Page:Hutcheson Macaulay Posnett - Comparative Literature (1886).djvu/61

 the changes of its social life. The "lyric" has varied from sacred or magical hymns and odes of priest-bards, only fulfilling their purpose when sung, and perhaps never consigned to writing at all, down to written expressions of individual feeling from which all accompaniments of dance or music have been severed, and nothing remains but such melody as printed verse can convey, and the eye or ear of the individual reader detect. In the rude beginnings of literature among loosely federated clans we find the communal "lyric" reflecting the corporate organisms and ideas of contemporary life. Even in Pindar, the communal, as opposed to the individual characteristics of the "lyric," are still visible, the victor of the games being often merely a centre round which the achievements of his clan or city are grouped. But as the old communal brotherhoods break up before the powers of the chiefs' families, as even family life is in its turn weakened in city democracies, the "lyric" becomes more and more an expression of individual feelings. No doubt we have excellent specimens of communal "lyrics" on a colossal scale at the present day—the sea-songs of England, the war-songs of France, the German Freiheits- und Vaterlandslieder—and whenever any great movement sets masses of our modern men on foot, we may be sure that a Campbell or a Körner will be ready to sound its reveille in song. But the development of individualism has left its marks deep upon the modern "lyric." The span-life of the individual contrasted with the corporate existence of social groups and of the human species, contrasted still more regretfully with the apparent eternity of physical nature, becomes a recurring theme in social conditions which thrust the life of the individual into vivid consciousness of itself, its brevity, and its littleness. It is this individualism