THE LIFE

...believed it to be quite sincere, charges of plagiarism (a) for which he never fully justified himself somewhat obscured the glory he had acquired through his fine Works; finally, the style full of affectation that he suddenly adopted finished by revolting even those people who had the most esteem for the beauty of his genius and the extent of his erudition. Indeed, instead of that elegant, clear, and sustained way of writing—which is that of the best models, and which he himself had followed in his first Books—he was seen, as soon as he believed his reputation established enough to hope to form a Sect In this context, a "sect" refers to a school of thought or a group of devoted followers and imitators., choosing a completely different way of writing. In place of those periodic and rhythmic turns of phrase that our Masters took so much care to recommend This refers to the "Ciceronian" style: long, balanced, and flowing sentences that were the gold standard for Latin prose during the Renaissance., he substituted others whose concise turn must necessarily make the discourse obscure and rhythmic. Equally flawed in the choice of words, he carried to the highest excess the license of reviving antiquated and out-of-use expressions, of inventing new ones, and of transporting into Prose all the boldness of figures of speech reserved for grand Poetry.

His vices found imitators and cen- Likely "censeurs" (critics).

In the Writings of anyone other than Justus Lipsius, these defects would not have been dangerous; but in his, where they appeared under a false brilliance that could be mistaken for true beauties, they de-

(a) One only has to read as proof, Thomasius, On Literary Plagiarism original: "Thomaſius, de Plagio Literario", and Crenius, On Literary Thieves original: "Crenius, de Furibus Literariis".