Languages & literature > Abridgement of lectures on rhetoric

Il6 GENERAL CHARACTERS OF STYLT.
language of paffion, which feldom proceeds by fteps fo
regular.
GENERAL CHARACTERS or STYLE.
DIFFUSE, CONCISE, FEE-BLE, NERVOUS, DRY
PLAIN, NEAT, ELEGANT, FLOWERY.
1 HAT different fubje&s' ought to be- treated in
different kinds of ftyle is a polition fo obvious, that it
requires no illuftration. Every one knows that treatif-
es of philofophy fhould not be compofed in the fame
ftyle with orations. It is equally apparent, that differ¬
ent parts of the fame compofition require a variation
in the ftyle. Yet amid this variety we ftill expeff to
find in the compofitions of any one manfome degree of
uniformity in manner; we expedt to find fome prevail¬
ing charadter of ftyle impreffed on all his writings,
which will mark his particular genius and turn of mind.
The orations in Livy differ confiderably in ftyle, as
they ought to do, from the reft of his hiftory. The
fame may be obferved in thofe of Tacitus. Yet in the
orations of both thefe hiftorians the diftinguifhing man¬
ner of each may be clearly traced ; the fplendid
nefs of the one, and the fententious brevity of the other.
Wherever this is real genius, it prompts to one kind of
ftyle rather, than to another. Where this is wanting ;
where there is no marked, nor peculiar charadter in the
cempofitions of an author ; we are apt to conclude, and