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DRY STYLE.

L E c T. Purity and Elegance of Style : But it is Elegance,XV11I. rather than Strength , that forms the diftinguilh-ing quality of mod of the good Englifh writers.Some of them compofe in a more manly andnervous manner than others; but, whether it befrom the genius of our Language , or fromwhatever other caufe, it appears to me, that weare far from the ftrength of feveral of the Greekand Roman authors.

Hitherto we have confidered Style underthofe characters that refped its expreffivenefs ofan author’s meaning. Let us now proceed toconfider it in another view, with refpedl to thedegree of ornament employed to beautify it.Here, the Style of different authors feems to rife ,in the following gradation : a Dry, a Plain, aNeat, an Elegant, a Flowery manner. Of eachof thefe in their order.

F'irst, a Dry ^manner. This excludes allornament of every kind. Content with beingunderftood, it has not the lead; aim to pleafe ,either the fancy or the ear. This is tolerableonly in pure didadtic writing; and even there,to make us bear it, great weight and folidityof matter is requifite; and entire perfpicuity ofLanguage. Ariftotle is the thorough example ofa Dry Style. Never, perhaps, was there anyauthor who adhered fo rigidly to the flridnefs

“ though all feems carelefs, there is nothing harfh; and“ though fince his earlier works, more than a century has“ palfed, they have nothing yet uncouth or obfolete. ”