Literary History of the Troubadours

...the soul of society? This continues the sentence from the previous page: "...and especially of that famous gallantry which inspired the soul of society?" what great events excited their genius, and provided material for their compositions? what are the principal characteristics of their different works? what influence have they had, as well as their language, on modern literature? finally, what are the sources from which we have drawn their history? All these questions seem worthy of some examination.

When one sees barbarians, and even savages, singing of their gods, their loves, or their exploits, one is easily persuaded that poetry is almost as natural to man as language, song, and passions. Meter original: "la mesure"; refers here to the rhythmic structure and cadence of poetic verse pleases his ear: he discovers that his ideas and his feelings derive from it a force of expression which strikes the heart more deeply, and which The sentence concludes on the following page.