This dissertation was written in 1916, before the entrance of the United
States into The War, and was presented to the Faculty of the University of
Pennsylvania as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Its
publication at this time needs no apology, for it will find its only
public in the circumscribed circle of professional scholars. They at least
will understand that scholarship knows no nationality. But in the fear
that this may fall under the eye of that larger public, whose interests
are, properly enough, not scholastic, a word of explanation may prove a
safeguard.
The Germans have long been recognized as the hewers of wood and drawers of
water of the intellectual world. For the results of the drudgery of minute
research and laborious compilation, the scholar must perforce seek German
sources. The copious citation of German authorities in this work is, then,
the outcome of that necessity. I have, however, given due credit to German
criticism, when it is sound. The French are, generically, vastly superior
in the art of finely balanced critical estimation.
My sincere thanks are due in particular to the Harrison Foundation of the
University for the many advantages I have received therefrom, to
Professors John C. Rolfe and Walton B. McDaniel, who have been both
teachers and friends to me, and to my good comrades and colleagues,
Francis H. Lee and Horace T. Boileau, for their aid in editing this essay.
Wilton Wallace BlanckA(C).
1918.