life. Among other things I also brought out _Catiline_.
The contents of the book as regards details I had almost
forgotten; but by reading it through anew I found that it
nevertheless contained a great deal which I could still
acknowledge, particularly if it be remembered that it is my first
undertaking. Much, around which my later writings center, the
contradiction between ability and desire, between will and
possibility, the intermingled tragedy and comedy in humanity and
in the individual,--appeared already here in vague
foreshadowings, and I conceived therefore the plan of preparing a
new edition, a kind of jubilee-edition,--a plan to which my
publisher with his usual readiness gave his approval.

But it was naturally not enough simply to reprint without further
ado the old original edition, for this is, as already pointed
out, nothing but a copy of my imperfect and uncorrected concept
or of the very first rough draft. In the rereading of it I
remembered clearly what I originally had had in mind, and I saw
moreover that the form practically nowhere gave a satisfactory
rendering of what I had wished.

I determined therefore to revise this drama of my youth in a way
in which I believe even at that time I should have been able to
do it had the time been at my disposal and the circumstances more
favorable for me. The ideas, the conceptions, and the
development of the whole, I have not on the other hand altered.
The book has remained the original; only now it appears in a
complete form.

With this in mind I pray that my friends in Scandinavia and