Plurality of worlds : or letters, notes and memoranda, philosophical and critical occasioned by 'A series of discourses on the Christian revelation, viewed in connection with the modern astronomy / By Thomas Chalmers, D.D.' [Anon].

  • Maxwell, Alexander (Bookseller), 1776-1849.
Date:
1817
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Plurality of worlds : or letters, notes and memoranda, philosophical and critical occasioned by 'A series of discourses on the Christian revelation, viewed in connection with the modern astronomy / By Thomas Chalmers, D.D.' [Anon]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    bered with a weight of ornaments. Here plainness, neatness, and simple attire, give new attractions to the most beautiful forms (5). But these Lectures are destitute of that simplicity which is so apparent in the scenery of nature. The clown is dazzled with the glare of light, and the philosopher detects the finery of art. The fop is not a fine gentleman : there is something awkward and disgusting in his appearance, especially to a correct and elegant taste. He wants simplicity, and those nice and delicate proportions which are becoming and orna¬ mental. I consider these Lectures altogether des¬ titute of the simplicity of nature, and dressed up according to the fashion and taste of the author, in mere tinsel, foppery—or, if you please, finery (6). Again,—Nature loves variet}r, which has a great (5) “ True eloquence does not consist, as the rhetoricians assure us, in saying great things in a sublime style, but in a simple style; for there is, properly speaking, no such thing as a sublime style: the sublimity lies only in the things; and when they are not so, the language may be turgid, affected, metaphorical, but not affecting.” Goldsmith's Miscellaneous Jforks, vol. 4, p. 258. (6) “ After a regard to the purity of our language, the next quality of a just style is its plainness and perspicuity. This is the greatest commendation we can give an author, and the best argument that he is master of the language he writes in, and the subject he writes upon, when we understand him, and see into the scope and tendency of his thoughts, as we read him.” Felton on the Classics.