Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)

The Evidences of the Christian Religion

London

Printed for J. Tonson

1730

"There is something so pathetick in this kind of diction, that it often sets the mind in a flame, and makes our hearts burn within us."

There is a certain coldness and indifference in the phrases of our European languages, when they are compared with the oriental forms of speech; and it happens very luckily, that the Hebrew idioms run into the English tongue with a particular grace and beau∣ty. Our language has received innumerable elegancies and improvements, from that infusion of Hebraisms, which are de∣rived to it out of the poetical passages in Holy Writ. They give a force and ener∣gy to our expressions, warm and animate our language, and convey our thoughts in more ardent and intense phrases, than any that are to be met with in our own tongue. There is something so pathetick in this kind of diction, that it often sets the mind in a flame, and makes our hearts burn within us. How cold and dead does a prayer appear, that is composed in the most elegant and polite forms of speech, which are natural to our tongue, when it is not heightned by that solemnity of phrase, which may be drawn from the Sacred Writings. It has been said by some of the ancients, that if the Gods were to talk with men, they would certainly speak in Plato's style; but I think we may say, with justice, that when mortals converse with their Creator, they cannot do it in so proper a style as in that of the Holy Scriptures.

(pp. 210-1)

Fire::Flame

ECCO-TCP

27 entries in the ESTC (1730, 1733, 1742, 1745, 1751, 1753, 1755, 1758, 1759, 1761, 1763, 1764, 1766, 1767, 1772, 1776, 1777, 1790, 1791, 1792, 1795, 1796, 1799, 1800).

The Evidences of the Christian Religion: by the Right Honorable Joseph Addison, Esq; To which are added, Several Discourses against Atheism and Infidelity, ... Occasionally Published by Him and Others (London: Printed for J. Tonson, 1730). <Link to ECCO-TCP>

08/18/2013