"
I do not think he added a single word to the language, unless, as
I suspect, he first used magnetism in its present sense of moral
attraction. What he did in his best writing was, to use the English as
if it were a spoken, and not merely an inkhorn language; as if it were
his own to do what he pleased with it, as if it need not be ashamed of
itself. In this respect, his service to our prose was greater than
any other man has ever rendered. He says he formed his style upon
Tillotson's (Bossuet on the other hand, formed _his_ upon Corneille's);
but I rather think he got it at Will's, for its greatest charm is, that
it has the various freedom of talk. In verse, he has a pomp which,
excellent in itself, became pompousness in his imitators. But he had
nothing of Milton's ear for various rhythm and interwoven harmony. He
knew how to give new modulation, sweetness, and force to the pentameter;
but in what used to be called pindarics, I am heretic enough to think
he generally failed.
* * * * *
From "My Study Windows."
=_219._= LOVE OF BIRDS AND SQUIRRELS.
Wilson's thrush comes every year to remind me of that most poetic of
ornithologists. He flits before me through the pine-walk like the very
genius of solitude.
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