CONTENTS INTRODUCTION I. Historical documents serve only as a clue to reconstruct the visible individual II. The outer man is only a clue to study the inner, invisible man III. The state and the actions of the inner and invisible man have their causes in certain general ways of thought and feeling IV. Chief causes of thought and feeling. Their historical effects V. The three primordial forces.--Race Surroundings Epoch VI. History is a mechanical and psychological problem. Within certain limits man can foretell Primordial Causes VII. Law of formation of a group. Examples and indications VIII. General problem and future of history. Psychological method. Value of literature. Purpose in writing this book BOOK I.--THE SOURCE CHAPTER FIRST The Saxons SECTION I.--The Coast of the North Sea SECTION II.--The Northern Barbarians SECTION III.--Saxon Ideas SECTION IV.--Saxon Heroes SECTION V.--Pagan Poems SECTION VI.--Christian Poems SECTION VII.--Primitive Saxon Authors SECTION VIII.--Virility of the Saxon Race CHAPTER SECOND The Normans SECTION I.--The Feudal Man SECTION II.--Normans and Saxons Contrasted SECTION III.--French Forms of Thought SECTION IV.--The Normans in England SECTION V.--The English Tongue--Early English Literary Impulses SECTION VI.--Feudal Civilization SECTION VII.--Persistence of Saxon Ideas SECTION VIII.--The English Constitution SECTION IX.--Piers Plowman and Wyclif CHAPTER THIRD The New Tongue SECTION I.--The First Great Poet SECTION II.--The Decline of the Middle Ages SECTION III.--The Poetry of Chaucer SECTION IV.--Characteristics of the Canterbury Tales SECTION V.--The Art of Chaucer SECTION VI.--Scholastic Philosophy BOOK II.--THE RENAISSANCE CHAPTER FIRST The Pagan Renaissance _PART I.--Manners of the Time_ SECTION I.--Ideas of the Middle Ages SECTION II.--Growth of New Ideas SECTION III.--Popular Festivals SECTION IV.--Influence of Classic Literature _PART II.--Poetry_ SECTION I.--Renaissance of Saxon Genius SECTION II.--The Earl of Surrey SECTION III.--Surrey's Style SECTION IV.--Development of Artistic Ideas SECTION V.--Wherein Lies the Strength of the Poetry of this Period SECTION VI--Edmund Spenser SECTION VII.--Spenser in his Relation to the Renaissance _PART III.--Prose_ SECTION I.--The Decay of Poetry SECTION II.--The Intellectual Level of the Renaissance SECTION III.--Robert Burton SECTION IV.--Sir Thomas Browne SECTION V.--Francis Bacon CHAPTER SECOND The Theatre SECTION I.--The Public and the Stage SECTION II.--Manners of the Sixteenth Century SECTION III.--Some Aspects of the English Mind SECTION IV.--The Poets of the Period SECTION V.--Formation of the Drama SECTION VI.--Furious Passions--Exaggerated Characters SECTION VII.--Female Characters CHAPTER THIRD Ben Jonson