PREFACE.

THIS is not an encyclopædia: therefore every author will not be found in it. It is an attempt, first, so to interest people in the new discoveries in literature as to induce them to study for themselves; in order to do this, only the greatest writers have been mentioned, and long extracts given from their works to illustrate the opinions stated; second, to put all literature upon that new basis which has been created by the new sciences of comparative philology and comparative mythology. For this reason the greatest space has been given to the Sanskrit literature, which caused these discoveries, contains so many elements of all literature, and is so much less familiar. Some apology is perhaps necessary for writing anything upon the Greek philosophers and historians. But I was requested to add this

chapter. The chapter on modern literature formed part of the original plan. If any should consider it irrelevant to these new discoveries, I should say, on the contrary, that the whole book is but a leading-up to that; for modern literature is the most elaborate expression of those ideas whose origin and growth I have endeavored to trace.