The study of the following selections from Macaulay and De Quincey may
be conducted on a plan a trifle different from that heretofore employed.
The present writer spent two hours each day for two weeks reading this
passage from Macaulay over and over: then he wrote a short essay on
"Macaulay as a Model of Style," trying to describe Macaulay's style as
forcibly and skillfully as Macaulay describes the Puritans.
The resulting paper did not appear to be an imitation of Macaulay,
but it had many of the strong features of Macaulay's style which had not
appeared in previous work. The same method was followed in the study
of De Quincey's "English Mail Coach," with even better results.
The great difficulty arose from the fact that these lofty styles were
learned only too well and were not counterbalanced by the study of other
and more universally useful styles. It is dangerous to become
fascinated with the lofty style, highly useful as it is on occasion.
If the student does not feel that he is able to succeed by the method
of study just described, let him confine himself to more direct
imitation, following out Franklin's plan.
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