ſhort, abrupt, unconnected Periods; a Style ſo eaſy, that any Man may write it, and which, one would imagine, it muſt be very difficult to procure any Perſon to read.
To ſuch Critics therefore I would recommend Ovid, who was perhaps the ableſt Writer of les Lettres Galantes, that ever lived. In his Arte amandi they will find the following Rule.
—praeſens ut videare loqui.
viz. that theſe Letters ſhould preſerve the Style of Converſation; and in his Epiſtles they will ſee this excellently illuſtrated by Example. But if we are to form our Idea of the Converſation of ſome modern Writers from their Letters, we ſhall have, I am afraid, a very indifferent Opinion of both.
But in reality, this Style of Converſation is only proper, at leaſt only neceſsary to theſe, which I have called Letters of Converſation; and is not at all requiſite either to Letters of Buſineſs, which in After-ages make a Part of Hiſtory, or to thoſe on the Subject of Literature and Criticiſm.
