foning, that only a fallacious argument. This error is of the fame kind with poem for poetry, which was remarked above.

66

SOMETIMES the neuter verb is miftaken for the active. What Tully fays of war, may be applied to difputing; it should be always fo managed, as to remember, that the only end of "it is peace *." Properly remind us,

for the neuter.

"I

SOMETIMES again, the active verb is mistaken may say without vanity, that "there is not a gentleman in England better "read in tomb-ftones than myfelf, my ftudies "having laid very much in church-yards †.” Properly lien or lain. The active verb lay for the neuter lie, is fo frequently to be met with in fome very modern compofitions, as to give room for fufpecting that it is an idiom of the cockney language, or of fome provincial dialect. In that cafe it might have been claffed under the idiotism.

PERHAPS under the fame predicament ought alfo to be ranked the word plenty, used adjectively for plentiful, which indeed appears to me fo grofs a vulgarifm, that I fhould not have thought it worthy a place here, if I had not

Pope's Thoughts on various Subjects. + Spect. No. 518.

fome

fometimes found it in works of confiderable merit. The relative whom, in the following quotation, is improperly ufed for which, the former always regarding perfons, the latter always things. "The exercise of reafon appears as little in them, "as in the beafts they fometimes hunt, and by whom they are sometimes hunted *.".

I SHALL add but two inftances more of impropriety in fingle words, inftances which I have referved for this place, as being fomewhat peculiar, and therefore not ftrictly reducible to any of the claffes above mentioned; inftances too, from authors of such eminence in refpect of ftyle, as may fully convince us, if we are not already convinced, that infallibility is not more attainable here than in other articles. As I firmly "believe the divine precept, delivered by the "Author of Chriftianity, there is not a fparrow

falls to the ground without my Father, and can"not admit the agency of chance in the govern"ment of the world, I muft neceffarily refer

every event to one cause, as well the danger as "the efcape, as well the fufferings as the enjoy"ments of life t." There is very little affinity, life.”

Bolingb. Ph. Ef. ii. Sect. 2.

+ General Introduction to the Account of the Voyages of Commodore Byron, &c. by

Hawkesworth.

*

either in fenfe or in found, between precept and, doctrine, and nothing but an ofcitancy, from which no writer whatever is uniformly exempt ed, can account for fo odd a misapplication of a familiar term. The words in connexion might have shown the error. It is the doctrines of our religion that we are required to believe, and the precepts that we are required to obey. The other example is, “Their fuccefs may be com "pared to that of a certain prince, who placed, “it is faid, cats, and other animals, adored by "the Egyptians, in the front of his army, when " he invaded that people. A reverence for these

phantoms made the Egyptians lay down their "arms, and become an eafy conqueft." What the author here intended to fay, it is hard to con jecture; but it is unquestionable, that in no fenfe whatever can cats and other animals be called phantoms.

I SHALL now, before I proceed to confider impropriety, as it appears in phrases, make a few reflections on thofe principles which most frequently betray authors into fuch mifapplications in the ufe of fingle words. As to that which hath been denominated the vulgarifm, its genuine Bolingb. Ph. Ef. iv. Sect. 1.

fource

fource feems to be the affectation of an eafy, familiar, and careless manner. The writers who abound in this idiom generally imagine, that their style muft appear the more natural, the less pains they bestow upon it. Addison hath exactly hit their notion of eafy writing. "It is," fays he, "what any man may eafily write." But these people, it would feem, need to be informed, that eafe is one thing, and carelessness is another; nay, that these two are fo widely different, that the former is moft commonly the refult of the greatest care. It is like ease in motion, which, though originally the effect of difcipline, when once it hath become habitual, has a more fimple and more natural appearance, than is to be obferved in any manner which untutored Nature can produce. This fentiment is well expreffed by the poet :

But eafe in writing flows from art, not chance;
As those move easiest who have learn'd to dance t.

True ease in compofition, accompanied with pu rity, differs as much from that homely manner which affects the familiarity of low phrases and vulgar idioms, as the appearance of a woman that is plainly but neatly dreffed, differs from

+ Pope's Imitations,

that

that of a flattern. But this affectation is to be confidered as the fpring of one fpecies of impropriety only.

ALL the reft, unlefs when chargeable on inadvertency, as they fometimes doubtless are, feem naturally to flow from one or other of these two fources, which are almoft diametrically oppofite to the former. One is, the love of novelty; the other, a fondness for variety. The former, when exceffive, tends directly to mifguide us, by making us difdain the beaten track, for no other reafon but because it is the beaten track. The idea of vulgarity in the imaginations of those who are affected by this principle, is connected with every thing that is conceived as customary. The genuine iffue of this extreme, much worse, I acknowledge, than the former, is not only improprieties, but even abfurdities, and fuftian, and bombaft. The latter, to wit, a fondness for variety, produceth often the fame effect, though more indirectly. It begets an immoderate dread of becoming tedious, by repeating too frequently the fame found. In order to avoid this, a writer refolves at any rate to diverfify his ftyle, let it coft what it will. And, indeed, this fancied excellence ufually cofts more than it is worth.