to expose that false taste and ridiculous manner of writing; and that it might alfo be of eminent ufe to letters, by decrying that abfurd Lexiphanick ftile, which from the great and univerfal reputation this pedant enjoyed, I reafonably imagined had become fashionable among us, and might, in a fhort time, bring on an entire decline and corruption, nay, a total alteration of our language, as had been the cafe with the Roman tongue under the Emperors.

Therefore, as foon as I had an opportunity, I fet about the following work, with all the diligence and application I was mafter of. In the courfe of it, befides Mr. J-----n's, I carefully perused, it may fafely be faid, for the firft time, what other modern writings came in my way; and I generally found them more or lefs Lexiphanick in proportion to the fhare of fame and reputation their feveral authors enjoyed. I now recollected, that your Lordship had written

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written Dialogues of the Dead, in imitation of Lucian, and that I had heard them highly applauded. I hope your Lordfhip will forgive me, for I can hardly forgive myself, if I concluded, not having then read them, that thofe applaufes might be owing, partly to their author's quality and exalted station, but much more to their Lexiphanicifm, or being written in compliance with the reigning taste of the times. I was ambitious, like the young Afcanius, who, hunting with his father Eneas, and Dido,

-Dari pecora inter inertia votis Optat aprum, aut fulvum defcendere monte leonem.

I thought your Lordship would be a much nobler object of Criticism, than even the great Mr. S——l J——11, and if I fhould not be able to extract a Rhapsody from the Dialogues, as easily as from the Ramblers, at least I hoped

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to have the occafion of referring to them frequently in the notes, and making rhetorical flourishes on their author, who profeffing to imitate Lucian, had fo imperfectly ftudied that great original, and fo little profited by his excellent Dialogue of Lexiphanes, and his admirable Effay on the best manner of writing history.

With fuch views, and with fuch expectations, I immediately had recourfe to your Dialogues. But it was not long before I found myfelf greatly dif appointed, and difappointed in a most agreeable manner. Inftead of being able to fhew them, pardon the freedom of the expreffion, as a fort of fearscrow or beacon, a warning for others to avoid their faults; I perceived they were a model of imitation, a pattern for all to follow; and was foon made fenfible, I muft content myself with becoming a diftant and humble imitator of an author, whom, but a few hours

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hours before, I thought to have made the object of my criticisms.

But ifthis were a small mortification, it was foon followed by a much more fenfible pleasure. If I could not expofe your Lordship's writings as a warning to others, I found I could do what was much more for my purpose, fupport my own opinion by their great and unqueftioned authority. The paffage I have in view, is fo apposite to the subject in hand, and coincides fo entirely with my own fentiments, that I cannot refift the temptation of quoting it, notwithstanding it may be thought fomewhat improper in an address to your Lordship. It is in the Dialogue between Pliny the Elder, and Pliny the Younger, where the uncle fays to the nephew ;

-"Your eloquence had, I think, "the fame fault as your manners: it was generally too affected. You "profeffed to make Cicero your guide "and

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"and pattern. But when one reads "his Panegyrick upon Julius Cæfar, "and your's upon Trajan, the first "feems the genuine language of truth “and nature, raised and dignified with "all the majesty of the most sublime

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Oratory: the latter appears the ha66 rangue of a florid Rhetorician; more "defirous to shine, and to fet off his

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own wit, than to extol the great

man whose virtues he was praifing." The other makes the following anfwer:

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"I will not queftion your judg ment, either of my life or my writings. They might both have been "better, if I had not been too folici"tous tous to render them perfect. It is, perhaps, fome excufe for the affec"tation of my style, that it was the "fashion of the age in which I wrote. "Even the eloquence of Tacitus, "however nervous and fublime, was not unaffected. Mine, indeed, was a 6

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