CONCISE AND DIFFUSE STYLE. i 3

tirefome; which will always prove the cafe, when L f. c t.they inculcate too much , and prefent the fame XVIII.thought under too many different views.

In written Compofitions, a certain degree ofconcifenefs poffeffes great advantages. It is morelively, keeps up attention; makes a brilker andftronger impreffion ; and gratifies the mind byfupplying more exercife to a reader’s own thought.

A fentiment , which , expreffed diffufely , willbarely be admitted to be juft , expreffed con- .cifely , will be admired as fpirited. Defcription,when we want to have it vivid and animated ,

Ihould be in a concife drain. This is differentfrom the common opinion ; mod perfons beingready to foppofe , that upon defcription a writermay dwell more fafely than upon other things,and that-by a full and extended Style, it is ren-dered more rich and expreffive. 1 apprehend , onthe contrary, that a diffufe manner generallyweHLens it. Any redundant words or circum-ftanees encumber the fancy, and make the objedlwe prefent to it, appear corfufed and indiftineff.Accordingly, the moft maflerly deferibers, Ho-mer, Tacitus , Milton, are almoft always concifein their deferiptions. They fhow us more of anobject at one glance , than a feeble diffufe writercan fhow , by turning it round and round in avariety of lights. The ftrength and vivacity ofdefcription? whether in profe or poetry, dependmuch more upon the happy choice of one ortwo ftriking circumftances , than upon the mul-tiplication of them.