Page:A Dissertation on Reading the Classics and Forming a Just Style.djvu/251

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Squire Bickerstaff.
207

and Manner will be Your own, and even Your Letters upon the most ordinary Subjects will have a native Beauty and Elegance in the Composition, which will equal them with the best Originals, and set them far above the common Standard.

Upon this Occasion, my Lord, I cannot pass by Your Favourite Author, the grave and facetious Squire Bickerstaff, who hath drawn Mankind in every Dress, and every Disguise of Nature, in a Style ever varying with the Humours, Fancies, and Follies, he describes. He hath showed himself a Master in every Turn of his Pen, whether his Subject

be