velopment 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 the English, is the
great predominance of the conservative elements. Thus not only is the
literature of the constitutional mother-country democratic, but also
the literature of France, otherwise so decidedly aristocratic: a
majority dictates its laws to the distinguished individual and is
inclined to ostracize him, if too headstrong, and exile him from the
"Republic of Letters." This, for instance, is what happened to Lord
Byron among the British. On the other hand, German literature, like
Germanic literatures in general, is disposed to concede, at least at
times, a dictatorial leadership to the individual, even at the cost of
tradition--as, for example, to a Klopstock, a Goethe, or a Richard
Wagner. But, in exchange, the leader is often forced to uphold his
power, no matter how much it may have been due to his achievements, by
coercive measures--as, again for example, by means of a praetorian
guard of partisans, such as Klopstock first created for himself in the
Goettinger "Hain," but which was most effectively organized by Wagner,
and such as Victor Hugo, imitating the German model, possessed in the
Young Guard which applauded _Hernani_. Another method of enforcing his
mastery is the organization of a systematic reign of terror,
consisting of bitter satires, such as Schiller and Goethe (after the
model of Pope) founded in the _Xenien_, and the Romanticists
established in many dif