From the late seventeenth century into the eighteenth, critics and authors in Germany defended the novel: indeed it depicted vice and immorality, but only with the intention of exhorting the reader to avoid such dangers to the soul. This book examines outstanding novels of life from the Thirty Years' War to the Vormärz, mostly written with this real or apparent moral aim, and evaluates them as documents of social history. The author finds that concepts of truth and plausibility are different in the early modern period. Initial and closing chapters deal with French novels, showing how approaches to society differ across national cultures.

In the midst of this endless variety of opinion, what man, or what body of men, has the right to say, in regard to any particular action, or course of action, "we have tried this experiment, and determined every question involved in it? We have determined it, not only for ourselves, but for all others? And, as to all those who are weaker than we, we will coerce them to act in obedience to our conclusions? We will suffer no further experiment or inquiry by any one, and, consequently, no further acquisition of knowledge by anybody?"

This classic includes the following chapters: First Word: Anger Second Word: Envy Third Word: Lust Fourth Word: Pride Fifth Word: Gluttony Sixth Word: Sloth Seventh Word: Covetousness

Considers proposals to amend constitution to revise procedures for the election of the President and Vice President, abolish the electoral college, and revise succession to the Office of the Presidency.