and it should be studied in order that each generation may appreciate the experiences of their ancestors. To accomplish this end, most students content themselves with mastering the thoughts of certain writers and with absorbing their interpretation of existence on earth. This, in itself, is no ignoble nor easily accomplished task, but it misses half of the author's significance. Such a method conveys the impression that every great book came straight and complete from the writer's brain, exactly as he willed it. But the more one studies different civilisations, the more it becomes evident that every work of art is infinitely limited in its means of expression, and is moulded by countless other influences beyond the control of the artist. It is the fruit of endless experiments with contemporary ideas and means of expression, and even in its consummation, it does not fully embody all that its creator had to tell. As we have said, it contains only half of his message. The other half is to be found in the history of the genre; in the causes which shaped its style and form; in the thoughts and emotions (perhaps peculiar to one stage of social evolution) which had to recast and adapt themselves to the literary expression within their reach; and lastly in the actual opportunities which writers enjoyed at that particular period. There is only one method by which such a course of study can be pursued. It consists in disregarding national and chronological boundaries and in seeking out the countries and periods in which any one type of literature met with the most varying fortunes. The investigator must, for the moment, free himself from the academic passion for sources and influences. He must search for differences. If he wants to know