with an inward balance and order. That the ancient writers were not always sane; that they now seem to us at times romantic in technic and in mood, more modem in certain aspects than some of our contemporaries, need not disturb us here. At least to the early Renaissance they furnished ideals of sanity, clearness, and order, which still are strongly implied in the word "Classical."
Out of this meaning of the word comes a final meaning, which we are somewhat prone to use as a reproach. That Literature which is perfect in order, sanity, and restraint is likely to seem to highly emotional natures mechanical and cold. The Romantic movement in England, at least, managed to throw back some such opprobrium upon the writers of Queen Anne's time, and it may be doubted if many young students of English Literature think of the eighteenth century much more happily than as a slough of despond through which the national genius wallowed and waded, and emerged at the wicket gate of the "Lyrical Ballads." And too proverbial, unfortunately, is the difficulty an Anglo-Saxon of our time has in discovering any charm in the Classical writing of France.
A classic, then, as we must use the word, is a Greek or Latin author whose work is standard in its kind, and there- fore gives the law to later writers in that kind. His view of life is large and sane, his emotion is held in balance by reason, and his technic is perfect. And perhaps we should remember too that Classical Literature, so defined, suggests composition under happy auspices, in a golden age, under a Mæcenas or Louis XIV or Queen Anne, in a period when Literature is least reformatory or evangelical, and most contemplative, most in accord with its age. Such a period craves national leisure and peace and much learning. It comes only after years of more rapturous but less coherent endeavor, for it needs a large background of material to work upon. It is a time when the race sets its house in order and realizes its imaginative wealth. It is therefore thoroughly conscious and calculating,
