It Is More Difficult To Keep The

Traditional Matter Must Be Glorified, Since It Would Be Easier To Listen To The Re-creation Of Familiar Stories Than To Quite New And Unexpected Things; The Listeners, We Must Remember, Needed Poetry Chiefly As The Re-creation Of Tired Hours.

If Epic Poetry Is A Definite Species, The Sagas Do Not Fall Within It.

It Seems Difficult, Sometimes, To Believe That There Was A Time When Sentiments Now Become Habitual, Sentiments That Imply Not Only The Original Imperative Of Conduct, But The Original Metaphysic Of Living, Were By No Means Altogether Habitual.

The Balance Of Private Good And General Welfare Is At The Bottom Of Civilized Morals But The Morals Of The Heroic Age Are Founded On Individuality, And On Nothing Else.

That Is To Say, Epic Poetry Has Been Invented Many Times And Independently; But, As The Needs Which Prompted The Invention Have Been Broadly Similar, So The Invention Itself Has Been.