And for those other faults of barbarism, Doric dialect, extemporanean
style, tautologies, apish imitation, a rhapsody of rags gathered
together from several dung-hills, excrements of authors, toys and
fopperies confusedly tumbled out, without art, invention, judgment, wit,
learning, harsh, raw, rude, fantastical, absurd, insolent, indiscreet,
ill-composed, indigested, vain, scurrile, idle, dull, and dry, I confess
all ('tis partly affected); thou canst not think worse of me than I do
of myself.
* * * * *
So that as a river runs, sometimes precipitate and swift, then dull and
slow; now direct, then _per ambages_; now deep, then shallow; now muddy,
then clear; now broad, then narrow; doth my style flow: now serious,
then light; now comical, then satirical; now more elaborate, then
remiss, as the present subject required or as at that time I was
affected. And if thou vouchsafe to read this treatise, it shall seem no
otherwise to thee than the way to an ordinary traveller, sometimes fair,
sometimes foul, here champaign, there enclosed; barren in one place,
better soil in another.
--_Anatomy of Melancholy_.--Burton.