Careful Words

elegant (adj.)

Elegant as simplicity, and warm

As ecstasy.

William Cowper (1731-1800): Table Talk. Line 588.

  Whoever wishes to attain an English style, familiar but not coarse, and elegant but not ostentatious, must give his days and nights to the volumes of Addison.

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784): Life of Addison.

  The elegant simplicity of the three per cents.

Lord Stowell (1745-1836): Lives of the Lord Chancellors (Campbell). Vol. x. Chap. 212.

An elegant sufficiency, content,

Retirement, rural quiet, friendship, books,

Ease and alternate labour, useful life,

Progressive virtue, and approving Heaven!

James Thomson (1700-1748): The Seasons. Spring. Line 1158.