purposes; no one feels the necessity of apology either for ruthless
aggression or for useless blood-letting; the scene is reported as it
was presented to the eye of the spectator, not to his moralizing
faculty. He is expected to see and to sing, not to scrutinize and
meditate. In those rare cases in which a moral inference is drawn,
it is always so obvious and elementary that it gives the impression
of having been fastened on at the end of the song, in deference to
ecclesiastical rather than popular feeling.

The social and intellectual conditions which fostered self-
unconsciousness,--interest in things, incidents, and adventures
rather than in moods and inward experiences,--and the unmoral or non
moralizing attitude towards events, fostered also that delightful
naivete which contributes greatly to the charm of many of the best
ballads; a naivete which often heightens the pathos, and, at times,
softens it with touches of apparently unconscious humour; the naivete
of the child which has in it something of the freshness of a
wildflower, and yet has also a wonderful instinct for making the
heart of the matter plain. This quality has almost entirely
disappeared from contemporary verse among cultivated races; one must
go to the peasants of remote parts of the Continent to discover even
a trace of its presence. It has a real, but short-lived charm, like
the freshness which shines on meadow and garden in the brief dawn
which hastens on to day.

This frank, direct play of thought and feeling on an incident, or
series of incidents, compensates for the absence of a more perfect
art in the ballads; using the word "art" in its true sense as
including complete, adequate, and beautiful handling of subject-
matter, and masterly working out of its possibilities. These