[24] "Ex hac malefano novetatis pruritu, Belgæ Gallicas voces passim civitate sua donando patrii sermonis puritatem nuper non leviter inquinârunt, et Chaucerus Poeta, pessimo exemplo, _integris vocum plaustris ex eadem Gallia in nostram linguam invectis_, eam, nimis antea a Normannorum victoriæ adulteratam, omni fere nativa gratia et nitore spoliavit."----Skinner Etymol. L. A. Pref. [25] Raimond IV. of Aragon, count of Provence, rendered his Court a temple of the muses, and to this resorted the lovers of the Belles Lettres from every part of Europe. About the year 1300, a taste for the Provençal language and poetry was imbibed in Italy, and soon after in England.--Denina, Chap. 4. [26] A remarkable example of this kind of stile, we have in Elphinstone's principles of the English Language. The author has taken great pains to be obscure, and has succeeded to admiration. Of this kind of stile, the reader may see a specimen in the following passage, taken from Young's spirit of Athens. Page 6. "Surely, in every mind, there is an emulation of virtuous superiority, which, however fortune or the meaner passions may hebitate its powers, still, at every example of success in the particular object of its predilection, glows into a momentary flame, which from frequent resuscitation may acquire a stability and strength sufficient to reach at the attainment of what, at first, was regarded solely as matter of admiration; the idea of imitation which hath thus enraptured the fancy, may in times of perilous crisis somewhat elevate the mind and influence the conduct; and if such ever may be the effect, what other lecture can ballance the utility of that, which thus animates the man, and urges him to noble and disinterested services in a good, great and public cause." The author could hardly have invented an arrangement, better calculated to obscure his meaning. It is said of Moliere, that before he would suffer a new play of his to be acted, he read it to an old woman, and judged, by the effect it had upon her, what reception it would meet with on the stage. It is a pity, some modern writers do not copy the example. [27] Dr. Blair has made a few excellent remarks on this fault, under the article _Precision_, Lecture 10. I do not remember to have seen any other criticisms upon this subject. [28] Ossian. [29] See Blair, Lecture 6, and Condillac, in his Essay on the Origin of Human Knowlege. The _dancing_ of David, and others, mentioned in the Old Testament, was a solemn exercise, in which action was joined with words to express ideas. It is said to have been a dispute between Cicero and Roscius, whether the former could express an idea by a greater variety of _words_, or the latter by a greater variety of _gesture_.----"Satis constat, contendere cum (Ciceronem) cum ipso histrione (Roscio) solitum, utrum ille sæpius eandem sententiam variis gestibus efficeret, an ipse per eloquentiæ copiam sermone diverso pronunciaret."----Macrob. Saturn, 2. 10.