The translator wishes to thank, in this place, a number of scholars,
authorities in the various special fields entered by The Magic
Mountain, without whose help the version in all humility here
offered to English readers, lame as it is, must have been more lack-
ing still. That they gave so generously is not to be interpreted
otherwise than as a tribute to a work of genius. But with all their
help, the great difficulty remained: the violet had to be cast into
the crucible, the organic work of art to be remoulded in another
tongue. Shelley's figure is perhaps not entirely apt here. Yet, since
in the creative act word and thought are indivisible, the task was
seen to be one before which artists would shrink and logical minds
recoil.

But of the author of The Magic Mountain it can be said in a
special sense that he has looked into the seeds of Time. It was in-
dispensable that we should read his book; intolerable that English
readers should be barred from a work whose spirit, whatever its
vehicle, is universal. It seemed better that an English version should
be done ill than not done at all.

H. T. L.-P.

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