bold, feeble, nervous,
plain, neat, dry, or flowery styles. A full sentence or _period_, as it
is called, must therefore have: 1. _Precision_; that is, it must be
clear and not ambiguous: 2. _Unity_; that is, it must not have crowded
into it different subjects: 3. _Strength_; that is, all unnecessary
words must be thrown away, and it must be built with such mechanical
skill as will render it the most forcible to the mind: and, 4.
_Harmony_; that is, it must sound with the sense.

For the purpose of an argument, it is immaterial to me whether I have
cause to praise or censure the style of Mr. Paine. It is a comparison of
the known with the unknown, in which I am about to engage, and it is the
_likeness_, not the merits, which I wish to bring out. A good or a bad
style would not affect the similarity were either produced by the same
hand. But it is a fact worthy of remark, as I am passing, that a bad
style in writing or speaking, has never produced any marked effect upon
the world. It is the nature of great minds to be possessed of clear
ideas, and to such minds nature never withholds the gift of purity of
diction.

The style of Mr. Paine is as peculiar as the great mind that produced
it, and I will describe it to be: _strong, bold, clear, and harmonious_.
The construction of any of his pieces, is like the building of a fine
edifice. He never begins without plan and specifications. He builds it
in the ideal before he puts it on paper. The reader finds a foundation
fit and substantial in the first paragraph, often in the first sentence.
Upon this he finds a superstructure to correspond, which in size and
proportions, is neat and artistic, constructed with each separate
material of the best kind, and in its proper place, never left without
cornice and entablature, so that when taken all together it is most
pleasing and useful. He never leaves a period like a broken column, yet
a careless vine sometimes winds around it, to attract the mind from its
stately proportions, and we have lost the argument in the beauty of the
figure. But the effect is momentary. He soon brings us back to the
practical and the real. And it is his peculiar beauty, that he does not
impose ideas upon us which his language can not convey to the commonest
understanding.

Mr. Jefferson says of his style: "No writer has exceeded Paine in
familiarity of style, in perspicuity of expression, happiness of
elucidation, and in simple and unassuming language.