already enumerated literary forces has participated in the development
of modern German literature, we must, first of all, emphasize the fact
that here the question is, intrinsically, one of construction--of a
really new creation.

German literature since 1700 is not simply the continuation of former
literature with the addition of radical innovations, as is the case
with the literature of the same period in England, but was
systematically constructed on new theories--if it may be said that
nature and history systematically "construct." A destruction, a
suspension of tradition, had taken place, such as no other civilized
nation has ever experienced in a like degree--in which connection the
lately much-disputed question as to whether the complete decay dates
from the time of the Thirty Years' War or the latter merely marks the
climax of a long period of decadence may be left to take care of
itself. In any event, about the year 1700 the literature of Germany
stood lower than that of any other nation, once in possession of a
great civilization and literature, has ever stood in recent times.
Everything, literally everything, had to be created _de novo_; and it
is natural that a nation which had to struggle for its very existence,
for which life itself had become a daily questioning of fate, could at
first think of renovation only through its conservative forces. Any
violent commotion in the religious or political, in the economic or
social, sphere, as well as in the esthetic, might prove fatal, or at
least appear to be so.

The strongest conservative factor of a literature is the language.
Upon its relative immutability depends, in general, the possibility of
literary compositions becoming the common possession of many
generations--depends absolutely all transmission. Especially is poetic