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 270 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

standpoint of social science there are no reasons for assigning the two poems, or different parts of the same poem, to different culture-epochs. Sociologically viewed, the poems present a quite homogeneous culture-stage, allowing, of course, for quite apparent foreign influences and importations, seen chiefly in the industrial organization. What comes from external sources, Phoenician or other, in no way vitiates the clearness of the pic- ture of Homeric society.

An example of such vitiation and introduction of incongru- ous elements is afforded in the case of the German and Russian epic narratives. The rugged pagan grandeur of the Nibelungen Lied is marred by the introduction of a formal, ill-understood Christianity. Kriemhild, it is said, "scarcely ever slept over the matins," and her brothers and Hagen seem to have been careful to observe the precepts of the church ; with this may be con- trasted the savage outbreak of murder and vengeance which forms the plot of the gloomy epic. The Russian epic songs are still more crude in their adoption of an alien faith ; in them, for instance, Elijah (Ilya, the Old Cossack) becomes a god, essen- tially pagan ; Christianity is accepted in a barbarous form and serves merely to obscure the picture of the genuine Slavic culture-stage.

Homer, then, has a good right to be called universal and unbiased. He sustains this claim in a manner quite astonishing to the student. No side or phase of life is too humble for the poet to know and draw upon : the beggar, the widow and orphan, and the rich prince are found side by side among his personae ; the huntsman, the shepherd, the artisan, and the mer- chant act before the reader their several parts in life, as do the royal warrior and traveler. The domain of the humble arts then known is seized upon in its minute details, and the won- derful creations of foreign craftsmen are described as by a somewhat bewildered and half-understanding, but none the less keen, observer. Characteristics of animals, wild and tame, are accurately portrayed, and the passions and motives of men pre- sent no secret to the poet's eye. A wealth of comparison