THE Essays here reprinted, with due acknowledgment, from the Nineteenth Century and the
Fortnightly Review were not composed as a consecutive series. They have, however, a
certain unity of purpose, which I have emphasised by placing first the Essay in which this
purpose is most plainly expressed. The Essay on" The Disenchantment of France" is now
five years old, but I have let it stand unaltered, leaving my readers to decide how far its
diagnosis has been justified by subsequent history.

Richard Strauss and Romain Rolland, who were almost exact contemporaries, Strauss
having been born in 1864 and Rolland in 1866, were linked by a friendship based, it would
seem, on Rolland's side more on this fastidious critic's admiration for an outstanding talent
than on any deeper feelings of a more personal nature; while on Strauss's side there was,
above all, grateful recognition of such influential support, especially in so far as it seemed
likely to help him in his career and open doors to him in a country traditionally allergic to …

IN reprinting this Essay from Hellenica, I have thought it needless to repeat my original list of
authorities consulted. Since the Essay was written M. Bouché-Leclercq has published his
Histoire de la Divination dans l'Antiquité, where the bibliography of the subject is given with
exhaustive fulness. The chief resources to oracles in classical authors have been long ago
collected, and are now the common property of scholars. The last considerable addition to
the list was made by G. Wolff, and they have been judiciously arranged by Maury and others …