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COMPOSITION.

"Scribendi recte sapere est et principium et fons.”

HORACE.

Quam parvâ sapientiâ regitur mundus!"

B

OXENSTIERN.

COMPOSITION.

THE most striking characteristic of English literature in the nineteenth century, is the loose and ungrammatical diction that disfigures every species of prose composition. Learning is now more widely diffused, and the number of writers is greater than at any former period, but not the number of correct writers. We have a hundred Alisons for one Macaulay. Nay, I believe it could be shown that, in proportion as the English language has been improved, the art of composition has been neglected. Let the reader take up any of the publications of the day. A mere glance will satisfy him, that, whatever credit may be due to the author for invention of subject or arrangement of materials, he is sadly deficient in the first requisite of authorship,-the art of communicating his ideas in correct and appropriate language. Everywhere diffuseness and want of method take the place of conciseness and perspicuity; purity of diction and elevation of thought are supplanted by solecisms and common-places;

and what is wanting in dignity and vigour is supplied in vulgarisms and slang. Instead of guiding or reforming the public taste, our authors yield themselves up to the caprice of the passing hour, making the pursuit of literature subservient to the dissemination of every fashionable frivolity, and reducing its professors to the degrading level of this most mercenary of human epochs.

Whatever may be the cause, the fact is undeniable, that modern English prose exhibits more blemishes of style than that of any other language. That this proceeds in a great measure from the character of the language itself, there can be no doubt: for there is no modern language which, from its simplicity of structure and its expressive copiousness, is so well adapted for communicating men's thoughts without labour or effort. But the main cause must be sought for in one of our national peculiarities; and here it must be confessed that, while there is no people more remarkable than we are for a correct appreciation of method and propriety in all mental productions, there is none that displays a greater impatience of restraint in everything that relates to criticism and grammar.

This will be better understood by comparison with the French. Their language is a science in itself, and the labour bestowed on the acquisition of it, has the effect of vividly impressing on the mind both the faults and the beauties of each

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