]
I
Nothing but good can come of a comparative study of English and French
literature. The political intercourse of the two countries has
involved them in an endless series of broils. But between the
literatures of the two countries friendly relations have subsisted for
over five centuries. In the literary sphere the interchange of
neighbourly civilities has known no interruption. The same literary
forms have not appealed to the tastes of the two nations; but
differences of aesthetic temperament have not prevented the literature
of the one from levying substantial loans on the literature of the
other, and that with a freedom and a frequency which were calculated
to breed discontent between any but the most cordial of allies. While
the literary geniuses of the two nations have pursued independent
ideals, they have viewed as welcome courtesies the willingness and
readiness of the one to borrow sustenance of the other on the road. It
is unlikely that any full or formal balance-sheet of such lendings and
borrowings will ever be forthcoming, for it is felt instinctively by
literary accountants and their clients on both shores of the English
Channel that the debts on the one side keep a steady pace with the
debts on the other, and there is no balance to be collected.
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