with Schopenhauer, and he often touches upon it in the course of his
works; always, however, to put forth the same theory in regard to it
as may be found in the concluding section of this volume. Though the
essay has little or nothing to do with literary method, the subject of
which it treats is the most needful element of success in literature;
and I have introduced it on that ground. It forms part of a chapter in
the _Parerga_ entitled _Den Intellekt überhaupt und in jeder Beziehung
betreffende Gedanken: Anhang verwandter Stellen._

It has also been part of my duty to invent a title for this volume;
and I am well aware that objection may be made to the one I have
chosen, on the ground that in common language it is unusual to speak
of literature as an art, and that to do so is unduly to narrow its
meaning and to leave out of sight its main function as the record of
thought. But there is no reason why the word _Literature_ should
not be employed in that double sense which is allowed to attach to
_Painting, Music, Sculpture_, as signifying either the objective
outcome of a certain mental activity, seeking to express itself in
outward form; or else the particular kind of mental activity in
question, and the methods it follows. And we do, in fact, use it in
this latter sense, when we say of a writer that he pursues literature
as a calling. If, then, literature can be taken to mean a process as
well as a result of mental activity, there can be no error in speaking
of it as Art. I use that term in its broad sense, as meaning skill in
the display of thought; or, more fully, a right use of the rules
of applying to the practical exhibition of thought, with whatever
material it may deal. In connection with literature, this is a
sense and an application of the term which have been sufficiently
established by the example of the great writers of antiquity.