Page:Father's memoirs of his child.djvu/114

, and the adoption of the poetical and pious phraseology in the inspired authors. "There is something so pathetic in this kind of diction, that it often sets the mind in a flame, and makes our hearts burn within us. How cold and dead does a prayer appear, that is composed in the most elegant and polite forms of speech, which are natural to our tongue, when it is not heightened by that solemnity of phrase which may be drawn from the sacred writings. It has been said by some of the ancients, that if the gods were to talk with men, they would certainly speak in Plato's stile; but I think we may say with justice, that when mortals converse with their Creator, they cannot do it in so proper a style as in that of the Holy Scriptures."

On the model here recommended by Addison, had the compilers of our liturgy already formed the national service. The little prayer I have inserted appears to me to have copied the copies, without burlesquing the original; and I much question,