elty is rarely characteristic of great
works of art; on the contrary, the
facts of life which they set before us
are familiar, and the thoughts they
convey by direct statement or by dra-
matic illustration have always been
haunting our minds. The secret of
the artist resides in the unwearied vi-
tality which brings him to such close
quarters with life, and endows him
with directness of sight and freshness
of feeling. Daisies have starred fields
in Scotland since men began to plough
and reap, but Burns saw them as if
they had sprung from the ground for
the first time; forgotten generations
have seen the lark rise and heard the
cuckoo call in England, but to Words-
worth the song from the upper sky
and the notes from the thicket on the
hill were full of the music of the first
morning. Shakespeare dealt with old

[[179]]

p178 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p179w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p180

v?