32 Prosser Hall Frye 



sorbed to the exclusion of any other, the makers of Engh'sh clas- 

 sicism never possessed at all. The only kind of nature that they 

 knew or cared anything about was human nature. The physical 

 order as such had no particular significance for them. As a sub- 

 ject of literature, and particularly of poetry, it was virtually non- 

 existent. On the one hand they had no scientific turn, and on the 

 other they had no fondness for those vague impressions, those 

 unclear and illimitable suggestions and troubled ideas which we 

 have learned to dote upon in a cloud or a sunset or a haz}- moun- 

 tain prospect. What they were concerned for and what they con- 

 ceived to be the proper theme of literature, was the human in its 

 characteristic and distinctive manifestations. The dubious affili- 

 ations of man with rock, and tree, and stone, the survivals of a 

 remote and bestial parentage, "la bete hnniaine" or vegctale, the 

 eclipse partial or total' of conscience, atavism— all these ambiguous 

 matters that are interesting us so much just at present, they set 

 aside or overlooked altogether. Human nature in its typical as- 

 pects, as modified by society and culture, with a well-marked 

 sense for character and conduct, as a moral intelligence, such was 

 their interest and their theme. And on this point the evidence of 

 Dr. Johnson is conclusive. 



"But the truth is, that the knowledge of external nature, and the sciences 

 which that knowledge requires or includes, are not the great or the fre- 

 quent business of the human mind. Whether we provide for action or 

 conversation, whether we wish to be useful or pleasing, the first requisite 

 is the religious and moral knowledge of right and wrong; the next is an 

 acquaintance with the history of mankind, and with those examples which 

 may be said to embody truth, and prove by events the reasonableness of 

 opinions. Prudence and Justice are virtues of all times and of all places; 

 we are perpetually moralists, but we are geometricians only by chance. 

 Our intercourse with intellectual nature is necessary; our speculations upon 

 matter are voluntary and at leisure."^ 



Wise and admirable words ! The first requisite is the knowledge 

 of right and wrong. Alas! that we should have forgotten it in 

 our lives and have been so eager to substitute in our education 

 such studies exclusively as furnish a knowledge of our material 



'Johnson. Lives of the Poets, Milton. 



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