The ballad - Index of

The Ballad
parts of the globe, who without being literate in
any way are entirely competent to face the business
and the amenities of life.
We are, then, to picture such a community,
and picture it clearly, for we shall have much to
do with it in considering the origin of folkpoetry.
We must sweep our thoughts clear of all
conventional ideas, and of all acquaintance
" with
trivial fond records." We must continually
test our state of mind by confronting ourselves,
for example, with such a question as What :
is
a word We must emancipate ourselves from
the literate habit of at once visualising a written
or printed word, which is of course only a conventional
sign for the vocalised symbol of a
thought. Obviously, the thought comes first in
chronological order : but we are not dealing
with the days before speech
: next comes the
sounded, spoken word : " mox daturus progeniem
vitiosiorem " the word expressed by
ideogram, hieroglyph, or writing. It is the
middle stage of these three which we have to
imagine.
To imagine, I say
: for it is part of the hypothesis
that we are back in the golden age of the
world, not only in prehistoric times before the
keeping of records, but in times before men had
begun to think of the possibility of making any
record. Clearly we must theorise to a large
extent. Yet again science steps
in to our advan-
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