THE PRESENT AGE We have carried our study down to the death of Ruskin and included in it authors like Swinburne and Meredith who survived till recently; and in discussing the novel we have included men like Kipling and Hardy--living authors.

It would be possible and perhaps safer to stop there and make no attempt to bring writers later than these into our survey.

To do so is to court an easily and quickly stated objection.

One is anticipating the verdict of posterity.

How can we who are contemporaries tell whether an author's work is permanent or no?
Of course, in a sense the point of view expressed by these questions is true enough.