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V.10

PREFACE.

THERE is little need of a formal preface to a book of this kind. And there are only three points which seem to call for explanation.

1. It will be observed that the chapter on Germany has been handled on a different plan from those on Britain and France. I have given little or no attention to the minor writers. I have confined myself almost entirely to a few great authors and to the Romantic school. I am well aware that such a plan is open to grave objections. I cannot but think, however, that, all things considered, it is a less evil than to hurry over authors whose work is so important and, as a whole, so little known in this country as that of Lessing and Herder, Kant, Schiller, and Goethe. And it is manifest that, in a limited space, it is impossible to give a full account of these writers and, at the same time, devote any considerable space to those of less importance.

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2. The last chapter is not intended for anything more than a mere sketch. And I trust it may be judged accordingly. Here again limits of space were against me. And all that was left me was to attempt

a bare indication of the course taken by the romantic movement in those countries which, for the moment, rather followed in the wake of others than contributed anything strikingly significant of their own. In this chapter I have been further hampered by my own shortcomings. My knowledge of Russian is unfortunately defective; of Czech, Polish, and Magyar I have no knowledge at all. In the three last cases I have been obliged to take my information at second hand. And in all four I have been confronted with the notorious difficulties of transliteration, which I cannot hope to have overcome.

3. Owing to the peculiar character of the period, more space has been given to matters of philosophy and of political theory than in the other volumes of the series. The importance of the work done by the German philosophers, and the deep influence which they had upon the literature of their country, may, I trust, be held to justify the course taken in the one The vast significance of the French Revolution, and the deep-reaching consequences of the theories which gave shape to it and sprang from it, seemed to call for special attention in the other.

case.

It remains only to offer my sincerest thanks to those who have helped me by criticism and advice. I owe

much to my friend and former pupil, Mr T. W. Moles, who read my pages in manuscript and offered many valuable suggestions. The same kind service was performed by my colleagues, Dr Moorman, who read and amended the whole in proof, and Professor Smithells, who gave me some much-needed help at the end of Chapter I. To Professor Herford I do not know how to make my acknowledgments. The inexhaustible stores of his learning and critical judgment have been laid freely at my disposal; and I owe him a debt which I shall never be able to repay. The same applies to Professor Saintsbury, who has patiently helped me with advice and suggestions at every turn, and who has shown unfailing forbearance with delays which were vexatious to me and must have been doubly so to him. And there are others, now, alas! beyond the reach of thanks. Without the aid thus liberally given the following pages would have been still more imperfect than they are.

C. VAUGHAN.

LEEDS, Jan. 1907.

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