Excerpt from Specimens of English Prose Style: From Malory to Macaulay
A Year or more ago it was reported, perhaps falsely, that a great French writer, whose command of his own tongue was only equalled by his ignorance of the English language and literature, gave in some semi-public form his opinion of the difference between French and English prose and verse. A perfect language, he opined, should show a noteworthy difference between its style in prose and its style in verse: this difference existed in French and did not exist in English. I shall give no opinion as to the truth of this axiom in general, or as to its application to French. But it is not inappropriate to begin an essay on the subject of English prose style by observing that, whatever may be its merits and defects, it is entirely different - different by the extent of the whole heaven of language - from I English verse style. We have had writers, including some of genius, who have striven to make prose like verse: and we have had other writers, including some of genius, who have striven to make verse like prose. Both in so doing have shown themselves to be radically mistaken.
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