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16. Reign of George I, 1727 back to 1714.—Example written about 1718.

"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 ran into the English tongue, with a particular grace and beauty. Our language has received innumerable elegancies and improvements from that infusion of Hebraisms, which are derived to it out of the poetical passages in holy writ. They give a force and energy 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 tongue."—JOSEPH ADDISON: Evidences, p. 192.

17. Reign of Queen Anne, 1714 to 1702.—Example written in 1708.

"Some by old words to Fame have made pretence,

Ancients in phrase, mere moderns in their sense;

Such labour'd nothings, in so strange a style,

Amaze th' unlearn'd, and make the learned smile."

"In words, as fashions, the same rule will hold;

Alike fantastick, if too new or old:

Be not the first by whom the new are try'd,

Nor yet the last to lay the old aside."

ALEXANDER POPE: Essay on Criticism, l. 324–336.