SOCIOLOGY AND HOMER 39
emphasis of its expression, witnesses to important social facts ; and to be effective such motives must have their setting. Fortunately for sociology, it is precisely the setting rather than the "theme" for which it cares. The historian might be vexed because the Nibelungen-Lied makes Etzel and Dietrich of Bern contemporaries ; but the sociologist is willing even to admit Napoleon I. into mediaeval Burgundy, if only that graphic pic- ture of exotic and pagan Christianity may remain undisturbed. In any case, there can be no doubt in the mind of the sociolo- gist as to the great value of the evidence of ancient epics per se.
Homer is, then, of great importance as a representative of this class of legendary literature but what of Homer as Homer? Is there anything in the individual character of the Homeric evidence which renders it superior or inferior, from the sociolo- gist's standpoint, to that afforded by other specimens of the same class of literature ?
Academic sociology (or the "science of society," as Professor Sumner has been led to call it, in order to mark a distinction of his science from the medley of slumming, park and sewer improvement, trades-unionism, and what not, that goes by the name of sociology) examines into "the origin and life of human society." It examines the institutions of self-maintenance of a society, those of its self-perpetuation and self-gratification; and also the institutions, customs, etc., which result somewhat more remotely from society's reaction against environment. The ideal evidence at which it aims is, therefore, complete and uni- versal evidence concerning particular societies and their institu- tions.
Few reports of trained modern observers approach this ideal more closely than does Homer in his entirely unconscious way. We have Arnold's high authority for regarding Homer as " uni- versal," even if we were unable to see it for ourselves. And if we compare these two poems with other analogous productions, it appears to me that the latter, in the matter of breadth of interest, suffer in varying degrees by the comparison. Of the Kale- vala this is certainly true, and the Nibelungen-Lied is unquestion- ably more provincial and narrow. When one finishes the last
