LECTURE XVIII.

FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE — GENERALCHARACTERS OF STYLE—DIFFUSE,CONCISE—FEEBLE , NERVOUS—DRY,PLAIN, NEAT, ELEGANT, FLOWERY.

X1AVING treated, at confiderable length, of L e c t.the Figures of Speech , of their origin , of XVIII.their nature , and of the management of

fuch of them as are important enough torequire a particular difcuflion , before finallydifmiffing this fubjedt , I think it incumbenton me , to make fome obfervations concern*ing the proper ufe of Figurative Languagein general. Thefe , indeed , I have, in part,already anticipated. But, as great errors are oftencommitted in this part of Style , efpecially byyoung writers , it may be of ufe that I bringtogether, under one view , the moll materialdirections on this head.

I begin with repeating an obfervation formerlymade, that neither all the beauties , nor eventhe chief beauties of compofition , depend upon

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