For the training of the artist, for the enjoyment of the friend of art, it was from time immemorial of the greatest significance in what place the works of art happened to be.  There was a time when, except for slight changes of location, they remained for the most part in one place; now, however, a great change has occurred, which will have important consequences for art in general and in particular.  At present we have perhaps more cause than ever to regard Italy as a great storehouse of art—­as it still was until recently.  When it is possible to give a general review of it, then it will be shown what the world lost at the moment when so many parts were torn from this great and ancient whole.

What was destroyed in the very act of tearing away will probably remain a secret forever; but a description of the new storehouse that is being formed in Paris will be possible in a few years.  Then the method by which an artist and a lover of art is to use France and Italy can be indicated; and a further important and fine question will arise:  what are other nations, particularly Germany and England, to do in this period of scattering and loss, to make generally useful the manifold and widely strewn treasures of art—­a task requiring the true cosmopolitan mind which is found perhaps nowhere purer than in the arts and sciences?  And what are they to do to help to form an ideal storehouse, which in the course of time may perhaps happily compensate us for what the present moment tears away when it does not destroy?

So much in general of the purpose of a work in which we desire many earnest and friendly sympathizers.

[Footnote A:  The Propylaen was a periodical founded in July, 1798, by Goethe and his friend Heinrich Meyer.  During its short existence of three years, there were published in it, besides the writings of the editors, short contributions by Schiller and Humboldt.  Its purpose was to spread sound ideas about the aims and methods of art, and in this notable introduction Goethe set forth with clearness and profundity his fundamental ideas on these subjects.  The present translation has been made expressly for the Harvard Classics.]

PREFACES TO VARIOUS VOLUMES OF POEMS

BY WILLIAM WORDSWORTH[A]

ADVERTISEMENT TO LYRICAL BALLADS

(1798)

It is the honourable characteristic of Poetry that its materials are to be found in every subject which can interest the human mind.  The evidence of this fact is to be sought, not in the writings of Critics, but in those of Poets themselves.