in a degree superior to that of any other of the sons. of men who have yet appeared on the globe, has, notwithstanding the innumerable defects that abound in his works, obtained a degree of celebrity that nothing else could ever have given to him; and which, notwithstanding the attacks of snarling critics, will continue to encrease as long as the language in which he writes fhall be understood. There have been people weak enough to believe that if they could imitate Shakespeare in the irregularity of his plots, in the disregard of the much talked of unities, in the antiquated turn of his phrases, and in the low buffoonery of some of his scenes, they would be entitled to a considerable fhare of that approbation which has been so liberally bestowed upon him. They did not advert that it was his superlative genius which made him triumph, not in consequence of these defects, but in spite of them.

In like manner Sterne pofsefses in a very eminent, though far inferior degree, that rare talent of discriminating characters, and of delineating them with precision by light touches of nature, which ever and anon occur even in the most trifling scenes. It is this which gives to these otherwise trifling scenes an interest which nothing else could ever have conferred upon them. It is from the certainty of meeting with these delicate touches of nature, that the man of taste is induced to tolerate that nauseating affectation and puerility which is like to turn his stomach at every line: but miserable is the delusion, and perverted is the judgement of those who think that those pitiful quaintnefses of expres sions, and filthy illusions, which so frequently occur

April 31. constitute the efsence of that charm which has captivated so many of his readers. The fate of his imitators has proved the truth of these remarks. They have all sunk into deserved oblivion. Happily the time is now arrived, when even the silliest of his admirers,-admirers to be sure who are unable to perceive even a glimpse of his true excellence, see the folly of attempting to imitate him in his execrable ribaldry. Sterne is in many respects the most detestable writer in the English language. In some respects he has no superior but Shakespeare alone. What pity that such fine talents fhould have been conjoined with such a vitiated taste, and perverted understanding! It is a parcel of pearls kneaded up in a lump of ordure.

I heartily commend you for the ardent wish you exprefs of obtaining a knowledge of that which constitutes what you call chastenefs of composition in the English or other languages; but you must not hope to be able to attain a clear perception of that at once. This must be the work of time and experi ence; for those only whose minds have been calmed by experience, and an attentive observation of the objects around them, and the effects that various. incidents produce upon the human mind, can perceive those deviations from nature and truth, which constitute a bad taste in literary compositions. In the early stages of life, whatever appears to be brilliant, is thought excellent; whatever surprises, whatever seems to be beyond the ordinary course of nature, excites admiration at that pcriod of life; hence extravagance is accounted perfec

tion, and the wildest eccentricities are deemed beauties. By degrees the mind becomes sensible of the absurdity of such conceits,-in time loaths them, and gradually acquires a settled predilection for that modest propriety of exprefsion which leads the mind directly towards the object the writer had in view, without distraction or embarrassment. It is this last kind of writings which aged men have dignified with the name of chastened compositions, and which they admire as models of perfection in literature.

I cannot recommend a more perfect pattern of this. kind to your notice than the common English version of the Bible. The language is there at all times plain, simple, and unaffected; and the construction natural and easy, though the tone is grave and dignified. I know no performance that deserves so high a degree of praise, when considered merely as a work of literary merit; and it has happily given a stability and perfection to the English language it never otherwise could have attained. From the universalattention it has obtained from all ranks of people, especially in Scotland, even the vulgar there understand the meaning of most of the words in the language, so as to be able to use them with a much greater degree of accuracy than people of the same rank in any other part of the world. To this circumstance I imagine we are to ascribe the facility that people even of ordinary rank in Scotland find in becoming authors; and did they not undo in some measure the lessons they have thus imperceptibly. acquired in their youth, by attempting to imitate other more faulty models, which the changing whim

April 31. of fashion has exalted into celebrity for the time, we fhould probably have been able to produce a much more respectable list of clafsical writers than we yet can boast of. It is impofsible for me to contemplate that performance (I speak here merely of the translating of it into English,) without feeling a strong emotion of respect and admiration for the persons who atchieved it, and viewing it as one of the most striking monuments of human industry and genius. Open the book where you will, and you find the language every where simple, grave, and natural; alike when the subject requires the plain tone of humble narration, or rises into the most exalted heights of: poetic enthusiasm. Like every translation indeed, from languages of such remote antiquity, obscurities do now and then occur, which have been occasioned by misunderstanding allusion to circumstances, now perhaps for ever lost and unknown; but even on these occasions, though the sense may be obscured, the language is never debased. On no occasion does it degenerate either into vulgarity and meannefs, or into affectation and bombast. As a contrast to this performance, and as a striking example of the difference between a modest chastened stile of writing, and that affectedly ornamented stile which I wish you to fhun, you need only take up Castalio's Latin translation of the Bible, and read a few pages of it. You will there find a perpetual effort to dress up every phrase in the most ornamented It is as if a man, instead of gravely walking forward, were forced to move in a kind of measared dance. Instead of that sober drefs and stayed

manner.

manner which is so becoming for an aged person, it is as if a matron of three score were ornamented with flowers, and in the gaudy girlish frippery of fifteen, hobbling and stammering in aukward imitation of the childish levities of youth. Can any thing be more ridiculous or absurd! Equally absurd and ridiculous are those affected modes of writing, where the author by departing from nature endeavours to substitute artificial ornament in place of chaste propriety of exprefsion. And though fashion may for a time render these conceits so familiar to the votaries of that capricious goddefs, as to appear to them not only not absurd, but even highly beautiful; yet in a short while when the fashion changes, they then appear like the dresses of our grandmothers, ridiculous and disgusting; while those compositions which deviate not from nature, like the statue of Apollo or Antinuous, continue to be admired as long as they exist.

On these accounts, and many others on which I will not now enlarge, I warmly recommend the frequent perusal of the sacred volume to your attention. I may perhaps take another opportunity of developing more fully my ideas on the many other benefits you will derive from the study of the Bible, which the facility alone with which it can be obtained makes young men too much disregard. have often amused myself with endeavouring to form an idea of the surprise, the admiration, the extacy that would have been excited among literary men, had that volume been, by some accident, first introduced among them. No power of thought can

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