68G rOETHY 



And when, after the battle of Chaeronea, the Greek enthusiasm for 

 liberty and the old Hellenic belief in the gods died away together, 

 the loss of imaginative energy in society reflected itself in the purely 

 prosaic imitation of the Xew Comedy. In all directions the law of 

 Greek art was embodied in the works of great artists, and, as I 

 said in my last lecture, Aristotle's best criticism in the Poetics is 

 not new legislation, but the declaration of the law of Xature already 

 existing in art. 



Had it been the destiny of Aristotle to declare the a}sthetic law of 

 any modern European nation, his task would have been far more 

 difficult. In no Christian society has the artist shown the same spon- 

 taneous faculty for imitating Xature as in Greece. Many obstacles 

 stand between Xature and the imagination of the modern artist. To 

 begin with, he has been cut off from the fountainhead of his primaeval 

 instincts by the conversion of his ancestors to Christianity. Moreover, 

 the nation in modern Europe is not constituted simply, as in the 

 small Greek states, but is vast and complex, composed of antagonistic 

 classes, each with its own perceptions and ideals, which often baffle the 

 attempt of the artist to divine the ideas common to the whole society. 

 Lastly, the modern imagination and judgment are bewildered by the 

 presence of surviving models of Hellenic art, which constantly oppose 

 themselves to the ideas derived from Christian education. Xevorthe- 

 less, a historic examination of art will hardly leave room for doubt, 

 that the varieties of ideal imitation in the different countries of 

 Europe have been as much the product of national character, as was 

 the case in the City States of Greece : and I propose in this lecture to 

 illustrate, as clearly as I can in the time at my disposal, how national 

 forces have combined to give a dominant bias to the genius of French 

 poetry. 



Experience shows how closely the master qualities of the French 

 character still correspond with Caasar's description of them. The 

 assimilation of Visigothic and Frankish elements have not materially 

 altered in the Gaul either the brilliant and fickle temperament, vividly 

 colored by transient emotions, the rapid logical perception of things, 

 or the sense of artistic form and proportion common to all races that 

 have felt the influence of the Latin mind. As this national character 

 expands in the course of French history, there passes before the 

 imagination a long drama of something like civil war between tw.o 

 mutually irreconcilable factions the bourgeoisie and the feudal 

 aristocracy. The landmarks of the struggle stand forth prominently; 

 the long agonizing conflict of the early ages between the Crown, as 

 the representative of civil law and order, and the great vassals, as 

 the representatives of feudal privilege; the victory of the Crown, 

 allied with the bourgeoisie, under Louis XI. ; the religious wars 

 between Catholics and Huguenots; the accession of Henry IV. and 



