expended itself upon external char-
acteristics and incidental references.
Nevertheless, the very volume and
mass of these secondary books wit-
ness to the fertility of the first-hand
books with which they deal, and show
beyond dispute that men have an in-
satiable desire to get at their interior
meanings. If these great poems had
been mere illustrations of individual
skill and gift, this interest would have
long ago exhausted itself. That sin-
gular and unsurpassed qualities of
construction, style, and diction are
present in "Faust" and the "Divine
Comedy" need not be emphasised,
since they both belong to the very high-
est class of literary production; but
there is something deeper and more
vital in them: there is a philosophy or
interpretation of life. Each of these
poems is a revelation of what man is

[[86]]

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v?