IDEA OF LAW IX POETRY ?19 



'' Fierce " as the English poets were, and rightly were, for the liberties 

 of wit, the best and most representative of them knew that these 

 liberties must be confined within certain limits and directed to a defi- 

 nite end. The end the}' had in view was the imitation of the Uni- 

 versal, but the aspect of the Universal that manifests itself to the 

 English artist is modified and colored by a character peculiar to his 

 own society, so that the poetical forms in which he reflects his ideas 

 are necessarily different from the forms in use among the artists of 

 other nations. It is for the artist to decide in what way he can turn 

 to his purpose the principles, instincts, and institutions, which go to 

 make np national character; how far he may successfully extend his 

 individual liberties within the law can only be determined by the force 

 of his genius. All that the critic can usefully do is to collect the law 

 of art, by observing what are the elements common to the work of a 

 nation's greatest artists, and to note the working of the law of 

 national character in art, by comparing the manner of imitating the 

 Universal prevailing in one nation with that prevailing in another. 



It was for this reason that, before attempting to discover what is 

 the predominant idea of law in English Poetry, I examined in pre- 

 vious lectures how the law of national character has manifested itself 

 in the poetry both of France and of Germany. For it is plain that in 

 their elements, the French, German, and English minds have much 

 in common with each other; we all originally spring from one race; we 

 were all converted from heathenism to the Christian religion ; we all 

 inherited the institutions of Teutonic chivalry; the English language 

 is made up of words mainly derived from German and French sources. 

 It may, therefore, be concluded that Xature has put us all in the 

 way of taking the same view of the Universal: and that the very 

 divergent views of it, which are. as a matter of fact, disclosed in the 

 art and poetry of the three nations, are due to peculiarities in the 

 character and history of each people. 



Comparing the English character then cither with the French or 

 the German, the iirst thing that strikes evcrv inquirer is the great 

 multiplied v of elements which the English exhibits, in contrast with 

 the simplicity of the oilier two. The German race has remained 

 completely unmixed, and many features, noted in their character by 

 an accurate observer like Tacitus, ha\e survived in it with verv little 

 change. Again, much of what C;rsar says of the character of the 

 ancient Gauls is obviously applicable to the character of the modern 

 Frenchman. At first sight this seems somewhat strange, when we re- 

 member that the conquering Franks were of pure Teutonic descent; 

 but when we see how completely, in the French language, the German 

 element has been merged in the TJomanee it is easy to understand 

 that the genius of the barbarous victors was subdued by the civiliza- 

 tion of the Romanized Celt. 



