CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF MR. ADDISON'S STYLE, IN NO. 411 OF THE SPECTATOR.

HAVING fully insisted on the subject of language, we shall now commence a critical analysis of the style of some good author. This will suggest observations, which we have not hitherto had occasion to make, and will show in a practical light the use of those which have been made.

Mr. Addison, though one of the most beautiful writers in our language, is not the most correct; a circumstance which makes his composition a proper subject of criticism. We proceed therefore to examine No. 411, the first of his celebrated essays on the pleasures of the imagination, in the sixth volume of the Spectator. It begins thus:

"Our sight is the most perfect, and most delightful of all our senses.'

This sentence is clear, precise, and simple. The author, in a few plain words, lays down the proposition, which he is going to illustrate. A first sentence should seldom be long, and never intricate.

He might have said, our sight is the most perfect and the most delightful. But in omitting to repeat the article the, he has been more judicious; for, as between perfect and delightful there is no contrast, such a repetition is unnecessary. He proceeds:

“It fills the mind with the largest variety of ideas, converses with its objects at the greatest distance, and continues the longest in action, without being tired or satiated with its proper enjoyments."

This sentence is remarkably harmonious, and well constructed. It is entirely perspicuous. It is loaded with no unnecessary words. That quality of a good sentence, which we termed its unity, is here perfectly preserved. The members of it also grow, and rise above each other in sound, till it is conducted to one of the most harmonious closes which our language admits. It is moreover figurative, without being too much so for the subject. There is no fault in it whatever, except this, the epithet large, which he applies to variety, is more commonly applied to extent than number. It is plain, however, that he employed it to

avoid the repetition of the word great, which occurs immediately afterward.

"The sense of feeling can, indeed, give us a notion of extension, shape, and all other ideas that enter at the eye, except colours; but, at the same time, it is very much straitened and confined in its operations, to the number, bulk, and distance of its particular objects. But is not every sense confined, as much as the sense of feeling, to the number, bulk, and distance of its own objects?" The turn of expression is also very inaccurate, requiring the two words, with regard, to be inserted after the word operations, in order to make the sense clear and intelligible. The epithet particular seems to be used instead of peculiar; but these words, though often confounded, are of very different import. Particular is opposed to general; peculiar stands opposed to what is possessed in common with others.

"Our sight seems designed to supply all these defects, and may be considered as a more delicate and diffusive kind of touch, that spreads itself over an infinite multitude of bodies, comprehends the largest figures, and brings into our reach some of the most remote parts of the universe."

This sentence is perspicuous, graceful, well arranged, and highly musical. Its construction is so similar to that of the second sentence, that, had it immediately succeeded it, the ear would have been sensible of a faulty monotony. But the interposition of a period prevents this effect.

"It is this sense which furnishes the imagination with its ideas; so that, by the pleasures of the imagination or fancy (which I shall use promiscuously, I here mean such as arise from visible objects, either when we have them actually in our view, or when we call up their ideas into our minds by paintings, statues, descriptions, or any the like occasion."

The parenthesis in the middle of this sentence is not clear. It should have been, terms which I shall use promiscuously; since the verb use does not relate to the pleasures of the imagination, but to the terms fancy and imagination, which were meant to be synonymous. To call a painting or a statue an occasion, is not accurate; nor is it very proper to speak of

calling up ideas by occasions. The common phrase, any such means, would have been more natural.

We cannot indeed have a single image in the fancy, that did not make its first entrance through the sight; but we have the power of retaining, altering, and compounding those images which we have once received, into all the varieties of picture and vision, that are most agreeable to the imagination; for, by this faculty, a man in a dungeon is capable of entertaining himself with scenes and landscapes more beautiful than any that can be found in the whole compass of nature."

In one member of this sentence there is an inaccuracy in syntax. It is proper to say, altering and compounding those images which we have once received into all the varieties of picture and vision. But we cannot with propriety say, retaining them into all the varieties; yet the arrangement requires this construction. This error might have been avoided by arranging the passage in the following manner:We have the power of retaining those images which we have once received; and of altering and compounding them into all the varieties of picture and vision." The latter part of the sentence is clear and elegant.

"There are few words in the English language, which are employed in a more loose and uncircumscribed sense, than those of the fancy and the imagination."

Except when some assertion of consequence is advanced, these little words, it is and there are, ought to be avoided, as redundant and enfeebling. The two first words in this sentence, therefore, should have' been omitted. The article prefixed to fancy and imagination ought also to have been omitted, since he does not mean the powers of the fancy and imagination, but the words only. The sentence should have run thus: "Few words in the English language ́are employed in a more loose and uncircumscribed sense than fancy and imagination."

"I therefore thought it necessary to fix and determine the notion of these two words, as I intend to make use of them in the thread of my following speculations, that the reader may conceive rightly what is the subject which I proceed upon."

The words fix and determine, though they may appear so, are not synonymous. We fix what is loose; we determine, what is uncircumscribed. They may be viewed, therefore, as applied here with peculiar delicacy.'

The notion of these words is rather harsh, and is not so commonly used, as the meaning of these words. As I intend to make use of them in the thread of my speculations, is evidently faulty. A sort of metaphor is improperly mixed with words in their literal sense. The subject which I proceed upon, is an ungraceful close of a sentence; it should have been, the subject upon which I proceed.

"I must therefore desire him to remember, that, by the pleasures of imagination, I mean only such pleasures as arise originally from sight, and that I divide these pleasures into two kinds."

This sentence begins in a manner too similar to the preceding. I mean only such pleasures-the adverb only is not in its proper place. It is not intended here to qualify the verb mean, but such pleasures; and ought therefore to be placed immediately after the latter.

"My design being, first of all, to discourse of those primary pleasures of the imagination, which entirely proceed from such objects as are before our eyes; and, in the next place, to speak of those secondary pleasures of the imagination, which flow from the ideas of visible objects, when the objects are not actually before the eye, but are called up into our memories, or formed into agreeable visions of things, that are either absent or fictitious."

Neatness and brevity are particularly requisite in the division of a subject. This sentence is somewhat clogged by a tedious phraseology. My design being, first of all, to discourse in the next place to speak of-such objects as are before our eyes-things that are either absent or fictitious. Several words might have been omitted, and the style made more neat and compact.

"The pleasures of the imagination, taken in their full extent, are not so gross as those of sense, nor so refined as those of the understanding."

This sentence is clear and elegant.

"The last are indeed more preferable, because they are founded on some new knowledge or improvement in the mind of man; yet it must be confessed, that those of the imagination are as great and as transporting as the other.'

The phrase, more preferable, is so palpable an inaccuracy, that we wonder how it could escape the observation of Mr. Addison. The preposition, contained in the last member of this sentence, is neither clearly nor elegantly expressed. It must be confessed, that those of the imagination are as great and as transporting as the other. In the beginning of this sentence he had called the pleasures of the understanding the last; and he concludes with observing, that those of the imagination are as great and transporting as the other. Besides that the other makes not a proper contrast with the last, it is left doubtful whether by the other are meant the pleasures of the understanding, or the pleasures of sense; though without doubt it was intended to refer to the pleasures of the understanding only.

"A beautiful prospect delights the soul as much as a demonstration; and a description in Homer has charmed more readers than a chapter in Aristotle."

This is a good illustration of what he had been asserting, and is expressed with that elegance by which Mr. Addison is distinguished.

"Besides, the pleasures of the imagination have this advantage of those of the understanding, that they are more obvious, and more easy to be acquired." This sentence is unexceptionable.

"It is but opening the eye, and the scene enters." Though this is lively and picturesque, yet we must remark a small inaccuracy. A scene cannot be said to enter; an actor enters; but a scene appears or presents itself.

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The colours paint themselves on the fancy, with very little attention of thought or application of mind in the beholder."

This is beautiful and elegant, and well suited to those pleasures of the imagination of which the author is treating.

"We are struck we know not how, with the symmetry of any thing we see; and immediately assent

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