PROSE AND WORDS.
[TO THE EDITOR OF TUE "SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—I cannot discover in the Edinburgh Review the maxim attributed to it by Mr. Whibley, that "prose has nothing to do with words." Perhaps the nearest approach to that pro- position is to be found in the folio% ing sentences :—
" In a sense, the less a prose writer thinks about words the better. The main thing in prose writing is the art of expression, of delineating the event or the thought. Words, we repeat, are not and should not be paramount in the estimation of a prose writer. They are subservient to the meaning, and the most perfect prose style is the one which calls least attention to itself."
That is perhaps too strongly put, and it looks stronger apart from the context. Still—is Mr. Whibley quite fair ?—I am,
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