rian marble of
which the poetic temple of Greece is built, specially this Homeric
temple.

5. At this point we begin to see just what is the function of Homer who
has inherited a vast mass of poetic material. He is its shaper,
organizer, transformer; chiefly, however, he is the architect of the
beautiful structure of song. He does not and cannot make the stone
which goes into his edifice, but he makes the edifice. His genius is
architectonic; he has an idea which he builds into harmonious measures.
What the ages have furnished, he converts to his own use, and orders
into a poetic Whole.

The store of Fairy Tales in those four Books was unquestionably
transmitted to him, but he has jointed them into the Ulyssiad, and into
the total Odyssey, of whose structure they form the very heart. The
question arises: Did Homer find those Tales already collected? Possibly
he did, to a certain extent; they seem to come together of themselves,
making a marvelous romance of the sea. Some story-telling Greek sailor
may well have given him the thread of connection; certainly they are
sprung of nautical experience. But in whatever shape they may come to
the poet, we may be certain of one thing: his constructive spirit
transformed them and put them into their present place, where they fit
to perfection, forming a most important stage in the grand Return.

In the development of the folk-tale, we can in a general way mark three
grades. (1) There is first the story which sets forth the processes in
nature, the clouds, the winds, the storms, the sun and moon, the
conflict of the elements. Such is mainly the mythical character of the
old Vedas. Many a trace of this ancient conception we can find in
Homeric Fableland, which has a strong elemental substrate in the wrath
of Neptune, in the tempests, in the winds of AEolus, in the Oxen of the
Sun. Still the Odyssey has passed far beyond this phase of mythical
consciousness; it cannot be explained by resolving it back into mere
nature-myths, which method simply leaves out the vital fact, namely,
that of development. (2) In the second stage of the Fairy Tale the
physical meaning begins to withdraw into the background, and an ethical
element becomes dominant; the outer conflicts of nature, if they be
present, are taken to portray the spirit's struggle, in which a supreme
moral order of some kind is brought to light. Here we may well place
Grimm's collection of folk-tales in many ways an epoch-making