Excerpt from Studies in the Literature, of Northern Europe In selecting subjects for this book, I have been led by two considerations, choosing first what has charmed myself, and next what seems likely to amuse the reader. For in wandering unaccompanied through a new literature, the student is drawn by instinct to those epochs and those figures which are personally most attractive to him. He cannot assert that they have more general importance than others, but at least they have more individual importance to himself: he likes them better, they stimulate his imagination more than their compeers; and what has pleased him he is apt to conceive will please his friends. This is my excuse for the inequalities of my method, for the accidental character of the selection. A few studies of salient points, prominent peaks and chains upon the map of literature, are more likely to arrest attention than a general survey of the whole, which might be tedious. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.