We miss in Addison the variety which we found in Ruskin.
He does not seem to understand the art of alternating long and short
sentences, and following one sentence form by another in quick
succession. The fact is, English prose style has made enormous advances
since the time of Addison, and we learn more by comparing him
with a writer like Ruskin than by deliberately imitating him.
At the same time his method is simpler, and since it is so we may find
him a good writer to begin our study with. In spite of any little
faults we may find with him, he was and is a great writer, and we should
be sure we can write as _well_ as he before we reject him.
LETTERS.
By Robert Louis Stevenson.
I.
My Dear Mother,---I am here at last, sitting in my room, without coat
or waistcoat, and with both window and door open, and yet perspiring
like a terra-cotta jug or a Gruy{S} ere cheese:
We had a very good passage, which we certainly deserved no compensation
for having to sleep on the cabin floor and finding absolutely nothing
fit for human food in the whole filthy embarkation. We made up for lost
time by sleeping on deck a good part of the forenoon.
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