GEN. CHARACTERS OF STYLE.
9
rated another. Where nothing of this appears ; where L e c t,11 fo there is no marked nor peculiar character in the XVIII,
:e it compofitions of a'ny author, we are apt to infer,i fw not without reafon, that he is a vulgar and trivial■we author , who writes from imitation , and notAf- from the impulfe of original genius.’ As the moll-a celebrated painters.are known by their hand,
,n t fo the beft and moft original writers are knownand diftinguifhed, throughout all their works,ts by their Style and peculiar- manner. This willat be found to hold almoft without exception,ms The ancient Critics attended to thefe general
A- characters of Style which we are now to confider.
aity Dionyfius of Halicarnaffus divides them into
three kinds ; and calls them the Auftere, theim- Florid , and the Middle. By the Auftere , he
ited means a Style diftinguifhed for ftrength and
and firmnefs, with a neglect of fmoothnefs and orna-
aucli ment; for examples of which , he gives Pindar
ft of and iEfchylus among the Poets, and Thucydides
feia among the Profe writers. By the Florid , he
thofc means, as the name indicates, a Style ornament-
: dit ed ,flowing, and fweet; rePcingmore upon nufnbers
,a<ri and grace, than ftrength; he inftances Hefiod ,
ltioni Sappho, Anacreon, Euripides , and principally
nes," Ifocrates. The Middle kind is the juft mean
iftls between thefe, and comprehends the beauties of
com- both; in which clafs he places Homer and So-
Jiffj phocles among the Poets; in Profe, Herodotus ,
j, er ;. Demofthenes , Plato , and ( what feems ftrange)
| v gi Ariftotle. This muft be a very wide clafs indeed,