It is almost incredible that the superb imaginative amplification of the description of Hyder Ali's descent upon the Carnatic should be from the same pen as the grave, simple, unadorned _Address to the King_ (1777), where each sentence falls on the ear with the accent of some golden-tongued oracle of the wise gods.

His stride is the stride of a giant, from the sentimental beauty of the picture of Marie Antoinette at Versailles, or the red horror of the tale of Debi Sing in Rungpore, to the learning, positiveness, and cool judicial mastery of the _Report on the Lords' Journals_ (1794), which Philip Francis, no mean judge, declared on the whole to be the "most eminent and extraordinary" of all his productions.

Even in the coolest and dryest of his pieces, there is the mark of greatness, of grasp, of comprehension.

In all its varieties Burke's style is noble, earnest, deep-flowing, because his sentiment was lofty and fervid, and went with sincerity and ardent disciplined travail of judgment.

Fox told Francis Horner that Dryden's prose was Burke's great favourite, and that Burke imitated him more than any one else.