ORIGIN OF LITERARY FORMS. 681 



of projecting mental images outward, of reproducing with all the 

 relief of reality what exists in the brain only in the state of recol- 

 lection or desire. The civilized theater is only the natural devel- 

 opment of this opera-ballet, and it preserves an equal attraction 

 and an equal power, even after losing the lyrical form, which 

 dated from its origin. 



Dramatic art was even more than lyric poetry subjected by the 

 dominant classes ; and in Greece, in India, and in Europe of the 

 middle ages the clergy of the great religions seized such a pow- 

 erful means of expression, confiscated it for a longer or shorter 

 time, and even permitted it only with reluctance to become 

 laic. Dramatic art being an essentially collective sort of litera- 

 ture, addressing itself to the multitude, could not express more 

 than the average of the prevailing opinions, of the ideas current 

 in the surrounding social medium ; too original views, too special 

 feelings, were not in its domain ; in return it is, more than any 

 other kind of literature, the reflection of the mental and moral 

 condition of a class, accordingly as it is popular or aristocratic ; 

 and instead of correcting manners it continually confines itself to 

 depicting them. In the golden age of Greece the theater was 

 lyric and heroic ; with social and political decay, Hellenic tragedy 

 could not stand the competition of satirical comedy, which is a 

 social protestation. At Rome, where social iniquity was at a very 

 early period more crying than in Greece, the theater never had a 

 heroic age. 



In all times and in all countries literature has declined mor- 

 ally, and has lost its nobility, its force, and its aesthetic beauty, in 

 periods of moral decomposition ; but the first of all kinds of liter- 

 ature to be debased and corrupted was dramatic, for societies 

 could not support any theater above their own standard. On the 

 contrary, lyric poetry, compositions entirely personal, might pro- 

 test as survivals for a longer or shorter time against the general 

 decadence by expressing the sentiments of the minority, which 

 will never bend to the new manners. In dramatic literature, or 

 in literature in general, for the observation is true for all kinds, 

 there is a sign of decadence no longer moral but intellectual, 

 which is constant and which I will now point out. When we fol- 

 low the evolution of literatures from their infancy to their old 

 age, we are struck at seeing how, during their period of growth 

 and vigor, they make little account of an sesthetic element, which 

 is highly esteemed, on the contrary, in periods of decline ; I mean 

 what is called " the feeling of the beautiful in Nature." In the 

 choral poetries this element is wholly wanting ; they are preoccu- 

 pied solely with mythical conceptions of subjects of social inter- 

 est. In general, during the virile age of literatures, descriptions of 

 landscapes hold only a very accessory place ; on the other hand, 



