Page:A Dissertation on Reading the Classics and Forming a Just Style.djvu/152

108 Words and quaint Expressions are abominable: Wherever Your Lordship meeteth such a Writer, throw him aside for a Coxcomb. Some Authors of Reputation have used a short and concise Way of Expression, I must own; and if they are not so clear as others, the Fault is to be laid on the Brevity they labour after: For while we study to be concise, we can hardly avoid being obscure. We crowd our Thoughts into too small a Compass, and are so sparing of our Words, that we will not afford enow to express our Meaning.

There is another Extreme in obscure Writers, my Lord, Rh