ABSTRACT
MANY of the authors on whom students of literature have to spend time are important mainly or entirely for historical reasons, because they have influenced others, or put forward for the first time, probably in tentative or imperfect fashion, thoughts or emotions which later on have been taken up by abler men, and have become of great importance to the human race; or again because they cast light on their times and conditions, which it is necessary to understand for the sake of others greater than themselves. One is inclined to think that this necessity of studying the historically important rather than the intrinsically valuable arises especially in regard to the literature of Germany, with its great volume, its tendency to deal in abstract ideas, its formlessness, and its lack of self-criticism and of a classical tradition: but clearly the necessity exists in respect of many other literatures as well, not least our own.
