Maybe it’s ironic that we’re bringing syndicated columnist George Will back to our pages just when another sesquipedalian conservative wordsmith, William F. Buckley Jr., has just written his life’s final chapter.

But connoisseurs of elegant (if often arch) prose will be pleased to find Will’s column in the opinion section Friday. While there’s no doubting Will’s brilliance, we had tired of his highbrow Oxfordian tone last year and decided to try younger conservative Jonah Goldberg instead.

Goldberg, in my view, turned out to be a bigger step down from Will than I had expected. His level of reasoning just doesn’t hold a candle to Will’s, and Will, to my mind, has shown an impressive streak of intellectual independence in the past year. (I’ve been reading his columns on the Washington Post Web site.)

With one of the most fascinating presidential contests in years ahead of us, I just felt it would be a mistake to deprive our readers of Will’s acute perspective at this time. As always, I welcome reader comment on this decision.