[(_α_) The unity of the assumed general background and the individuals therein. Humanity displayed in its entire collective relation of all interests and occupations. The individual event. The commencement of the Iliad and Odyssey (_β_) The difference between the epic mode of disclosure and that of the Lyric or drama. Greater extension of range. In the epic work character may give way to external condition. Objective nature of its exposition. Motivisation of drama and the Epic entirely different. Examples from Homer and modern poetry (_γ_) Nature of unity of Epos. Though not of most importance essential to artistic result. Insistence upon fundamental unity of the Homeric poems. Epic unity within a national whole. Distinction from dramatic action. The Idyll. The novel as the Epopaea of modern society] 3. The historical development of epic Poetry (_a_) The Oriental Epos [(_α_) Epos of Hindoos and Persians. The sense of the unity of the One Substance (_β_) Contrast between Hindoo and Persian Epos. The Ramajana and Maha-Bharata (_γ_) Hebrew Epic poetry] (_b_) Epic poetry of Greece and Rome [(_α_) Essential unity of Iliad and Odyssey. The _ne plus ultra_ of attainment. The cyclic poets (_β_) Roman Epos cannot compare in quality with the Greek prototype] (_c_) The Romantic Epos. [The poems of Ossian. The Edda. National character of epic poems of Middle Ages. "The Cid." The peculiar nature of Dante's "Divine Comedy." The poems relating to Charlemagne, King Arthur, etc. The revolt against Chivalry in Ariosto and Cervantes. The "Lysiad" of Camoens. Milton's "Paradise Lost" and Klopstock's "Messias"] B. Lyric Poetry 1. General character of lyric poetry (_a_) The content of lyric poetry [(_α_) Not merely translation of content from immediacy of experience. Creation of object purified from the incidental mood. Deliverance thus effected. Self-expression not the development of objective action. We have the universal as such. The entire sphere of human belief, religion, art, and to some extent scientific thought comprised as they fall into a personal view of the world (_β_) Aspect of particularity. The Eumenides chorus in the "Cranes" of Ibicus. The Elegy and Epistle (_γ_) Emphasis throughout on personal feeling. Parallel with genre painting. Contingency of content. Growth of whole in temperament] (_b_) The form of the same [(_α_) Unity different from that of Epos. Mysterious intimacy of personal mood. Approximates to Epos in heroic songs, ballads, and romances. The Greek Anthology (_β_) _Poems d'occasion._ Personal aspect. Pindaric Odes. Goethe. Individual soul supplied focus of unity rather than positive reality