ABSTRACT
Whatever gloom and apprehension I may feel the need to express later in this talk, I must obviously begin by asserting that the inauguration of this Society seems to me an exceptionally happy event, and an occasion for congratulations to all who have worked to make it possible. I hope we are justified in taking it as a sign that in this particular area of study, as in the larger world of politics and economics, Europeans have ceased to resist the forces that so cogently require them to unite. This ought to mean not only that the British will have the benefit of closer relations with foreign students of their literature, but also that they have moved decisively out of the confines of their indigenous literary traditions and have at least begun to see them in their relation to other modern literatures.
