Page:Columbia University Lectures on Literature (1911).djvu/34

20 20 APPROACHES TO LITERATURE the new is ever the old, even when it presents itself with all the latest improvements. Genius reveals itself when the hour is ripe; it does its work in its own fashion; it comes and it goes again, leaving us the richer. There have been many men of many minds, speaking in their several tongues; but Literature is one and indivisible. It has a voice for every mood. It cheers and sustains; it inspires and uplifts; it lights the path for all of us. It passes the flaming torch from sire to son, Greece to Rome, Rome to the Renaissance, the Renaissance to the modern world. "All passes. Art alone Enduring stays to us ; The bust outlasts the throne, The coin, Tiberius ; "Even the gods must go; Only the lofty Rime Not countless years o'erthrow, Nor long array of Time."