Page:Hutcheson Macaulay Posnett - Comparative Literature (1886).djvu/197

 concealed by the fact that rarely have physical and social conditions so combined as to allow the development of language and literature bearing distinct marks of a community so limited in extent. None the less clear is it that in passing from the localism of tribes and clans to the centralism of national life the city commonwealth is an intermediate stage which cannot be ignored, because some social groups have made it but a temporary halting-place, while others, from a variety of causes, have accepted it as their social ideal.