Page:A Dissertation on Reading the Classics and Forming a Just Style.djvu/129

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to the Subject.
85

Fancy, and bring it home to the Purpose. The Thought may be either too narrow, or too wide; too poor and mean to give either Life, or Light to our Writings, or too wandring and distant to bear any Relation to the Subject. I am not speaking of the Brightness and Beauty, but of the Propriety of Thought; though, if the Thoughts be bright and beautiful, as well as proper, they add, no doubt, a Grace and Splendor to the Discourse; only let the Thoughts be just, and it dependeth upon the Genius of the Writer to give them more Force and Fire. Horace hath drawn the Picture of those

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