thing, so often lying close to the sword-edge; and the duties of life
are simple. There is to be a great, very great enlargement of the
borders of English literature later on. Prose and poetry are to have new
developments. Romances are to show us heroic ideals. Lyrics of joy, of
sorrow, of passion, of emotion natural and spiritual, are to be sung.
The sense of beauty is to grow. The drama is to arise from beginnings to
be but faintly traced in early days. Epic poetry is to take a great
place. Character modified, enriched by foreign strains, is to mould a
noble literature--noble through many and many a gift and grace. A great
poet is to arise with sympathies large and wide, to show us, in verse
most musical, in words full meaning, with that grace of humour which is
a fresh light upon life, how men and women lived: and to be the great
precursor of a greater than he. Geoffrey Chaucer is to come to us. After
him William Shakespere.


THE END



THE MERCAT PRESS, EDINBURGH.