The same passage is copied by Sig. Carlo Denina, Professor of Eloquence and Belles Lettres in the University of Turin, in his "Revolutions of Literature," page 47; and if I mistake not, the sentiments are adopted by Lord Kaims, in his Sketches of the History of Man. Similar reasons may be assigned for the prevalence of an affected and vitious pronunciation. [5] Dr. Witherspoon is an exception. His stile is easy, simple and elegant. I consider Dr. Franklin and Dr. Witherspoon as the two best writers in America. The words they use, and their arrangement, appear to flow spontaneously from their manner of thinking. The vast superiority of their stiles over those of Gibbon and Gillies, is owing to this circumstance, that the two American writers have bestowed their labor upon _ideas_, and the English historians upon _words_. [6] The same taste prevailed in Rome, under the Emperors, when genius was prostituted to the mean purposes of flattery. "It must be acknowleged indeed, that after the dissolution of the Roman republic, this art began to be perverted by being too much admired. Men grew excessively fond of the numerous stile, and readily sacrificed the strength and energy of their discourse to the harmony of their language. Pliny the younger often complains of this contemptible affectation: And Quintilian speaks of certain prose writers in his time, who boasted that their compositions were so strictly numerous, that their hearers might even beat time to their measures. And it should seem that even in Tully's time, this matter was carried to excess; since even then the orators dealt so much in numbers, that it was made a question, wherein they differed from the Poets."----Mason's Essay on the Power and Harmony of Prosaic Numbers. Introduction, page 4. This was an abuse of the art. Melody should be studied; but not principally. [7] Wallis, Johnson, Kenrick, Sheridan, with a multitude of inferior compilers. [8] He found the inhabitants of the maritime towns somewhat civilized,[9] and in their manners resembling the Gauls, with whom they had some commercial intercourse. It is probable that the Britons came originally from the continent, from which their island is separated by a strait of no great extent. [9] "Ex his omnibus, long esunt humanissimi, qui Cantium incolunt: Quæ regio est maritima omnis; _neque multum_ a Gallica differunt consuetudine."----Cesar De Bello Gallico, Lib. 5. [10] Tacitus. Jul. Agric. Vit 11. [11] "Erat autem prisca isthæc Gallis et Britannis communis lingua, ultra omnium historiarum memoriam antiquæ."----Wallis Gram. [12] This is said upon the hypothesis, that the ancient Celtic or British had a common origin with the Hebrew, Phenician and Greek. For proofs of this, see the notes at the end. [13] Temple's Introd. to Hist. of England. [14] At the conquest of Belisle. See the Preface to Mallet's North. Antiq. page 23. [15] Works, Vol. 3. Introd. to Hist. Eng.