In the springtide of communities poetry is not merely a pleasure and a pastime for a nation; it is a source of progress; it elevates and develops the moral nature of men at the same time that it amuses them and stirs them deeply.

We have just seen what oaths were taken by the knights and administered by the priests; and now, here is an ancient ballad by Eustache Deschamps, a poet of the fourteenth century, from which it will be seen that poets impressed upon knights the same duties and the same virtues, and that the influence of poetry had the same aim as that of religion: I.
Amend your lives, ye who would fain The order of the knights attain; Devoutly watch, devoutly pray; From pride and sin, O, turn away! Shun all that's base; the Church defend; Be the widow's and the orphan's friend; Be good and Leal; take nought by might; Be bold and guard the people's right;-- This is the rule for the gallant knight.
II.
Be meek of heart; work day by day; Tread, ever tread, the knightly way; Make lawful war; long travel dare; Tourney and joust for lady fair; To everlasting honor cling, That none the barbs of blame may fling; Be never slack in work or fight; Be ever least in self's own sight;-- This is the rule for the gallant knight.
III.
Love the liege lord; with might and main His rights above all else maintain; Be open-handed, just, and true; The paths of upright men pursue; No deaf ear to their precepts turn; The prowess of the valiant learn; That ye may do things great and bright, As did great Alexander hight;-- This is the rule for the gallant knight.
A great deal has been said to the effect that all this is sheer poetry, a beautiful chimera without any resemblance to reality.

Indeed, it has just been remarked here, that the three centuries under consideration, the middle ages, were, in point of fact, one of the most brutal, most ruffianly epochs in history, one of those wherein we encounter most crimes and violence; wherein the public peace was most incessantly troubled; and wherein the greatest licentiousness in morals prevailed.
Nevertheless it cannot be denied that side by side with these gross and barbarous morals, this social disorder, there existed knightly morality and knightly poetry.

We have moral records confronting ruffianly deeds; and the contrast is shocking, but real.

It is exactly this contrast which makes the great and fundamental characteristic of the middle ages.
Let us turn our eyes towards other communities, towards the earliest stages, for instance, of Greek society, towards that heroic age of which Homer's poems are the faithful reflection.