vindicated in such, but also and above all from false aesthetic theory and predilection, at least if we are really anxious to enjoy and study the original world-outlook of nations, that great and spiritual[22] natural history. We have every reason to congratulate recent times, and our German nation in particular, that it is now on the road to the attainment of this object; that it has, in short, broken through the former obtuseness, of ordinary methods of thinking, and by its liberation of the mind from restricted views made it more receptive to ideas of the world which it is imperative that we as individuals enter into, and which alone are able to restore to us, to the full extent of their claim, the resurrected spirits of nations, whose ideal significance and deed thus appear struck into life in these their own Epopees. (_c_) _The Epos as Unified Totality_ Hitherto, in considering the necessary qualifications of a genuine Epos, we have on the one hand discussed the _general_ world-environment and from a further point of view the nature of the particularized event transacted on such a background by _individuals_ either acting under the direction of gods or subject to destiny. These two fundamental aspects have yet further to coalesce in one and the same epic totality. In respect to this I will merely confine the reader's attention to the following points of interest: In the _first_ place we propose to consider the _collective aggregate of objects_, a satisfactory exposition of which is necessary to disclose the connection between the particular action and the substantive ground referred to. _Secondly_, we have to examine the nature of the difference which obtains between the epic mode of _disclosure_ and that of lyric or dramatic poetry. _Thirdly_, we have to deal with the _unity_ in which an epic composition is rounded off despite all its breadth of extension. (_α_) The content of the Epos, as already observed, is the entirety of a world in which an individual action is eventuated. In such a world the greatest variety of objects appear necessarily appertinent to the general views, deeds, and conditions of such a world.