PERIODS OF EUROPEAN LITERATURE. EDITED BY PROFESSOR SAINTSBURY. A COMPLETE AND CONTINUOUS HISTORY OF THE SUBJECT. "The criticism which alone can much help us for the future is a criticism which regards Europe as being, for intellectual and spiritual purposes, one great confederation, bound to a joint action and working to a common result.” THE ROMANTIC REVOLT BY CHARLES EDWYN VAUGHAN PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH LITERATURE, UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS MCMVII All Rights reserved 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. |