DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62267#0224
214
CLASSICAL TOUR
Dis.
boldly advanced on one side and feebly contested
on the other, though many of my readers, who
have amused themselves with French authors
for many a year, may perhaps have never yet
observed this peculiar excellence, nor discovered
that the French language invariably follows the
natural course of our ideas, and the process of
grammatical construction.
I mean not to dispute this real or imaginary
advantage ; especially as the discussion unavoid-
ably involves a long metaphysical question rela-
tive to the natural order of ideas and the best
corresponding arrangement of words • but I
must observe, that to be confined to one mode
of construction, however excellent, is a defect;
because it deprives poetry and eloquence of one
of the most powerful instruments of harmony and
of description, I mean, Inversion: and because
it removes the distinction of styles, and brings
all composition down to the same monotonous
level. French poets have long complained of
the tame uniform genius of their language, and
French critics have been obliged, however re-
luctantly, to acknowledge that it has no poetic
style; and if the reader wishes to see how well
founded these complaints are, and how just this
acknowledgment, he need only consult the
CLASSICAL TOUR
Dis.
boldly advanced on one side and feebly contested
on the other, though many of my readers, who
have amused themselves with French authors
for many a year, may perhaps have never yet
observed this peculiar excellence, nor discovered
that the French language invariably follows the
natural course of our ideas, and the process of
grammatical construction.
I mean not to dispute this real or imaginary
advantage ; especially as the discussion unavoid-
ably involves a long metaphysical question rela-
tive to the natural order of ideas and the best
corresponding arrangement of words • but I
must observe, that to be confined to one mode
of construction, however excellent, is a defect;
because it deprives poetry and eloquence of one
of the most powerful instruments of harmony and
of description, I mean, Inversion: and because
it removes the distinction of styles, and brings
all composition down to the same monotonous
level. French poets have long complained of
the tame uniform genius of their language, and
French critics have been obliged, however re-
luctantly, to acknowledge that it has no poetic
style; and if the reader wishes to see how well
founded these complaints are, and how just this
acknowledgment, he need only consult the