This book is intended to serve as an introduction to the study
of English literary criticism and æsthetic philosophy of the
eighteenth century. It does not pretend to give an exhaustive
account of either of these divisions of learning or to discuss
fully the qualities of the individual authors represented; its
ob ect is rather to illustrate certain movements of doctrine,
taste, and feeling, and to show some of the connexions between
different aspects of the culture of the period.

An attempt is made in the Introduction to lay down the
broad lines of this study, and to give some indications of the
relationships existing between critical theory and the arts in
this time. These hints are necessarily sketchy and incomplete,
but it is hoped that the reader will be led to amplify them by
extending the analysis to other forms of art, and by seeking
illustrations of particular points in the resources available to
him.

As the object of the book is to present a body of ideas (some
of which are still effective in modern criticism and æsthetic)
rather than to assemble a number of documents, complete
freedom has been taken, where necessary, to arrange extracts
from the same author among different sections of the text. For
the same reason the spelling has been modernized throughout
and the punctuation occasionally simplified.

No attempt has been made here to present a complete
bibliography of this complex field, but a list is given of some
books which will be found useful either for reference or for
the further study of particular subjects. A full and classified
bibliography of the literature and critical theory of the period
will be found in the second volume of the Cambridge Bibliography
of English Literature.

H. A. NEEDHAM

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