Note 930 — Chapter X

Miræus, quoted in Melchior Adam’s Life of Lipsius, praises his eloquence, with contempt of those who thought their own feeble and empty writing like Cicero’s. See also Eichhorn, iii. 299; Baillet, who has a long article on the style of Lipsius and the school it formed (Jugemens des Savans, vol. ii. p. 192, 4to edition); and Blount; also the note M. in Bayle’s article on Lipsius. The following passage of Scioppius I transcribe from Blount:—In Justi Lipsii stylo, scriptoris ætate nostra clarissimi, istæ apparent dotes; acumen, venustas, delectus, ornatus vel nimius, cum vix quicquam proprie dictum ei placeat, tum schemata nullo numero, tandem verborum copia; desunt autem perspicuitas, puritas, æquabilitas, collocatio, junctura et numerus oratorius. Itaque oratio ejus est obscura, non paucis barbarismis et solœcismis, pluribus vero archaismis et idiotismis, innumeris etiam neoterismis inquinata, comprehensio obscura, compositio fracta et in particulas concisa, vocum similium aut ambiguarum puerilis captatio.