ENGLISH PROSE.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—I should like to ask whether there are two kinds of prose, one for reading aloud and one addressed to the eye only. Those who look for them may often detect cacophonies in leading articles. I submit that such are faults. Apart from the peculiar sympathetic fire of eloquence, I always prefer to read aloud what has been composed for public: delivery,—lectures, addresses, sermons. There are certain Vulgarisms, introduced chiefly by newspaper writers and medical writers, which I wish critics could drive away,—such as " object-lesson " for "lesson," " anxious " for "desirous," "to mind" for "to object," " injury " for "hurt," " kindly " for " kind."—I am, Sir, &c.,
Rivers Lodge, Harpenden, S.O., Herts. T. WILSON.
[All good prose should of course sound melodiously to the ear, though with its own melody and not with that of measure. This, however, does not bring it nearer to the spoken word. A verbatim report of a conversation does not necessarily sound pleasantly when read aloud.—En. Spectator.]
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