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way how our Aryan forefathers felt and thought about their dead. But in the living beliefs of Japan we find much to suggest the nature of the old Greek piety. Each member of the family supposes himself, or herself, under a perpetual ghostly surveillance. Spirit-eyes are watching every act; spirit-ears are listening to every word. Thoughts, too, not less than deeds, are visible to the gaze of the dead: the heart must be pure, the mind must be under control, within the presence of the spirits. Probably the influence of such beliefs, uninterruptedly exerted upon conduct during thousands of years, did much to form the charming side of Japanese character. Yet there is nothing stern or solemn in this home-religion to-day,-nothing of that rigid and unvarying discipline supposed by Fustel de Coulanges to have especially characterized the Roman cult. It is a religion rather of gratitude and tenderness; the dead being served by the household as if they were actually present in the body. I fancy that if we were able to enter for a moment into the vanished life of some old Greek city, we should find the domestic religion there not less cheerful than the Japanese home-cult remains to-day. I imagine that Greek children, three thousand years ago, must have watched, like the Japanese children of to-day, for a chance to steal some of the good things offered to the ghosts of the ancestors; and I fancy that Greek parents must have chidden quite as gently as Japanese parents chide in this era of Meiji,—mingling reproof with instruction, and hinting of weird possibilities.

THE KINDS OF LITERATURE 1

All literature is the result of four great art impulses. These are the impulse to narrate events, either real or

1 From W. H. Crawshaw's The Interpretation of Literature, by permission of the Macmillan Company.

imagined; the impulse to express the subjective thought and emotion of the writer; the impulse to portray human life and character; and the impulse to describe objects, either real or imagined, either material or spiritual. If it be objected that this list is incomplete, the only answer lies in an appeal to literature itself. If other impulses appear, they ought of course to be included; but investigation seems to show that all actual literary works can be classified as resulting from one or more of the impulses here noted. These impulses have been at work in literature from the beginning; and, in all probability, they will continue, without increase or decrease to the end. The particular forms in which they have manifested themselves have been almost infinitely diversified, the purposes that have worked in harmony with them have been no less various; but still, in one or another of these directions, literary activity has always moved. Here, as elsewhere, we see that which is simple in principle working out to that which is multitudinous in detail. When a new literary form is created, it is by the use of these same elements in new ways. When prose takes its place as a medium of literary expression, it is moved by the same instincts that have been creating poetry for thousands of years. These four fundamental impulses furnish a basis for four different types of literary work. These four types may be called the Narrative, the Subjective, the Dramatic, and the Descriptive.

Turning first, then, to the narrative type, we shall find that the typical representative of its verse form is the Epic, and the typical representative of its prose form is the Romance. The term epic has a restricted meaning in which it is applicable only to such works as the Iliad and the Odyssey. It is used here, however, to denote all poetry in which narrative is the distinctive feature. This broader

meaning is justified by modern usage, and also by the fact that narrative is the essential element in the ancient epic. The romance includes all prose works in which narrative clearly predominates over portrayal of life and character.

In subjective literature, the typical verse form is the Lyric, and the typical prose form is the Essay. As to substance and spirit, the lyric is the embodiment of subjective emotion; as to form, the original conception of it as something to be sung has made it the most varied and musical of all kinds of poetry. The essay is the expression of the personal thought and feeling of its author; and both in subject and form, it has great variety. As compared with the lyric, it tends more toward thought and less toward emotion.

The typical poetic form of dramatic literature is the Drama; and the typical prose form is the Novel. The typical drama is a combination of plot and characters, both being presented through the medium of dialogue and action, and the treatment of life being predominant. The drama is found both in prose and poetry; but in its original and typical form, it belongs to the latter. The novel differs from the romance as the drama differs from the epicnamely, in combining plot and character, with character as the leading feature. It differs from the drama in its use of direct narration. It is distinctly a prose type, although such a thing as a novel in verse is not altogether unknown.

We have seen that descriptive literature is rightly to be regarded as one of the great literary types; but that, in all probability, its only results are to be found in description diffused throughout the other literary types and subordinate to them. Inasmuch, then, as the descriptive type has produced no strictly representative works, it is of course impossible to note any typical classes. Description appears in both forms of expression, and we may therefore speak of descriptive poetry and descriptive prose; but we cannot

be more definite. We are, indeed, familiar in poetry with the term idyl; but it is not desirable to use this, since it denotes simply a poem in which the descriptive element is large, but not necessarily predominant.

The classification here suggested may be represented as follows:

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This analysis may be said to represent fairly the classification of literature on natural principles and by a logical method. A more minute classification would not be in place here; for a consideration of the various kinds of epic, lyric, drama, etc., belongs rather to the study of those classes of literature. It is sufficient for us to have noted here the great varieties of literature, which represent its essential forms and fundamental instincts. Beyond this, we shall find that literary art emphasizes its liberty and blossoms out into that infinite variety of detail which is characteristic of all life.

THE INFLUENCE OF THE PRESS IN AMERICA 1

Newspapers are influential in three ways-as narrators, as advocates, and as weathercocks. They report events, they advance arguments, they indicate by their attitude what those who conduct them and are interested in their circulation take to be the prevailing opinion of their readers. In the first of these regards the American press is the most active in the world. Nothing escapes it which

1 From The American Commonwealth, by James Bryce, copyright 1893 and 1910, by The Macmillan Company.

can attract any class of readers. It does not even confine itself to events that have happened, but is apt to describe others which may possibly have happened, however slight the evidence for them: pariter facta atque infecta canebat. This habit affects its worth as an historic record and its influence with sober-minded people. But it is a natural result of the high pressure under which the newspaper business is carried on. The appetite for news, and for highly spiced or "sensational" news, is enormous, and journalists working under keen competition and in unceasing haste take their chance of the correctness of the information they receive.

Much harm there is, but possibly as much good. It is related of an old barrister that he observed: "When I was young I lost a good many causes which I ought to have won, and now, that I have grown old and experienced, I win a good many causes which I ought to lose. So on the whole justice has been done." If in its heedlessness the press sometimes causes pain to the innocent, it does a great and necessary service in exposing evil-doers, many of whom would escape were it never to speak except upon sufficient evidence. It is a watch-dog whose noisy bark must be tolerated, even when the person who approaches has no bad intent. No doubt charges are so promiscuously and often so lightly made as to tell less than they would in a country where the law of libel was more frequently appealed to. But many abuses are unveiled, many more prevented by the fear of publicity.

Although the leading American newspapers contain far more non-political matter than those of Europe, they also contain, especially, of course, before any important election, more domestic political intelligence than any, except perhaps two or three, of the chief English journals. The public has the benefit of hearing everything it can wish, and more than it ought to wish, to know about every oc

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