CONCISE AND DIFFUSE STYLE.

15

tences. Seneca is a remarkable example. By thefhortnefs and quaintnefs of his fentences, he mayappear at firffc view very concife ; yet he is farfrom being fo. He transfigures the fame thoughtinto many different forms. He makes it pafs fora new one, only by giving it a new turn. So alfo,mod of the French writers compofe in fhort fen-tences ; though their ftyle, in general , is notconcife ; commonly lefs fo than the bulk ofEnglilh writers, whofefentences are much longer.A French author breaks down into two or threefentences , that portion of thought which anEnglilh author crowds into one. The dired effectof fhort fentences , is to render the Style brilkand lively, but not always concife. By the quickfucceffive impulfes which they make on themind, they keep it awake; and give to Compofi-tion more of a fpirited character. Long periods ,like Lord Clarendon’s, are grave and ftately , but,like all grave things , they are in hazard ofbecoming dull. An intermixture of both longand fhort ones is requifite, when we would fup-port folemnity , together with vivacity ; leaningmore to the one or the other , according as pro-priety requires, that the folemn or the fprightiyIhould be predominant in our compofition. Butof long and fhort fentences, I had occalion , for-merly, to treat under the head of the conflruclionof periods.

The Nervous and the Feeble, are generallyheld to be charadters of Style, of the fame importwith the Concife and the diffufe. 'They do indeed

iECT.

XVIII.