IFlatuie IRotes : 
^be Selbovne Society’s aP)aoa3inc. 
No. 66. JUNE, 1895. 
VoL. VI. 
THE POEMS OF GILBERT WHITE. 
ORKS of pure lyrical beauty are not the ordinary growth 
of English literature. The creative mind of the 
western or modern nations is essentially dramatic, as 
that of the Grecian or antique is epic, while the lyrical 
style belongs chiefly to the oriental or primitive world. Among 
the English we find Shakespeare ; among the Greeks, Homer ; 
among the Hebrews, the Biblical writers— each of these three 
illustrating the highest intellectual abilities of their respective 
races. But by no means do these generic traits afford examples 
of perfect contrast. For the drama, the typical literature of the 
west, has flourished also in many eastern and classical com- 
munities, and the western world possesses, in addition to its 
dramatic Koh-i-noor, a countless number of epic and lyrical 
gems. 
It is not difficult to see why the lyrical mind should be 
common among the primitive races, and comparatively rare 
among the modern. That experience of humanity in its simplest 
state, that instinctive perception of Nature, those Adamitic 
sympathies with all creation, which have been the privileges of 
none but the earliest men, would alone explain their supreme 
taste for the lyric — the poesy of the spirit of universal existence. 
The gloomy Teuton soul has no general disposition for this 
ethereal poesy, no facility, except in special cases, for this 
mingling of self with the inner consciousness of life. The 
Teuton soul prefers the practical drama or even the historical 
epic, and seldom, indeed, does there arise amongst us a truly 
lyrical author, whose words, echoing with the ancient voices of 
creation, remind us that mankind is not all that lives, and 
brighten our workaday world with some instinctive memory of 
earth’s first freshness and joy. 
