secure an adequate impression of this
highest expression of the human spirit
one must keep in view the work of
the past quite as definitely as the
work of the present; in such a broad
survey there is a constant deliverance
from the rashness of contemporary
judgments, and from that narrowness
of feeling which limits one's vital con-
tact with the life of the race to the
products of a single brief period.

In any attempt to indicate the fun-
damental significance of the art of
literature in the educational develop-
ment of the individual and of society
there must also be a certain repetition
of idea and of illustration. This limi-
tation, if it be a limitation, is inherent
in the very nature of the undertaking.
Literature is, for purposes of comment
and exposition, practically inexhaust-
ible; its themes are as varied and as

[[276]]

p275 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p276w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p277

v?