not of ordinary men or common authors, but of the most elevated and distinguished personages and institutions of his country; of a person who seemed to feel himself called on to treat majesty itself with perfect freedom, and before whom the supreme wisdom and might of the great councils of the state stood rebuked and in fear. "We should form an erroneous idea of Junius, however, if, from this energy and simplicity of the style imputed to him, we should imagine that he is therefore an argumentative writer. The slow processes of reason would have been as unsuitable to the grandeur of his office, as the tedious march of ordinary language. As it was beautifully remarked of another mind of the same order, 'he lightens rather than reasons on his subject;' he throws out flashes from his mind that enable others to see to a greater extent and with a purer vision than they had ever seen before; instead of condescending to offer a reason for his opinions, he trusts for their reception to the evidence with which his masterly words surround them; and when he has fixed the attention of his reader on some distinction that has been overlooked, or some constitutional principle that was neglected, he seems to take it for granted that, when stated in the language which he has employed, and urged with the vigour which he has put forth, there is no mind which must not see their importance, and no heart that must not assent to their value.\ "The power of Junius, however, in stating general truths, is extremely different from that of Burke. The writings of this last author are replete with maxims, in which the substance of volumes is frequently compressed within a very narrow space; but these maxims have, on this very account, a generality and comprehension which enable them to be applied to many different things; they are expressions of results, which the mind of the author had derived from a wide survey of all human knowledge and human occupations; and resemble those general laws, according to which the infinite variety of Nature's operations is conducted. Junius has no such comprehensive range of view, but he darts his eye upon a single point, and light and evidence seem to proceed from his glance; he carries illumination as far as within that space it can be carried; or, if he sometimes gives a false or distorted view of the objects which it embraces, it is always, however, such a view as shews his object in vivid colours, and gives a high idea of the power that hath enlightened it. \\ Other "We apprehend, however, that there is none of all the powers which Junius has displayed, that is so peculiarly and entirely his own as his power of sarcasm. authors deal occasionally in this article; but, whenever Junius rises to his highest sphere, he assumes the air of a being who delights to taunt and to mock his adversary; he refuses to treat him as a person who should be seriously dealt with, and pours out his contempt or indignation under an imposing affectation of deference and respect. His talent for sarcasm too, is of the finest kind, it is so carefully but so poignantly exerted, that it is necessary to watch his words to perceive all the satire which they contain; we have thus an impression that the author is only speaking in his natural style when he is employing a mode of annoyance which it requires the utmost address and skill to manage, but when his irony is perceived, it strikes like a poniard, and the wound which it makes is such as cannot be closed. There is, indeed, no author with whom we are acquainted who possesses this quality in the same perfection, or who has exerted it with the same effect; and we are of opinion, that as it was this peculiarity which originally gave to his writings their astonishing influence, it still continues to be the quality by which they are most remarkably distinguished from all other compositions."\ The following are the brief sentiments of several eminent men on the same subject. Mr. Coleridge was of opinion, that "The style of Junius is a sort of metre, the law of which is a balance of thesis and antithesis. When he gets out of this aphorismic metre into a sentence of five or six lines long, nothing can exceed the slovenliness of the English. Horne Tooke and a long sentence seem the only two antagonists that were too much for him. Still the antithesis of Junius is a real antithesis of images or thought; but the antithesis of Johnson is rarely more than verbal."-Table Talk, vol. ii. 213. Mr. Butler says, that on one occasion he remarked to Edmund Burke, "a very strong expression in one of Junius's Letters, and intimated that it might bring him under the fangs of the law. Mr. Burke said, 'Junius was an impertinent fellow.' Mr. Burke appeared to use the expression in the tone of one who disapproved of Junius's writings, and did not greatly value them. Mr. Gibbon appeared to me not to admire his style as much as it was admired by the public in general, and he told me that Mr. Fox thought slightingly of it." From a letter written by Dugald Stewart respecting Burns, we may collect the sentiments of these two eminent men, on the style of Junius. 66 "In judging of prose, I do not think," says Dugald Stewart, that Burns' taste was equally sound. I once read to him a passage or two in Franklin's works, which I thought very happily executed upon the model of Addison, but he did not appear to relish or to perceive the beauty which they derived from their exquisite simplicity, and spoke of them with indifference when compared with the point, and antithesis, and quaintness of Junius." Some notion may be formed of the effect produced on the public mind by the Letters of Junius, from a speech delivered by Mr. Burke in the House of Commons, in which he says, "How comes this Junius to have broke through the cobwebs of the law, and to range uncontrolled, unpunished, through the land? The myrmidons of the Court have been long, and are still, pursuing him in vain. They will not spend their time upon me, or you, or you. No, they disdain such vermin, when the mighty boar of the forest, that has broke through all their toils, is before them. But, what will all their efforts avail? No sooner has he wounded one than he lays down another dead at his feet. For my own part, when I saw his attack upon the king, I own my blood ran cold. I thought he had ventured too far, and there was an end of his triumphs. Not that he had not asserted many truths. Yes, sir, there are in that composition many bold truths, by which a wise prince might profit. It was the rancour and venom, with which I was struck. In these respects, the North Briton is as much inferior to him, as in strength, wit, and judgment. But while I expected in this daring flight his final ruin and fall, behold him rising still higher, and coming down souse upon both Houses of Parliament. Yes, he did make you his quarry, and you still bleed from the wounds of his talons. You crouch, and still crouch, beneath his rage. Nor has he dreaded the terrors of your brow, sir; he has attacked even you-he has— and I believe you have no reason to triumph in the encounter. In short, after carrying away our royal eagle in his pounces, and dashing him against a rock, he has laid you prostrate. King, Lords, and Commons, are but the sport of his fury. Were he a member of this House, what might not be expected from his knowledge, his firmness, and integrity? He would be easily known by his contempt of all danger, by his penetration, by his vigour. Nothing would escape his vigilance and activity. Bad ministers could conceal nothing from his sagacity, nor could promises, nor threats, induce him to conceal anything from the public.” The Speaker of the House of Commons, thus apostrophised by Burke, was Sir Fletcher Norton, afterwards Lord Grantley, whose amiable qualities have been preserved to future ages (like insects embalmed in amber) in the pages of Junius, who characterises him as the very lawyer described by Ben Jonson in the following lines— Gives forked counsel, takes provoking gold On either hand, and puts it up. So wise, so grave, of so perplex'd a tongue, |