174 MENTAL APTITUDES. 



these persons before I had the birth-ranks of others who might 

 have been added, I have retained the group as it was originally 

 made. I am not sure that I am right in placing Dante first in the 

 order of birth-ranks, but the indications are that he belongs in this 

 place. 



EIGHT POETS IN ORDER OF BIRTH-RANK. 



1 Dante ( i20-fx)-r-3 



2 Pope ' . 47 



3 Milton 45 



4 Goethe 39-53 



5 Burns 38 



6 Schiller 36-43 



7 B y ron 3 2 -33-54 



8 Longfellow 31-26-27 



In Dante we have a poet of the moral, religious and philosoph- 

 ical type. In Pope we have a poet whose writings are all of the 

 moral and philosophical character with hardly anything of the re- 

 ligious. In Milton we have the grand religious epics similar to 

 the case of Dante. We also have descriptive poems and poems of 

 sentiment. Outside of poetry Milton was a statesman and the 

 foremost champion of English liberty. With Goethe we have the 

 philosophical, the dramatic, the lyrical, pastoral poems, ballads and 

 oriental songs. With Burns we have poems of sentiment, of love, 

 of sorrow and of religion. From Schiller we have dramatic poetry, 

 descriptive poetry and ballads, the whole of which are character- 

 ized by high intellectual and moral culture. With Byron we have 

 descriptive poems and poems of passion. With Longfellow we 

 have poetry almost purely descriptive and depending for its charms 

 on beauty of expression. Comparing the mental aptitudes and 

 characteristics of these men with those of our hypothetical ancestor 



