ABSTRACT
From the latter part of the eighteenth century to the present day, art and literature and philosophy, and even politics, have been influenced, positively or negatively, by a way of feeling which was characteristic of what, in a large sense, may be called the romantic movement. The romantic movement was not, in its beginnings, connected with philosophy, though it came before long to have connections with it. The romantic movement is characterized, as a whole, by the substitution of aesthetic for utilitarian standards. The romantic movement, in spite of owing its origin to Rousseau, was at first mainly German. Revolt of solitary instincts against social bonds is the key to the philosophy, the politics, and the sentiments, not only of what is commonly called the romantic movement, but of its progeny down to the present day. The romantic movement, in its essence, aimed at liberating human personality from the fetters of social convention and social morality.
