116 ESSAYS IN NATIONAL IDEALISM.

kura Jatakas, the story of Yasodhara, or the struggle of
Buddha with the powers of evil. The field labourer still
.sings of the exploits of Gaja B&hu ; or as h'e reaped the-
golden rice, the-praise of some splendid tafo'-palm ; or a
$emi-religious song by moonlight on the threshing.' ftooiv
Women still sing the story of Padmavati as they weed in*
the fields. .It is, thus, in the existence a common culture-
independent of the written word that we must seek the-
explanation of the classical character of even the collo-
quial language at the present day, which is emphasised
by Prof. Geiger in his " Litteratur und Sprache- der-
Singhalesen," (1901, p. 6.) where he prints side by-
side extracts from the Ummagga Jcttaka in high and
colloquial Sinhalese. So elegant indeed is some of"
the up-country Sinhalese still, that English-educated Sin-
halese from Colombo a.re unable to respond in language of
the same quality. This is natural enough, as Sinhalese-
aad Tamil are usually not taught in the English schools at
all, orally or otherwise. • :

It has not always been the case even in the "West, that-
education and culture were so much matters of" ; boojt-
learning only. . , .- ;

" Irish poetry ". says Mr. Yeats. " and Jrisjx .stoves .were
made to be spoken or sung, while English literature alone, of .all*
great literatures, because the newest of them all, has all but com-
pletely shaped itself in the printing press. In Ireland to-day the
old world that sang and listened is, it may be for the last time in
Europe, face to face with the world that reads and writes, and
their antagonismJs always present under sopae name or other in-
Irish imagination and intellect. I myself cannot be convinced that
the printing press will be always victor; for change is inconceiva-
bly swift, and when it begins—well as the proverb has it, ievery-
thing comes in at the hole. The world soon tires of its jtoys, and
'"GUI' exaggerated love of print and paper seems tome to come put
of passing conditions and to be no more a part of the final cons-
titution of things' thanf .the craving of a woman in childbed for-
.green apples; '•' r ...-