Henry Felton

“ History, Poetry, and Divinity have been the distinguishing Parts of our Writings, and I will be bold to give this general Character of our Writers in them, that they only fall short of the Graces and Beauties of the Ancients.
Divinity, my Lord, is the just Boast and Glory of England. I need not say, that our Writers have excelled in Soundness of Doctrine, Exactness of Method, and Clearness of Reasoning, but they have excelled also in the Simplicity and Elegance of their Style, in Brightness of Thought, and Beauty of Expression. ”

“ The great Art of Teaching, my Lord, is to give the Learners a true Taste of their Authors; to open the Beauties of their Thoughts and Style; to show them the bright Parts, the peculiar Excellencies, the Force and Spirit, the Ease and Gentleness of their Writings: How All is Uncommon, and All is Natural, and every Thing so thought and said, that upon the Occasion it is impossible to deliver better Thoughts in better Words. ”

“ Chaucer is too Old, I fear, for so young Company as Your Lordship; but Spencer, tho' he be antiquated too, hath still Charms remaining to make Your Lordship enamoured of him. His antique Verse hath Music in it to ravish any Ears, that can be sensible of the softest, sweetest Numbers, that ever flowed from a Poet's Pen.
Shakespear is a Wonderful Genius, a single Instance of the Force of Nature, and the Strength of Wit. Nothing can be greater, and more lively, than his Thoughts ”

“ For beside the common Accomplishment of Classic Learning, Persons of Your Lordship's Quality have so fine a Turn, so genteel an Air from their Breeding, and courtly Conversation in every Thing they write or speak, that it giveth an inimitable Grace to their Words and Compositions; and I never knew a Nobleman equal in Learning to other Men, but he was superior to them in the Delicacy and Civility of his Style. ”

“ Allegories I need not mention, because they are not so much any Ornament of Style, as an artful Way of recommending Truth to the World in a borrowed Shape, and a Dress more agreeable to the Fancy, than naked Truth herself can be. Truth is ever most beautiful and evident in her Native Dress; And the Arts, that are used to convey her to our Minds, are no Argument that she is deficient, but so many Testimonies of the Corruption of our Nature, when Truth, of all Things the plainest and sincerest, is forced to gain Admittance to us in Disguise, and court us in Masquerade. ”

“ Being more diffused, would have weakened his Language, and have made it obscurer rather, than clearer. For Multitude of Words only serve to cloud, or dissipate the Sense; and tho' a copious Style in a Master's Hand is clear and beautiful, yet where Conciseness and Perspicuity are once reconciled, any Attempt to enlarge the Expressions, if doth not darken, does certainly make the Light much feebler. Salust is all Life and Spirit, yet grave and majestic in his diction: His Use of old Words is perfectly Right; there is no Affectation, but more Weight and Significancy in them ”

“ Every body knoweth the general Design of History, and among those who are in all Points qualified to undertake it, they will excell, who have the brightest Genius, and the most lively Wit. Perhaps, Your Lordship will wonder, I am sure many People will condemn me for this Assertion, but I cannot help it, my Lord, for I have always thought that the more we are bound up to an exact Narration, we want more Life, and Fire to animate and inform the Story, otherwise the Success of an Historian would depend on the Times he writeth of, more than on his Abilities. ”

“ All the World acknowledgeth the Æneid to be most Perfect in its Kind; and considering the Disadvantage of the Language, and the Severity of the Roman Muse, the Poem is still more Wonderful, since without the Liberty of the Grecian Poets, the Diction is so Great and Noble, so Clear, so Forcible and Expressive, so Chaste and Pure, that even all the Strength and Compass of the Greek Tongue joined to Homer's Fire cannot give us stronger and clearer Ideas, than the great Virgil hath set before our Eyes; some few Instances excepted, in which Homer thro' the Force of Genius hath excelled. ”

“ And the monstrous Affectation of our travelled Ladies and Gentlemen to speak in the French Air, French Tone, French Terms, to dress, to cook, to write, to court in French, corrupted at once our Language and our Manners, and introduced an abominable Gallimaufry of French and English mixed together, that made the Innovators ridiculous to all Men of Sense. The French Tongue hath undoubtedly its Graces and Beauties, and I am not against any real Improvement of our own Language from that or any other; but we are always so foolish, or unfortunate, as never to make any Advantage of our Neighbours. ”

“ My Lord, this is the greatest Commendation we can give an Author, and the best Argument that he is Master of the Language he writeth in, and the Subject he writeth upon, when we understand him, and see into the Scope and Tendency of his Thoughts, as we read him. All Obscurity of Expression, and Darkness of Sense, do arise from the Confusion of the Writer's Thoughts, and his Want of proper Words. If a Man hath not a clear Perception of the Matters he undertaketh to treat of, be his Style never so plain as to the Words he useth, it never can be clear ”

“ And Thought is then in the last Perfection, when it is so bright, so lively, so just, so full, that on the same Subject You cannot invent any, Finer, or more Proper in the whole Compass of Nature and Imagination. ”

“ It is common to commend a Man, my Lord, for an Ear to Music, and a Taste of Painting, which are nothing but a just Discernment of what is excellent and most perfect in them: The first dependeth entirely on the Ear; a Man can never expect to be a Master, that hath not an Ear tuned and set to Music: And You can no more sing an Ode without an Ear, than without a Genius You can write one. ”

“ But I have digressed from Milton, and that I may return, and say all in a Word. His Style, his Thoughts, his Verse are as superior to the generality of other Poets, as his Subject. His Disloyalty alone throws a Cloud upon his Glory, and we stand amazed to think that Man could ever be a Rebel, who had seen, as it were, and described, in all the Pomp of Terror, the Rebellion and Punishment of the Apostate Angels. ”

“ A Composition is then perfect, my Lord, when the Matter riseth out of the Subject, when the Thoughts are agreeable to the Matter, and the Expressions suitable to the Thoughts, when there is no Inconsistency from the Beginning to the End; when the whole is perspicuous in the beautiful Order of its Parts, and formed in due Symmetry and Proportion. ”

“ In Reading the excellent Authors of the Roman Tongue, whether You converse with Poets, Orators or Historians, Your Lordship will meet with all that is admirable in Humane Composure: And tho' Life, and Spirit, Propriety, and Force of Style, be common to them all, You will see, that nevertheless every Writer shineth in his peculiar Excellencies, and that Wit, like Beauty, is diversified into a Thousand Graces of Feature and Complexion. ”

“ A Piece in such Perfection of Beauty, that he gives the Rules with the same Spirit we find in the Examples, and maketh those Dissertations, which in heavy, formal Hands, would have looked crabbed, dull, and dry, shine in all the Graces, that Life, and Ease, and Vigor can adorn them with; we see how entertaining the severest Criticism are in a Poet's Hand, and what Life and Spirit he can give to the dryest Part of his Subject, while he prescribes the Rules, and fixes the Laws of Poetic Diction, weigheth the Importance of Words, and considers the several Ways of Expression peculiar to the Poets. ”

“ All the Danger is, that a Wit too fruitful should run out into unnecessary Branches; but when it is matured by Age, and corrected by Judgment, the Writer will prune the luxuriant Boughs, and cut off the superfluous Shoots of Fancy, thereby giving both Strength and Beauty to his Work.
Perhaps, my Lord, this Piece of Discipline is to young Writers the greatest Self-Denial in the World. To confine the Fancy, to stifle the Birth, much more to throw away the beautiful Offspring of the Brain, is a Trial, that none but the most delicate and lively Wits can be put to. ”

“ In Rome, my Lord, there were some popular Orators, who with a false Eloquence and violent Action carried away the Applause of the People; and with us we have some popular Men, who are followed and admired for the Loudness of their Voice, and a false Pathos both in utterance and Writing: I have been sometimes in some Confusion to hear such Persons commended by those of superior Sense, who could distinguish, one would think, between empty, pompous, specious Harangues, and those Pieces in which all the Beauties of Writing are combined. ”

“ It requireth a Genius, like that wherewith they writ, to write upon them: Every Man that understandeth Latin doth not understand either Greatness or Delicacy of Thought, Strength, or Beauty of Expression; and some critical Heads, such absolute Masters are they of their Passions, can bear the Raptures and Flights of Poets with a wonderful Command of Temper, and be no more affected with the most moving Strains, than if they were reading the heaviest Piece of their own Composing. ”

“ Moss is one of the best Preachers of the Age, and an admirable Instance of the Use that is to be made of Classics, without pretending to Critics and Commentators, by Mastering the genuine Spirit, and native Beauty of his Authors. He maketh them subservient to Religion, and consecrateth them to the Service of God.
In Dr. Smalridge are reconciled all the Beauties of Language to the Severity of Arguments: His Method and Reasoning are absolute upon the Points he treats of; His Style is clear and elegant, just and manly ”

“ A perfect Mastery and Elegance of Style is to be learn'd from the Common Rules, but must be improved by reading the Orators and Poets, and the celebrated Masters in every Kind; this will give Your Lordship a right Taste, and a true Relish; and when You can distinguish the Beauties of every finished Piece, You will write Yourself with equal Commendation.
I do not assert, my Lord, that every good Writer must have a Genius for Poetry, I know Tully is an undeniable Exception ”

“ It is the Infirmity of poor Spirits to be taken with every Appearance, and dazled by every Thing that sparkles; But to pass by what the Generality of the World admires, and to be detained with nothing, but what is most perfect, and excellent in its Kind, speaks a superior Genius, and a true Discernment: A new Picture by some meaner Hand, where the Colours are fresh and lively will engage the Eye, but the Pleasure goes off with looking, and what we ran to at first with Eagerness, we presently leave with Indifference ”

“ We are untaught by Nature, and the finest Qualities will grow wild and degenerate, if the Mind is not formed by Discipline, and cultivated with an early Care. In some Persons, who have run up to Men without a liberal Education, we may observe many great Qualities darken'd and eclips'd; their Minds are crusted over like Diamonds in the Rock, they flash out sometimes into an irregular Greatness of Thought, and betray in their Actions an unguided Force, and unmanaged Virtue ”

“ In the sacred History alone, his Strength and his Spirit fail him: For nothing can preserve that sublime Simplicity, that awful Solemnity, and divine Majesty of the inspired Historians, but their own Words, as they are most plainly and properly rendred into any Language; this is an accidental Confirmation of a former Remark, and I must finish Sir Walter's Character with declaring my Opinion, that his admirable Performance in such a prodigious Undertaking, sheweth, that if he had attempted the History of his own Country, or his own Times, he would have excelled even Livy and Thucydides ”

“ Yet, my Lord, our Tragedies may be read with great Advantage to Style and Language, if we can bring them down to our calmer Thoughts, and the stiller Scenes of Life, and only use them to be better acquainted with the Nature, Violence, Degrees, and Expression of all the various Passions that exercise and distract the Mind of Man. ”

“ It is my own Opinion, that all the Rules and critical Observations in the World will never bring a Man to a just Style, who hath not of himself a natural easy Way of Writing; but they will improve a good Genius, where Nature leadeth the Way, provided he is not too scrupulous, and doth not make himself a Slave to his Rules, for that will introduce a Stiffness and Affectation, which are utterly abhorrent from all good Writing. ”