The Fourteenth Century

From an author’s point of View, the making of such a book, though it has its advantages, especially in deepening his insight into the various subject-matters, has also its disadvantages. If personal reputation were the object at stake, then he must needs lament the mingling of results attained by his own thought and industry with those accepted on authority, though he recognises, with all sensible judges, that only in that way can a work of this kind be satisfactorily carried through. If there be a danger of the author receiving more credit than his due, there is also a danger of his receiving considerably less. Neither event, however, is of much public importance, if the Object of the series be overtaken, or, at any rate, approached, in the broadening of literary study, in the breaking down of artificial barriers of race, and language, and country. Periods of European Literature III.