he seeks no ambitious ornaments, and tries no hazardous innovations.
His page is always luminous, but never blazes in unexpected
splendour.

It was apparently his principal endeavour to avoid all harshness and
severity of diction; he is therefore sometimes verbose in his
transitions and connections, and sometimes descends too much to the
language of conversation; yet if his language had been less
idiomatical it might have lost somewhat of its genuine Anglicism.
What he attempted, he performed; he is never feeble and he did not
wish to be energetic; he is never rapid and he never stagnates. His
sentences have neither studied amplitude nor affected brevity; his
periods, though not diligently rounded, are voluble and easy.
Whoever wishes to attain an English style, familiar but not coarse,
and elegant but not ostentatious, must give his days and nights to
the volumes of Addison.



SAVAGE.



It has been observed in all ages that the advantages of nature or of
fortune have contributed very little to the promotion of happiness:
and that those whom the splendour of their rank, or the extent of
their capacity, has placed upon the summit of human life, have not
often given any just occasion to envy in those who look up to them
from a lower station; whether it be that apparent superiority
incites great designs, and great designs are naturally liable to