LITERATURE 



3459 



LITERATURE 



feel the force of his words, but after all he is 

 only talking to them, and what he has said an- 

 other can say if occasion arises. But a poet, a 

 man with the musical feeling, the love of rhyth- 

 mic words well developed, makes a song about 

 that same patriot, and the people chant it over 

 and over, and hand it down as a valuable herit- 

 age to their children. 



That brings up another point. There is a 

 long period in the early literary history of every 

 people when its productions are not written, but 

 are passed from one generation to the next by 

 word of mouth, and there poetry has the advan- 

 tage because its rhythm makes it far easier to 

 remember. For all these reasons, and some 

 others, poetry practically always comes before 

 prose. 



The Earliest Forms. Another interesting 

 fact in connection with the beginnings of litera- 

 ture is that almost every people, if it works 

 out its own literary history, unaffected by other 

 peoples further advanced, begins with practi- 

 cally the same kinds of poetry. There are re- 

 ligious utterances, either hymns to some deity 

 or pleadings from religious leaders to their fol- 

 lowers, and there are war songs. These two 

 types seem to express the most primitive emo- 

 tions of practically every people. Sometimes 

 the two are combined, as in Homer's great 

 poems, which tell of the gigantic struggles of 

 the early Greek heroes and also of the marvel- 

 ous doings *of the gods. 



How Literatures Are Indebted to Each 

 Other. This mention of Homer brings the dis- 

 cussion to the point from which any account 

 of European and American literature must start 

 to the literature of ancient Greece. This ar- 

 ticle makes no attempt to treat historically 

 the literatures of the various countries; they 

 are treated under separate headings. The vari- 

 ous types, too, as poetry, drama, fiction, have 

 articles of their own in these volumes, but the 

 dependence of the various literatures upon one 

 another is an interesting point which may well 

 be emphasized. 



At first the statement that literature really 

 completed its evolution in ancient Greece and 

 that no totally new form has been invented 

 since may seem startling and perhaps untrue; 

 but thought and study show its justice. Never 

 has the epic been brought to greater perfection 

 than in those works credited to Homer; never 

 were more exquisite lyrics written than those of 

 Sappho, or more wonderful tragedies than those 

 of the "great three," Aeschylus, Sophocles and 

 Euripides. History, oratory, philosophy, criti- 



cism, all these the Greeks brought to a high 

 point of perfection, and their myths and legends 

 are as delightful as any modern tales. There 

 have been special developments of certain 

 branches of literature, it is true, but the Greeks 

 began them all, inventing them themselves, ap- 

 parently owing no debt to any older nation. 



And from this foundation of Greek literature 

 have flowed all the streams of modern Euro- 

 pean literature. The Romans were frank imi- 

 tators, developing only a few forms in greater 

 perfection than their predecessors. With the 

 spread of Christianity there was a change. 

 Christian writers abhorred the pagan literature 

 of Greece and turned to the sacred books of 

 the Hebrews for their inspiration; but when, 

 after the passing of the Dark Ages, with their 

 minor efforts, there came that marvelous awak- 

 ening known as the Renaissance (which see), 

 Greek literature came into its own again. 



In the new, modern Europe the foremost 

 nation from a literary point of view was France. 

 Romances of chivalry, allegories and religious 

 dramas were prevalent during this French pe- 

 riod, which lasted from the twelfth to the late 

 fourteenth century. Then Italy had its day, 

 and every literature of Europe felt the Italian 

 influence. Later, a greater individuality be- 

 came evident, each nation developing forms 

 which best suited its own peculiarities and 

 genius, but from time to time there is clearly 

 visible in the writings of English authors the 

 influence of various continental countries. Eng- 

 land itself, largely because of its island position, 

 never gained any general intellectual suprem- 

 acy, though certain of its authors were widely 

 read on the Continent; but just for that very 

 reason, because England drew from other litera- 

 tures more than it gave out to them, the stu- 

 dent of English literature cannot really under- 

 stand what he studies without some knowledge 

 of the literatures of other European countries. 



When one begins the study of the literatures 

 of Canada and the United States, it is obvious 

 that they cannot be considered except in con- 

 nection with that of England. Each country 

 has made its own special types, in accordance 

 with its varying conditions of life, but the in- 

 fluence of the parent English stream is visible 

 throughout; and it is not lack of patriotism 

 but a wise desire to follow the stream from its 

 source which decrees that a study of the litera- 

 ture of England shall be preliminary to that of 

 either of its American descendants. 



The Study of Literature. Some schools lay 

 most stress on science, some on mathematics, 



