POETRY AND IMAGINATION 



roots deep in a soil rich with the matter of life, and ► 

 breathed a genial and stimulating air. The dramatists 

 and poets were the children and inheritors of the 

 Voyagers. 



Man's imagination is limited by the horizon of his T^he new 

 experience. When he attempts by guess-work to out- ^^^^^ 

 go the bounds assigned, his frailty and ignorance stand 

 apparent; he is like a child explaining the world by its 

 doll's house. The irremovable boundaries of knowledge 

 are the same for every age ; human sense is feeble, 

 human reason whimsical and vain, human life short 

 and troubled. But every now and then, in the long 

 history of the race, there is a rift in the cloud, or a 

 new prospect gained by climbing. These are the great 

 ages of the world. Creation widens on the view, 

 and the air is alive with a sense of promise and expec- 

 tancy. Thus it was in the age of Elizabeth. The 

 recovery of the classics opened a long and fair vista 

 backwards ; the exploration of the New World seemed 

 to lift the curtain on a glorious future. And the Eng- 

 lish, the little parochial people, who for centuries had 

 tilled their fields and tended their cattle in their island 

 home, cut off from the great movements of European 

 policy, suddenly found themselves, by virtue of their 

 shipping, competitors for the dominion of the earth. It 

 is no wonder that their hearts distended with pride, 

 and, hardening in their strength, gloried. A new sense 

 of exaltation possessed the country, the exaltation of 

 knowledge and power. The rising tide of national 

 enthusiasm flooded the literature of the people, and 

 surprised the dwellers on many a high and dry inland 

 creek. 



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