The posthumous works Author:Isaac Watts Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: C H A P. II. Of an InftruElive Style. THE moft neceffary, and the moft ufcful Character of a Style fit for In- ftruxflion is that it be plain t perfbicuous... more » and tajy. And here I (hall firft point out all thefe Errors in Style, which diminifh or deftroy 4he Perfpicuity of it, and then mention a fev Direftions, how to obtain a per- ipicuous and ealy Style. The Errors of a Style which muft be avoided by Teachers, are thefe that follow : I. THE Ufe of many foreign f?brAt which are not Jiifficiently naturalized and mingled, with the Language which ive /peak or write. 'Tis true, that in teaching the Sciences in Englijh, we muft fometimes ufe Words borrowed from the Greek and Latin, for we have not in English Names for a Variety of Subjects which belong to Learning; but when a Man effects, upon all Occasions, to bring in long founding Words from the ancient Languages without Neceffity, and mingles French and other outlandijh Terms and Phrafes, where plain Englifh would ferve as well, he betrays a vain and foolifh Genius unbecoming a Teacher. 2. AVOID 2. A VOID a fantajlick learned Stylet borrowed from the various Sciences, where the Subject and Matter do not require the Ufe of them. Don't affedt Terms of Art on every Occafion, nor feek to (how your Learning, by founding Words and dark Phrafcs; this is properly called Pedantry. Young Preachers juft come from the Schools, are often tempted to fill their Sermons, with logical and metaphyfical Terms in explaining their Text, and feed their Hearers with fonorous Words of Vanity,. This fcholaftick Language, perhaps may flatter their own Ambition, and raife a Wonderment at their Learning among the flaring Multitude, without any manner of Influence toward the Inftruclion of the Ignorant, or the Reformation of the Immoral or I...« less