The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Volume I | Page 3

Reuter; Volume IX, Hebbel and Ludwig; Volume X,
Bismarck, Moltke, Lassalle. Of the second half of the collection there
might be singled out: Volume XIV (Gottfried Keller and C.F. Meyer);
Volume XV (Schopenhauer, Wagner, Nietzsche, Emperor William II.);
Volume XVIII (Gerhart Hauptmann, Detlev von Liliencron, Richard
Dehmel). The last two volumes will be devoted to the most recent of
contemporary authors.
The editors have been fortunate in associating with themselves a
notable number of distinguished contributors from many universities
and colleges in this country and abroad. A general introduction to the
whole series has been written by Professor Richard M. Meyer of the
University of Berlin. The last two volumes will be in charge of
Professor Julius Petersen of the University of Basel. The introductions
to Goethe and Schiller have been prepared by Professor Calvin Thomas,
of Columbia University; that to the Romantic Philosophers by
Professor Frank Thilly, of Cornell University; that to Richard Wagner
by Professor W. R. Spalding, of Harvard University. And, similarly,
every important author in this collection will be introduced by some
authoritative and well known specialist.
The crux of the whole undertaking lies in the correctness and adequacy
of the translations. How difficult, if not impossible, a really satisfactory
translation is, especially in lyric poetry, no one realizes more clearly
than the editors. Their only comfort is that they have succeeded in
obtaining the assistance of many well trained and thoroughly equipped
scholars, among them such names of poets as Hermann Hagedorn,
Percy MacKaye, George Sylvester Viereck, and Martin Schütze.
Kuno Francke.
PUBLISHERS' FOREWORD
The German Classics is the first work issued by The German
Publication Society in pursuance of a comprehensive plan to open to
the English-speaking people of the world the treasures of German
thought and achievement in Literature, Art and Science.
In the production of this monumental work the thanks and appreciation
of the Publishers are especially due to Hugo Reisinger, Esq., whose
loyal support and constant encouragement have made possible its

publication.
General Introduction
By Richard M. Meyer, Ph.D. Professor of German Literature,
University of Berlin.
Men formerly pictured the origin and development of a literature as an
order less play of incalculable forces; out of a seething chaos forms
more or less definite arose, and then, one day, behold! the literary earth
was there, with sun and moon, water and mountains, animals and men.
This conception was intimately connected with that of the origin of
individual literary compositions. These likewise--since the new "theory
of genius," spreading from England, had gained recognition throughout
the whole of Europe, especially in those countries speaking the
Germanic languages--were imagined to be a mere succession of
inspirations and even of improvisations. This view of the subject can no
longer be held either wholly or in part, though in the origin and growth
of literature, as in every other origin and development, much manifestly
remains that is still incomprehensible and incalculable. But even as
regards the individual literary work, writers themselves--as latterly
Richard Dehmel--have laid almost too strong an emphasis on the
element of conscious deliberation. And concerning the whole literary
product of an individual, which seems to offer the most instructive
analogies to the literary achievement of a people, we received a short
time ago a remarkable opinion from Carl Spitteler. He asserts that he is
guided in his choice of definite styles and definite forms by an
absolutely clear purpose; that he has, for example, essayed every kind
of metre which could possibly be suited to his "cosmic" epic, or that he
has written a novelette solely in order to have once written a novelette.
Although in these confessions, as well as in Edgar Allen Poe's
celebrated _Poet's Art_, self-delusion and pleasure in the paradoxical
may very likely be mingled, it still remains true that such dicta as these
point to certain peculiarities in the development of literatures.
Experiments with all kinds of forms, imitation of certain literary genres
without intrinsic necessity, and deliberate selection of new species,
play a larger part in the history of modern German literature than
people for a long time wished to admit. It is true, however, that all this
experimenting, imitating, and speculating, in the end serves a higher
necessity, as well in the poet of genius as in a great literature.

Three kinds of forces virtually determine the general trend of all artistic
development as, indeed, of all other forms of evolution--forces which
constitute the sum total of those that we comprehend under the joint
name of tradition, a sum total of progressive tendencies which we will
designate as esthetic ideals, and, mediating between the two, the
_typical development of the individuals themselves_--above all,
naturally, individuals of genius who really create literature.
These powers are present everywhere, but in very different proportion.
Characteristic of Romance literatures and also of