This is what Goethe meant when he said that substantiality was the
category of the epic, causality of the drama, although, of course,
this distinction is not absolute.
Finally, the fact that the epic poet tells rather than impersonates
his story, enables him to enlarge its scope; for by means of
descriptions he can introduce nature as one of the persons of the
action. [Footnote: Compare Munsterberg: _The Eternal Values_, p.
233.] He can show the molding influence of nature upon man, and how
man, in turn, interacts not only with his fellows, but with his
environment. Fate, in the sense of the non-human determinants of man's
career, can show its hand. In the _Odyssey_, for example, shipwreck
and the interference of the gods are factors as decisive as Odysseus'
courage and cunning. By contrast, in lyric poetry, nature is merely
a reflection of moods; in dramatic poetry, it is simply the passive,
causally ineffective stage for a social experience wholly determined
by human agents. This distinction is, however, not absolute. In
_Brand_, for example, through the stage directions and the
utterance of the persons, we are indirectly made aware of the control
exerted by the physical background of the action; in the Greek drama
we learn this from the Chorus and the Prologue.
CHAPTER X
PROSE LITERATURE
There is an almost universal feeling, expressed in many common phrases,
that prose literature is not one of the fine arts. The reason is this:
in prose literature there is a conspicuous absence of beauty of form
and sensation, of the decorative, in comparison with the other arts.
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