But I have not the same dislike of long {99} Johnsonian periods that a good many people have--provided always there is a Johnson to utter them. They belong to _him_; they match with their wordy convolutions his great billowy make of mind; and short, sharp sentences would be as incongruous as a little spurting _jet d'eau_ where great waves come rocking on the beach. In fact, I have a large unbelief in much of current pedagogic talk about style, and "getting a good style," and "reforming style," and "Saxon style," and so on. To be thoroughly possessed of one's own thought, and then to tell it, in the clearest possible way, is the best law I know for a good style; and a proper following of it will give to every mind that has any color of its own a style of its own. To putter about the rhetorics in search of fine phrases to wrap your thoughts in, is like going in masquerade; furbish it as you will, people will see the smear of old wear in the tinsel trappings, and smell it too. If short, homely Saxon will serve one's purpose best in giving sharp, shrewd expression to thought, as most times it will, use Saxon; but if a Latin derivation will hit the very shade of your thinking {100} more aptly, do not affect to scorn the Latin. Even if a French word--provided always it be at once and easily comprehensible by all whom you address--shall touch the very eye of your purpose better than another, do not scruple to use it. But we must ask pardon for this intrusion of small school-mastery talk, while the great master of the Dictionary and of the _Rambler_ waits. As yet we have followed him through only half of his career; a stalwart man, still in the full prime of his years; and I see grouping about him at the Turk's Head many another whom we wish to follow; a Boswell and a Burke; Reynolds and Beauclerk and Goldsmith--these all are in waiting. But for a fuller and nearer view of these old club-men of more than a century ago, we open upon another chapter of these _Lands and Letters_. [1] Whoso would take measure, of his scholarly thoroughness, his reach, his pertinacity, and his capacity for striking sharp blows, should struggle through his _Dissertation on Phalaris_. [2] Swift, Addison, Steele, Gay, _et al._, in preceding volume of _Lands, Letters, and Kings_ ("Elizabeth to Anne") [3] He lived for many years in the _Palazzo Muti_ near to the church of the _SS. Apostoli_, in Rome; his disorderly life there made it a _Regio Palazzo_! [4] _Lands and Letters_: "From Elizabeth to Anne," p. 100. [5] _Lands and Letters_: "Elizabeth to Anne."