which the poets of other nations endeavour to form their style,
scarcely think their literature worthy of serious consideration. A
German boy when he leaves school has generally a pretty close
acquaintance with Shakespeare, and knows at least something of other
English authors and poets. An English boy at the same stage of his
education has perhaps heard of Goethe and Schiller, but has rarely
read any of their works. At the Universities it is no better. I really
believe that in England Gounod's _Faust_ is better known than
Goethe's! It would be impossible that such travesties of _Faust_
as appear from time to time upon the English stage would be endured if
our scholars and intellectuals were better informed. Towards ancient
languages, except the two which are fashionable, we are just as
indifferent. It was no less a person than Sir Richard Maine who
asserted that, except the blind forces of nature, nothing exists in
the world which is not Greek in its origin! Truly more things are
dreamed of in our philosophy than are in heaven and earth! When great
scholars make such statements as this it is scarcely surprising that
ordinary people should care little for the origins of their own
language. The parents of modern English are not Greek but Anglo-Saxon
and Scandinavian or Icelandic. Both these languages have a literature
of the very highest rank, but are little studied in this country. The
eighth-century English lyrics are amongst the finest in the language.
As for Scandinavian, not every one in England is aware that the
Icelanders are, and have been for a thousand years, the most literary
people in the world;[3] that in one important branch of literature,
that of story-telling, they are absolutely without a rival, except in
the Old Testament. From these Scandinavian sources we have received
the heritage which has grown into our magnificent language and
literature, but we trouble our heads little about them and leave them
to foreigners to study. Ignorance may perhaps be excusable; what is