Chapter IV--Heine 59

Chapter V--Bibliography 85




CHAPTER I

=Introduction=


The purpose of the following study is to examine closely certain German
authors of modern times, whose lives and writings exemplify in an
unusually striking degree that peculiar phase of lyric feeling which has
characterized German literature, often in a more or less epidemic form,
since the days of "Werther," and to which, at an early period in the
nineteenth century, was assigned the significant name "Weltschmerz."

With this side of the poet under investigation, there must of necessity
be an enquiry, not only into his writings, his expressed feelings, but
also his physical and mental constitution on the one hand, and into his
theory of existence in general on the other. Psychology and philosophy
then are the two adjacent fields into which it may become necessary to
pursue the subject in hand, and for this reason it is only fair to call
attention to the difficulties which surround the student of literature
in discussing philosophical ideas or psychological phenomena. Intrepid
indeed would it be for him to attempt a final judgment in these bearings
of his subject, where wise men have differed and doctors have disagreed.