety, and that she expected their zeal would extricate her out of her present perplexity." The phrase now was the time appears to be somewhat deficient in dignity. The author might have expressed himself thus: "She often hinted to Paulet and Drury, as well as to some other courtiers, that an 'opportunity now occurred for discovering the sincerity of their concern for her safety." "But they were wise enough to seem not to understand her meaning." A sentence that must thus include an affirmative and a negative, can never possess much elegance. "Even after the warrant was signed, she commanded a letter to be written to Paulet, in less ambiguous terms; complaining of his remissness in sparing so long the life of her capital enemy, and begging him to remember at last what was incumbent on him as an affectionate subject, and to deliver his Sovereign from continual fear and danger, by shortening the days of his prisoner. Paul‹t, though rigorous and harsh, and often brutal in the discharge of what he thought his duty, as Mary's keeper, was nevertheless a man of honour and integrity." This passage does not seem to require any particular animadversion. "He rejected the proposal with disdain; and lamenting that he should ever have been deemed capable of acting the part of an assassin, he declared that the queen might dispose of his life ther pleasure; but he would never stain his own honour, nor leave an everlasting mark of infamy on his posterity, by lending his hand to perpetrate so foul a crime." By By lending his hand, is a phrase which appears unsuitable to the dignity of historical composition. "On the receipt of this answer, Elizabeth became extremely peevish ; and calling him a dainty and precise fellow, who would promise much, but perform nothing, she proposed to employ one Wingfield, who had both courage and inclination to strike the blow.' The queen's calling Paulet a dainty and precise fellow has little connection with her proposing to have re course to the assistance of Wingfield. The author'. meaning might have been diffused into two distinct periods: "On the receipt of this answer, Elizabeth became extremely peevish, and called him a dainty and precise fellow, who would promise much but perform nothing. She next proposed to employ one Wingfield, who had both courage and inclination to strike the blow." "But Davison's remonstrating against this method, as no less dangerous than dishonourable, she again declared her intention that the sentence pronounced by the commissioners should be executed according to law; and as she had already signed the warrant, she begged that no farther application might be made to her on that head. By this the Privy Counsellers thought themselves sufficiently authorized to proceed; and prompted, as they pre. tended, by zeal for the queen's safety, or instigated, as is more probable, by the apprehension of the danger to which they would themselves be exposed if the life of the queen of Scots were spared, they assembled in the council chamber, and by a letter under all their hands, empowered the Earls of Shrewsbury and Kent, ́ ́together with the High Sheriff of the county, to see the sentence put in execution." In the last sentence the repetition of the word queen might without much difficulty have been avoided. "On Tuesday the seventh of February, the two Earls arrived at Fotheringay, and demanding access to the queen, read in her pre#sence |