It may seem a strange claim to make for an essay on aesthetics, but On the Naive and Sentimental in Literature is a document of courage, perseverance, friendship and moral fervour as poignant as any of Schiller's tragedies. Friedrich Schiller (1759-1805) burst on the world as a radical dramastist when he was eighteen. He wrote several plays full of a political passion explosive in the years before the French Revolution. As he grew older, he sensed the limitaitons of his highly successful early dramas. At the age of 30 he stopped writing plays - for a decade - and dedicated himself to study and to establishing the theoretical basis for his future dramas. Plagued by recurrent ill health, he set out to complete his education in literature, history and philosophy, writing as he went a number of important works, the most important of which is this essay, written in 1795. This method of proceeding from the theoretical to the practical is typical of Schiller; and it contraasts with Goethe's method. It was in part through his contact with Goethe that the energy of this essay was released. It is a monument to the beginning of one of the most fruitful literary friendships of all time. Schiller is not just concerned with literary theory: he is also concerned with establishing a bsis for action and for the operation of the will and it is because of this that we are struck by the candour and honesty of his approach and stimulated by the openness of his ideas. Also, Schiller writes beautiful, clear, vigorous German, he seems to talk to his reader, and the tone and manner change with the ease and intimacy of conversation. - Back cover.