When not actually under the influence of this high exalting power of poetry most men have a strange reluctance to admit that it is possible for them to be so moved; and thus it may easily happen that what has just been said may seem to the reader extravagant and florid. There are happily few, however, to whom there have not come moments of inner illumination, few who cannot if they will call up times when the imagination has carried them away, and the delight of being so borne above the actual was a revelation and a joy not easily to be put into word. Recalling such an experience, you will not find it difficult to understand what is meant by the claim that poetry creates in the mind of man an ideal which in turn it justifies also. Lastly and above all, the use of poetry is--poetry. 'Tis the deep music of the rolling world Kindling within the strings of the waved air Æolian modulations. It is vain to endeavor to put into word the worth and office of poetry. At the last we are brought face to face with the fact that anything short of itself is inadequate to do it justice. To read a single page of a great singer is more potent than to pore over volumes in his praise. A single lyric puts to shame the most elaborate analysis or the most glowing eulogy; in the end there is no resource but to appeal to the inner self which is the true man; since in virtue of what is most deep and noble in the soul, each may perceive for himself that poetry is its own supreme justification; that there is no need to discuss the relation of poetry to life, since poetry is the expression of life in its best and highest possibilities. INDEX Abbot, J. S. C., "Rollo," 201. Addison, 66. Advertising, 168-170. Æschylus, 149. Aldrich, T. B., "Story of a Bad Boy," 11, 15. Allusions, Biblical, 98-101; to folk-lore, 106; historical, 103-106; literary, 107-108; mythological, 101-103. Amiel, "Journal Intime," 7. Amiot, 90. Andersen, Hans Christian, 196. Apprehension, 74. Ariosto, 143. Art, conventions in, 89; deals with the typical, 6; end of, 87; good, 22; origin of, 3-5; sanity of, 174; truth in, 206; truth of, 209; _vs._ science, 32. Artist, office of, 207. Asbjörnsen, 196. Augustine, St., "Confessions," 7. Austen, Jane, 189. Ballads, 222. Balzac, 189. Barrie, J. M., 211. Bible, 101, 140, 142, 145, 197; allusions to, 98-101; as a classic, 143-147; books of, characterized, 146; quoted, 100, 228; Revised Version _vs._ King James, 146. Black, William, 13, 211. Blackmore, R. D., 211. Blake, William, 54, 66; quoted, 58, 121, 252. Boccaccio, 143. Breeding, good, 204. Brontë, Charlotte, 189. Broughton, Rhoda, 185. Browning, Mrs. E. B., quoted, 8, 132, 225, 241; "Sonnets from the Portuguese," 7-9.