great sacrifices. His desires were set on things below. Wealth,
precedence, titles, patronage, the mace, the seals, the coronet, large
houses, fair gardens, rich manors, massive services of plate, gay
hangings, curious cabinets, had as great attractions for him as for any
of the courtiers who dropped on their knees in the dirt when Elizabeth
passed, and then hastened home to write to the King of Scots that her
Grace seemed to be breaking fast."

+42. Symmetrical Faculties.+ When the mental faculties are symmetrical
and harmonious in their operation, no particular feature of style may
stand out prominent. It will bend to suit the exigencies of the subject.
It will rise and sink with the varying thought and feeling. It will be
judicious, and at times commonplace. But if, at the same time, mental
symmetry is united with fineness of fiber and with adequate culture and
practice, the style will probably be, as in the case of Addison and
Irving, full of grace and elegance. Note the easy grace with which
Addison begins his first paper on the "Pleasures of the Imagination":
"Our sight is the most perfect and most delightful of all our senses. It
fills the mind with the largest variety of ideas, converses with its
objects at the greatest distance, and continues longest in action
without being tired or satiated with its proper enjoyments. The sense of
feeling can indeed give us a notion of extension, shape, and all other
ideas that enter at the eye, except colors; but at the same time it is
very much strained, and confined in its operations, to the number, bulk,
and distance of its particular objects. Our sight seems designed to
supply all these defects, and may be considered as a more delicate and
diffusive kind of touch, that spreads itself over an infinite multitude
of bodies, comprehends the largest figures, and brings into our reach
some of the most remote parts of the universe."

Every passing mood and every peculiarity of mind or character are
reflected in the style. It may be gay, humorous, serious, sad,
melancholy, according to the state of the writer's feelings. It may be
colloquial or stately, concise or diffuse, plain or florid, flowing or
abrupt, feeble or energetic, natural or affected, commonplace or
epigrammatic,--as varied, in fact, as the character and mental
constitution of the writers. But every writer has a prevailing style;
and it is an interesting study to determine the nature of his mind and
character from