" "From Addison in the course of time I passed on," he
continues, "to the other great writers of his and the succeeding age,
finding in their exquisitely clear style, their admirable common-sense,
and their freedom from all the tricks of affectation, a delightful
contrast to so many of the eminent authors of our own time." These words
might be used of Gordon: I do not claim for him the style of Addison, nor
the accomplished negligence of Goldsmith; these are graces beyond the
reach of art; but he exhibits the common-sense, and the clear style, of
the eighteenth century. Like all the good writers of his time, he is
unaffected and "simplex munditiis"; he has the better qualities of Pyrrha,
and is "plain in his neatness." In Mr. Ward's edition of the English
Poets, there may be read side by side a notice of Collins and of Gray; the
one by Mr. Swinburne, the other by Mr. Matthew Arnold: I make no allusion
here to the greatness of either poet, to the merits of either style, nor
to the value of either criticism. But the essay upon Gray is quiet in
tone; it has an unity of treatment, and never deserts the principal
subject; it is suffused with light, and full of the most delicate
allusions: the essay on Collins, by being written in superlatives and
vague similes, deafens and perplexes the reader; and the author, by
squandering his resources, has no power to make fine distinctions, nor to
exalt one part of his thesis above another.
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