Adapted from English Literature: Its History and Significance for the Life of the English-Speaking World by William J. Long

It is common opinion that literature is a mere play of imagination, like a new novel, but without any practical importance. However, this is not true. Literature preserves the ideals of a people; and ideals such as love, faith, duty, friendship, and freedom are the part of human life most worthy of preservation. The Greeks were a marvelous people; yet, of all their mighty works we cherish only a few ideals—ideals of beauty in perishable stone, and ideals of truth in imperishable prose and poetry. It was the ideals of the Greeks, Hebrews, and Romans, preserved in their literature, which made them what they were and determined their value to future generations. Our democracy is based on the ideal of a free and equal manhood, preserved as the most precious heritage in every great literature from the Greeks to the Anglo-Saxons.1

1. a group of people from Germanic tribes and British origin who lived in Great Britain from the 5th century
4
Replace the word heritage with a synonym.
A.
history
B.
tradition
C.
ornament
D.
poetry